Gender balance

I’ve noticed this for quite a while since I bought the base game. And the trend is continuing to Infernal Relics.

Is it a design objective to maintain gender balance in the multiverse?

Base game: 5 male heroes, 4+1(Young Legacy) female heroes, 1 neither. 1+1(Voss) male villain, 1 female villain, 1 neither.
Rook city: 1 male hero, 1 female hero, 2+1(Plague Rat) male villains, 1+1(Operative) female villains.
Infernal relics: 1 male hero, 1+1(Unity) female hero. 1(Fanatic’s nemeses)+1(Ambuscade) male villain, 1 villain team (4 males, 4 females, 1 unknown), 2 (Akash’bhuta and GreenSkullMan) neither.

It’s pretty balanced I would say.

I would disagree with you on Tempest and Voss being neither. Or, I presume those are the ones you’re listing as neither. If they’re not, disregard this, and shake your head at my presumptiveness.

While they are both aliens, and thus we can’t necessarily tell genders by looking at them, they both have qualities that make them look like human men. Being human, myself, that makes me automatically have a bias toward calling them male. Plus, while Tempest’s bio very skillfully avoids pronouns, Voss’s bio repeatedly refers to him as “he”. If Voss were intended to be of indeterminate gender, I imagine they would have used “it” or avoided pronouns altogether, like they did with Tempest.

On the other hand, you don’t appear to be counting Young Legacy.

Indeed I’m counting Tempest and Voss as neither. And I think u r right, Voss should be male since his bio implied so. But I still think Tempest is inconclusive.

And yes, I forgot Young Legacy.

But can you really count promo cards? After their gone it is the end of them besides the ones who already own them.

If you look carefully, I think you’ll find that Tempest’s bio actually refrains from using gendered pronouns for Tempest; however, it does use “his” for Voss.

Yes, but “Mack” is male so the people of (Sentinels) Earth chose to see him as male, who are we to disagree with in universe peoples!

I’m not weighing in on this. Because (as it was pointed out in another topic) I am not known for giving useful answers. grin

However, I have a friend named Mackenzie who goes by Mack.

Given that MacKenzie is both a boys and girls name… thanks, your reputation is upheld!

I will admit the characters in this game are diverse without the feeling of “Oh no, we need at least one female character…”. Same goes for race for the most part… not that most characters are not white, but the characters who are not white are not awful stereotypes. Even Haka works great, he has this mythological larger than life “Hercules” feel.

I like the gender balance (being a father of a daughter) and I think they’re doing pretty well with racial diversity but wouldn’t mind seeing even more of that. Even when a character’s race isn’t directed by their power set or background, why not toss some color in there? I think it makes things more interesting.

I appreciate that the gender/racial balances feel natural and not “forced”.

I also greatly appreciate the fact that >G has tastefully avoided the comic trend of rendering all female characters with improbable or downright impossible anatomies.

My gaming group is 50% female (awesome to have three great friends whose wives are all also gamers), and the female characters and their artistic treatment is part of what has made this game a continuous presence at our table. I backed for the enhanced edition, because we have literally worn out some of the decks in our original set. It has probably seen better than 200 games, all told. (We have even run two simultaneous games with one set…that was craziness).

Lessons that can be learned:
1.) Show women some respect, and they may actually enjoy your game.
2.) If you find a game that has followed lesson #1, sleeve the darn thing ASAP!

Well sure, not “forced”. I’m just talking about how in the “Thor” movie, Heimdall was a black guy and Hogun was Japanese. No reason for it, but I thought the diversity made things slightly more interesting. It’s just nice to see characters of color who don’t have to fit a stereotype, like all black characters being either “street” (Luke Cage, coughMr.Fixercough) or “tribal” (Black Panther). Having Iron Man’s Rhodey or Green Lantern’s Jon Stewart mix up the otherwise all-white scenery is pleasant.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. In SotM, Visionary is Asian (Chinese I think), although Wraith looks more Asian to me in some of her pix than Visionary ever does. Haka is aboriginal, which is close to the “tribal” stereotype I mentioned before, but I think it works pretty well. Fanatic is latina. Mr. Fixer is black (and “street”…). That’s all good stuff. The rest of the crew is lily white, which isn’t a bad thing, but I also don’t think anything would have been harmed by giving Tachyon or Bunker or Absolute Zero a little bit of pigmentation. I’m not advocating for a rainbow coalition for its own sake. I just like it when people think different(ly).

??? ?

Well OK, good point. That probably wouldn’t help much, would it?

It would be like when you find out that Samus is a woman at the end of Metroid. “Wait… Absolute Zero is secretly two kids standing on each others shoulders inside the armor?!”.

Personally I’m Mexican (living in Boston now) and I’m happy for the very few latin superheoes out there. Or the few Bostonian superheroes, lol.

lugaru got it. Absolute Zero is actually two children.

I’m always amazed by how many companies think that they’re doing themselves a favor by insulting a good half of their possible customers, and try to really support when a company makes respectful decisions about gender/race/whatever.

Haka’s actually Maori, from New Zealand.

PS “Aboriginal” is actually considered offensive by most Native/Indigenous Australians now (much like the term “Oriental” when referring to Asian stuff), not that a lot of people outside of that region are likely to be that up on their racial politics/activism.

Aboriginal is just a term, it means native to the country. Britons’ would be aboriginal too.

(I’m not saying they don’t find it offensive, just that it is accurate)

I’m not quite seeing how Mr. Fixer is “street” personally he seems old fashioned rather then anything. Besides he knows martial arts not just going around punching things randomly until it goes down.

I didn’t mean “street” as in cool. I meant he comes from the street, which I think being a poor mechanic qualifies him for. I’m not even saying that that’s a bad place for a character to come from. But just as with movies or any other kind of medium, it would be nice if that wasn’t the only part black guys could be cast to play.

I think he gets that reputation because he lives in the big city and has a blue-collar line of work (which at this point is really more of a hobby). But he is very old-fashioned in a lot of his ways, and - in no small part thanks to his martial arts training - is far more disciplined in word and deed than your average person. I don’t think he’d consider himself “poor”, as he places little value on material wealth. “Street” is only an apt term for WHERE he is, and his auto shop functions more as a monastery than anything else.

Yeah, for me Mr Fixer is one of the more realized, original characters. I could do a little bit of a stretch to compare him to a couple of comics characters but he ultimately is more of something out of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” with a heavy emphasis on “Wax on, Wax off”. Also each one of those stances simultaneously cracks me up and makes me go “awesome!”. Maybe it is because I spent my teens working at my dads hardware store and considered it a personal dojo full of awesome weapons and practical knowledge. I know I attained some level of peace while welding dozens of pipes to shower heads in the alley behind the store.

And my vague wish looks to have been fulfilled. Unity’s name is Devra Caspit and she makes “adorable mechanical golems”. Sounds Jewish/Israeli to me without it actually being a big deal to her backstory. I dig it.

Yup… and I really wanted a “summoner” which it sounds like she does. $5 more on the pile… maybe $10 beofre this is over.

Oh yeah, I didn’t even think about what kinds of things she’d be able to do. Summoning up lots of robotical minions would be sweet.

Yeah, I’ve been hoping for a summoner-ish character since pretty much day 1, so I really hope that’s her thing.

Not to mention that the Kickstarter mentions she went to work for Dr. Stinson (a.k.a Tachyon)

It’s interesting seeing just how many characters are tied to Tachyon in some large manner. I hope all this popularity goes to her head and she becomes the Quickest She-Harpy-Villain on Earth. And then the Matriarch, not wanting to be misconstrued as an ally of hers would join the heroic forces. I want to control her birds, so that I don’t cry when they are killed, but rather laugh uproariously as my enemies are eaten alive by the psychic assault.

I think that the characters being a mix of races and genders (and besides Haka) their race/gender not really having anything to do with their powers is one of the things that make the SOTM world so interesting. Not that white men are not interesting, but… well, it’s been done (which is why Legacy is so tongue in cheek campy and awesome). I have already read/seen so many of their stories that when you read/see someone else’s story, it’s just so much fresher.

I think what I really like the most about the SOTM world is that it feels like how comics should be, as opposed to how they are. For two and a half white dudes from the midwest, that is pretty effing sweet.

I also really appreciate female characters who are not all boobs! OMG! I think Adam might be the only male artist drawing women who are not walking T&A shots (also, the women have pretty realistic super hero musculature, I totally dig that too). That’s not only really cool, but also really refreshing. Though, as a metal worker who has breasts and skin, I’ve got to say that I hope Unity wears a shirt more in the shop - unless she likes getting random burns/cuts/scratches or bits of metal polish in her belly button (and from personal experience, neither are fun!). I’m willing to let the safety issues of not having her tied back slide for the aesthetic but the exposed belly goes to far for my suspension of disbelief (see that whole personal experience with polishing grit in the belly button thing, don’t ask questions, I’m allowed to wear whatever I want in the privacy of my own basement and then learn my lesson). Besides the whole sports bra thing is kind of trite and reads 13-year-old-boy fantasy to me.

'Course, it’s probably easier to avoid injury and metal-polish-navel when you don’t actually touch the stuff you’re working with.

I’d meant it as functional, and she does have a hoodie also, it’s just tied around her waist for now. Slender Troll’s pretty dead-on as far as what I was thinking with wardrobe - her priority’s going to be comfort as she doesn’t actually have to weld or forge anything by hand, and shop safety’s not really an issue for her. Safety from villain attacks is another matter entirely.

Just out of curiosity, how many Jewish characters are there?

Expat,
Wraith,
Dawn,

Any others?

Well The Wraith certainly but the others? I’m thinking not.

Given the descriptions of both Dawn and Expatriette I cannot see them worshipping anything, Dawn because she is the ultimate power and Expat because she has seen first hand what worshipping can be twisted into.

Well, that enters that weird grey area where “Jewish” applies both to a race and those who follow a specific religion.

culture, religion, and race

Trust him - he knows what he’s talking about.

I knew Wraith was Jewish, but Dawn and Expatriette? They’re Canadian!*

Also, on the not touching the things you are working with - you don’t touch the polishing grit when you are not-super-powered either and it still gets everywhere (the whole moving around super fast with tiny particles flying thing and all). I’m also not buying the only a sports bra for comfort thing either - comfort is more like an oversized t-shirt (or sweat shirt if she gets cold easily) and shop jeans (which always end up fitting like mom-jeans). Dr. Stinson always wears a suit and heels to work even though I feel like no real live scientists do for character reasons that I totally get, so maybe Unity has Daddy-Issues and a thing for 13-year-old boys?

*Yes, I know that Jews also live in Canada.

Just to bring this up again.

Shattered Timelines heroes: 1 male hero (Chrono-Ranger), 1 neither (Omnitron-X), therefore I predict that the stretch reward hero will be female!

Shattered Timelines villains: 0 male villains so far, 2 female villains (La Capitan & Assistant), therefore I predict 2 more male villains (including possibly Dark Legacy), and 1 more neither male nor female.

Assistant is a bonus Villain and not part of the Shattered Timelines 4 Villains, so we still waiting for the 3 unknown villains to be revealed.

I know I'm pulling up a dead thread, but I do think there is a great balance of characters.  I am excited to see it balance out even more in Shattered Timelines & Vigilance, although my girlfriend is watching and making me type this...:  There needs to be a cute black female represented, either heroine or villainess, she insists that there are very few in the comic book world.  Now I'm not much of a comic book fan but the only ones I can come up with are Storm & Dr Waller.  Anyone else know?

(Side Note: it is cool to have a gf that is into analog games, been with so many that weren't)