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Women have slightly worse reaction time, which is odd, as biologically they should have better reaction time.
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Reaction has a positive correlation to intelligence quotient, too, which is the basis of some research relating to declining IQ since the victorian age, the result of which suggests that IQ scores has dropped rapidly since then.
But anyway, my point is that it's not that odd, because women weren't hunters or needed to have quicker reactions or higher reasoning skills. Women also have a lower average IQ compared to men, so the lower reaction scores aren't surprising.
Really, when it comes to these things, the only "advantage" I can think of is that women are more "even"; their average is slightly lower, but the spread is tighter.
Which also explains why men culturally are both knuckle-dragging fuckheads as well as the inventors of.. well.. pretty much everything, give or take.
So... in new rpgs on char gen should limit women to average values, while men would have both genius and retarded levels of each stat? In Dnd terms 12-16 stat range
I dunno, I wasn't really wanting to suggest something in regards to RPG customization/balancing from a gender perspective, I just wanted to contribute to the discussion and be part of something.
That said, I enjoy the
idea of gender-based bonuses and/or maluses, but I also don't feel like RPG:s need to be a realism-charged murder-simulator (FATAL, anyone?). Exactly what bonuses/maluses should apply is really a question of what system we're talking about, and I think that Arcanum for example handled it fairly well, as did the earlier Elder Scrolls games. Especially the latter handled it well because
using Morrowind as an example, it wasn't just a question of male vs. female, but also about what race you were, because it makes perfect sense that different races would have at least vaguely different sexual dimorphism - the only oddity is really that all the humans should probably have been a bit closer to eachother when it came to the gendered modifiers.
In terms of most classical RPG stats, realistically speaking, representing an average cross-cut, men should be "superior" to women in almost every way, whether we're talking Strength, Endurance/Constitution, Agility/Dexterity or Intelligence; at least in most situations. Since this is all statistically verifiable and the differences great enough to be measurable, it could all be accounted for in terms of raw stats. There's some notable deviations from this, such as women that have birthed children having higher pain thresholds and so on, but on the whole, not much.
That said though, I just think that such granularity isn't exactly fun, and in roleplaying terms, accurate representation of real-life conditions is rarely necessary. I think it's a flawed argument to argue over what is strictly realistic, I think the most relevant issue is the differences as a whole and how different characters are created as part of that, which is largely how it is in real life as well; women are intrinsically different from men, and men are intrinsically different from women, and if one person were to actually go from one to the other they essentially would not be the same person anymore. Not that such a thing is possible either way; my point is that "Person A" isn't just "Person A + Boobs"
or "Person A + Penis"; the sex is an intrinsic part of Person A. Person A wouldn't be Person A if it would've been born as a different gender.
I think it's more important that the differences are there than the exact nature of the differences.
So while technically questionable, +/- Str vs. +/- Dex is entirely acceptable. Especially since things like Dexterity is rarely just a matter of reaction times; women are in fact more limber and are generally both lighter and thinner than men. Since Agility/Dexterity tend to influence skills such as Contortionism, Gymnastics or Sleight of Hand, it can also make sense in extension; the fact that it also tends to govern reaction-based things like Dodge or Initiative is an issue of what you take Dexterity/Agility to represent. Another good bonus to give females would be in Beauty/Charisma, since these things often govern skills of manipulation, such as Deceive, Charm, or Diplomacy, which are all skills that women have honed in an evolutionary sense due to them generally lacking more physical characteristics. The issue here is that Charisma is often taken to represent force of character, poise or authority, and usually govern skills such as Leadership and Intimidation, which individuals of the female persuasion tend to be absolutely rubbish at; again since they are behaviors that they have had no need to exhibit in a grander historical sense.
So either way we cut it, it's hard to make clear-cut and with no issues whatsoever.