ITT Cliched characters

good thing i'm playing a gay drow boy

Any female warrior who has essentially a man's personality and a man's fighting style but is a qt girl because it suits the creator's preferences. Double cliche points if she's gay. 10x cliche points if she's gay and it's a source of drama.

>any nonhuman characters
all the same cliched garbage defined by their race
only playing as humans allows for truly free roleplaying

OTB trash threads

Let me get the obvious ones out of the way.

>this shit thread.

>>tumblr

No you

Thus far in 5e I've played;
>half-orc male OotA paladin who was promiscuous
>tiefling male warlock with an incredibly cheery disposition to hide his crippling anxiety, also liked apples.
>drow male divination wizard working as an investigator in the city guard, trying to earn enough money to start his own school of wizard inquisitors
>middle eastern human male rogue with his ultimate weapon being his uncanny ability to bullshit his way out of most situations, died enough times to be partially insane and functions like an extremely paranoid diplomacy-bot. (Curse of Strahd, tons of revives in there for some reason)

Am I cliché yet, ma?
Forreal though, who gives a shit, let people play what they want.

Half of those descriptions are so vague they barely apply to anything. "Fighter with a Strength weapon of any sort", for example, says literally nothing about the character.

I love me some diversity, but this thread is dumb, and you are dumb, and you make dumb threads.

So I'm going to pretend your post said "ITT Cliched character." and stopped there, and proceed from there as though this weren't bait.

>orphaned at young age, seeking vengeance for parents' death as sole motivation to adventure

>with his ultimate weapon being his uncanny ability to bullshit his way out of most situations
I like playing those types of characters. One time I got past a guardian sphinx by making it feel ashamed of how bad it was at its job.

>straight white human male
>>>/tumblr/

Then go there fag lord

I've usually avoided those types of characters because I've for some reason felt like I was incredibly shitty at it.

But once I got into my rogue, holy shit it was a ton of fun.

One of the consequences of years of child abuse is that I'm an absolutely fantastic liar. But I don't enjoy lying in normal circumstances. Playing silver-tongued scoundrels gives me a chance to flex my deceptive instincts in a way that doesn't make me feel guilty. It's great.

Another character in a similar vein to the sphinx-shamer got tired of walking so she convinced the fighter to carry her on his shoulders so she "had a better vantage point for spotting traps".

I'm very similar, except it wasn't really necessitated by my upbringing or so, I've always just naturally had a way to be very convincing and quick-witted.

It's a good skill to have.

I think the one thing my rogue did that I was moderately proud of was talking down a NE wizard guarding some ancient ruins, and then convincing him to help us as much as he can.

Thinking of making more characters like that.

I like mixing up my characters, but my two recurring archetypes are "quick-witted huckster" and "well-meaning but naive powerhouse".

I had an Evil warlock in 4e where I had high Charisma, trained Bluff, took Skill Training (Bluff), and took the Beguiling Tongue utility spell. THAT was fun.

There was the time our party convinced a monastery that their god was angry with them so our rogue could steal an artifact of theirs. The Bluff check wasn't quite high enough, so one person saw through the ruse. But fortunately I shouted "burn the heretic!" and while they did not ultimately burn the heretic, they spent enough time contemplating burning the heretic that we were able to make a break for it.

Oh yeah, and our DM set up this moral dilemma where we could finish this mission (competing against another group of NPC adventurers for great rewards) or we could go help rescue an NPC who'd helped us in the past. I just ran up to the rival group and told 'em "the mission parameters have changed. Your new goal is to help find this guy."

Oh yeah, and she burned down an inn to trap the people who were pursuing us, then ran crying to the town guard about the awful men who'd set fire to the inn.

I should play another Evil character one of these days.

>that last one
Fucking genius.

I also have two archetypes I keep falling back on aswell. One being the master bullshitter after I discovered how fun they are, the other being jaded, paranoid casters for some reason.

I've been thinking of making a warlock in 5e, mainly for the fun to be had with disguise self at will and whatnot.

Ooh. Tell me about your paranoid spellcasters.

>disguise self at will
I totally forgot about that. That is ripe for some creative abuse.

All of the games I played casters in never went further than 4th level unfortunately due to circumstances.

However, one stands out in that I was playing an elf Divination Wizard, and this was way back when PF was just getting up and running, who was pretty much a prohibition-era officer that's been stuck in a rut for the last 14 years. Those levels of apathetic annoyance, paranoia and alcoholism.

The setting was a homemade one by our DM, which ended up getting fairly interesting as one of my party members who was a rogue(who is also fairly adept at bullshitting), decided to become Walter White and started manufacturing drugs, and also stole a large ship filled with illegal substances and contraband right from under the guards noses.
I basically started sniffing his trail from day one so he started to become increasingly nervous, moving his goods in and out of the city while I was getting increasingly closer.

The campaign unfortunately got shelved and ended before we could clash, but there had been several close calls where we'd bump into eachother and have the most nerve-wracking conversations.

Intense.

And I know your pain. One of my all-time favorite characters was for a game that only lasted like five sessions. I'm planning on bringing her back if I ever get a 5e game running again.

Yeah I'm bringing back my Divination Wizard, albeit in Storm Kings Thunder in 5e, but it'll be nice to have him back.

There are probably a ton of characters whom I'll want to bring back again sooner or later, so many campaigns that ended prematurely.

Luckily I have a few friends I've been roleplaying with for.. I think 14 years now?
So we've basically always got something going on. Longest hiatus we've taken was 8 months back when two were attending basic military training.

My problem is that almost everyone I know who plays or who is interested in playing TTRPGs either
a) is one of my old high school pity friends, and I do not want to spend time with them; or
b) moved far away, or else already lived far away.
And there's one person who lives nearby with whom I enjoy spending time, and she found another group while I was trying to put one together.

I am glad I do not have to feel those feels.

I sincerely hope you can find a nice group to hang out with.

I've got two players committed. If I can get two more, I'll go for it.

You can do it!

Speaking of, my groups next session is tomorrow, currently doing Curse of Strahd. Upside is that I get to bullshit my way out of more things.
Downside is that my character is basically reduced to a wretched shell of misfiring nerves and partial insanity due to all the times I've been revived.

For sone reason, I haven't had a combat in this entire campaign which didn't leave me at around 10hp from death. And we're lvl 8 at the moment.

How are you fighting, exactly? Are you using hit-and-run tactics?

>white straight male fighter with a sword is a cool archetype
>black gay female fighter with a sword is edgy cliche
Next you're going to tell me that playing a human makes you smart.

I used to be a cleric/rogue multiclass using hit-and-run tactics, kept getting destroyed however.
I then basically respecced to Thief rogue with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter to be a ranged hit-and-run type of character.
Keep getting destroyed nonetheless.

It's not that the DM is fudging the dice or anything, I just have the absolute shittiest luck for some reason.
Not to mention 6 of my 8 or so natural 1's throughout the campaign have been on death saves, which count as two failures in one roll.

Huh.

Well, it's made for an interesting twist to your character. The advantage (of sorts) of swinginess is that it forces you to adapt, though I don't think usually quite on this scale.

Yeah it's been a wild ride thus far, probably only to get even wilder as our party sorcerer has contracted a fairly severe personality flaw of seeking power at all costs.

And we're in a place where there are like 14 or 15 sarcophagi that grants dark and terrible gifts. Sure you gain a LOT of power, but the drawbacks are horrendous on most of them.

My character hasn't touched one yet.

Much as I'd like to hear more, I'm getting quite sleepy and have some stuff I'd like to finish up.

Good luck with your game.

You too, have a good night.

This party's sessions must go on forever considering all the privilege checks that have to be made.

>You can't play a straight white human male
I tend to default to elves or half elves and even I think you are a colossal fruit.

>OP who is a faggot that shitposts on Japanese Image Boards

>not being straight
>whining about men
>whining about whites
Tumblr is that way. Fuck off.

d20 + 2(Base Privelege Modifier)

-1 Penalty for being White
-1 Penalty for being Male
-1 Penalty for being Straight
-1 Penalty for being Human

So all of OP's characters take a -4 on Privelege Checks, except for the Bard who takes a -5 for being a whore and the Fancy Hat Rogue who takes a -3 for maybe being gay

the only thing these thigns have in common is "straight white human male"
now I dont live in america, but my impression is that "straight" is the most common orientation, and "human" is the most common race, and most RPG players are "male", and the "white" population is roughly 60% of your people
so you have a problem with people making their character be like themselves?

Friendly Warlocks a best.

>wanting special snowflake parties
they can work but spending half of your campaign being smack talked by every peasant and noble in the kingdom because you're the weirdest motherfuckers they've ever seen gets old real quick

I've played in parties where almost everyone is a special snowflake and I end up being the only person whose backstory isn't a sob story. As it turns out, when everyone is special, no one is.

lets assume the party is no different from any other party, they still wont attract attention, because the town gets crazy weirdos at least twice a month

Nah, fuck you, OP.
All your butthurt does is make me want to write a bunch of 'original characters' and put in a straight white male just to tuffle your tush.
I haven't played a white male in years, though, if it bandages your bothered bottom.

well let us assume they indeed get crazy weirdos every now and then.
if they do they'd also know a group of crazy weirdos tends to lead to the town burning down, sudden series of murders around town or a conspiracy being uncovered and half the town getting slaughtered by these freaks

like I said it can work, especially in a noble bright setting where humanity isn't 90% of the non-secluded populace and non-humans have equally high social ranking members as humans in their ranks, but this is rarely the case

everybody knows that when the lv10 wizard walks into town, he is most likely there to either solve the evil giants problem, or to kill the evil lv 10 weirdo who has taken residence in the spooky castle

My character in my one and only D&D campaign was a neurotic, moody, cowardly rogue. It doesn't fit with the stuff in the OP yet I wouldn't say I made a special snowflake.

I miss that character, by god. I've joined another group on a different system by now and it doesn't really feel the same despite putting WAY more work into him. I felt he was the exact kind of character I could convincingly play.

> straight white human male
You mean bisexual bishonen special snowflake Elf, like Drizzt was?
Cease your faggotry, OP.

t. wizard

Maybe your mind is tainted by the image of how you played him too much to ever play him again like you first did.
I'd never try and recreate the exact same character because of that and the fact that they might not fit the current campaign as well as the first iteration did its.

nigga what

>straight white human male
You reek of feminist/SJW bullshit.

Actually Saber is all in all a decent idea for a female knight that still seems female, to me.

/thread

A lesbian character.

>every half-elf/half-dwarf/-half-orc who picked one of those races because they wanted to be special snowflakes without being treated badly by other humans in the setting.

I have a rule for games.
No humans, freaks and weirdos only.

I can bend that rule a little to allow OOONE human, but any more than that is a bit much.

This policy has lead to many good times and numerous chucklesome problems.

>straight white human males invent the modern wargame in the early 19th century
>straight white human males bring it into the home in the late 19th century
>straight white human males turn it into a major hobby in the mid 20th century
>straight white human males evolve it into the RPG in the late 20th century
>degenerates, marxists and minorities covet the work built solely by the straight white human males
>straight white human males allow degenerates, marxists and minorities to enjoy the fruits of straight white human males' labor and designs
>degenerates, marxists and minorities attempt to kick straight white human males out of the industry straight white human males built because the fact that the industry straight white human males built is mostly made up of straight white human males is evidence of racism and sexism

>smart straight white human males invent RPGs
>30 years later, dumb straight white human males think they had anything to do with it

Man I have a range of characters.
Like, the current stable I want to run is: Witch-as-fuck witch, big hat, broom, multiple stages of age that she never reveals which is the true form and uses for trolling, poison apples, the works.
Discount doctor robot. This one writes itself, really. Especially if it has big dreams of medical research.
Van helsing ass motherfucker. I am not sure if I should go absurdly edgy with it, but the blood moon dark edge calls to me.
Gun cultist. The man prays to the holy firearm. He has obscure rituals involving high proof alcohol, money, and potato guns. His hideout involves dozens of guns worked together into a fully loaded altar that you have to be VERY CAREFUL with.
flamboyant cyber mercenary. Has a plumed helmet, a zweihander, and an elaborate shotgun. Focuses almost as much on looking cool as he does on succeeding, doesn't do shit if he isn't paid.
Tree man the speed freak. Moving at normal human jogging speed is an intense pace for him. Turning at a running speed involves drifting and damaged concrete. If he ever drives, he may break or gain transcendence.
Greasy Joe, the fatass gold chain wearing cigar smoking asshole. Will claim to be the good looking leader of the group. Actually serves an auxillary function that can be selected later.

man, I need to play some games.

this niggas is right on the money

>straight white human male
find me a better character

coloured hobgoblin lesbian obviously

>hobgoblin
only good for killing

Most players are white males and playing a female tend to be considered socially unacceptable.

What is a "female personality" ?
Have you thought about the fact being a warrior is going to be a huge influence on any warrior's personality yet being a warrior is considered so masculine that most female warriors are going to be seen as very masculine ?

>you are not allowed to play a straight white male character

Anita plz

This is a bait thread, but it's not like I care.
So right now, I'm playing:
> A spiderbro explorer
Use his natural abilities and his artificer skills. Left his kind for being paranoid isolationists when he wanted to see the world. Charming and well meaning, he casually ignore the rejection his unusual appearance provoke (Like answering to a disgusted reaction by "Oh, I'm sorry, our journey has been gruelling and I didn't find the time to make myself presentable. ")

> A goblin bard for an evil party
Fascinated by kindling emotions in others, like discomfort, irritation, confusion, anger... Not even in an edgy way, it's sincere if unwelcome artistic research, like a movie scene cut with the express purpose of confusing you. More of an anti-edge actually.

I'm also preparing:
> A warforged paladin of the oath of the common man
Built to serve, chose to protect. Believe the lives he save are worth more than his own.
Still have to work on him.

This is Veeky Forums, being straight is gay. Everything is gay.
Well, except for being gay, which is extra gay.

But then, the human is the freak! That's why you allow it, right?

I'm a human....Skeleton, fight me

>straight white human male Monk who acts like he comes from a fighting game
Hardly cliched. The cliche would be asian. And probably speak engrish

>straight white human male Barbarian of any sort, particularly Scottish or Viking
Dwarves are scottish vikings, get it right

>straight white human male Sorcerer who is arrogant
I'm sorry, wizards have a monopoly on arrogance and sorcerers will have to make due with their table scraps. Again.

>straight white human male Bard who is promiscuous
Close! It looks decently cliched at first blush, but it turns out that promiscuity is a bardic class feature. You'll see it on female bards, nonwhite, and nonhuman bards. I think Female Elf bards even get a bonus.

>straight white human male Rogue who wears a hood and sits on rafters or tree branches or in corners and broods a lot
I don;t think anyone's actually done this since 2e. And not even late 2e. If they ever did. Nice Dead Unicorn Cliche.

>straight white human male Rogue who is a dandy with a rapier and a fancy hat seriously it's not any better stop it
Your cliche swashbuckling fop isn't gay? Seriously?

>straight white human male Cleric who tries to be the heart of the party
Hearts of the Party clerics are inevitably JRPG inspired staff chicks. Male clerics are more fantasy SPHESS MARINES out to purge the unclean. They all worship St. Cuthbert.

>straight white human male Warlock with Lovecraft/Faust influences
Your warlocks aren't tieflings? It's like you're not even trying to be cliched.

>straight white human male Paladin of any kind, with a special fuck you to obvious Crusader expies.
The paladins of Sune will fight you.

A+ Bait, user, would be baited again.

/thread
Close the thread

>open some rp on a chatroom
>everybody must provide a short character description
>one guy uses bisexual and nothing else to describe his char
Immediatly shut down by me, pointing out how sexual orientation is a fuckawful way to describe characters.
Don't care if op is baiting, but if you take out white all you have is
>human male x who does y

You know, those would keep being "cliched" even without the straight male connotation. Hell, even wihout the need to be human, making your nerd wizard a gnome or dwarf doesn't add a layer of personality to it.
Play persons not labels, people.

>Hardly cliched. The cliche would be asian. And probably speak engrish
Ken Masters tho.

This is the problem with the tumblr people. They only know basic labels and do not label themselves based on their qualities but base their perceived qualities on labels. More often than not they choose vague ones that they do not feel obligated to justify like nerd or pansexual.

Characters I've played
>"Straight" white male fuckboi cleirc who's bark is worse than his bite
>Probably straight brown male alchemist, heavily in debt after wreaking his landlord's property and too honor bound to even think of running out on the debt
>Psion, game died before he could develop a personality, or even fluff for appearance come to think of it
Rate how cliche I am

>Race and gender being the focal point of a character is somehow an improvement

Do explain how the addition of a vagina or darker skin makes any of the above more interesting.

nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger

asshat.png

>Paladin of any kind, with a special fuck you to obvious Crusader expies.

What exactly is the issue here?

> You're trying to tell me that straight white men are cliched?
> What exactly does the tone of a character's skin have to do with the veracity of that character concept?
> Are you discriminating against white-skinned heterosexual characters?
> Discrimination is discrimination, you hypocritical faggot!
> Normies get out of my board!
> REEEEE!

>mfw so many of these people are obsessed with playing identity bingo and situating themselves on some axis of oppression or other
>somehow, everyone "forgets" the poor-rich axis even though it can and will override pretty much every other privilege
>no one says anything about poor characters even though they can be powerful representation when done right
in the end "i am/my character is [insert minority triple-or-higher combo]" is a marker of social status, because in the end it's not about progress, it's about being seen as progressive.

Remember to ignore, report and sage /pol/ posters like OP.

OK, I know this is a bait thread. I know basically every argument and counterargument has already been fired, but I guess the bait works because here I am.

When the politics of race, identity, and gender eclipse the basics of storytelling and character building, you are in a bad place. Period. Whether it's because you're raging at "Straight human white male" or because you're raging at anything BUT "Straight human white male", something has gone seriously wrong.

File that phrase off all the characters in the OP -- you can do interesting things with this space, but for the most part a well-rounded character had better not RELY on any of that. Your "cliches" range from broad strokes too thin to be called a character, to single notes, to whole damn character classes. NONE of them are cliched characters because NONE of them are even characters.

With perhaps, and only perhaps the exception of the rogues, for which you were ever so slightly more specific, and I guess the monk if the "from a fighting game" angle is seriously played up (whatever that means) nothing you've listed is worth even complaint, either. It's insufficent, an element if that which could be part of a good or bad character. And no, changing your little starting copycat on each line does nothing to fix it. A lesbian chocolate elf female bard who is promiscuous has 0% more character than the Straight White Human Male.

If you really want to see a cliched RPG character, you need to take at least enough common tropes to have a flat character. Like the priestly-style cleric who is a friend to all living things, abhores the necessity of violence, and generally exists to try to keep the party on the straight and narrow path of goodness by mild complaining and constant healing. Or any of the media tribute characters that, presently or not, have been plagues upon at least theoretical D&D tables, the Sephiroth "badass edgelord with some sort of insane tragic backstory whose continued existence is predicated on martial superiority and complicated backstory the player doesn't actually care about other than as an excuse for being 'mysterious' and edgy", or the Drizzt-clone "actually good member of an evil race (usually drow) who is an outcast from his/her evil society while never been accepted among normal people and angsts about it constantly". They're stale even by cliche standards, to the point where picking them seems like beating a dead horse, but at least they're characters. And they're not predicated on gender, orientation, or any other petty "Inclusionary storytelling" element.

You, OP, are the problem. Make a character a character, give them dimensionality, conflict, and nuance, let us feel what their likes and dislikes are like, show us their depths and their shallows, and they could be an Elder Thing with a fursona for all I care, so long as they're well written/played/acted. Put concerns about inclusion, exclusion, diversity, or the lack of diversity first and foremost in judgment and you have failed before you have even begun. It doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you're on. It doesn't matter whether you think your character is interesting because zie's a genderqueer goblin or whether you hate someone else's for being non-Aryan, you fundamentally do not understand what makes good fiction good.

FUCK YOU, OP.

Fug'n savage.

>any smug sarcastic woman ever.
seriously just because you've decided their cute in your imagination doesn't mean anyone else likes them and Jesus fuck stop dragging out every dialogue by having to arguing over nothing

With a bit of shenanigans on my part, I played a Blackguard who figured out how to swap his soul into a younger vessel at the cost of all of his experience, first campaign I did was the first time he had tried it so he went about setting up an "Evil Empire" in the background while they went on a quest to stop an old god from awakening, no one suspected the humble farm boy (pretend) fighter to fake his own death, and become an iron fisted dictator who had swept the country out from under everyone in the aftermath.

>any tranny ever
seriously, no matter what the actual character concept is, it goes out the window and becomes "Missy's Little Misgendering Adventure", and the desire to "seduce" everything.

I don't let trannies in my group, and nobody gets to play a tranny.

I'm only half white so it's usually pretty hard to relate to white characters, I do understand why most main characters are white though.
As for a boring character type, elven archers.

As much as I would love to say that good character building is all that counts...

In practice, you're right. We're not at a point where players can let that sort of shit be a footnote.

Mostly right but assuming all trannies are like that is a bit unfair.
You obviously do what I want, but I wouldn't feel good if I refused someone on principle for this kind of reasons.