Meguey writes:
Role-playing, as a hobby with books and tools and industry support, has been around my whole life. I got my first taste of organized pretend and written down characters at age 7, when I made my first D&D character. I've always played in groups of girls and boys, men and women. To me, the notion that women are a minority in the world of role-playing was an odd one, but I look around me now, and it's pretty clear. The top names and top games are made by and marketed to, primarily, men. Here's the weird bit, though: I keep finding more and more and more women gamers.
It seems like a natural progression, to us. Women gamers talk, play games, design games, hang out together, sell games, discuss games, think about being women in a strongly male hobby - and write a book about it.
The RPG = Role Playing Girl project was born on a hot August afternoon. We've got a lot to say about being women who happen to game, and we'd like to hear from you, too. Our current focus is table-top face-to-face, but writing about LARP and on-line and other forms of rpgs is more than welcome. We're looking for short essays, 500-2500 words in length, about your personal experience as a woman gamer. Deadline for submissions is MARCH 21, 2008. Topics might be, or be inspired by:
How it Began
My Character, My Self
No Girls Allowed
Woman in a Man's Game
Power through Pretend
What's Happening Now
You Can Do It, Too
You're a woman who plays role-playing games, right? So what's up with that? What's your story? Send it in, and let the world know.
(FAQs to follow as we get them.)