Experiences Do you have a "type"?

[Crayons]

When you make RP characters, do you find yourself gravitating towards certain types of characters? Do you always place your stats the same way in a tabletop, or play the same classes? Are there certain "signature" character types that you can't help but make for almost every RP that you join? I'll start!

I'm convinced I have some "types", and that most if not all of my characters are some kind of variation of them.

1) Intellectual Pacifists
2) Sneaky Tricksters
3) Comedy Thugs

Mix those things up and you have basically all the characters I have ever made. Intellectual thugs, sneaky pacifists and comedy tricksters are also available.

 

[Damafaud]

I usually base my characters from personal traits of mine, so I don't really fall for a certain type. I have gangsters and florist and snobby politician and innocent next-door boy.

If I have to name a favourite, I like gentlemen hehe

 

[Crayons]

I usually base my characters from personal traits of mine, so I don't really fall for a certain type. I have gangsters and florist and snobby politician and innocent next-door boy.

If I have to name a favourite, I like gentlemen hehe

But do the gangsters, florist and politician etc. exhibit any identifiable traits that you carry across?

 

[Damafaud]

But do the gangsters, florist and politician etc. exhibit any identifiable traits that you carry across?

Hmm not really.

The gangster is a selfish, crass, ungrateful bastard with violence tendency while the florist is an energetic yet protective elder sister. See, I don't think I have a type. The gangster was based on a past frustration while the florist was based on several tender moments from my childhood. Most of my characters are made the same way, so if they need to be put under a category... self-insert, I guess?

 

[Crayons]

Hmm not really.

The gangster is a selfish, crass, ungrateful bastard with violence tendency while the florist is an energetic yet protective elder sister. See, I don't think I have a type. The gangster was based on a past frustration while the florist was based on several tender moments from my childhood. Most of my characters are made the same way, so if they need to be put under a category... self-insert, I guess?

Nahh not self-inserts at all. You good. XD It's natural to base characters on aspects of your own personality or experience. They don't become self-inserts until it's basically idealised you in different meat suit and clothes.

 

[Onmyoji]

I'm one of those people who always plays paladin in tabletops. I tried to branch out as a monk though lol

As far as personality goes, that would be stoic and cold on the outside but passionate on the inside. And usually it falls under 'lawful neutral' alignment. There are some variations, of course, but that's definitely my 'signature type'.

I enjoy playing such characters very much. Maybe because I find it relatable since I share some of the traits typical for such characters. But I also have fun challenging the characters with moral dilemmas and writing their internal struggle. Defrosting Ice Queen/King is also one of my favourite tropes to write.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I tend to base my characters off books I have read recently OR people I know in real life.

So I might have a phase where my characters are all based of a book or my siblings but nothing consistent. It usually changes every month or so

 

[SpectrumCrow]

I absolutely do! Although I'm pretty similar to what rae2nerdy said! Although for me, it's purely off of characters from a book! For example, I'm super into homestuck right now. One of the characters, Jade Harley, is a young girl who grew up on an island away from all of civilization (but did have the internet) and no one knew where she was. She felt lonely but hopeful for the future. And that's bleeding into my characters right now a lot! I'm playing a princess who was isolated in her palace and ran away from home in one rp! And in some others the isolation thing is pretty there in your face as well.

Whatever my mind decides to hyper focus on for a couple weeks is what tends to bleed into my characters.

but lowkey at the end of the day I'm always a sucker for flirty characters

 

[Psychonaut]

I like sympathetic villains - antagonists who mean well, and whose motives are understandable to even the common man, but whose means to achieving their ends are beyond the pale by nearly any measure.

Insofar as protagonists go, clueless idiots driven by an admirable desire are lots of fun to write, especially when in contact with antagonists of the aforementioned sort. You end up with an anti-hero versus anti-villain dynamic that inevitably results in an enthralling story.

 

[Cassie Lang]

I used to play the "snarky rogue/archer" stereotype back when I was younger, but I've mostly moved on from characters like those. Other than that I don't really think I have a type.

 

[Aeaolen]

I find it very difficult to play anything but a stoic, but sometimes jovial soldier type.

 

[ashwynne]

Hmmm.... this is surprisingly harder to answer than I initially thought lol.
For me my character types tend to be reflective of the setting/plot that they're in and that changes depending on my whims at the time when I'm looking for an RP.
Since I've been rather into arranged marriage/power dynamic tropes lately, my characters do share some similarities since that's fairly necessary considering their roles.
For example I have three roleplays right now with two male royals in two of them and a warlord in the other. The one warlord and king are both similarly pragmatic and cold from outside appearances and have fairly similar backstories (murder of their entire family--though the causes are wildly different and it impacts them in very different ways) but their quirks and individual personalities are quite different beyond certain traits that you'd expect from leaders. The third character is a prince with an inferiority complex who enjoys fishing and hanging around the docks while entertaining delusions of grandeur so he's completely different from the other two lol.

I would say that currently my favourites are:
- badass with a twist
- ethically questionable but with admirable goals
- total subversion of expectations
- big brute with a heart of gold
- charming but irredeemable psychopath
- "realistic" characters that don't have any specific trauma/drama and just feel like a real person you could run into

This changes over time, but I'd say these are the types I'm currently most interested in.

 

[Shadow Rose]

My girl characters are usually the type that hate being you're typical "damsel in distress" and would sooner punch the lights out of anyone who tried.

 

[Crayons]

Psychonaut ashwynne

I looooooove sympathetic villains/anti-villains. I love playing them, I love encountering other people playing them. Sometimes I'm playing a character and just wish that someone would oppose them for an entirely valid reason. "My character's reasons are so flimsy and morally dubioius! Surely someone must think they are wrong!"

 

[Idea]

I'm writing this as I finish writing the rest, and frankly my wording could use a lot of work.... still, I'm not about to scrap the whole thing now.

So I am a pretty introspective person, and always tend to look at my own patterns and how I am not just as a roleplayer, but also as a person. I've identified a lot of common things among my characters, so I'll just present the major ones and most common ones, ones I feel are more 'me' than the rest.

I'll start by adressing some overall types of characters (overall character concepts); followed by character traits and backstory events (elements of the personality and backstory, not the whole thing of course); then common powers I use, and finally because I think I read others putting some of their favorite D&D stuff here, I'll add some of my own tendencies.

1.Overall Types

Child Characters
I have made no secret that my favorite type of character to play is the child character. Specifically I'm referring to really young children typically around the ages of 6-8, but having as far down as three. There are many reasons why I love playing these children, starting with the really interesting perspective I get to work with through them. A child's mind is typically naive and more limited in it's perspective, given their smaller contact with the world, but also more in touch with what they want to do, more direct in that approach. I simply find it fascinating to put the current story through these lens and to act out a character behaving with the mentality of a child. Naturally, there's more variety to this perspective than is often given credit, not to mention it's even useful towards getting the character involved in the plot (simpler motivations, less inhibitions, the character more easily follows with things, and they are also prone to exploring and accidentally doing things more).

Speaking of accidents, as one might imagine playing a child comes with inherent obsctacles. Their age means that they don't have the skills, physical capacity, and often the knowledge that an adult or even a teen would have. While I can really see why people would think of this as a disadvantage, the way I see it this is built-in conflict and obsctacle, areas where the character is lacking thus pushing me to be creative, and the character's struggles to be more real and interesting.

It's not just the character themselves that make this such a beloved character type for me, but also their impact on their surroundings. A child in the group can bring out sides of other characters you'd normally not get to see, and brings up questions to explore that might otherwise not even be thought about. It can even help other players with their own character needs, such as by using the child character's lack of inhibition to push the buttons of a character that needs it, or bring interactions and question to those loners others don't want to be messing with.

Child characters are also great for comedy. Through their accidents, lack of understanding you can get great comedic moments (so with comedy being my favorite genre, you knwo I love it), and there can even be some laughs out of contrast. Here I talk about one type within child character that bends the rules a bit, because they don't really have a child's perspective per say. I'm talking about the "adult in a child's body" or the "300 year old loli" type, who are physically children, but in actuality far older than that. The reason why I love these as well, is because they really manage to mix much of what's great about playing a child character- given that they are still limited by their bodies, and often have a somewhat childish mind- with some of the strengths of knowledge and experience of older characters, which still allows them to be badasses or mentors etc... The contrast comedy is especially strong with these ones too.

One way or the other, child characters tend to actually be a pretty unique archetype, at least as young as I make them, and for PCs (plenty of children NPCs out there, I know). For someone who likes to always have a gimmick and a place within a group, that's pretty great.

But of course, the cherry on top of the cake: Child characters are just adorable. #cutenessisjustice!!!


Genderbends
I first gained an interest in these types of characters because I fell in love with manga within this genre. I loved both the comedy and the drama that came from it, and the way it handled the subject matter.

I already expressed how much I love comedy and cuteness in the previous segment, so my reasons for loving these types don't need much detailing now I feel. However, the appeal for me in these types of characters sometimes clashes a bit with the ...inclinations of some people regarding this topic, as there is a much more light-hearted and one could say rather unrealistic approach in many respects, which to me enhance the fun of it, but to others might not, so it limits my ability to play such characters. Not that it's anything I'm not used to by now.


Dogs
What can I say, I love dogs, and often when given a different species to work with, I will often try to pick the dog-inspired species, and I love inumimis. They're adorable, they're really fun to play with, what more can I say?

Also used to play people turned into dogs by the plot or a curse, but it didn't go far as the limitations of said characters in terms of interactions quickly made things repetitive. I think I might be able to do a better job with them today, but my inclination to experiment is a lot lower than in days past.

To not add an extra type just to say this, I am a big fan of characters that are either bombs of cuteness, or cuteness with contrast for some macabre thing too.


The Old Wiseman & The Excentric Scavenger
These are put together because they are both old archetypes of mine, which I loved when I first started roleplaying, and while I will still consider it part of my reportoire, I don't really go for them much these days.

The old wise man consists of a character, typically old as the name would imply, who is simply wise and knowledgeable. They typically would serve as a mentor figure of sorts, and be intended to guide other characters, help them learn, and while not necessarily be the heroes, help fuel into other character's stories and maybe meet a tragic end. They would often be tortured by their past in some way, often some form of betrayal. The problem wih this type though, the reason I don't use it as much, is because I want a specific role for it, a role in relation to other characters that involves some predefined relation. In practice however, there is no guarantee this could happen, and in fact any advice the character might impart will typically already be known by most of the other players (because reasons). It can be a fun character to play, but the way it interacts with the spotlight and other characters made it impractical so I don't use it these days, though I did it a lot when I first started.

The excentric scavenger or excentric researcher is a character with this ruthelessly utilitarian approach, make use of everything, especially enemy corpses. They weren't necromancers, but well....it's kind of hard to explain. They were researchers trying to control or manipulate the properties of enemies with special powers of some sort for instance. Another example was a shopkeeper that would go around collecting various parts of magical creatures to make a variety of items and potions out of them. This character type tended to have an entirely alien common sense and most of the time were some of my most monstrous characters.

With both of these characters, I hesitated a bit on whether to include them or not, but ultimately I feel like even if I don't use them as much nowadays, they are still very much 'me', and it might just take the right roleplay for them to finaly make a comeback.


2.Personality Traits and Backstory Events

Curious
One of the most common character traits I use is the "curious" trait, because it's just so gosh darn useful to have. Curiosity gives me a reason to get characters to ask questions and explore things, or just in general to take interest in things that would be otherwise rather difficult to justify them giving any time of their day to. This allows me to greatly expand what interactions I can have, what plot points I can reach, as well as sate my own curiosity as a player without breaking character.

Envious
Envy often comes up in my characters because they don't tend to be the most succesful (not in the sense of being liked or disliked, by other players, just in the sense of their achievements IC) whether in the RP or in their backstory. I find that being "second rate" in their own story is an endearing aspect in a character, and that in RPs I can't reasonably expect to be at the top with me always trying to push for creative unorthodox things even when they are simply not effective.

Envy is a driving force that is believeable, but pushes my characters for both good or for evil depending on them and what comes before them. It also helps smooth into a character arc I tend to store as a plan B in case other players start bringing stuff that makes my character near-obsolete, which is an arc where my character faces the fact that they can't overcome that mountain nomatter what they do.

The Bringer of the Law
I'm not sure for the right term for this one, so I'll just call it that in the name of the first character of this type that I ever made, Lawneck. It was one of my earliest group RPs, if not my first on the site, a wolf pack RP and my character was one of the leaders. By contrast with the other leader, Lawneck was a kind, but strick and rule-intensive pack leader, who valued order, safety, and a stable chain of command. For various reasons those RPs never went very far, but I loved Lawneck as I made him and that type of character came to become one of my standards.

The Bringer of the Law tends to be a combination of a mature, tender caretaker and someone who stands firm as either a follower or a maker of rules, and who nags others about following them.

The Redemption
Even putting aside my beliefs regarding the best way to add drama to a backstory- that a character being an active agent in what happens to them is a lot more engaging and interesting than one which is just a victim, which can come off as extremely cheesy- I have found that guilt and regret are the two emotions that really resonate with me. Without going into too much detail about it, I have plenty of regrets over situations in which I realize I was at fault, or partially at fault at least. A character having a legitimate reason to feel guilty, doing horrible things but still finding redemption, making mistakes but still being given a chance, that's a kind of story I love and a very common type of character background that I like to explore. My characters are often the reason for their own downfall in their backstories, and have to live with the mistakes which they have made, and come face to face with what they must do to not only be able to forgive themselves, but also own their actions and rise above their past.

3.Classes/Power Types

Summoners and Tamers
When it comes to the powers of characters that I love working with, the first that comes to mind is definitely the ability to have "pets" so to speak. These beings that fight for you, be they creatures, elementals or whatever else, specially if one can get variety from them. I love variety in my powers, and I love being able to make my character weak but still useful. Summoning is a match made in heaven with me, as is taming, which has the disadvantage of being more conditional, but lets me match some of the mind control magic that I love.

Another reason why I love this type of power is because in games I tend to use it a lot. I love collecting all these bizarre creatures as pets or summons in games, and it is also great for my combat in them because my internet isn't the greatest, but pets keep fighting even if I start lagging, and they do so at the game's pace not mine, thus reducing the potential disadvantage from lagging.

Mind Magic
I've always been a stubbornly blue player in Magic The Gathering, and that's because I just love mind magic so much. Being able to control the enemy, to not only not have to fight their strength but add it to your own is just such an awesome thing to do, not to mention the rest of the potential possibilities.

Copying/Stealing (and meta abilities in general)
What do you get when you cross a love for irony with a fear of being entirely countered or outclassed? You get a love for abilities that can copy or steal, normally other abilities, but sometimes other stuff as well. That said, I myself do not allow them in my RPs, so I only use them in the RPs of others, and always try to balance them. I usually use some kind of drain effect where the ability of the other is sucked out little by little, or I use a reflection type of effect, where someone using their ability gets it reflected back against them. In my most direct use, I simply have my character gain an inferior copy of the other's ability and accumulate more and more abilities over time. It's a treasure trove of variety.

Meta abilities like this are really my jam, and when I'm feeling like playing a more supporting role, I often like to take an ability that can enhance the abilities of others in some way.

Shapeshifting
I am a huge fan of shapeshifting abilities. As I already mentioned, I love variety in my abiltiies, and shapeshifting certainly offers it. Not only that, but it offers opportunities for a lot of plot elements, especially comedic plot elements, to occur. It's a power that can really be used for combat, but I tend to like it more for it's utility uses.

Hyper Regeneration
I am someone who is pretty concerned about my character's safety, so I really like having fail safes like hyper regeneration which can help a character survive way more than they usually might, or might give them some use that makes it more worthwhile to let them live than kill them,

I also use it with the "adult in child's body" trope, in that I make the regeneration act so fast it actively prevents them from growing up, so that's a neat little bonus which doubles as a weakness.

4.D&D

*Wild Magic Sorcerers
*Warlocks
*Kenku
*Charisma Stat


I'll stop now, since I've been writing this for waaay too long now. Hope ya'll enjoyed the read though!

 

[Wert]

I guess "support" characters would be my go-to. You know, those characters who try to be a helpful character and move the story without drawing too much focus on them. Some of them have more leadership skills than others and would gladly lead a quest, but personality wise they're still a bit tame.

Even when trying a new video game, I tend to lean towards healers or rogue classes at first. It's just my comfort zone.

Outside of my comfort zone, my go-to character types are generally:
-grumpy, but with a good heart/good intentions.
-flirty and annoying with questionable morals.
-boisterous idiot with a lot of passion, probably a soldier or barbarian.
-Quiet types. Some are stoic, some edgy, and some aren't either of those. They just generally don't talk much.

 

[FoolsErin]

Now that I think about it, I really seem to gravitate towards both quiet/damaged and happy/energetic characters. You have a heroine whose seen some shit and used to roam the wastelands of the world she lives in, and then you have the alien scientist with more than enough zest to match her intellect as her best friend. Or the mute guy with ice powers who was abandoned by his parents and the childish potion-making vampire whose always at his side.

Also, I make a lot of female characters. I don’t have any comments for this beyond it’s just kinda what I do.

 

[Sera_Blade]

I usually gravitate towards characters with snarky cynical attitudes for my Ocs. I tend to be conservative about my race by usually rping as humans and sometimes halflings.

 

[The Silent Z]

I’ve always seemed to play one of two kinds of characters over the years, I try to branch out especially this past year or two. But I often bring back:

1( The reserved/intellectual type
2( The comedic/Rarely takes things seriously type

A combination of those two and throwing in a con artist traits you have a good portion of my characters since I started up. In self reflection I suppose I’ve taken from my own personality and experiences to help bring these ocs to life and create them. Since I’m usually either the reserved/quiet type or when I do talk I usually try to be chill and funny. Troubled pasts, tragic history also tend to play a role with 98% of my characters... coincidentally my more bubbly and happy/positive characters haven’t gotten off the ground in the Rps I’ve tried them in. A third character type I tend to use might be...

3( Socially awkward/misunderstood types with a few minor traits mixed in to blend them better as a overall character.

 

[BittyBobcat]

1) Smol innocent sunshine bean
The baby of the roleplay. Extroverted and lovable, and eternally cracking jokes. Usually they'll have some darker emotions hidden under that smile. It's like if you imagined one of the dark brooding types with a secret to hide and a mysterious past, but dealing with the secret painful past in reverse. Where dark and broody is silent, sunshine bean starts talking faster. Where dark and broody is severely disappointed in someone, sunshine bean is cracking jokes and trying to lighten the mood. These ones are very often fan favorites because LOOK AT THE TIMY BABY BOI!

2) Scream in Pain if You're Wired and Tired
Shy, introverted, and jumping ten feet in the air if you touch their shoulder. There's a 90% chance they live on coffee (the other 10% could singlehandedly fund the entire tea industry if given the chance). They're like the sunshine bean in that are often a favorite because protect the anxious one (I swear there has to be some psychological phenomena that does makes this happen). Depending on how jittery they are, they might just become wide eyed and even more awkward when startled... or they could start sprinting to Kenya.

3) Mischief TM
The TM in this cause stands for thieving mongrel. These are my mischievous little brats that you would probably hate to interact with in real life. Other than their kleptomaniac tendencies, they often have at least three or four more common criminal activities, but don't tell their tired parent (who may or may not just be some random person who decided to adopt this small sassy child).

 

[just_patches]

Showman characters are one I never get tired of
Characters who love putting on a display, are smooth talkers, and are entertainers at heart. Whether they are villains or heroes.

 

[BackSet]

I suppose I could peg my thoes either broadly or specifically. Let's just see where this goes:

Extremely grumpy or apathetic guys.
Genderbenders, which usually coencides with the above type.
Upbeat and jokey characters, basically Spider-Man but not because they're my characters and not Spider-Man.

 

[Tyriant]

Looking through my characters I noticed that yup, I have a type. Two types to be exact

1. The character who had a bad childhood/experienced a significant loss at an early age and never learned to cope properly so now they're combative and closed off.
2. Push over smol bean who is sunshine incarnate.

They're not the only characters I make, but those personality types are def the ones that pops up often