Oh! And the Titans -- we talked about it there, too, but wound up with 2 out of 14, compared to 8 males. (And four referred to as "it", which I'm graciously leaving out of the count.)
There's nothing "lol" about it, Happerry. There's a very deep bias in our culture, and maybe more importantly, sub-culture, that gets very noticeable if it isn't consciously addressed. Heck - we've *been* consciously addressing it, and it's still glaring, as noted. Jamoecw, I know the Champions, especially, were heavily constrained by the Backer Naming, but... for all that you're saying we're more aware of it here, we were given two "open slots" to work with after the Named Champions, and we're currently oh-for-two.
I will say that I disagree outright that egalitariasm is not, itself, a totally valid goal. However, unless somebody wants to make the case that including a few more female characters is going to somehow *hurt* the game... then you're just dismissing it for the sake of dismissing it. Excuse me - the sake of "lol dismissing it". Aleksey, I'm sure we're *all*, 100%, -1 on female characters without interesting backgrounds and traits. Or demon, zombie, plant, male, etc., characters without interesting backgrounds and traits. But there's nothing about the aspect of "female" that somehow negates having an interesting background. Most of the backgrounds that we've *used* could have applied just as easily to a female character; we just didn't. We had *lots* of interesting female options written up in the Sorcerer Lords; they just didn't get picked. The reason that I have had to bring it up in each, and every, single, stage, is because until I have, there haven't ever been more than two given any serious consideration. (Even in the SL's, where, as I say, quite a few were actually offered right from the start.)
And I'll point out that I'm hardly pressing for "gender equality" in any case. If we trade both Belkoth and Kelithengol for female Champions (whether we keep their backgrounds or scrap them and start over), we'd have one-third. That will be our *very best number* out of every category of character in the whole game. We're in NO danger of anybody looking at WoM and thinking, "Wow, these guys were trying too hard for gender equality!"
In this light, I vote -1 Balkoth. I'm posting an alternate Druid proposal in the Champions thread.
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