What trends do you have with your characters?
What sort of tropes can you simply not resist when it comes to character creation?
Personally I have a (non sexual) thing for short yet powerful characters, and usually the more powerful they are the shorter and cuter they are.
I guess I like the idea of an unexpected hero, or big things coming in small sizes. Or maybe it's because I'm kind of insecure about my height?
>>46663971
>non sexual
>uses most sexual image
I don't believe you.
>>46663989
It's just a gender swap bilbo... It's really not sexual.
Not to mention I prefer tall men for that matter.
>>46663971
>Or maybe it's because I'm kind of insecure about my height?
Probably that.
Shorty.
>>46663971
I can't seem to play "powerful" characters at all. Well, maybe that's the wrong word for it... but I very much like to play "support" characters. I get alot more gratification out of keeping everyone else in the party alive or helping them fight better than I do out of being a badass myself. Or... short of that, I like being the skill monkey who can pick locks, knows just the right thing to say, or can make the magic item we need to win an encounter.
Strangely enough I absolutely HATE playing bards or their equivalents for some reason... even though they can kinda do all these things. I'm not sure why.
I try to vary the archetypes I play from game to game, but I still find some common patterns emerging.
I often play characters who can't quite control or don't fully understand the powers or abilities they have, or who keep their source a secret. The easiest example in that vein is a recent character, a Warlock who stumbled into a Fae Pact and is still working out what it means for them.
I also tend to make characters who believe in something, who have a goal or ideal more important to them than their own life, to ensure that they have the drive and motivation to go out there and be heroic.
>>46664016
Other way around. I'm awkwardly tall for awoman.
>>46664024
Probably because bards invite memesters and are glory hogs on the narrative side of things.
>>46664071
Pls be in London.
>>46664071
Not for a man though.
I'll make you feel small.
>>46663971
I never make them evil or dickish toward the party.
A majority of my characters are loud, spoilt and obnoxious but that's mainly so they can go through growth, or to set up my friends for humorous put downs
>>46664103
>>46664107
Don't be fucking creepy.
>>46664121
Sorry, I thought we were supposed to shit up bait-threads.
Polite sage, waiting for confirmation.
I always like to play a weak character that depends on the party to do everything.
My current PC is an ex surgeon that was put with a group with rouge traders and she can't even use a pistol.
>>46663971
Outside of a few outliers, I strongly tend toward knightly noblebright style characters. Paladins, LG clerics, chivalrous knights, that kind of thing. They also tend to be at least moderately religious even if it's not a part of their class.
I think part of that is pushback from the massive overdose of 'I'm a shiny good guy but lol I'm actually a shiny evil guy' I got from anime and internet stuff when I was in highschool. Anime I watched around that time was especially bad about this trope and I just got fucking tired of it.
>>46664121
>(You)ing a meme regurgitated on rest of the site
/tg/ is really quaint sometimes.
>>46664136
Aside from OP's posted image, I don't think this is really a bait-thread...
Smart guy/techie, almost always. Actively avoided it for my current game. What can I say? I like tech.
>>46664103
>>46664107
OP here, this >>46664121
Don't try to pick people up on the tabletop gaming board of 4chan of all places.
>>46664024
>>46664085
This.
Bards are always the same obnoxious one-note "I CAN DO EVERYTHING" characters. They're so rarely actually interesting or unique. It's made even worse by the whole stereotype of them wanting to hump everything, which alot of people think is perfectly acceptable to bring to the game for some reason just because it's a trope.
>>46663971
I tend to play characters without origin. They have history and personality, and desires and all the stuff that makes a good character, but if you ask any of them about their childhood or parents they answer with some vague generalizations, or a complete blank.
It started with my shadowrun character who just woke up one day on the streets of san francisco with a small amount of money. by the time of the games beginning she had become a shadowrunner with an augmentation addiction.
I never dwell on their past. it's left open for some surprise, but generally I just have them move forward to the future.
IDK why this keeps happening. I did it accidentally with my current character. They were a bit crazy and i just wondered what if "they can't recall their childhood or it seemed liek a dream." and before i realized it i had another originless character that just began existing at some point.
>>46664179
Don't be like that, sweetheart.
We're replying to your thread and everything.
Personally when creating a character I can't resist making them nuanced and interesting, with something that sets them apart from my previous creations.
>>46664179
You don't think a londonposter is actually try to pick up people do you?
>>46663989
>Hobbit ankle
>Sexual
>>46663971
I like playing noble savages. Yeah, I know /tg/ hates it but I think it's fun. If they aren't noble then they're probably hopeless cowards which want to help the party anyway out of some questionably placed sense of loyalty.
accidentally going through combat as brutally as possible as mostly kind and caring characters
>>46664196
Well jack-of-all trades are called master of none for a reason, that includes being interesting. However, I think the Bards being the Fade to Black class is alright. It's mainly a medieval fantasy version of the rockstar who uses his fame to sleep with lots of women. Not automatically inappropriate depending on how it plays out and is presented but it does get fucking old.
I can't say I'm proud of it, but the defining link between all my characters is being anime as hell.
>>46664225
Noble savages are fine, as long as they're not a /pol/-level allegory for some real-life group. Personally I find them pretty interesting when most of my games are dominated by civilized types of characters. It actually creates a pretty good contrast when the party ends up stranded on an island or lost in the wilderness away from civlization and you have one character going all Far Cry while everyone else flails around and starves.
>>46663971
My Characters are pretty all over the place in terms of themes and tropes and what have you, but they have one thread through all of them.
Obligation.
Sans outliers, most of my characters are a part of the party/story out of a deep sense of obligation. Whether that be to a lover, to "doing the right thing" or because its their job my characters are usually driven by the idea "I have to do this because no one else will/can"
They are also generally not too happy with adventuring, seeking a less exciting and sufficiently more cozy life.
>>46664201
I think I did this one time in the past 5 years, and that was with a character who was a homeless street urchin for as far back as he could remember.
Otherwise I'm pretty much the polar opposite. I usually write out (or at least mentally construct) my character's pasts to include as far back as their births and early childhood. Very rarely do I play characters with dead parents or no family at all, and very rarely do I play characters who can't remember these things. For me, how a character grew up is just far too essential to how they act in the present, even if it ends up becoming "baggage" sometimes.
>>46664444
Checked, fampai.
>>46664071
Do you only like equally insecure short guys who look almost comedic when compared to you? Prehaps in a manner resembling a Japanese comedy duo?
>>46664469
No, I prefer men who are taller than me so I feel less ridiculous. Bonus points if they're still taller than me when I wear heels.
>>46664486
I would call you a pleb, but it would take too much effort on my part.
I will however, continue to call you Risa. As that's what I had been doing in my head the whole time.Seriously though, you live in a first world country right? The average height for men is like 5'6"-6'2", it's not that hard to find tall people.unless you're fucking NBA player tall, in which case you can only really hope to find a guy really into that Amazon fetish because bitch you're too tall.
>>46663971
Something I can hardly avoid is having characters who expect to die. Characters might be jaded and believe they'll die like pre-campaign comrades. They might want to martyr themselves in the name of their god. They might want to die a hero and so will sacrifice themselves in any situation where such an act will help others. They could be an outright Knight in Sour Armour, my favourite.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightInSourArmor
Death doesn't even happen much so I'm really overdoing it.
>>46663971
>thing for short yet powerful characters
This is /tg/ we all love dorfs here.
There's not a one of us over 4' 6"
>>46664071
>>46664121
Post feet.
I try to vary things as much as I can but I will admit freely that when I get a new fantasy RPG the very first thing I look up is clerics (and usually it'll be the first thing I play) because I love the idea of an armed priest wading into war lit up by a holy aura, healing and emboldening his allies as much as he harms his foes. It lets me be a healer and support character without having to be afraid of getting hit, which is pretty much ideal for me because I like to fill that role but I don't like rerolling every two minutes and we almost always start campaigns at level one.
In general, though, I try to be varied. Sometimes I think I try too much to do so; not because it's like special snowflake syndrome (as I am too shy for spotlight) but because most of the rest of my group is pretty set in their ways about what they like to play so they probably wouldn't notice or care if I played the same character every time.
>>46663971
Generally, all of my characters have capable parents to whom they look up to and aspires to surpass. That's basically it.
My go-to archetype is Slaine MacRoth. I want a big guy with a big axe and the ability to turn into a human monster and rend everything apart with my bear claws.
That's not a typo.
>>46663971
I usually go for characters with some kind of addiction or mental illness.
I kind of enjoy the challenges that come with it and it can lead to some interesting situations.
>>46663971
I play the least human character I can get the GM to sign off on. In a sci fi setting, I play aliens. In horror, I play a vampire or werewolf. In various flavors of punk, I play a machine. Fantasy, I play whatever petting zoo people the DM has, or a magical construct. We had a Dark Souls-esque eldritch/depressing thing at one point where I played a cloud of poisonous mist haunting my own armor.
The reason for this is because I like to have some elbow room with characters and most of the people I play with don't make good pregame material. Playing an outsider lets me 1. Learn the setting as they do, rather than play 20 questions with the DM, and 2. Make up some things of my own to fit my weird character rather than rely on hit or miss support from the DM.
>>46664543
As someone who's 164cm short, I'm really into that amazon stuff.
>My PC is a young talented person with strong ideals based on [philosophy] with ambitions of [thing]
Every time. I've had to consciously take effort with my last few characters to try and wiggle a bit out of this archetype, such as by playing child characters, older characters, or characters with high ambitions of [thing]. In a word, playing as more normal people instead of 'heroic' types.
>>46665309
or characters WITHOUT high ambitions of [thing]*
I tend to make characters who are emotionless or have extremely subdued emotions. I don't know why but I find it fun roleplaying those kinds of characters.
>>46663971
I often play highly motivated characters who sincerely believe in their cause and are willing to go very far in pursuing it. The cause can be noble or very dark and insane, but their methods are not.
They often start with good intentions, but gradually they slip farther and farther down, commiting more and more questionable deeds, until finally they resort to terrible atrocities.
I had lots of characters in Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader like this. One of the most memorable PCs was a sage in a DH:Ascension game, who got slowly corrupted by Nurgle as he desperately sought a way to stop an extremely powerful Daemon Lord of Tzeentch. In the end he became a powerful NPC cult leader with subsector-wide influence.
I also played an Assamite Antitribu vampire in a VtM Sabbat game. In life, he fought as a mercenary in several wars, mostly not for money, but for abstract ideals. He didn't even notice the moment when he became involved in war crimes and terrorism and even as a cainite he thought he was a righteous warrior fighting his eternal fight.
>>46665344
So...Archer as a vampire, only with less self-awareness?
My characters are often the party fool, whether they're self aware or not.
All of my characters are edgy outliers.
I haven't played any DnD games for years now, only run them. I'm glad, but I've never had any experience playing a character was wasn't a cringy teenage rebellious character. I don't know when I will.
>>46665368
No, as I don't know the character you are speaking about. And I never ever base my characters on existing ones.
He was more inspired by real people. By real fighters of the wars he fought in - I read much about it and heard stories from some of my friends. Though they fought on the other side.
And somewhat inspired by Arcady Gaidar, a children's book author who fought in Russian Civil War, commanded a regiment by the age of 18 and was forcibly retired because of his cruelty (!).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_Gaidar
>>46663971
> What trends do you have with your characters?
> What sort of tropes can you simply not resist when it comes to character creation?
Monks obsessed with self-perfection and enlightenment, and who take pleasure in beating their own achievements.
Rogues, druids and rangers who don't like to be the center of attention and just like to help people, regardless of whether they appreciate him for it.
Tired and jaded noir paladins who keep fighting the good fight not because they like it, but because they can't abandon it for others to deal with.
Boisterous and surely clerics who kick ass in the name of their Lord, and usually play the role of the father or a mentor.
Avangarde bards who want to be the very best and the most popular, and who choose a proper rock-out jam session over a chance to wet their dick.
>>46663971
>the low born working man rising to do great things with a humble, down-to-earth attitude - calm and stable, probably born from my own insecurities
>peppy, energetic, friendly females who hit hard with weapons/fists, usually athletic or acrobatic (partially because fetish, partially because those characters are the most fun)
>the punk who's streetsmart but in over his head and talks too much (shit)
>>46663971
It's more of a design trend, but every time I draw one of my characters, they have a star somewhere on their person.
They also tend to be very different from how I see myself in at least one way - possessing an ability or trait that I lack regardless of race or class, or lacking one of the few advantages I /do/ have.Mostly because I'm a filthy escapist.
>>46665263
>playing the monster in horror games
You just love fucking everything up don't you?
I seem to have a habit of making characters who come across like special snowflakes on first description, but ultimately act reasonably normal.
Or Elves. I've made a lot of elf PC's over the years. A habit I'm trying to break, as my non-elf PC's end up being more popular and fun to play by far.
Every single one of my characters has a strong inherent duality to them, even when I dont mean to put it in. They have something they want to be, or not want to be, and it pushes them toward the far opposite.
I've played a high elf who poses as a human mercenary due to lack of respect for elf culture.
A half orc sorcerer son of an orcish warlord and a moderately evil but very famous bard. He struggles between the cosmopolitan nature of his mother and the violent bloodlust of his father. Both parents love him as he is.
A huge and heavily armored paladin who can, will, and has given his life to protect virtually anyone in need, but is actually terrified of society and interacting with people. He is legitimately better at killing evildoers than speaking to gooddoers and were he smarter he'd likely be depressed about it.
A thief who broke into adventuring by accident and expects to die or fuck up at any given second, but reliably gets what needs done done. He sees himself as a simple thief cleanly outclassed by his comrades. This is not the case.
A human mage who took up deniable mercenary work to try and finish his mortgage and develop a nest egg for his elf wife and children. Hes a doormat family man at home and an extremely dangerous and impatient shadowrunner by night.
A warlock in his early 40s who spent 15+ years studying as a wizards apprentice but eventually realized that he just was not smart enough to be a GREAT wizard. While he knows this he doesn't admit it, and he claims to have forgotten more about magic than his peers will ever know. Great old one pact aside, the dude really wanted to be a wizard, and he didn't really want to sell his soul for magic. He didnt want to be an ok 14 int wizard though. He wanted to be GREAT!
Eyepatches
Tropes that as a GM and occasional writer I have huge problem avoiding
>Male:
A joung, oddly omnipresent academician (usually something like a art historian or something) who is later revealed to be actually heading some kind of sinister (though not flat-out evil) organization with considerable power.
A tragic family patriarch who drags himself and everybody around them into deep shit and madness out of completely genuine care for his children.
Young son of a very powerful dictator or rulers who turns out to be much more reasonable than anyone expects, but usually still ends up tragically and with a bad reputation.
A Ginko-like (From Mushishi) character who uses cigarette smoke in his spells.
Blind librarian.
Religious leaders that turn out to be some of the most reasonable people within the story.
>Female:
Docile and seemingly extremely passive damsels in distress that at one point show incredible courage and save somebody else's ass when people least expect it.
Women who first come across as extremely altruistic and selfless, but eventually it turns out they are obsessed with martyrdom and self-destruction, often fucking things up by their "sacrifice" (thanks, IPL).
Powerful and influential women ruling through male puppets (husband, lover etc...)
>Monsters and creatures:
Vampire, werewolf or demon that turned into a "coffeehouse intellectual" and had neglected his monstrous agenda in favor of pretentious art or left wing philosophy debates.
Talking animal (like a raccoon) who is an alcoholic and fancies himself a modern beatnik style poet while he rummages through trash looking for half-empty beer cans.
Fairies that are born out of tar, ashes, or trashcans.
A water nymph caught in a modern urban environment that sleeps in a bath tub covered by waterlilies.
Odradek (look it up if you never heard that word)
Smoking and oddly detached angel often in a small observer role.
I tend pretty heavily towards "jerk with a heart of gold" type characters. My characters tend to be crude and abrasive if they're from a rough background, or pompous and arrogant if they're from a high-class background, but ultimately loyal to anyone that treats them well or fights alongside them.
In general this means there'll be one or two other PCs in the party that actually likes them, and all the others will dislike them in varying degrees, if grudgingly respecting their abilities because I'm an admitted power gamer.
I often tend to make "watch the world burn" chaotic evil characters who ends up caring only about the well being of the group because of whatever reason. I had one concept where, because of the nature of the character, would end up outliving the group and later destroying the world.
I have a thing for hermit characters. I think it comes from the fact that I myself am very much a hermit outside of tabletop RPG:s and the occasional LAN-parties. I don't get lonely (I can go several months without really seeing anybody for no ill effect), and as such am biased towards creating characters who strive in being lone.
This comes up most with characters like druids and rangers, who live alone in the wild.
Another type is the mage / alchemist / scholar who lives with their books and magics. Very much lone people.
I can barely even RP social butterfly characters without them being annoyingly stereotypical.
Two times out of three, my character is a criminal. Usually con man, sometimes burglar or enforcer. I have a hard time coming up with reasons to start adventuring (which often involves killing all sort of things or at least witnessing such acts) and just take the easy road with money as prime motivator. I've been trying to change that recently, but the habit still makes me slip during play once and a while.
>>46663971
I make a large portion of my NPCs into slimy assholes who seem like they're going to betray you at any moment.
But they never betray you unless they have a reason to. Which will be roughly around the time hell freezes over if you continue to risk your life on their behalf for a moderate reward.
>>46664469
Sweet fucking mercy did you just reference lovely complex?
>>46664071
Tall ladies are awesome. Believe in the me who believe's that you're probably a tall and sexy lady. <3
>>46664071
And exactly how tall are you?
The tallest girl I know is almost 2m tall and quite beatiful. She even works as a nude model and webcam girl.
>>46664024
I wish I had more players like this. Instead I'm stuck with a bunch of grognards who treat the game like a videogame and only care about power up themselves up and being better than the rest of the party.
I have a habit of making characters that either look tough, or stoic, or just unaffected by stuff, but are actually emotionally vulnerable, and care about people (either the party, or their family, or whoever) quite a bit.
Current campaign, my first character was created as more or less a stoic, silent, emotionless sniper stereotype. Plot happened and it turned out that it way mostly to cover up the fact that they're just really, really awkward, and care about people around them way too much.
>>46663971
beeing vengeful and beeing sexualy open are the two things all characters have in common. Also mostly i work with elegant weapons like rapiers or the elven court blade.
>>46663971
I have a bad habit of making characters with depressed characters. Not necessarily in a way that negatively impacts the party, as sometimes the character's are in denial about it or but up a brave face in front of the party, but it definitely influences my character's personality and decisions at the very least subtly whenever I make them. I write out a backstory, and somehow (probably subconsciously) when I go back and read it the stories always devolves into some kind of sad twist or personality quirks.
It's not even always intentional, so I wonder what that says about me and my life when this is my escapist fantasy.
>>46663971
stop it. i should not want to give bilbo baggins the dick.
>>46663971
If I've learned anything after 12 years of playing tabletop RPG - characters are just disposable heap of numbers.
Thus I create undescriptive, absolutely average characters. This also means no min-maxing and other shit - they are just what you expect from someone working as X, but nothing extreme. If they die - well, happens, time for new character.
So I literally don't care at this point about their role or roll play value. I'm just around for some new scenario to do.
>>46663971
I have to play a character with strong and unflinching beliefs that don't immediately go against the party (as in it isn't implausible that they'd ever travel together) but will inevitably cause conflicts as circumstance requires the party to perform actions that might sway from their sets of beliefs.
This could be strong political beliefs in a campaign where you have to occasionally deal with nobility, or some extreme belief about life being special and not killing your enemies (in an already somewhat-lighthearted game of course, if it's a darker game where killing things is the only way to stay alive this character would never be made), et cetera, something that causes an inevitable scenario where the character needs to bend their beliefs and stubbornly refuses until the entire party is fighting him about it. They always eventually relent and go with the party though.
Current character has this trope, believes in racial supremacy—not in the sense that other races are bad or degenerate, but just in the sense that his race is the hottest shit ever—and considers people of said race (including himself) to be the hottest shit ever as a result, passing any mistakes or anything that could be considered a flaw as a result of some situational circumstance or onto another party member. So far this has caused bickering among the party but no real progress-halting issues, but it surely will inevitably as more strain is put upon the party and harder tasks come up with higher chances of failure.
I understand that's a really broad "trope" but it's just a common thread I have. They need something that isn't completely objectionable but goes against the grain anyway, perhaps it's just a desire by me to have a snowflake or something. I don't think it's caused any out-of-character problems with my groups, or if they have they're the type of players from /tg/ that never communicate their feelings to the group.
>>46663971
I tend to create characters thinking about their role.
I NEVER think about their background nor any personal details aside basic behaviour. All GMs I'm playing or played with know that, so they had always free hand to use my character in their scenarios the way they saw it fit
>>46663971
My characters tend to have plenty of persuade or speech, even if they haven't charisma. I favour small, cute characters and have been known to play Cats, Moogles, ratlings, haflings, kawaii robots if I'm feeling silly enough.
My characters tend to be humble as fuck and just want to sit around and be comfy. Co-incidently, I try to go for a Bilbo-like character arc with them, leaving it up to a coin toss if they go back to comfy life or grow hard and/or cold in their adventure.
I like utility-support-casters but will tend towards damage rather than healing if the party needs those specific roles.
High speed is everything, even if Dex or initiative don't follow. Gotta go fast. I also like to put 'flavour' points into my character sheet rather than minmaxing. My druid used to be a city guard before he trained, put a point into [melee stat] etc etc. When I do this it's almost always being the offspring of an [industry tool] producer. It's not a bad go-to if I'm asked to make a character in 5 minutes.
>>46663971
If they're a magic user, they think magic is as cool as shit.
They have this cool thing they can do, that can literally manipulate the fabric of reality. That's awesome! They tend to get annoyed when people are all "Oooo magic is strange and scary, there's always a price."
Pic related for my one bard character
>>46669324
>They tend to get annoyed when people are all "Oooo magic is strange and scary, there's always a price."
My exact reaction... out of character.
>>46663971
Angst is my guilty vice.
I tend to enjoy alien moralities too. Not alien-alien, but like, nomadic barbarian who just doesn't GET why everyone gets so upset about slavery or something.
>>46664486
Lower your standards, they're too high.
>>46669324
well there has to be a price, or everyone might as well just be magic. if magic doesnt come with a price or a downside thats just shit world building and balancing.
I have to force myself to play anything other than charisma based characters. Something about being a man's man paladin, or a bard who just bullshits his way through everything is a ton of fun. (Also smarmy sorcerers)
I've got quite a few shared trends:
Near-Universal trends:
All my characters come from mostly-stable, middle to upper class homes.
All of them have been mislead about the adventuring/mercenary lifestyle in some way, and ended up in the party due to that misconception.
All of my PCs have a moment where they realize just how far over their heads they are; then either panic and try to get out, or go harder.
All of them suffer; usually as a consequence of their own actions.
Shared trends:
Many PCs have some vast over-arching goal which involves the protection/restoration of something.
Many PCs are highly intelligent, but lack common sense, and suck at introspection.
Many PCs that have been adventuring for a while have either developed a mental disorder, or had one exposed. Mentally healthy people don't enjoy getting paid to murder people.
Many struggle with substance abuse.
Many have a disdain for magic/psi-tech/whatever, using it only when necessary.
Many have some sort of strong moral/ethical code, and all inevitably find themselves in a situation where they need to break said code.
>>46669453
or you could just have different aptitudes/potentials. most people have too litlle (insert power source here) for it to be practical.
>>46663971
i enjoy playing human mage/esper etc. who is either young teens or middle age (40's)
>>46663971
>tropes
I seriously hope you guys don't do this.
>>46670026
Tropes aren't always a bad thing. Tropes are just story elements that are misused 90% of the time, but they can be done well.
>>46670081
I'd say they're mostly done well when they aren't thought of as tropes at all.
>>46670131
>people actually think like this
>>46663971
I seem to always make characters with ambiguous national identities.
I have a Serbo-Hungarian who identifies primarily as African, and someone who's childhood is sprinkled between America, England, Scotland and Ulster.
>>46670313
Think of things as tropes, or think it's bad to think of things as tropes?
>>46670434
more that you or the folks you're thinking of see tropes in such a negative way that tropes can only be bad and if they're done well they're not really tropes.
Like they're triggered by the word "trope".
>>46670559
im triggered by the word triggered shitlord.
>>46670572
I know you are.TRIGGERED
BUZZWORD
TROPE
LADYKNIGHT
FORTH EDITION
40K BABIES
AGE OF SIGMAR
ELVES
DORFS
HUMANITY, FUCK YEAH
GATE
FURRIES
BEST GIRL
WORST GIRL
QUEST
REALISM
>>46670572
>>46670687
i dont get a lot of these.
>40k babies
what?
>>46670854
I didn't expect you to know all of them or find most of them annoying, but figured one might trigger you.
>what?
just another derogatory term. more nerds trying to feel superior to other nerds.
>>46663971
I tend to make characters that do not shy from confrontation, regardless of the outcome. If they think something is wrong, they will stand against it to the bitter end.INB4 lawful goodfag
>>46663971
>What trends do you have with your characters?
>What sort of tropes can you simply not resist when it comes to character creation?
-Characters with contracts with supernatural entities
-Characters who are damaged in some way
-Characters that dress in a somewhat outrageous way
-Asexual/anti-sexuals
-Characters whose morality is very twisted but who try to do the right thing anyway, even if it doesn't immediately make sense to them
-Characters who returned from the dead
-Characters who were altered in some way
-Characters who lost a great deal of status
Dark back stories.
Ex-military is also a trend.
My friends question whether I'm a serial killer.I'm not.
>>46663971
Completely unfitting as an adventurer or otherwise. It creates adversity and a chance for character building unlike what you would get if you were "I am adventurer, i am look money, i am make i rich"
I like playing characters at a moral crossroad, typically a naive youngster just starting off on their adventuring career or someone more experienced and jaded. Younger characters tend to fall from grace, jaded characters tend to move back towards an ideal or morals and learn to believe again.
I also like playing with characters that should have been special but weren't and are learning to live with it. Or if they do become special, it's because of a Faustian-esque bargain with terrible cost.
Most if my characters are cery simple minded, and I have trouble portraying too much nuance. This isn't to say all my characters are stupid, but they very quickly fall into the "every problem looks like a nail" mindset. I also have a habit of mechanically getting very focused with my characters, not to the point where they're min/maxed to absurdity, but definitely to the point where they're overly specialized, making them less capable of branching out effectively unless the system is relatively forgiving.
>>46672010
I fucking hate that. You're playing with a new group of people and you show up with a character who has a dark backstory and all the one fucker can say is something like "Wow, you're not gonna shoot up your school, are you?" It's one of those things that can't be taken back and now people think you're a psychopath because of some sperglord who can't contain their verbal diarrhea.
As for the thread topic, I tend to flesh out all of my character's backstories. I'm a writefag, so it doesn't exactly surprise my normal playgroups.
>>46672647
I'm a (very lazy and unconfident) writefag myself. My latest backstory is that my sorcerer's brother was a wizard and heir to the family line. My SORC found out his brother was a vicious, misogynistic serial killer that killed women and made flesh golem sex slaves out of them because of a woman that he could not have.
He killed his brother in a confrontation and helped two of the golems commit suicide because his brother gave them sentience via enslaved souls. The third ran away and is actually worse than his brother was. She's been killing her way across a continent and my character has been chasing her down, with the story that he's chasing his brother's killer to hide his own fratricide and save his families reputation back home.
>>46672647
>>46672783
Eh, maybe it's because I'm a writefag myself, but the way something is written usually tells me a lot more about the player than the content itself.
Doesn't matter how dark and gritty a backstory is, if it's told using lighter language.
>>46663971
I make characters with horrendously tragic and edgy backstories and then play them as logical, well-adjusted, rational beings who use their past experiences to be a decent person who don't let their past define how often they monologue.
>>46663971
I like boisterous characters, and I kinda like when they don't look like it. Like a barbarian who's 4'5, or an Elf prettyboy paladin.
Hmm. I generally play characters who are a little off, even for adventurers. Like, they all believe a little too strongly, or their grip on reality is a bit more fluid than normal. Each one is incredibly skilled at their thing, but that's because I'm a bit of a power gamer. However, this great skill tied with their common strangeness make for really fun roleplaying. Do you try to stay the hand of your fanatical crusader friend? Do you try to keep a leash on the delusional beta level psyker?
>>46664103
L O N D O N
O
N
D
O
N
I love being roguish fasttalkers.
Not necessarily rogues, just that sort of quasi-sketchy, barely legally operating type of character. I tend to play them as harmless innocents until someone calls me on it, then I wheel and deal.
>>46663971
My characters tend towards the "badass normal" archetype. I have always found myself rooting for underdog types, or characters who overcome powerful, supernatural baddies, not with supernatural powers of their own but with sheer resourcefulness.
I do like to have an ex-military background, and my characters are often "high-concept" characters. Before creating a new character,I like to have an idea of what sort of arc I'd like them to go through.
For example, my latest character is pic-related in Star Wars. This is an idea I've wanted to try for a long time. A human who fought for the Separatists during the Clone Wars, who still romanticizes the Confederacy a bit in his head. I'm eager to see how this character evolves once he learns the truth about the Separatists and the Clone Wars.
Most of my characters tend to be without a hometown, because they were migrant growing up. Maybe they're military kids. Maybe they grew up in an interplanar trade caravan with outposts from Sigil to Pandemonium. They're culturally ambiguous too as a result of that, often being strangers in places where most people would expect them to be locals.
It's probably because I grew up like that myself.
>>46664564
>>46673756
pic related
>>46667402
Give link please.
>>46664071hot
>>46663971
> Billa Baggens
>Goes adventuring with large group of males.
> Ends up as dwarves fucktoy
> secretly reason she agreed to go in the first place.
>Protective, lawful and loyal tanks who refuse to submit. Gruff but, when gotten to know or drunk, cheery and loves to laugh.
>>46663971
I tend to make the ugliest characters the game has to offer. A friend of mine once said that I could play en elf, and it'd be the only ugly elf in the entire world. Turns out, he's right. For some reason I like my (male) characters ugly/deformed/scarred or all at the same time.
>>46663971
Short People, and no not halflings...
Ihaveaproblem
I think all my characters have attempted to develop some kind of weapon of mass destruction no matter the setting.
Anthrax laced explosives are a favorite in fantasy settings. It's always fun to send in spore coated zombie rats into a city's grain caches as well.
>>46663971
I am almost always the lawful good/neutral guy in the party. I just enjoy playing characters with very strict guidelines, I suppose. Gonna subvert it by playing a barbarian in our 5e campaign, though.
>>46664201
I can personally relate to that trope irl since I can't remember a single damn thing from before I was eight.
>>46672783
Well I think that's neat
I like to play reckless idiots who make things happen.
all my characters are shallow and boring and played by a person who is shallow and boring
>>46664311
>>46664225
Last Character was a Noble Savage, but it was run basically just like >>46664311 said. Worked out well since the campaign was about shitty imperialists, anyways, and the group liked the character.
People just hate tropes when used badly (e.g. Drizzt clones).
I almost exclusively play mundanes. Fighters and rogues and things like that. I dunno, I guess I've just always thought of those characters as underdogs and stuff. Not having a magical education be a major component of their backstory feels freeing, as well.
I also have a bad habit of making characters who talk more than I do, which is really hard to keep in character.
>>46677093
I hate you.
I hate every player like you.
I hate that every game has a player like you.
I hate that if you remove that player, another one of the party members will convert to being that player in their absence.
Because no matter what, I end up becoming the straight man of the party. I try to be the nutter, the rampaging brute, mad scientist, whatever, but I am 100% unable to stop myself from going "Guys, that's probably not a good idea" instead of "DEUS VULT".
>>46666737
Eyepatch+scar+beard=every male character over 30 I've ever played. like 85% of my characters.
I always play an insane douchebag that always tries to get my party into all sorts of trouble. Sometimes I switch it up so I either work against the party or with it. Shenanigans abound either way.
Help, I can't stop.
Archetype, I definitely lean towards more physically oriented characters than pure magic types, especially in D&D where I don't really like the magic mechanics all that much (even spontaneous casters feel absurd to me). Pretty much all of my characters have some sort of nonchalant or cocky air about them as well, now that I think about it.
Other than that, though, I like giving my characters some sort of twist or limitation that makes them a bit more interesting than just a regular character.
One example that I really liked was a Barbarian who basically had a demon beast frenzy form that got triggered by things like taking and dealing damage. First time she transformed scared the shit out of the poor gnome.
I kinda want to play a girl who's cute but weirdly creepy and transforms into a vicious Lovecraftian beast to fight. Sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to play her without homebrewing a brand new class or something for just one character and I doubt the GM would want to go through all that hassle.
>>46663971
I have a special place in my heart for the warrior woman and crazy alchemist archetypes.
>>46681505
This seems like it would be better suited for its own thread, as it doesn't appear to be related to this one at all.
>>46664922
That is the cutest snake I have ever seen.
>>46665623
>peppy, energetic, friendly females who hit hard with weapons/fists, usually athletic or acrobatic (partially because fetish, partially because those characters are the most fun)
You have a fetish for dodging?
>>46663971
I pretty much lean towards older (50s), tall men. If the setting allows I usually go for tiefling or dhampir too. I've pretty much always been a fan of the warlock archtype so I tend to lean towards it along with CE due to some otherworldy unfluence for the most part.
pic related.
