Title. What sort of patterns can you find in your characters?

Personally, I play a lot of outgoing characters as well as characters in the "Paragon" archetype, where they try and do good. I play Paladins in TTRPGs and basically everything else as well. I find the idea of a moral justice/internal honor code and how it's challenged throughout a story very interesting.

The outgoing part is because I'm pretty extroverted IRL. I'm not a fan of playing characters who can't just go up to someone and start a conversation–especially when RPers tend to play more reactively than proactively.

Blonde haired (not always, but they are blonde more often than any other hair color) blue eyed (occasionally purple/pink eyes when I can get away with it. Other eye colors are less common) guys (sometimes girls) who wear pink (occasionally purple) and are varying degrees of feminine. They are either gay or bisexual/pansexual if they are male, straight if female. If they are male they have abs. In Pokémon settings they specialize in Fairy types or cute/pretty Pokémon. I can do other things, but this is what I’ve become known for. You’ll know them when you see them.

All my characters are gay as fuck

Almost all of them have some skill at close combat.

Ot her than that? Well, I try not to play characters that would irk other participants, but due to playing with different people, some of which have mutually incompatible preferences, that's not exactly saying much.

As Fab said, 97% of my characters are gay as fuck. If there's not at least a fair portion of gay I don't care (I'm kidding, I do, but as an LGBTQ+ person that does bleed over into my characters)

Buff ladies. I have a weak spot for buff women (that's my gay showing, I guarantee it lmaooo). Especially buff ladies who look super intimidating and scary but are actually super soft on the inside. Giant Puppy energy sort of thing.
And I will admit, "tough backstories but made it out the other side" is a recurring theme, because I project a lot onto my characters (don't we all).

Aaaand I am also a sucker for anti-heros (so Chaotic Good to Chaotic Neutral-ish on the spectrum of "goodness"). I have a lot of those XD

I usually gravitate towards nonwhite characters. Other than that I like to make flawed, morally grey, characters

I play a lot of Tabletop RPGs. I am definitely fond of playing Chaotic Aligned characters. Eccentrics, rebels, and weirdos. As far as classes, I love playing any kind of magic user. Especially a summoner. Otherwise, I play more naturalist characters, such as rangers, nomads, herbalists, that sort of thing. Always someone who doesn't fit the norm in some way or another.

Well uh,

I'm fond of the chaotic ones? .3.

Often sarcastic, usually book lovers, more likely introverted than outgoing. If they have a pet, it's probably a cat. Many not physically perfect - bad ankles, or fat, or big ol' scars, or something. Usually somewhere on the good side of the alignment chart.

I think one of my things is characters who take the position those helpful NPCs might take? Mentor characters? Gandalf characters? I don't really know how else to explain it, even if I'm not sure that's exactly accurate. But I do like me some characters with experience and more preference for guiding as opposed to taking action themselves, maybe? Or like, parental or grandparenty?

Also, definitely the quiet non-spontaneous sort.

I do lazy brown mohawk hairstyle, am a Bopper sort of carnival fighter. It's come so far with my favorite animal a honor of solidarity vsing those fake Americans that belive in "spirit-animals", so as it should I began heralding that I am the animal to further my party-animal.

I'm training to master myself as an Overlord. Nothing bureaucratic, simply medieval- but I do do troupe-swordsman in actuality, this with going to college I say that thee theatre degrees\combat exam aren't penitant with avenging Royalty.

I also aspire for Master Ranger, black knight, and sword-hunter; for me it's a swordsman on the quest to slay arbiters paragoning. Done right I aught to slay to just swordsmen\women without vigilante intrigue, making mercenary. But to really just further sword hunting.

I don't get many serious chances, as every character is based off me. My commando-style role-playing does however. I've gotten enough experiance to begin space-pirate.

Inevitably my arena score will be pyro!

Title. What sort of patterns can you find in your characters?

The outgoing part is because I'm pretty extroverted IRL. I'm not a fan of playing characters who can't just go up to someone and start a conversation–especially when RPers tend to play more reactively than proactively.

I can relate to this. I also cannot play against characters who cannot start or have a conversation. Not that it needs to be a "perfect" one.

I often enjoy playing the "new foreigner," preferably in a different culture. I also enjoy giving my characters some uniqueness in their appearance.

I have a few oddly-specific flavors (note that these apply to both canon characters and personal OCs):

-Proud aromantic-asexual brunettes - often female, with some exceptions - with a tendency to utilize fear in one way or another, and often have a few select people in their social group they will do anything for, even if they don't outwardly show it. They can be monsters or humans, and they often have unpleasant aspects to their personality that make them feared, be it making someone else miserable, the ability to kill someone in under five minutes, literally causing fear by existing, or flat-out being unable to relate to other people, and treating them more like guinea pigs. (Canon example: Scarecrow from the Batman comics).

-Sweet, sensitive, creative souls who have a specific thing or two they're good at (wood-carving, bartending, playing music, etc.), and often have a disability of sorts, or something else uniquely different about them (blind musicians tend to be a favorite flavor under this particular umbrella). They tend to be friends with the aforementioned aro-ace brunettes. These creative souls often have thick skin and can hold their own, but fuck with them at your own risk if you don't want a literal fear demon on your ass on their behalf because you hurt them. (Canon example: the Disney version of Quasimodo. He even fits the "friend" criteria: While Esmeralda isn't aro-ace, she's a brunette, protective of him, and feared because of the assumption she's a witch).

-Men who are a decade or so older than the woman they're in a (platonic or romantic) relationship with, and actually are chivalrous, protective gentlemen. He could have married his young wife to get her away from her abusive family, and then let her do her own thing under the protection of their marriage, bent society's rules to marry her so they can hang out as friends without being questioned, be her mentor, etc. These are often sexless relationships, but in the rare time it goes there, he lets her initiate and follows her lead (Scarecrow, again, fits here. He has a tendency to find 20-something girls and legitimately platonicly assist/mentor them - though his help may not always be wanted. XP). A subset of this flavor (age gap optional) is men who are obsessed with their dead/otherwise incapacitated partners/friends, and may end up losing themselves in their quests on her behalf (some popular canon examples: Severus Snape, Mr. Freeze, Nathan Wallace/Repo Man).

-Polyamorous trios of mixed genders, but with two members of the same (or present as the same) gender. Often, one of the two of the same/presenting gender will be a switch, and have a deeper relationship with the other of the same/presented same gender, but all three will be good friends. For example, in a M/M/F, M1 will be bi/pan, M2 might be gay, and they'll be closer romantically. F will be friends with M2, but team up with him to lovingly troll M1 during sexy funtimes. And then after sexy funtimes, they'll all wreck each other in video games, or cook together, or go on an adventure, or otherwise hang out and act like a friend group.

-Trolls and tricksters who start shit just because it's funny/otherwise worth their efforts, but often have depth to them. They enjoy causing chaos, but aren't out to actually hurt anyone, just to have fun, fuck with them, and/or prove a point. They do whatever their whims lead them to do, but tend to know when they've gone too far. That said, they're still going to start another round of trouble. It's just what they do. (Canon examples: Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the Riddler - but specifically versions where he treats crime like a game to prove he's smarter than Batman, uses death traps as a lure, and isn't out to actually kill/hurt his pawns too much. He just knows it'll get Batman's attention [there's one comic where he threatens that "millions of lives are at stake" with a nerve gas, and it's technically correct: it was a roach spray. XD But it seemed threatening enough initially to get the game going]. Probably a given that I loathe the Arkham games version where he will outright murder someone to "prove" he's better).

I would typically go for the Good Guy, Badass type and then one day I just tried an anti-hero psycho jerk and that was SO much more fun, so that's where I have been gravitating toward lately.

I am a terrible actress so I usually play somebody who is a reincarnation or at the very least an extension or exaggeration of myself.

And in real life I am probably the most ugly, alien looking androgynous girl you could find, with a voice that is unusually quiet, low, and while not exactly rough or masculine, it sounds...broken? So I usually play somebody with low self esteem.

I'm also a bit of a pacifist. It literally pains me to even smack a fly, so I usually play non-violent types or at least heroes that wont kill.

So I usually make any of these character types or a combination of them: shy virgin girl, quiet artist, depressed emo chick, teacher's pet, tree hugger, anime/superhero dork.

I remember this thread as being way older than it is and am also shocked I never posted in it.

Go me.

I like to think I play a fairly varied range of characters, though all within the umbrella of "very anime". The variance for me comes more in the personality than it does the appearance, since 50% of the time I'm playing a cute girl and the other 50% is a boy under 16, or at the very least man barely out of his teens. Call it a lack of exposure to any other kind of character.

Then again, a friend of mine says I only really play two characters: A really goofy, energetic person or a cold, distant person. I can't say he's entirely wrong.

Usually prefer the basic warrior or protector types. Normally the good guy, or anti-hero at most otherwise. Depends on story and enviroment really.

I try to change things up anytime I see a rut forming, so I'm not sure I could really put my finger on any one pattern or archetype I like to follow. Branching out of my comfort zone tends to do well for me - in fact, a character I made two years ago trying to branch out into things I don't play much (in this case a muscular male swordsman with a heart of gold, pretty much the opposite of what I usually played before him) became my favourite and most well-developed character to date.

On a more general scale I do like to explore themes from less common points of view, ex. someone from a lesser caste actually looking favourably on a caste system rather than resentfully. I also like to explore themes of faith and obligation and how they're challenged, as well as trying to bend the rules of a given universe or taking unconventional approaches to things like magic or superpowers. Characters who don't get happy endings have also been an interest of mine lately.

But then, even these are mostly things I started doing because I was falling into a rut xD

Usally confident though usally magnet for some kindnof toruble... I swear i not evwn try lol

Some distinctive traits, there's always something thatbsyands out in some way from a strange hair colour, eyes or so. Female charceters have so far ended up short or tall.. No middle.

Generally some kind of alternative profession, medics pilot, ive had runes and a wide range that just a alittle bit different or not always used. Ij general theres always some defining feature or quirk.

I try to have a diverse cast, but it seems most of my favourite characters to write are the morally grey types. I also like to write characters from various different cultures and ethnic groups because it plays off my own interest in other cultures. Plus it's an excuse to research said cultures.