Women In Gaming

Home

by Erol K. Bayburt

SETTING

Home is one of those backwater planets discovered (and named) by a bored survey scout. Neither especially rich nor particularly hostile, it is a typical example of those planets settled by splinter groups wishing to build their own version of the "perfect society".

In this case, the society is feminist. Janice Windsown, the First Matriarch, had seen several attempts to found feminist colonies go awry for one reason or another, and was determined to "see it done right". Three centuries ago, she landed on Home with a group of a thousand followers-all women. A year later, she wangled a shipment of 1500 male convicts and convinced the sector authorities to look the other way as they were made docile with a combination of neurosurgery and implants.

Over the next three hundred years, Windsown and her followers created one of the few successful human matriarchies. They developed the Home philosophy: Men are naturally stronger than women, but also naturally stupid and clumsy. They need to be kept under feminine supervision. Feminine traits such as gentleness, cooperation, subtlety, and verbal fluency are virtues. Masculine traits such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, and brute force were vices. Women, of course, are the higher form of human life. A division of labor between the sexes was established: women did the comfortable, high-status work requiring brains, and men did the dirty, low-status work requiring brawn. Medical technicians devised "contraceptive implants" for men that reduced their aggressiveness and sex drive as well as their fertility. They also developed fertility drugs that increased the natural surplus of male infants, and for the last few years women have been discreetly buying and selling the excess males, forming a "gigolo trading network".

To outsiders, the women of Home seem gentle, reasonable, sweet, and very feminine. The men seem given to bodybuilding, primping, and macho posturing. This often confuses those who expected an Amazon society. However, the women also have enormous self-confidence and are not at all submissive while the men are deferential toward women and generally convinced of feminine superiority. This confuses outsiders even more.

The government is a matriarchal representative democracy - only women can vote or hold office. The executive has the title of Matriarch and presides over a legislative council of twelve members known as the Coven. There is also a judicial branch - all female, of course.

Police forces use non-lethal weapons - mostly tanglers. Lethal long arms are reserved for extreme emergencies and for shooting dinosaurs. Lethal handguns are almost completely unknown (except in the startown). Men are allowed to use guns only under the supervision of women, and there is some debate as to whether men are capable of using guns with any degree of success. The overall Control Rating for Home is CR 2 if you’re a woman, and CR 4 if you’re a man.

Home has a population of 2,494,000 (PR 6) spread over three of the five continents. Kitchen has 80% of the population, including First Base (the starport) and Land-by-the-Sea (the capital). Den and Bedroom each have about 10% of the population, and the continents of Attic and Pantry are essentially uninhabited. There is also a mining colony on Treefort (population 6000; PR 3) which follows a milder version of the feminist Home philosophy. Finally, there are a number of miners in the asteroid belt who are officially under Home rule but who have as little to do with the matriarchy as possible.

Home has an agricultural economy, and is largely - but not entirely - self-sufficient. Metals are imported from the Treehouse colony and the asteroid belt, and specialty goods are imported from further away. Exports consist mostly of wineapple brandy and various perfumes and "aphrodisiacs" which sell more on the basis of Home’s reputation than on t heir intrinsic quality.

Native life on Home include various small and medium sized dinosaurs, and a lush variety of plant life, including the wineapple tree (actually a bush) and a number of plants used to produce the famous Home perfumes. The colonists, of course, brought a number of different domestic plants and animals.

Home has one moon: Doghouse, a large chunk of rock having negligible economic value. It does produce nice tides, however.

ADVENTURES ON HOME

Culture Shock: Just visiting the starport can provide interesting times for characters who don’t know what to expect. Male characters won’t be taken seriously, and tend to be laughed at if they act like they have any brains. If they get mad, they could quickly find themselves in trouble, even in the startown. Female characters can be kept busy getting their male colleagues out of trouble. Or a bright male PC could get the idea of disguising himself as a woman…

The Dryad: A male character with a high physical attractiveness accepts an invitation to a remote estate-and disappears. The estate’s owner may have decided to keep him, or he may have been sold into the gigolo network. Male PC’s who investigate will have to be careful, or they may suffer the same fate.

Safari: The characters are invited to a dinosaur hunt. Female characters are given rifles, but male characters are given knives and spears and told to make like Tarzan. Depending on the GM, this can either be played for laughs or as a serious test of the characters’ primitive weapons and survival skills.

Comments? Let Erol know.
Written January 1, 1997

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