Transgender Munchkin?
 

So, one of my Munchkin aquaintances is transgender (male to female) and we've gotten in interesting situations with certain cards. So, I'd be very happy to get the answers to these questions!

1. What happens if (s)he fights the Amazon or another monster with similar effect? Does (s)he get the female effects or the male ones?

2. Just to mess with your mind, what if (s)he gets a "Curse! Sex Change"?

Hazel, signing out~

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

The FAQ has something to say about this:

The intention seems to be that your character must be either male or female for the purposes of playing the game. Your friend would have to pick at the start of the game which one (s)he wanted to be.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I'm afraid this has come up far too often to count as "messing with our minds" at this point. Your friend decides if s/he's male or female at the beginning of the game, before looking at any cards. As there's no game benefit to either sex, except as regarding specific cards, your starting sex/gender is really just a special effect.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I think, if I were the one making the judgement call, I'd say the player counts as both male and female and would get all of the good and the bad effects which apply to both in a similar manner to how a half-breed works in game.

The sex change question is interesting. I suppose it depends upon what you would consider the opposite of being considered both genders to be.

a) The opposite of both would be being sexless and considered neither. In this state, the player gets all of the good and bad effects of being sexless. This means cards which specify male or female to grant a bonus or penalty would have no effect. However, it also means the player could not use any items which require you to be male or female in the sexless state either.

b) Sex change has no effect beyond the -5 to your next combat. The male components of the player are now considered female by the game, and the female components are now considered male by the game. As such, transgender becomes transgender.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Alternately, flip a coin when the issue arises. Heads, they get the good effect, tails, they get the bad effect.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Nobody wants to be outed by a game. For sake of simple politeness what's wrong with letting them play as the sex they want to be treated as in real life? Nothing about Munchkin cares about your chromosomes.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Officially: every player starts the game as either male or female. You may have only one gender at a time, unless a card effect grants you fewer or more than one. If one chooses to declare a gender at odds with outward appearance, one must do so at the start of the game and it must be consistent through the game.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I wasn't suggesting to out anyone. If they want to be treated as one sex or the other, that is perfectly fine. My suggestion was for someone who chose to identify themselves as transgender and felt constrained by the rules of the game to choose one or the other while they themselves identified as neither.


...and, yes, I have met people who choose to identify themselves as transgender. I don't find that choice to be any more wrong than choosing to identify as male or female.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

It can be a very touchy situation, and I appreciate your delicacy in handling it. As long as you're keeping to the official rules when you run a demo, I have no objection to your proposed solution in your own games.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Warning: Indelicate Response Pending

Perhaps double-sided Gender Nametags provided in the next expansions. That way everyone can choose prior to cards being doled out.

I don't actually expect this to happen, but not a bad house rule idea to add a new control to the game, eh?

p.s. My god I love this game. This stuff doesn't come up when we play Monopoly!

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

No need for that when you can just use the items already available to indicate your gender if you want.

Pawns, they're not just for Quest anymore...

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I use the pawns for tracking gender. It's fairly helpful.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

+6 bag of Munchkins, and +6 bag of Munchkin Babes - everyone picks a color, and a gender to start as, and upon being sex changed swaps out their figure for the other figure of the same color :)

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Woops, beat to it by two different people; I didn't notice the second page

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I always wondered why the level counters didn't have a spot for indicating your current gender (and possibly tracking the -5 penalty as well.)

And personally, I would find it advantageous to start the game as whatever the less populated gender is. If you're at the table with all guys, start as female. That way, if someone gets the broad sword, you're the only one who can use it, and it's easy for you to trade away the guy wire, etc.

Regards,
aero

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Remember, the sex/gender involved in this discussion is for a fictional CHARACTER who happens to be controlled by a transgender PLAYER.
The character, in the context of the game rules, is constrained. This has no bearing on the player.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Since the default assumption is that the character's sex is the same as the player's, this could put some people in uncomfortable positions. I would encourage anyone who is teaching the game to keep that in mind.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

And frankly, if a transgender player were told something along the lines of "the rules allow you to begin the game as whatever gender you choose, ...." they might find that, well, enlightened, perhaps, and may react positively to a game that treats changing gender as no big deal. Can't be sure, of course, being decidedly single gender myself, but I speculate that it shouldn't be an issue unless one's group is overly puritanical (and I don't suspect Munchkin would be the most popular game amongst groups like that.)

Regards,
aeronaut

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Unless you run into the few people that believe that being constrained by gender rules is offensive. ie The people that try to raise their kid without ever refering to them by him or her.

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/07/03...derless-child/

"A Swedish couple has long opposed “the artificial construct of gender.” So, they have refused to disclose the gender of their child, who is being called Pop in the Swedish media. They are dressing Pop with dresses as well as non-dresses — and have given the child feminine and non-feminine hair styles alternatively. "

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Wow, what a can of worms that is opening. Hope they are wealthy enough to afford the therapy that I suspect the kid will need when he/she hits puberty and beyond.

But this is way off topic. My apologies.

Peace.

Regards,
aeronaut

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Munchkin is a game. There are rules to playing the game. One of those rules is that every character must be either male or female. Don't like the rules? Don't play the game.

Note: it's the character that must be of one gender or the other, not the player. Even if you were playing with the One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People-Eater, it would have to choose its character's gender.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

relax, people like that spend 24/7 taking care and growing their "isms" there's no free time to play.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Pronouns are too puny for LOTA.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Well personally I would never play with a person who would get worked up over something like this. Of course I don't live in a country where you get the opportunity to play in tournaments against strangers. In the game Killer Bunnies there comes a point in a certain expansion where you need to declare what sex you would like to be and if you are in a relationship with anyone. The rules in that game specifically say you can make that up.

If I was to play with the transgender people I know I would simply say straight up for the purpose of the game your character starts of as male or female which would you like to be? If they repeatedly answered neither I would tell them they can just watch then. I say repeatedly because they would say neither as first. One of them I suspect would repeatedly say neither but they have always been like that and I would never invite them to a game.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

I'd avoid unfair generalizations like that, if at all possible, especially since it's hard to place the context without a quote. I'd hate for those who are gender equality/human rights/LGBQT activists to think that their work is being belittled by an attempt to make them out to be only interested in spoiling everyone's fun, or at least not at ever enjoying their own free time (which I'm sure they have) with a game of Munchkin or two.

For the next bit, I'm not going to bother with gender issues as far as pronouns, I'm just going to go with English grammar as I was taught it *cough cough* years ago.

As far as the topic goes, I'd agree: The game is designed around the character having one gender. If the player wants to put himself into a position of indicating a dual gender situation, then I'd allow him to decide his character's gender at the start of the game. However, at least in my experience (which is not inconsiderable at this point), a male-to-female transgendered person typically wants to be seen and treated as female, and a female-to-male transgendered person wants to be seen and treated as male and probably wouldn't try to make it a complicated issue.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

perhaps it sounded wrong 'cause of language barrier, but wasn't meant to be offensive.

I could debate about isms and how they fight for everything they care but equality but that was not the point, and I'm sorry it sounded like that. Feel free to edit/delete it

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

At the start of the game - before the player gets his cards? Or he can check his starting cards and then choose gender for character?

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Whichever your group prefers. We're in the realm of house rules.

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

And if we play tournament? FAQ allows to choose gender before the game

Re: Transgender Munchkin?
 

Ask the Tournament Organizer and follow her instructions. It's not addressed in the rules because it only rarely comes up.