#Threeforged RPG contest (thoughts so far)

I've just finished reading and reviewing the first 50 games in the threeforged rpg design contest and you can find the full list here.

At the moment I want to give my overview so far.

Quality
Organising a shortlist to vote on has been challenging due to the high quality of the majority of the games. Even some of the games I've rated as "meh" have had some really good elements, but the sheer number of four and five star submissions is impressive. For a hundred free games you can download right now they're exceptional value.

So far I've listed:
7 meh games
16 OK games
and 27 Contenders

which is a pretty good ratio, especially since some of the OK ones are fantastic. Nothing has struck me as a particularly bad product so far.

Trends
Card games are huge and the Microscope approach has been tackled in various ways. Some have created custom cards, though only some have gone to the effort to supply printable versions

There's a lot of games relying on previous gaming or scene setting experience and many seem to shift responsibility for system responsibility onto the GM's shoulders.

Broad character traits seem to be the focus of most character design. However, some others take a more prepared approach and have complete character booklets. Sometimes the "stats" are overly familiar, but on the whole they tend to be alright.

There are many cases a game starts off well but disappoints by the end of the document, but the result is equally true. More often than not you can see that a lot of effort has gone into presentation and a few of the games are visually stunning.

I adore weird ways of selecting a first player and the best two so far have been "the person with the largest forearms" and "the player who was most recently abducted by an alien". Humourous games are an assortment of hit and miss, though always welcome.

There are a few very dry games as well and sometimes the systems can't quite live up to the excellent concepts otherwise involved. And there have been a few surprising twists along the way as well.

What you should be looking at

• Collaborative adventures -  Anonym, Automaton, Fear of the Dark, Fetch This!, Field Work, Gho5t, Imperial Measure
• Could be a board/card game - Aquila, At Any Cost, Forgeborn, Game of the Gods, 
• Munchausen freedom - Ad Libitum Absurdity, Last Year's Magic,
• Interplayer conflict - A Hard Goodbye, Dark Secret, Friends of the Venom Spider, If at first you don't succeed, It Is Forbidden, Mixtapes and Mistakes
• One session set-pieces - Conspiracy and Cowards, Life As It Was, Children's Radio Hour
• Different approaches - Among Humans, Fallen Sky, House of Hades, Langer Memorial Trauma Centre

Final Note
Reading all of these games and reviewing them is a long and tiring job, but there's a number of folks doing it. My respect to all of them, especially since most of them also worked on the games.

The Black Cats of Fool's Haven (5th ed adventure path)

There are many promising magicians in Fool's Haven, many of whom have familiars, and the most popular familiars (as any arcane pet store can tell you) are black cats. Considering the local vermin, it isn't much of a surprise.

But not every familiar dies when their owner does and a good number of sentient talking black cats have ended up homeless on the streets of the City of Adventure. They have tended to remain quiet, for revealing oneself can welcome unwanted attention.

The most notable of all the black cats of Fool's Haven is the dreaded Ebon Claw. Before taking on this monicker, the Claw was familiar to a rather powerful archmage. But the cat grew jealous of the master's power, so she slew him and stole his magic.

She now rules all the black cats who were once familiars, slaughtering all who will not join her. Other familiars tend to be butchered mercilessly, except for a few notable ravens who have turned coat.

The Ebon Claw sends her crews to destroy wizards and steal their spellbooks for some nefarious purpose. It's quite possible she wants to rule the world.

Act 1 (Low level)

A black cat rebel called Shadow breaks her silence and begs the adventurers for help. The Ebon Claw's gang are set to kill and rob an unsuspecting old wizard and they must be stopped. But what choice will they make between saving the wizard or allowing the cats to get away with a powerful item?

Act 2 (Mid level)

The Ebon Claw has revealed the first stage of her plan. She intends to turn everyone in Fool's Haven into mice, starting with the adventurers! Limited to tiny proportions and armed only with needles for swords and thimbles for helms, our heroes must find a way to save the town and return to full size before the cats can catch them.

Act 3 (High level):

The Ebon Claw reveals her most dastardly plan yet. She will grow to enormous size and conquer the world herself! Can the heroes save Fool's Haven from this gargantuan feline felon, or will they die trying?

Beltane Springs (teaser)

Ah, Beltane Springs! A little piece of suburban paradise perfect for raising a family. 

Not too far from the big city but far enough for peace and quiet, this middle-class piece of quality real estate is the white picket-fence American dream close to good schools and shops. Neatly mown lawns and the smell of apple pie characterize this perfect neighbourhood, home to doctors, lawyers and notable businessmen.

But raising a family is never easy and being a Domestic Goddess often requires an art of its own. Call it a craft. Or a gift. Or (why not) let’s call it for what it is… Magick.

But don’t let anyone know I told you. It is, after all, a secret…

Beltane Springs: A soap-opera roleplay of suburban witchcraft

Beltane Springs is a roleplay where you get to tell stories like the ones in primetime TV shows about suburban witchcraft. You get to write the tales, star as the characters and experience the drama as you make it with your friends.

You don’t need to be a writer or actor, nor do you need to have done any roleplaying before. Simply bring your imagination and enthusiasm. Beltane Springs works with a very simple storytelling framework that doesn’t require any dice, nor does it require knowledge of many rules.

In Beltane Springs you play housewives of a wealthy neighbourhood who have a secret life as witches. Their families remain ignorant of this secret, though it may take effort to keep them in the dark. The coven the witches comprise help each other with magical issues, but the politics between them can often be a problem of its own.

In addition to playing your witch, you will also be able to play as the loving but oblivious husbands of the other witches in your coven. Maintaining a healthy marriage is a struggle all its own, but the rewards are great.

After all, isn’t love the greatest magic of all?

Grab some friends, a few hours off, some trinkets and beads (and maybe a margarita or two) and enjoy the magic of Beltane Springs

Coming soon.

Shades of Divinity Review

Probably the best way to introduce you to the obscure fallen angels game Shades of Divinity is to give you two lines from the blurb.

"This game is like nothing else available to live-action fans. All other systems simply fall short by comparison."

That's a pretty big claim, but it does make the reader hope that the game fails spectacularly just so that you can jeer at the self-importance of that statement. Thankfully, such schadenfreude doesn't go unrewarded.

In short, Shades of Nightfall is a poor game. It has a few passable if underdeveloped ideas, a terrible core system, far too much focus on funky powers, and amateurish production values (particularly in the editing). It's a White Wolf clone that has fallen well short of the mark and was, as far as I can tell, the last work for the game designer.

Considering the fact that it is a pretty bad gamebook, it would be nasty to simply sit here and pick it apart just because I can. There's no real point in doing that apart from being cruelly entertaining, and I don't think it would be right to make mockery of someone's failure at this stage of my life.

So why am I going to review it?

Because for all of its many, many flaws Shades of Divinity also includes one of the most brilliant, inspired and frankly genius elements I've ever had the pleasure of encountering in a roleplaying game. I've never seen anything as original and unique as that one element and I believe that it could be developed into something that could change the way we look at our roleplaying toolbox.

But you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to it, so it's only fair to give the game the blasting it deserves first. After all, this game does claim that all other systems fall short by comparison...


Really not a White Wolf book...
Shades of Divinity by Patrick Ellison is the second game in the Covenmaster line after Shades of Nightfall (which was about vampires). Two more games (witches and ghosts) were planned but seemingly never eventuated.

I never read or played Shades of Nightfall, but a few of my friends did and they were scathing when not simply dismissive. The best online review I've found is by fantasy author Scott Lynch and can be found here. Most of his criticisms of that game easily apply here as well.

The first thing that strikes you about Shades of Divinity is how desperately it tries to emulate White Wolf. Released in 1996 at the height of WW's popularity, it seems that the author resented that company's work whilst leeching inspiration from it without apology. The game company is called Silver Shadows Publishing and its logo is a masquerade mask. The blurb claims to be the official ruleset of the Silver Shadows Gothic Horror Society and "ShadowCons worldwide". The game itself claims to be "an alternative live action roleplaying system" set in "opposition to the gross commercialisation of roleplaying games" where you play tortured supernaturals in the world of Dark Reality. Even the layout of the colophon follows the White Wolf model even down to the little anecdotal nicknames they used for their Special Thanks section.

Mind you, you could do a lot worse than follow White Wolf's lead. WW raised the bar for rpg publishing standards and their artistic focus motivated many others in the industry to do likewise, but simply copying their style is blatantly unoriginal and downright pathetic. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't continual criticisms of WW thinly disguised throughout the text.

If Ellison were to have developed his own style rather than ape another's, he probably wouldn't show how he so obviously fails in comparison. It's a harsh statement, but sadly very fair.

I should also mention that the artwork has merit, though it's unlikely to interest a more established publisher.


Angels and the world of Dark Reality..............
In the introduction the author leaves us in suspense by ending a paragraph with fourteen full stops. I've done the same to the heading of this section. Looks pretty silly, eh? It isn't the only glaring syntax concern.

But I promised I'd be kind, so I'll drop it.

Shades of Divinity is a game about playing fallen angels (the Fallen) in the world of Dark Reality (just like our own world but darker and so much better than the world of another popular modern supernatural game line that it doesn't resemble at all). The Fallen sort of took a neutral stance during the war in Heaven and were cast to Earth with no memories rather than be damned to Hell. True angels and demons alike despise the Fallen as they try to regain their memories and their angel powers whilst protecting the innocent members of humanity.

The concept is adequately presented and has a couple of interesting ideas, though the morality discussions are simplistic at best and potentially offensive to some ("virginity acts as a sort of default innocence" indeed). I like how the Fallen must obey their divine mandate to act in the defense of humanity, that their tears have healing properties, and how they can use crystals to placate mortals. That's pretty cool stuff.

But there's so little of it. A few broad strokes, a couple of factions, an idea or two and we're off to the land of funky powers.

But before that we need a system. So we'd better get one out of the way.


System (and lack thereof)
There's two basic conflict resolution systems in the Covenmaster system. The first is to compare your power against another player's power. This is effectively an XP measuring contest. Simply, you have your maximum power (how much XP you've spent on your character) and your current power (equal to your max minus whatever you've spent or lost so far). You can spend power to use your angel abilities or have them removed from you as damage. Once you are reduced to no power you die or go into a coma or something. You're out anyway. I can't remember and can't be bothered looking it up.

The other method of conflict resolution consists of several variations on the theme of guessing what number between 1 and 10 the GM picked and trying to get as close as possible.

It should be noted that there are no benefits or disadvantages based on your character. You don't get skills or flaws or advantages or talents or anything. There's nothing to make your character a good driver or be skilled in mountaineering or have mafia contacts or anything like that. So the task-based mechanic is based purely on luck and nothing else.

There is a decent character development model where you write three words; one on how your character sees the world, another on how he sees himself, and another on how others see him (male pronouns are used). It's a reasonable idea and can be used anywhere. I'm glad it was included.

But that's enough of that! We have to get to the powers! Powers, powers, powers!


"Choose from over 370 different powers"
About half of the book is dedicated to angel powers. This is what the author spent most of his time on and he's obviously very proud of it. The only real way to differentiate your character in Shades of Divinity (apart from pesky roleplaying) is by your selection of angel powers. And there's a lot to choose from.

But I haven't bothered with them. It's pretty clear that the powers exist for a Player vs Player environment where your clever use of hoopy angel funkiness can be pitted against the build of another Fallen (or vampire, or witch or whatever). I've briefly leafed through them but the core principle doesn't interest me. I'll admit that certain PvP live action players I know would probably thrive in an environment like this, but even they would turn their noses up at Covenmaster.

After the multitude of powers comes a little more world information, but only a little. There's a section discussing angels, demons and the other supernaturals followed by a couple of pages on damage. Then there's a chapter on the Oubliette, which is basically a tacked-on section trying to wedge Wraith-esque Harrowings into the game. And finally, when you're totally over it, there's just one more chapter before it rounds off with a glossary, index and character sheets.

And it's that chapter that I've fallen in love with.

Saving Grace
The final chapter of this book is titled "Sinskrit" and I probably would have gotten rid of this book years ago if it weren't for this one section.

I'll try to do it justice.

Effectively, the Fallen communicate with each other in letters consisting of coded messages hidden inside poetry. Different types of messages use different codes and formats. Many examples are given and it is suggested that angels spend a lot of time working on these encryptions.

I'll give you an example from the book.

Consider the following symbol:



This symbol is called "Nun" and the Fallen use it to mark safe houses. But it is also a key to be used in Sinskrit messages, such as the following example.

Watcher of God for
whom no other can
slight, you hold me
in your judge's hand
let your judgement strike.

As you can see, knowing the encryption key gives you a hidden message ("once you see me, hit me") and the rest of the text gives it flavour.

There are ten different "Nezrix" keys given with seven different forms explained to use them. It's a brilliant idea and introduces a fascinating mix of code-breaking and poetry into roleplaying.

This is what this game should be about. Ditch the idea of giving people explosive powers and waiting for the powderkeg to go off and instead make it a game about poetry and arcane symbolism.

Hell, it'd make a great game about wizards. Between sessions the players could write up spells following a set of poetic laws and they meet up to share knowledge and add to their arcane collection of enchantments. Brilliant!

It would make a great addition to fantasy larp. If spells had to be written on scrolls following certain laws, then a wizard's most powerful tools would be pen, ink and parchment. And of course their spellbook containing whatever spell keys they've managed to get so far. Especially interesting if spell scrolls are destroyed once used, and if you can copy notes from a fallen mage's spellbook...

This whole idea adds a writer's flair to game design combined with a mathematician's love of pattern and I adore it.

 Verdict
Shades of Divinity is a long forgotten relic of the mid-nineties when a bunch of hopeful game designers looked at White Wolf and said "We can do that, too!" and promptly failed. It isn't the worst game I've ever seen but it's definitely in the bottom half.

However, that Sinskrit idea is pure genius and deserves to be explored further. It inspires me and motivates me to steal it to use elsewhere. I feel guilty about that, but it really is too good to waste. And I give full credit to Mr Patrick Ellison for creating it (as far as I can tell it is his creation).

But steal it I shall, and I encourage you to do likewise. For Ellison has blatantly taken inspiration from other sources to create his game and it's only fitting that his forgotten contribution to gaming should be used in the same way.

After all, isn't imitation the greatest form of flattery? And if all other systems fall short of this one, shouldn't we at least mine it for treasure?

Style 2
Substance 1 (but a special mention for the Sinskrit which I put at 4.5)

Salvation RPG (Firefly ruleset)

 A few years ago I played in a Firefly-style game using the Cortex Serenity rules. I wasn't impressed, but have heard that the Cortex+ system that it now uses is better.

Regardless, I designed this system at the time as an alternative. Though I'm using Firefly, it would work for many settings, particularly those with a TV series format (such as the principles of Prime Time Adventures).

I hope to develop this more one day. All references to owned properties is thoroughly intentional and not intended as a threat (there's no point suing me anyway).

Chapter 1: Character Creation.
All characters have two Strengths and one Weakness. You get to make these up. Keep them broad and interesting. Strengths help your character overcome Obstacles, where Weaknesses can become Obstacles in your way.

Examples of Characters
Mal Reynolds. Strengths: Captain, War Veteran. Weakness: Code of Honour.
Kaylee Frye. Strengths: Mechanical Savant, Everybody’s Little Sister. Weakness: Innocent.
Jayne Cobb. Strengths: Tough Sonofabitch, Bad Ass Fighter. Weakness: Selfish.
Inara Serra. Strengths: Registered Companion, High Society. Weakness: Obligations.


Chapter 2: Chips
Setup: Get a bowl (or better yet, a cowboy hat) and fill it with poker chips. You should have twenty white chips, ten red chips, and five blue chips.

At the start of the game, each player draws a chip at random from the Hat and adds it to the Chip Pool (in a central area). Chips are used to overcome Obstacles (see Part 3).

• White Chips are Role Chips. You may use a Role Chip to invoke one of your Strengths to overcome an Obstacle.
• Red Chips are Stunt Chips. You may use a Stunt Chip to overcome an Obstacle even if you don’t have an appropriate Strength. Simply justify it through narrative.
• Blue Chips are Revelation Chips. Each player may only use ONE Revelation Chip per session. Use a Revelation Chip to overcome an Obstacle AND gain either a Strength or Weakness. (As in the series, characters don’t really grow as much as they reveal previously unseen elements of themselves. Shepherd Book and River Tam both use a lot of Revelation Chips).

Chips stay in the Hat until drawn, whereupon they are added to the Pool. Once they are used they are discarded into Trash.



Chapter 3: Obstacles

One player is designated as the Director for the session. Their character plays a minor role for the session (or merely a cameo). The Director is effectively a GM.
As the story develops Obstacles are added to an Obstacle List. These are challenges the group must overcome. Examples; Someone is kidnapped; the ship is out of fuel; there is a killer on board; someone needs medical attention; authorities are closing in. The PCs must use Chips to overcome these Obstacles.
Adding an Obstacle: Anybody can try to add an Obstacle by stating the nature of it and seeking a second to support it. If the Director moves the Obstacle, any one other player must second it to go ahead. If a player moves the Obstacle, the Director must second it to go ahead. The group may choose to adapt or change the Obstacle through discussion. Every time an Obstacle is added, a random Chip is drawn from the Hat and added to the Crew Pool.

Using Weaknesses as Obstacles: If appropriate, you may use a character Weakness to add an Obstacle. Your character’s unique personality have harmed the mission; here’s hoping your crewmates can help. This works the same as a regular Obstacle.
Overcoming an Obstacle: Obstacles can be overcome (removed from the Obstacle List) with the use of Chips. To use a Chip, select one from the Crew Pool and explain how you will use it. If the action you choose is seconded by any other person (player or Director) the Obstacle is overcome. See Chapter 2 for more detail on the nature of Chips.
Leftover Obstacles: At the end of a session, most of your Obstacles should be overcome. However, remaining Obstacles can form the basis of the next session. Or become part of a long-running metaplot. Consequences are important to the Firefly world.

Gaming with The Girls II: Player Perspective

 I mentioned in my last post that I've been running a "girl's only" game, which started due to player initiative. The article basically stated that running a game for women is no different to running one for men.

That's the GM perspective, anyway. The player perspective seems to be a bit different.

One of my players, Hazel, was kind enough to give her thoughts on this.


 Hazel
Ivan is probably right - that DMing an all girls game probably isn’t much different from a co-ed or all male game. But, a bit to my surprise, playing it is. 

Now let me make this clear - I don’t usually gravitate to ‘girls only’ clubs and events. Most of my friends are male. A girls’ only session hadn’t really occurred to me until Nat suggested it. Almost all of my (limited) prior gaming experience has been in settings where I was the only girl. Most of my that came over about six months in High School. My university crowd took it more seriously than I did and the time I joined a game it was a disaster. Most recently, I joined an existing game. With the exception of my partner, the rest of the group knew each other for a minimum of 20 years. With the exception of me, they were all blokes. With the exception of one, they were pretty decent guys. 

But the one that was an asshole… 

And this is the big difference in playing with women. Every woman I know with any experience in gaming has left a game because of a man, and most have had the experience repeatedly. For many the first experience of leaving because of a man is the last - but only because it is also their last involvement with gaming. 

I left that game because of an asshole. He wouldn’t get a word in edgewise and treated me like an idiot and generally seemed determined to give the impression that he was attempting to shove his head well up his rectum. (Sadly, the physical reality of his efforts did not muffle his voice adequately.) My character did more for the team than his and his bad decisions repeatedly cost us money and hit points. 

Two of the other four men complained about him behind his back but support in the game? Nada. Confront him when he was pushing us into a bad decision? Not a chance. As much as the obnoxiousness from the asshole, it was their silence that really made me feel like they didn’t see me as a part of the team. Their lack of visible support left it as ‘me vs. the asshole’, not ‘us vs the asshole’. 

Outright rudeness isn’t the only way men push women away from gaming. We also leave because of unwanted advances from ‘nice’ men who won’t take no for an answer. We leave because of breakups when we’re expected to be the one to make the sacrifice for the comfort of others. We leave because of openly sexist comments - all too often disguised as jokes. We leave because we get shoehorned in the stereotyped ‘women’s’ roles when we didn’t want to be. We leave because of lack of support from life partners who don’t leave us with the time to play. We leave because it’s just not worth continuing to fight when we’re not supposed to be in the game in the first place. 

And this is why the girls game is different. I know that Nat, a longtime friend, isn’t going to leave her longtime partner and the father of her children because she’s developed a crush on me and won’t take no for an answer. I know that if I don’t know every detail of the Version 5 Player Handbook, Sally isn’t going to think I’m an idiot. I know that they’re not going to reinforce their stereotypes about women being flighty, shallow and trivial if we all decide to plan a party as part of the game (and yes, we did that - and yes it had strategic value). 

Ivan mentioned my fondness for spitting acid at people. And yes, I’ve done that and I’m going to do it again. Spitting acid is fun. (Oh, that I could do it in real life!) But it’s worth noting that I spit the acid in someone’s face in a session where I was the only girl. And the character (now sans face) was annoying my character. It may not have been a stellar decision - though that did lead me to my current start of an empire. 

The ‘Girls game’ is the first game I’ve played where I’m not simultaneously playing against the scenario while fighting for a modicum of respect my alleged allies. I’m not expecting to get driven out of the game by a boy. And, as Ivan mentioned, the food is a lot better, as are the drinks.

Now we just need to figure out how to kill that Cthulhu damned dragon…

A Note
It's interesting that Hazel brings up the acid-spitting. Indeed, it was pretty much the first thing she did in her first session, to an arrogant and demeaning gate-guard who deserved to be knocked down a peg or two. And as she said, she was the only girl in that session. 

I wondered at the time whether this was a way of asserting herself. A way of telling us all that she wasn't going to be pushed around and take any shit. Melting the face off a minor NPC was a powerful way to make that statement and was possibly even overkill.

But I can see why she did it. And the consequences have resulted in good stories.

Gaming with The Girls

I ran a Dungeons and Dragons game "for the girls" recently and figured that deserved a blogpost.

So...

Question: What's the difference between male and female roleplayers?

One of the players asked me about this subject during a break in the game. After all, my experience with running games has mostly been with male-dominant groups (often all-male) and it's rare for a GM to run a game where all the players are female. However, the ranks of women in gaming culture are increasing, and I welcome the change. So how is it different?

Having now run a D&D session of all-women players, it's only natural to try to make observations. But I don't think I really can. Or should.

For starters, I've only run two sessions like this, which is not enough to make firm statements. Also, it would be foolish and demeaning to suggest that these women are indicative of all female gamers. Like most of the women I know, the ladies playing in my group are all highly individual people with their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. I'd hardly say they're a typical group of women any more than an all male group is a typical group of men.

Maybe it would be best for you to meet them.

"The Girls"

First up is Hazel, the most experienced gamer of the gang, who I first met through my gamer housemate. Her perspective on the gender issue is probably better than mine and we like to talk about it. Her boyfriend Shane has also played with us, and she also has been playing in a group he's been running. This was her third session she's played with us.

Secondly is my newest housemate, Sally, a primary school teacher who has stepped into geek-dom (and our home) like a comfy pair of slippers. Having been subjected to Firefly and board games, she was keen to give roleplaying a go. Though hungover on her debut session, she recovered from a mid-game spew to go on to have a great time. She was looking forward to her second game.

And the third member of our little coven is Nat, my next-door neighbour. Her husband Roland has played a lot of roleplaying games and pressured her into playing. Her enthusiasm for the artform has been only matched by her natural talent,and she has gained a massive appetite for it since her first session with Hazel and Sally.

As you can see, that's two gaming newbies. At a recent barbecue party, they informed me that the next session was going to be a girl's only event. I seemed to be exempt from the gender divide (being the DM) and a date was set. Immediately plans were made for dips and margaritas, which was all fine in my book.

Hell, one of my house rules is that the storyteller's cup should never be empty. They've got that covered.

It should be noted that this means we haven't got merely a group of women roleplayers; we have a group of largely new roleplayers who happen to be women. I think that newcomer aspect is important. Definitely more important than their sex and gender.

Even so, the players themselves decided to have a "girl's day" playing D&D. And that itself is intriguing.

"Girl's Day"

Here's a point: though I've often played with men I've never encountered a group that has specifically wanted an all-male group. They've always been open to female members. There's been a couple of times where a game has become "boy's night" but that seems to be more consequence than artifice.

The fact that the group had specifically labelled this a "girl's day" means something to them, I guess. Very simply, it seems to mean that they want to value time with other women and do things that they themselves define as girly. It seems an excuse to indulge in certain girly behaviour.

The margaritas and choice of food are notably different to the classic beer and pizza of male groups, I guess. And I haven't had male groups talk about how cool it would be to have makeup in the style of their Dragonborn character's scales and how we should do that one session.

But apart from these artificial novelties, the game seems to run like any other group and I get the feeling that the "girl's day" trappings are going to lessen the more sessions we play. Already they are focusing primarily on the story and their place within it, and their choices and decisions are not dissimilar to any other group.

The Stereotype
I suppose I know what I'm meant to say. I'm meant to say that there's a definite difference between male and female players. I'm meant to say that boys like bashing monsters and competing whilst girls like talking with NPCs and working as a team. Guys are more interested in "what they can do" and chicks want to know "who they are".

That's not my experience. I've found that stereotype to be completely false. Both men and women are equally eager to roleplay or kill stuff. Though The Girls (for want of a better name) seem to love the roleplaying side of things, they're also more than willing to get blood on their hands in the most ruthless of ways (Hazel is a huge fan of the fact that she can spit acid in someone's face).

Maybe a part of this has to do with the way I run the game. I'm going for a comical Ankh-Morpork-esque tone more to do with social politics than dungeon delving and hours can go by without a single roll. The Girls seem to really enjoy that, but that's the same way I GM for my male players and they are equally responsive. It's uncommon for D&D games, but not unheard of. And I like to think my DM style contributes to the enjoyment of my players.

I think that my contribution is interesting and would be better expressed by one of the players. And I'd like to see what they think about the fact that I'm a male running the game for their all-female group.


Verdict
What's the difference between male and female roleplayers?

Not much, really. Female gamers are less common, but they don't tend to act much differently.

If pressed, I would say that these are the only real differences:
1) They appreciate not being the token girl of the group
2) They seem to like Dragonborn more than guys
3) The catering is of a better standard

That's it.