RPG Character Appearance

[SnakeTrousers]

In games that let you customize your character's initial appearance, how do yours generally end up looking?

In the past I've tended to make my player avatars pretty dull, generically handsome guys and gals. Dragon's Dogma, however, has changed that, and recently I've challenged myself to create somewhat out there and/or silly looking characters who'll prove more memorable.

I find this especially fun in games where the face editor is completely terrible, as in Dark Souls, because not only does it make utter insanity the most valid option but the potential for madness is often much higher because of it. Case in point, my DS character:

Spoiler: THE FROG:

Incidentally, what an awful port.

 

[tippy2k2]

I do my very best to make them look like me.

Short dark blond hair, a goatee, white skin, etc. (see my profile pic if you're interested for some strange reason).

I do generally cheat on my weight though because I'm sad that I'm a fatty

 

[The Madman]

When given the choice in character creation I usually go with a female protagonist, since I've found there are already more than enough boring looking white dudes like myself in games already without me adding a few more. Not much a fan of playing silly looking characters either since I like to try and immerse myself in games with possible and having a meter tall purple gnomish thing tends to make that difficult.

As for what they look like? Iono. I tend to change it up when possible.

 

[w9496]

I try to make my character look like somebody who belongs in that world. I doubt there are many dashing people in the Mojave wasteland, so I try and make them average looking or worse.

In a game world that has a clean design like Mass Effect, I'll try to make them above average as I feel they would be a better fit.

 

[CloudAtlas]

When I was younger I used to create characters that look like me, i.e. white dudes with black hair. However, the older I got, the harder it became to self-insert myself into characters, to truly identify with them, so today I tend to create characters that are not as boring as myself, but still fit into the game world. In other words:

When given the choice in character creation I usually go with a female protagonist, since I've found there are already more than enough boring looking white dudes like myself in games already without me adding a few more. Not much a fan of playing silly looking characters either since I like to try and immerse myself in games with possible and having a meter tall purple gnomish thing tends to make that difficult.

So, often women, and, if human, often of different ethnicity.

 

[DanielBrown]

Prefer to have them look like myself, with minor improvements.
Tall as fuck, muscular build, beard and the longest hair possible. The hair options always suck for men though. My hair is over 80 cm long, but max for games seems to be 20 cm and ugly as fuck. x.x

Basically a Viking.

 

[norashepard]

In games that let you customize, I usually run about five different characters through the game just because I like designing them, but the ones that always stand out in my mind and usually end up as the ones I completely finish everything with always have strong features (hook nose, tough brow, etc), medium length black hair (usually not worn fancy), and dark-ish (think Pakistani) skin. No clue why this is the case. Oh and unless there isn't an option, they're almost always women.

 

[DementedSheep]

I usually but not always make female characters. When I was younger I use to do white, young with black or red hair a lot (so basically standard) though not so much now. I try to make them diverse because that more fun and I use many of them for practice drawing and designing different types of people. I usually go for lore friendly and try to make them match their play style (a heavy armour 2 handed warrior is not going to be a waif if I have a say in it for example). I'm a bit too fond of adding of adding scars or tattoos to everyone. I like non human/beast races but unfortunately a lot of the time the female version sucks if there even is one. I'm the type who attaches personality and backstories to characters who don't even talk and find it hard to actually play full on joke characters for longer than an hour so...yeah, I take this too seriously.

I spent way to long in DS creator trying to make something that actually looks human and not baby faced.

 

[Seracen]

Geez, I spend so much time, sometimes hours, just crafting the faces on my RPG characters. Generally I try to make them look like an idealized version of myself or, failing that, default Commander Shepard. Of course, once you put a goatee on a man, it tends to generalize the look, so all sorts of characters can end up looking similar.

Spend even MORE time getting the females to look right, as I have no go-to standard for those characters.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I really don't understand why, but I get some sort of narrative/character disconnect if I go for a woman main character.

So, if I have a choice, I will make a man. For some reason, regardless of how he looks - gnome to giant, beefy guy - it won't matter to my brain and I can get involved with that character. If it's a girl, I struggle. Dunno why and I wish it wasn't that way.

It can depend on the game I am playing and how seriously I am taking it. For example, in saints row 3/4 I have made ridiculous looking main characters, because it's a silly/non-serious game and you have the facility to change how you look at any time if you really care.

I try for the life of me to make normal looking characters in Elder Scrolls games, but that always seems to end in failure.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I never really plan ahead, in Mass Effect i ended up as Pedro Shepherd with a magnificent moustache and a weirdly shaped jaw. In Dragons Dogma it's more like Keanu Reeves evil pirate brother. I don't go over the top with sillyness, but i try to make characters that are memorable, and if the game is heavily storycentered i will make a character that makes it more fun to endure the cutscenes. It helped for Mass Effect.

 

[Kyrian007]

I do what most people do (even if they don't admit it.) My game characters are idealized versions of myself. Well the first ones anyway. The "good guy" playthru. If there's an "evil" ending my 2nd playthru characters tend to be a bit bizarre. Or sometimes if I'm curious about dialouge trees, my 2nd play will be with a female character (who will actually change very little from where it's set default or I'll hit a "randomize" button if there is one until I like one.)

The only real memorable "looking" character I made was for "The Godfather." Wish I could get a screenshot (I'm at work) because it was possible in that game to make a character who looked and dressed exactly like Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. Which placed into the context of "The Godfather" made that game the best comedy game I've ever played.

 

[Roofstone]

Snip

I love you. You're an awesome person.

On Topic: I tend to go for tomboyish and if possible, smaller than average females. In my mind, watching butch men beat up on butch men is boring. Watching a small girl with a sword own ten men twice her size is radical as all hell.

 

[GundamSentinel]

On Topic: I tend to go for tomboyish and if possible, smaller than average females. In my mind, watching butch men beat up on butch men is boring. Watching a small girl with a sword own ten men twice her size is radical as all hell.

Yeah, I like doing the same thing. Tiny girl + huge warhammer = win.

Other than that, I like switching things up. Sometimes generic handsome people, sometimes grizzled veterans. I never go full crazy on the character creation, I like to have somewhat feasible characters.

In terms of gear, I like practical armor. No spikes on my armor, thanks.

 

[Lieju]

There is a character I've made in several RPG's; a petite dark-haired woman with sort of tiny facial features, except for a crooked nose. That's a design that's easy to make in several characer-creators, but also looks unique.
I always play her the same way too; a scientist/mage who is basically a good person, but when it comes to acquiring forbidden knowledge, she will make almost any sacrifice.

I tend to make characters that are different from the usual protagonists, so I usually go for female (also I'm female myself), and if I can make a character like that and if it fits the setting, I like to make her middle-aged, slightly stout, and asocial.

I like characters that have some history behind them, and it's pretty rare finding a grizzled female rogue/soldier as a playable character, and I think they're cool.

 

[SnakeTrousers]

The only real memorable "looking" character I made was for "The Godfather." Wish I could get a screenshot (I'm at work) because it was possible in that game to make a character who looked and dressed exactly like Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. Which placed into the context of "The Godfather" made that game the best comedy game I've ever played.

Goddamn that is the most perfect thing I've ever heard.

 

[StormShaun]

Basically I try to make it look like me. But not just that, I try to make it looks like me as if I was from that world, game and culture. For example with Skyrim I was a nord with a kickass facial hair and hair suited towards the environment then my own hair. (B*tch please, those guys don't have shampoo over there)

And I do this with basically every other game that allows you to create your own character, from Fallout to Saints Row.
BUT there are those rare example such as Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect where I don't change the appearance.

Especially since they are the cannon appearances, which I wish that Bioware didn't put in.
With Dragon Age: origins I created my own character and I was fine with it, with Dragon Age 2 they gave Hawke a look like Shepard, somehow pressuring me not to change it.

Man I didn't like DA2 much. :/

Snip

Spoiler: My reaction

Kidding, but I will give you one internet cookie for that post.
Even if it was in all capitals ... but that gave it a bigger impact. XD

Man Jackson is one mean lean son of a *****.
Related to Samuel L Jackson by any chance?

 

[MSfire012]

Ok, here we go. I usually just try to make them somewhat nice looking in a way or another, be it in a medieval game, modern world setting or Science Fiction. Depending on the setting and customization mechanics they sometimes look below average, or simply turn out completely forgettable due to my lack of imagination at the time. My characters in games like Oblivion, Dragon Age and such all turned average looking tall white guys with black hair, for my own disappointment later on.

Nowadays though, I usually make female characters, despite being male, there are so many games where your character is always a guy that I like a different perspective when given the option, to make things more refreshing. When I finally get around to playing the Mass Effect Series, I know I'll make a above average looking redhead with some scars in her whole body, thanks to that amazing comic that Jonathan Grey Carter did on Critical Miss some time ago.

My most memorable character, though, came from the Saints Row series. On games 2 to 4 I ended up sticking with one look for my "Heroine": A tall, Caucasian woman with long light blonde hair and blue eyes, who wears glasses and dresses in black business/office clothing. Wish I had a picture of her. This makes a problem though, as if someday I get to play Saints Row 1, I can not make a woman. So I'll have to make the closest to her: A tall, Caucasian man with blonde hair and blue eyes, who wears glasses and dresses in a suit. So this basically means that at one point of this gentleman's life, he realized that he didn't feel right in a man's body and changed his sex and became a classy lady.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I'm not the type who designs silly characters, but I do like to experiment. I crank up the Weight slider in Saints Row games because fuck subscribing to the unspoken tenet that all protagonists have to be healthy and attractive. My best SRIII and SRIV characters were obese elderly Cockneys, thanks to Robin Atkin-Downes' incredible voice.

I always pick Argonians for Skyrim and Oblivion, with my FemShep being a red-haired and green-eyed type. My current ManShep is a black dude, and I'm as White as they come.

I play games for the sake of escapism; why would I want to self-insert, when my "self" is physically disabled and couldn't perform a third of these games' required physical feats?