tall, with long flowing black hair and dark eyes.

[Wombat]

Over the years, I have noted that people describe their characters as either Good Looking or Ugly, never just Ordinary, Gets Lost In The Crowd.

So personally I would like to see more Dare To Be Dull characters, at least in appearance.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I agree that you don't see many accurate representations of heroes that have single-digit charisma scores. For my part, I try to stay true to the stats.

I have an arrogant, absolutely ordinary elf wizard (cha 9), A friendly, curious, slightly overweight / potbellied diviner (cha 12), a weird, taciturn, pale-faced, formol-reeking gnomish necromancer (cha 7), an angry, unkempt, dirty, patch-eyed, vermin-ridden dwarven barbarian (cha 6), etc.

On the other hand, if a player describes his 10-charisma character as "Alyssa Milano, only better"*, then there should be some moral trait that's absolutely horrendous about her, and that's why even if people find her incredibly hot, they think she's a total b*tch (stereotype if there ever was one).

AR

*As if!

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

One of my favorite characters was a 19th century retired Englich army major with a pot belly, and one of those ridiculous sideburn/no hair on the chin beards.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Depends on my character's charisma. I've had a Dwarven fighter in 2e named Moron. 6 Intelligence, 6 Charisma. Her beard was all matted and had multicolored hair. By no means pretty.

My Elf named Aurea, Charisma of 8, is very plain looking and has a "human" crudeness and is very blunt.

On the other side, My Bard/Paladin is handsome because... well.. he's a bard paladin with a high charisma. While he's very diplomatic, he's not terribly imposing or forceful, so the charisma has to show up somewhere. He's not tall or chunky. He does, however, have the family's sterotypical Jewish nose (hook-nose).

 

[VorpalBunny]

I played a Cairheinin nobleman in a WoT game that was 5'6" tall and rather pudgy, and a ZZ Topish/Unabomber type mountain man in a d20M game. Lotsa fun.

 

[Pielorinho]

I think the "either lovely or fugly" description is correct. My long-term character, a dwarven druid, has unplanned dreadlocks and a faint odor of goat that hasn't gone away after two reincarnations and a permanent polymorph-ish curse. He's kinda fugly. I don't recall having any normal-looking characters in our game.

Of course, that sort of makes sense: you want a little bit of glamour, of spectacle, in your gaming; why have a boring-looking character when you could have a memorable-looking one?
Daniel

 

[guedo79]

i keep reading character descriptions from folks all over the place and they are always playing "pretty" people. is it just me?

does noone play a pudgy, balding axe-weilder with a patchy beard?

Aye, I've played many low charisma characters in my day but there was one that was very special. This was back in the days of 2e player’s options. She had the pudgy round dwarf body, the patchy long beard, and the blood caked axe.

She had a charisma of 3 with the look, body odor and in your face rudeness that should come with it. She was the high priest of Loki and plotted against everyone, even her god. No body liked her but you couldn't help but love her.

Ah. those were the days. I miss that Dwarf. I miss Rucia Trollbane.

 

[Henry]

Daniel's got a point - one thing you'll notice about most literary and Television characters is that one physical trait or characteristic stands out - they are gorgeous, or at least handsome, or they have a characteristic laugh, or facial feature, or hair style, etc. Ever seen very many ugly people on a soap opera or prime-time TV show?

Plain and boring tends to get lost in the shuffle.

 

[Darklone]

i keep reading character descriptions from folks all over the place and they are always playing "pretty" people. is it just me?

does noone play a pudgy, balding axe-weilder with a patchy beard?

I have a small fat gnome barbarian with mohawk and tattoos all over the head in my group... he used to have an axe.

 

[alsih2o]

Plain and boring tends to get lost in the shuffle.

and what an advantage! wouldn't you want your rogue to disappear easily?

i can handle either extreme, i just think "plain folk" is missing

heck it is worht a feat! Average Joe: your character has a decidedly unmemorable appearance. finding him can be hard, and he is easily forgotten.


everyone at the thieves guild would have it.