wizardry is woefully short on the differences between males and females - not that there should be more to make it more realistic, but rather because it adds depth and character to the game and strategies...

so what are your ideas for spicing up male and females? could be items, classes.... two ideas to get you started:

female spellcasters should start with a few extra points (5?) in air and water, males with extra in fire and earth.

male humans should start with higher strength, but females 5 extra bonus points (let's face it, they're better than us at whatever they decide, and dont bother arguing about it).

Originally, the Valk/Lord classes were exclusively Female/Male, but for some reason, that was changed in Wizardry 8.

Your idea about strength has been used in other games, including earlier Wizardries. I'm not fond of it myself. I think there's enough in the game just from the differences that go with the race/class combinations. Adding more for male/female would just bring in more complexity without adding anything good.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

D.W. Bradley of Wiz 5,6, and 7 fame got much flack for making a difference in abilities between M/F. I think we should let this one go. An interesting thing is that women are less strong in the physical side of police work but better at keeping their cool. They are better (in some ways) for the community but not for the macho things that require brute force. This is a generalization, but is based on a study made maybe ten years ago. It was surprising at the time that women had skills at all comparable to men in the police force. There are differences, but maybe we should leave the M/F differences out of RPGs. My 2 pence.

it's just a game, the people who complained really ought to lighten up about these things. robert jordan's book series, the wheel of time, contains the kind of magical differences i described regarding fire and earth vs. air and water, and nobody's outlawing books, or that series.

also, i didnt see anyone complaining about threads discussing additional spells, items, races, or classes, any of which adds complexity, and richness, to the game.

right now, there's really no reason to pick men or women in the game - you might as well have it genderless. i thought it would be interesting to see what kinds of ways all y'all would come up with of creating some of the aforementioned richness.

some more ideas:

how about lizardmen having 5 more vitality and lizardwomen having 5 more strength (they're the dominant in that species)...

maybe gnomish men have 10 more in artifacts to start the game, but gnome women 10 more in communication

a women-only bow for rangers that gives 10% IK

So how about some stuff for Intersex, Transgendered and Hermaphroditic people? We are all so much more alike than we are different, so really, i disagree with perpetuating invented differences.

I usually take more, or all females because of the female only items they can wear.

I tend to use males as my 'Tanks' and females as my main casters, bards, gadgeteers etc. I mostly do that as you get that stamina pendent in Arnika, useful for females.
Differences between the sexes can be a good thing, different ways to develop your party, you can run the same classes in 2 different games and develop them totally separately, makes it more interesting. Unlocking powerstrike or reflection 2 or 3 levels sooner would make a big difference.
Just my 2 pence worth.

Personally I like not being penilized in anyway for choosing an all female or all male group. Or what ever mix suits my fancy. The fact is that my party was chosen more for the voices than anything else. Just wish there were more pics & voices to choose from. After one or two parties all the favorites are used and have to be reused. My 2p.

I agree, more pics and voices would be cool.

I think you are wrong there because of the female only stamina regenerating items.