Thunder Rebels as a whole does an excellent job of supporting strong female characters. However, picking the book up and following the sections labelled 'I'm New Here' does -not- give that impression - partly because the recommended route skips over the discussion on 'Orlanthi all equals 85%'.
And first impressions count.
I've run a group with an even balance of men and women players for about twenty years. I've been following advice I got early on: it helps to keep women interested if in your game world you show women in positions of power. I've found Glorantha an excellent setting for that.
We've had lots of men saying that we don't need to allow female characters to be fighters to let them be strong. My experience of the choices female players make for themselves (out of a sample of about twenty, many playing more than one character) is that they choose to play (female) fighters much more often than men do, leaving the men to play the magicians, merchants, healers, orators and such. A common image they present is of the woman who can repel any unwanted advances with force. I'm not going to speculate on why that should be an important fantasy for these players.
A game which appears to limit female characters being fighters seems likely to be a turn-off for female players.
Andrew
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