I think she's more getting at the idea that even when I write as a woman I am writing as a man writing as a woman, so it's informed by my male conceptions of how a woman might view or interact with the world.
Same applies to anything really. A 25 year old writing as a 45 year old is trying to guess how someone 20 years older might feel. A 45 writing as a 25 year old is trying to recall how he/she saw the world 20 years ago. A middle class American writing as a poverty stricken South American in a war zone is trying to explore how he/she would feel in those very different circumstances. All of these things, their understandings of these things, would be shaped by their own experiences in very different times and/or circumstances.
I don't think it's exactly weird when a man writes exclusively as a woman or vice versa but it is unusual. Logically the easiest most natural way for a person to write is basically a self insert. The easiest viewpoints to explore are your own.
But they're also the most boring to explore because you already know those roads.
Never had a problem with writing as a woman. Just haven't done it.
How fucking boring would RP be if we all just RPed as ourselves?
Most of us have never shot a weapon. Many have never been in a fight. I've never been Captain America personally, or a Halfling looking to throw some jewelry in a Volcano, or an alcoholic Orc Monk with anger issues.
If most of us were RPing as law abiding 9-5ers shit would be boring as hell. Writing about doing what you already do every day wouldn't be much fun. Very little escapism in that.
Right now I've got a female character idea I'm kinda toying around with and it's pretty fun. She's a young, somewhat promiscuous, likely bisexual, Halfling pirate who is trying to overcome what she perceives as her generally cowardly disposition to make something of herself and live up to the legend of her brother. Maybe even find him and join him.
I usually don't write as women but I think it's good as a writer and just as a human being in general to try to write diverse characters and explore diverse mindsets and backgrounds and all that. The ideal being to be able to see the world through anyones perspective and write convincingly in those same perspectives. The inverse of that, the thing to be avoided, would be being quite set in your ways and perspective and incapable of considering or writing in any others. That would be some old bullshit.
We haven't had a Zweihander RP here I don't think, but there have been a good few Warhammer Fantasy RPs. Right now I think all the Warhammer RP stuff going on is in the SciFi version, 40K, but a lot of the writers for 40K also like to write in Fantasy.
Maybe check out Deadlands too, since you like low tech and fantasy stuff.
It's basically Weird Wild West stuff. Cowboys and Zombies and Voodoo and Other Vengeful Spirits.
Anyway, there's a pretty good relatively steady supply of RPs here. If you don't find something you want to join that is still accepting folks try to keep an eye out for writers you like. It's a good way to start getting involved, if there's not just an RP you're ready to hop straight into.
Lots of horror and fantasy here. Good bit of romance, queer or otherwise, in the 1x1 Section.
Good luck man. There's at least one other published author here, Poohead, and he's pretty well in to fantasy too.
There's a TTRPG section too. Fairly common to have a D&D RP ooo up in there. There are also a decent number of Elder Scrolls and Warhammer Fantasy/40K RPs, usually in the Advanced Section.
Similar Story to my other ones. Cringe RP that was a really cool idea that ended up developing very badly. Fallout New Vegas, using one of the endings from the Dead Money DLC. Hadn't thought of it in years.
Short background on the DLC and the ending...
In New Vegas there are basically two characters that are sort of whispered about, three really but this only has anything at all to do with two of them. Ezekiel and The Other Courier. This DLC deals with Ezekiel although it also establishes that he knew The Other Courier. You go to an abandoned, basically, casino in an area that has been infected with this Red Cloud that damages you constantly and basically kills everything eventually. You have to creep around it.
The DLC Ending we made canon has you basically making friends with Ezekiel and eventually the Red Cloud infects the rest of the Mojave Desert and in this RP it ends up spreading alllllll across California, killing millions.
So RP is basically Fallout Post Apocalypse, with a Second Apocalypse well under way. California is covered in a Red Fog that kills folks or drives them mad. Mostly kills them. We're all RPing characters from one of two factions. Either The NCR or The Brotherhood. They were/are adversaries who are now coming together, begrudgingly, to try to avert an absolute doomsday for both their factions and all of California, likely eventually the whole Pacific Northwest on down to Baja California.
So it's a big last ditch effort thing between these two groups. Time is of the essence. We gotta go.
Also there's a representative from Mr. House, in Las Vegas, and a single Enclave guy.
Enclave Guy got captured while attempting to murder some big shot. I forget who, but someone absolutely essential. Says a lot of shit that should get him just executed or left to his own devices, considering how absolutely Life and Death this mission is supposed to be. Instead we just don't. Folks not happy but whatever.
Later on he's no longer restrained, despite trying to kill leader guy, because reasons, and in one post he stands up from where he is, restrained by ropes, with a NCR trooper dudes hands on his shoulders, with everyone watching him (all this on account of the whole trying to kill one of us and threatening to kill all of us thing), pulls a pistol out, point it at someone, pulls the trigger on an empty barrel, and then makes some big ass speech.
Commotion. Writer admits to doing that all at once because no one would let him do it if he had asked. Makes a big scene about how cool his post was and how messed up it is that folks dont like it. Eventually deletes it. Thread slows to a crawl after that. Eventually him, the OP, and I think one other guy continue on with the RP after everyone else either leaves, just stops posting, or kills their own characters off. Eventually it comes out that Enclave Guy Writer had an understanding with Mr. House Writer that nothing would happen to his character and the two of them would be allowed to survive until the end.
Part of the RP had been the idea that anyone might die and no one was safe and it was a dangerous world and all that good stuff. You know. Because the world is ending. Big Cringe.
So, In Short,
An RP that was predominantly based around these two warring factions getting together to put aside their differences in a last chance mad dash to prevent the destruction of both their groups, all their loved ones, and an entire coastline.
A setting that was pointedly very dangerous, a fight that was likely very much certain death for everyone, an understanding that no one was safe and writing out your characters death and witnessing your mates deaths was very likely and frankly a big part of the appeal.
A character who was not of either of those two warring groups. Was openly opposed to both of them. Was openly trying to interrupt their efforts. Had tried to kill one of them and threatened to kill the rest. Could not be killed or abandoned by the group. Had an understanding that he specifically would survive through the end of the RP while all others, save the OP, may or may not die.
The Opposite Real Quick....An Amazing Fan Fiction I Think I Saved Somewhere
Goris the Deathclaw.
Dude wrote a long fan-fiction about an Intelligent Deathclaw exploring the settings of Fallout 1/2 and New Vegas. Several great characters, Goris was my favorite, and this was before New Vegas actually came out so it was his own quite different idea for New Vegas. Much more development of the Roman idea. Circuses and Gladiators and all that. Also some weird interesting ideas like a part of the city that was basically floating barges and rich gaudy buttholes that oversaw it all.
Dude inspired a few other writers to create Deathclaw or Super Mutant characters, one of the writers he inspired created a character named I think Thunder which eventually and inspired me to try to create a Super Mutant character in the same setting. Great writer.
Actually another too.
OldAndy
Dude wrote a looooooooooong ass RP about a group of heroes. Some teens. Some adults. Some of those adults married. Some of them married with children. Set in Fallout 3. Lots of character development. Wrote it over the course of like 2-3 years. Universally beloved. Solid ass dude.
The Savant
Vixere
Red Hood
fledermaus
Sep
Pen Name
Carlyle
Kaithe Dame
Otakuforreal