tall, with long flowing black hair and dark eyes.

[Ace]

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.

Not in our game. In every Rolemaster and 3e game we played the new players (every last one of them with 2/3 of them women and new gamers to boot) would play a "non descript" rogue

Of course they would play like one session or two

It got to the point where our standard response to "non descript rogue" was laughter followed by "oh they will be gone in a session or two" It hasn't failed yet alas

As for my characters (all human exceppt the Dwarf and the 1/2 orc)

1 is "horsey" looking 5'6" Ranger

1 very handsome with silver white hair (a 1e convert 18 Charisma and Comliness Fighter)

1 good looking (not handsome but pleasant) 20 year old with intense eyes (he is a Sorcerer and its his "tell")

1 arrogant looking regular joe with sharp features (a wizard)

1 good looking scholarly type (the wizards buddy)

1 pleasant (a cleric, not handsome but is a nice guy and looks the part)

1 scruffy beared Sorcerer (this guy http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/pc_portraits/young_ranger_001.jpg)

1 Stone UGLY (a half orc paladin from before when they were a cliche. He is the son of a love match between a ugly ugly human and beautiful (well for an orc anyway ) Orc woman

Oh and 1 guy who looks like "an Arayn poster boy from 1938" with the perosnality of Corporal Hicks from Aliens

A female demi PC (she is an NPC sort of PC sometimes) who looks like that ranger shooting an arrow at the undead in that old dragon cover crossed with Yancy Butler

A shady looking assassin with serpentine features (He has Yaun ti blood)

a normal looking guy with esthetic fetaures and frizzy hair The only thing odd about him is his aura (he is a polymorphed Dragon Blood under a curse)

Another female (never played CP2020) Looks like Tyne Daly circa 1981

My once played charcter Admiral Grace Harriman (looked like a sharp lady circa 1948 a soft version of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper inventor of cobol)

Oh and 2 regular Dwarfs that look like every other dwarf

I have a decent variety I think

 

[Pyruhtkat]

I am pretty.

 

[alsih2o]

That is your archetypal hero image? Waddling guys whose overfed bellies spill out from beneath their armor is not even my image of typical nonheroic men at arms or mercenaries.

yeah, it is. when i think of butt kicking hero types i think col. bo gritz or tank abbot. i see the defensive line of a small college or guys from the physics dept.

what i don't think of is fabio or eric estrada.

 

[astralpwka]

2nd Edition - Played a scared, disfigured, 1 eyed dwarven fighter with a Cha of 3. To torture foes, he'd remove his helm.

Current 3.0/3.5 character... Half-orc Necromancer/Fighter. Charisma of 7 (or 8, can't find character sheet... hmmm...). Likes full-orc women.

 

[alsih2o]

That is your archetypal hero image? Waddling guys whose overfed bellies spill out from beneath their armor is not even my image of typical nonheroic men at arms or mercenaries.

this is exactly my image of a hero. when i think of people who would go in a dragons lair col. bo gritz and tank abbot come to mind. guys who were on small college offensive lines, or in the physics dept.

i definetely do not get an image of fabio or eric estrada.

 

[BSF]

I have created a few characters that weren't stellar. I have one that I thought had a great description. He was an NPC at the time, but he is a character that I would really enjoy playing. When I get home, I will see if I can dig up the description I used for him.

 

[Castellan]

I had a player in my group (now moved away *sob*) who had created an incredibly overweight priest of Tyr. He filled his saddlebags with ingredients to make biscuits on the road (his favorite dish), and huffed and puffed whenever he went anywhere.

To make matters worse, he had a very strict outlook on racial equality: there wasn't any. Humans at the top, with Dwarves beneath that, and Elves and Halflings at the bottom (he was fond of saying they were 3/5 and 1/5 of a man, respectively). Of course, in each case, women were less than men.

Two incredibly memorable quotes from games with that player:

(1) After a particularly gruelling physical run, and constantly falling behind the group, the character's player passed me a note with a simple question: "Can I get a tapeworm?"

(2) After an elf had nearly been run out of the group by this character for being a "lawless individual," then allowed to rejoin, died while fighting a red dragon. The priest's response was favorable to the character's death, and nobody debated it with him, save for one individual who cried: "He was toasted by a dragon while everyone was standing around, saying: 'He was almost a man!'"

The spit-takes took care of the rest...

 

[d20Dwarf]

When I read the subject of this thread, I thought you had been having those dreams about me again.

 

[eris404]

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.

MAJOR PENNYWEATHER!!! Damn, I miss that game.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I actually have no desire to play a physically attractive person, as that seems stereotypical to me. When I was trying to come up with what my 1/2 elf sorcerer looked like, I wanted her to be an average, almost weird looking girl. I actually wanted her to be kind of bland looking, but my fellow gamers insisted that a 1/2 elf who was also a sorcerer with a few ranks in bard would have to be semi attractive. So I settled for "exotic" (read : weird.)

Then I played a female human rogue who was slightly heavy, tough looking and probably not most guys' first pick for a prom date. But that game didn't last very long.

My newest character, a young gnome sorcerer is described in her history as not very pretty, nor very ugly but rather a plain looking gnome whose charm is in her sweet demeanor.

I'd also love to play a female 1/2 orc some day. She won't be a supermodel, I'll tell you that much. Ah , if only there were time for so many games...

But I know what you mean. A lot of people play extremely attractive characters. I suppose that when people think "hero" , physical attractiveness comes to mind. I prefer to play a character with an interesting background, a quirky or unique personality and I tend to go for high intelligence. Strangely enough these are the same characteristics I look for in friends in real life.

I wonder if there is any correlation between what gamers characters are like in game and what they desire in people out of game?