Kshatriya said:

He bears the mighty Sleazegal, the god of all neck-beards on his face, though.

Hmm… either "This is my world, and there are female Space Marines" without going for weird sex changes, or just go with the whole thing that SPace Marines are guys. Then explain to the female players who cannot play male Space Marines that their gender makes no difference. Though there are no female Space Marines, even if there were they would be exactly the same as male Marines personality wise (or much difference physically either, after the transformations their bodies go through).

 I've often pondered if something like this is what happened to the two Lost Legions (or at least their Primarchs)…

Doubt it.

Geneseed is based off of Primarch DNA which is based on the Emperors DNA. The Emperor was a man.

Activating, growing, and controling geneseed inside a person requires male hormones, not enough of the right ones or too much of the wrong ones and supplicant dies.

Space Marines continue to receive chemical and hormonal treatment for the rest of their life to keep their body and organs functioning correctly and to stave off rejection, hormones not agreeing with geneseed would continue to complicate this.

Sexual dimorphism in human beings would mean a "female space marine" would be inferior to a male space marine, the bones wouldn't grow as large and be weaker, muscle mass would be smaller and less efficient, bone and muscle mass would begin to deteriorate with age (menopause) without ever increasing amounts of hormone treatment above and beyond what normal space marines receive, and there would be less room in the main body cavity (ribs) for all the organs. In a universe where a person can be executed for attempting to understand how a light bulb works I doubt anyone would be "touchy-feely" enough to create an inferior female brand of space marines just to make that half of our species happy.

(caveat to stall off rage-responses)
But, if you want to do it in your games I can't stop you. Although I prefer to play the game based upon the established setting myself.

Well… I would imagine that any process for creating female Space Marines would deal with those issues. This of course would mean, as I said, that the physical differences between female and male Space Marines would be minimal (a little bit of internal and external plumbing). Basically: While Space Marines are freaky males, if they could be created, they would be even freakier females, and without a rather intimate and inappropriate inspection below the waist you probably wouldn't be able tell them apart.

 It's highly unlikely. Biologically speaking, males typically make superior warriors. Why would the Emperor create anything but the best of the best? Nobody bring that Golden Aquilas trash in here.

Are people really that uncomfortable with gender-swapped characters? Really?

I mean okay I can see guys (particularly American guys) being completely idiotic and absurd about it, but ladies? Really?

 Oh, I realize I was unclear. I don't really care either way about gender-swapped marines. It's just the concept of one of the two lost chapters being female marines mildly rustles my jimmies.

Kshatriya said:

 It's funny, but I've met a number of female gamers that outright refuse to play female characters, and a number of male players outright refusing to play male characters. All of those people are straight, fairly confidant in their sexuality…. just have a preference.

 Although, I also know people who refuse to gender-swap or play in games with gender-swapped charcters. They rarely seem to last long in my gaming community.

professor_kylan said:

That's pretty funny. Do they play the opposite gender stereotypically at all, or really get into deep characters? I have a similar experience…in one game I'm playing, we all decided to genderswap our characters…leading to a party of 4 female characters and one male. And a couple of the guys consistently roll female characters as well.

As to the sexuality thing…yeah I'd think straight guys would be less likely to play girls, but I doubt that gay man are more likely to play them.

Varies from person to person. One guy who only plays female characters plays some of the most nuanced characters I've seen in any game out there. Another tends to play skanky lesbians a lot. The ladies who roll male characters tend to do a better job overall, but it's hard to say what that's due to - whether they're just better gamers, or whether it's easier to play a male role in a lot of games due to the sheer number of male influences in video games, action movies and the like.

I'm a straight guy who's played straight guys, straight girls, gay guys, a hemaphrodite on one occasion, even a Rogue Trader who was straight but had a harem of studly guys cause he was terrified of accidently knocking up a concubine and having the resulting offspring being the heir to his empire. Honestly, I think people who let in game sexuality threaten their out of game sexuality have deeper problems than just having a limited palette of characters to play.

In my regular group there is a male player who generally plays female characters (it isn't a hard and fast rule, he just prefers it). However I don't think it actually makes any difference to how he plays it (sex and sexuality doesn't come much into our games).

Personally I prefer playing men, but then I don't feel I have enough experience to play women properly, and frankly the way I would play them would make no difference (I often play female characters in computer RPGs). However, I personally would have no problem playing a Sister of Battle in a Sister's Militant campaign, as, like Space Marines, they would be the same whether they were male or female (ie intensely pious ragers).

Gaire said:

I agree entirely - it's absurd to suggest that one of them to be composed of female marines because it's so much better if both of them are composed of female marines!

HappyDaze said:

That's right out. It's like Kierkegaard got his hands on a keyboard. The primarchs are always referred to as the Emperor's sons, and the Legions were entirely based on their Primarchs, to the point that many Astartes during the Great Crusade and the Heresy that followed are notable for being so very similar to their genetic progenitor in appearance and attitude. If there were a female legion, there would have to be a female Primarch, and a female Primarch wouldn't be a son. So we're clear here, I'm okay with the concept of a female chapter in homebrew headcanon stuff. But a female legion? Truly absurd.

Also, apologies for the typo in the post you quoted. Lost Legions, not lost chapters.

Gaire said: