What is one prevailing trait or element in your RP characters?

[Meiyuki]

Aside from the fact that they're predominantely female and gay? (I'm guilty of being both)

They all suffer from some sort of madness or insight. Seeing the world through the lense of perfect sanity is boring, I'm a sucker for a fundamentally flawed world-view.

[Nemaisare]

They'd all hate me if they knew I was the one calling the shots? Except the ones not inclined towards hate, they'd just be sad puppy dogs of whyyyy confusion.

I think my most often implemented trait is giving my character some version of the mild, but confident, and capable, though what they might be capable of varies.

Also, second in command type characters who can think for themselves but usually prefer having someone else calling the shots.

[Slypheed]

I think of the traits I've used. I have to say I love the stoic trait. Along with my love for psychos, even the minor psychos. Also, perverted/promiscuous in some way

Also, another trait is that 80% of the time they are female and bi. 10% female and hetero. 6% female and lesbian/homo. And lastly, 4% male and hetero.
Before anyone asks, yes. I did do that math (with rounding) of all my characters I've created. Even the ones that haven't been used or shown.

[Orlan]

So far every character I have come up with isn't very strong, but they rely on their personality and kindness to see them through.

[Antarctic Termite]

Looking over the Dirt Mound where I bury dead characters, some trends are gradually starting to stick out.

I tend to give my characters a liking for physical expression and body language, and I'm not sure where in my psyche that comes from, but I guess it's fun to write.

Very few of my sheets mention sexuality unless it's relevant to backstory, in which case they're usually pan. A handful are non-binary, especially in high fantasy settings with non-human races, and the rest are pretty evenly split between male and female.

Quite a few have low-key personality shifts in their backgrounds, usually from introversion to extroversion or vice versa, which is intended to come out in writing as the stress of their situation either tempers their new identity or pressures it into collapse.

A decent handful have links to my interest, however passing, in biology- They might be into pet ethics, be a weird exaggeration of some animal or principle I read about, or have a medical background.

[Zorogami]

I tend to create characters that don't take on a leading role, but prefer to follow. Maybe it's because I don't like to stand in the limelight or feel like the most important one out of the group? Or maybe i just don't like taking on responsabilities? Who knows. Most of them also tend to be sarcastic or funny in some sort of way, and I have yet to create an arrogant-type of character.

[Wade Wilson]

My characters are exclusively males.

And I'm a female in real life.

What is this shit???

[AuntFlavia]

They're neurotic. Literally all of them.

[Ammokkx]

This is a weird question for me. Characters, to me, are a spur-of-the-moment thing that happens when I see a story, and think 'Hm, this and this could work.' That thought process then leads to an appearance or personality, and before I know it I've signed up or written something. They're almost always radically different from the last, too. The last five I remember (seriously) playing have been:

• An energetic and hotblooded humanoid wolf-like male, which felt disgusted with what he had to do and pondered over things constantly.
• A nearly robotic girl which had health issues, whilst also being bad at social interaction.
• A girl who seems high-spirited on the surface, but has some majorly depressing feelings locked away that she tries her hardest to hide from others.
• A guy who got turned into a girl (Crossover RP.) which was confused, angry and on the brink of tears constantly who was tired of having to constantly fight for his/her life.
• A lazy student that liked to put as little effort as possible into everything, yet somehow managed to perform better than half of the cast. He was also incredibly gimmicky in what he did and was frowned upon by most as weak.

Judging by that list, I can't really take any one trait and share them among each other. The first's hotbloodedness wasn't the same as the third's cheeryness, which was the closest thing I could think of between them. I sometimes re-use designs from dropped or failed characters, but when I do that the end result always has a personality that doesn't share anything with the previous.

It's still interesting to see what others' reoccurring traits are, which makes this thread a fun read. For me, however, there doesn't seem to be anything of the sort.

_{i'm the ultimate gamble boiiiizzzz}

[Ruby]

They bite off more than they can chew.

[AlteredTundra]

They have an asshole for a father. Seriously, every single character I have made, regardless whether they were introverted/extroverted, sweet, dickheads, impulsive, placid, or whatever, they all have the common denominator of having a dickhead/asshole of a father that either neglected them, abused them physically/mentally/emotionally, or just didn't put them as his priority.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

The entire cast of characters I have wrote for all have been, or still are, anti-villains or anti-heroes. None of them are the sort of persons one should admire as a true protagonist; they are typically capable of less than noble ends to their means and prefer that route if it ensures greater success. It might not be the first choice, but it is always a valid choice, and once the balance tips in its favor they wield it to their advantage.

Building from this, nearly all of them are monsters or have monstrous qualities, with some being overt and actual monstrosities while others are passing for human. Their thematics are universally steeped in feline qualities, with the most extreme being humans with a stroke of savagery to their portrait or those with human-like intelligences, others being uncannily smart beasts which edge closer to being unsettling and alien in thought and emotion.

The best of my characters? They are the result of taking a known person's psyche apart, analyzing who they are at their core, drawing on their usual demeanor, and tweaking it into extreme or unusual circumstance for a story. I find these couple of characters to be the most credible because they are based entirely on real people I have had extensive interaction with; I am able to draw upon a valid, existing resource and allow it to evolve on its own in an unrelated scenario. They're novel mirrors of an individual's most striking qualities.

[Krot]

Never in my life did any of my questions made people reflect on themselves so much. I'm loving the answers you guys.

[Engel]

My characters tend to be independent outsiders, or even criminals, more often than not. People that don't really fit into any group, not necessarily because they don't want to, but because their lives just took turns like that. I love those types of characters when they appear in movies or books as well. Independence is a great trait. Some of my favourite characters that I've played also had some very strong convictions or beliefs that they wouldn't budge on.

[Dolerman]

A lot of my characters are wise veterans, not always older, but never spunky happy go lucky rookie types.

[tsukune]

They have an asshole for a father. Seriously, every single character I have made, regardless whether they were introverted/extroverted, sweet, dickheads, impulsive, placid, or whatever, they all have the common denominator of having a dickhead/asshole of a father that either neglected them, abused them physically/mentally/emotionally, or just didn't put them as his priority.

@Altered Tundra

For me, I try to diversify that...

With narcissistic mothers (and even sisters). Who would abuse my main characters to no end to satisfy their vain needs.

(I'm not a misogynist, but there's a need to balance out dick dads with bitch mums.)

[Azereiah]

Hm, where to start... I know the thread says to name one trait. But there are a lot that seem to be a recurring theme to me. I'll just go with the two things from off the top of my head.

I like jack-of-all-trades characters - ones who actually paid attention in school and can figure out most skills on their own, albeit not super well. Having twenty, thirty skills or so? Reasonable, so long as there's a reason why they know each thing that fits in with the backstory. Kids raised on farms, for instance, might know automotive and mechanical work, animal care, basic botany, wilderness medicine, construction, extremely basic engineering, and shooting.

They're usually assertive introverts of some sort, too.

[The Elvenqueen]

Sarcasm. 90% of my characters tend to be sarcastic SOB's, I just can't resist it. The character that cracks some kind of snarky remark in a situation just...I can't help it XD

I also like the anti-heros, so I have quite a few of those ;w; Characters who want to do good for the most part and yet they still end up doing some really bad things anyways (and a lot of people tend to hate them or want them dead or something as a result of that XD)

[GreenGrenade]

Snarky.

As.

Shit.

[TheEvanCat]

Intense nationalism. REMOVE ALL THE KEBABS.