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If I post the first page of my story here, can I get a couple people's opinions on what impression they get of the main character's gender?

yes, but it helps if you pose the page even if others don't respond right away. It helps you notice some things that you wouldn't have in the editor.

Hunting is your passion. It has been ever since you were a wee child, sitting on your grandfather's knee, listening to his stories of his own years as a hunter. Even though he is long gone and most of your family has migrated to the cities, you still carry his hunting horn with you. You hunt as a profession, but you take it very seriously. Waste disgusts you, and you have extreme disdain for those who hunt merely for trophies or to prove something. Lately a lot of people have been coming from the bigger cities to hunt in 'your' forest. Game has been scarce, so you've had to go into more unfamiliar territory. Not that you mind, per se, since you enjoy the thrill of adventure, but you still hope this hunting fad dies out quickly. Either way, you must pick a course for your hunt.

interesting intro. i think that you should word how you have to choose which way to go better. Also what is this story about.

Well, I haven't gotten very far into it yet, and the choices are to go down river or north into the forest.  That part is just the body of the first page.  

I just wanted to see what 'gender' people felt the 'you' character is.  Or if it seems like it could be either or.

sounds currently like it could be either but i do lean to men because it says grandfather however it also makes me think of katniss from the hunger games so it could go both ways.

For me it sound like man all right! Maybe because hunting in my mind is clearly connected with men? And because there aren't any mentions how people thought that it's not a 'fitting' profession I'm automatically thinking about guy being mentioned hunter. There is also problem with (in terms of identifying gender, not writing) style 'body' of the page is written. It looks to me like starting of a legend... which also connects with tropes of courageous hunter, pristine knight etc. Which of course creates some assumptions.

That's how it is from my side. BTW I found out that sometimes if not stated explicitly reader will 'guess' gender of character... which not always is what you intend the character to be :P.

Seems like it could be either, but if it's easier for you in the long run to write the protagonist as a female I say go for it. 

It isn't like there are a ton of stories on here solely from a female perspective and it shouldn't matter anyway if the writing is good enough. 

Are you planning to make the whole story gender neutral? Or is it supposed to be obvious from the beginning? 

So far it's leaning slightly towards female for me, mostly because "you" don't like the idea of hunting for sport.

If I had to make a guess I would have said the protagonist is male, because traditionally hunting is a male dominated area*, though right now what you've written is ambiguous enough to be either. I disagree with Evagirl that the whole "not hunting for sport" thing gives off a female vibe - many indigenous tribes had male hunters who lived by the same philosophy; people who live off the land seem to have the same idea too (whether it's because they're poor and want to make the most of everything they get or are just closer to nature I don't know).

Ultimately you could make the character either male or female and it probably wouldn't impact the story much. If you find it easier to write a female character, do that (or if you want to challenge yourself, do the opposite). Good luck!

* in our society, anyway. Your story could take place in a culture where females are the hunters, or just where hunting isn't necessarily seen as "macho".

That was the angle I was going for; the thought of 'respecting' the nature you're in and not taking the animals for granted.  More of a common sense thing than any sort of spiritual, or even moral, connection.  But thanks for that. :)

Actually, in THIS story, I'm going for male.  I'll write up the one for my other story as well to get some thoughts.  I'm a bit weird in that I do better if I have two going at once.

Stirring from unconsciousness, your mind is filled with a fleeting sense that you were dreaming.  You remember nothing of this dream, except that there was something important about it.  But it flees so fast before you that you're left with nothing but the present reality.  From what you can tell you're lying on your back, rather uncomfortably, on a rather hard, cold surface.  Even before opening your eyes, an unpleasant scent in the air foreshadows danger.  Reluctantly you crack one eye open a slit, just in case there is anything hostile nearby.  The room is dark, however, and at first you see nothing.

I'd tend to agree about the earlier one (I'm sorry I'm replying here; I just figured I'd do them together...?), I tend to go with male but there's nothing in your writing that makes me do that; just my cultural connections. 

In the second one, it's pretty much completely ambiguous to me (and interesting, really, really interesting). 

If you're going for something specific but you're worried it's not coming across in the story (which, I'm not saying that making your work do the actual work isn't the most important thing, because, well, it is BUT), I've see lots of people on here use their descriptions that way. You know:

"You are *name.* You're a twenty year old man who lives in bla bla bla... story plot... etc. etc." So that's an option too, if you're really concerned about making it clear from the get-go. 

The direct characterization is probably one of the more rookie ways to introduce a character, such as yourself.  Unless you can pull it off the same way Endmaster and Berkazerka do, I don't think you should do that.  Maybe an event or object triggers a memory/flashback, which could work out nicely.  You don't necessarily have to do an amnesiac, but I recommend that you don't pour out the character's info in a cesspool in the beginning.

Well, I have two thoughts about it.  I've seen in some stories that gender is not fixed, and some paths/endings have one gender while the rest have another.  But I'm not sure if people find that off putting or interesting. :)  So I've been writing it ambiguously so far.  I just don't often write from the 'you' point of view, so I often have a lot of pronouns floating around, which give the gender.  I guess part of me is curious on how my stuff sounds when there is no evident gender.

I haven't come across any of those (or if I have, I haven't followed conflicting paths and so I don't know it's there) but I would think, or at least to me it would be a little off-putting because it seems to lose a little integrity as a story when it isn't carried out, whether it be from one perspective or just neutral all the way through. But which gender I'm "given", or if I'm even given one, doesn't usually matter, not to me. I'm sure others feel differently, though. But I think it sounds great. I mean story-wise, it's interesting and so my initial thoughts just aren't concerned with what gender I am as your character; I suppose if there was no indication one way or the other, I'd find it easier to put myself in as what I am, a woman. I think it's a good thing, but again, I'm sure there are people who would prefer it was specified. 

Well as with almost any game, You can create two completely different story lines. But that is harder with this game because in most games set in this time ( I'm assuming it's set sometime in the middle ages) you would have to create two completely different since in that time there would be a severely different reaction's to a woman or a man. On another note I would love to see how this game would turn out!

Not sure if this works, but if people want to peek at my progress now and then, this might be the link to the story:

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/mark-of-the-vampire

(I'm actually not that internet savvy.)