Forums » RP Discussion » Character Trends

My characters seem to stick to the medieval fantasy setting for the most part. Even when I venture beyond that genre I put its influences in my characters in one way or another.

There is no escape. Embrace medieval fantasy. It will never let go.

I don't want to derail the thread and mean no harm by this, but if you feel comfortable responding, could you explain your difficulties in more detail? This is something I've noticed quite a few people say over the years about their RP trends and have always wondered about. What would be playing a woman/man in a way that feels correct?

Aesthetics~ I like designing things and more often than not, I'm just stuck with 'it has to look good' before I work with it xD I know, I know... It's bad, but I can't get over it and I don't know if I reeeally want to?
Rather make pretty things than something I want to lock up
Or at least, I'd rather walk around showing off the pretty thing rather than the other.
Ok. I just made that sound worse and cruel. Dang.
But yeah, I usually make pointy or collie like ears over floppy ones, even if the dogs we own are rottweilers and I love them


Buuuuuut
My designs mostly end up being males, just... I personally have never really been a fan of the 'damsel in distress' type females and so most of my female character are always tough or such in one way or the other. Not all, I've gotten like... One or two that are a little different now. But that's still not much. They're all so similar, makes them boring and who Doesn't have a tough female character these days?
Yeah... I just never really got interested or into RPing them
With a female character, what seems to matter to most is that it's a female and that's the main factor
With male characters, I don't think it's as 'important' of a factor that they are male, there the other factors mean more
And to be honest, my male character have lot more variety and personality than my females, no matter what I try. They are more creative and I can have like any type of personality with them and it never bothers me. I can have a sissy crybaby man but I couldn't have that as a woman (because it'd be annoying me to the moon. I guess I don't like overused things? But I feel like I am using a lot of overused things. Or then they are overused to Me because I use them a lot and think they are overused and I think others use them too but they don't. Philosophical thinking? Or just a mess. Probably a mess)

Yeah, there is just something to it

Aesthetics, mostly men and... Colors? I think those are my things? x2
I don't even knoooow
I guess I like realism too? There is just something. I don't use magic because I feel others know so much of it and I'd do it wrong and everyone would hate me so I don't really use magic. Also sci-fi. I have no idea how anything works so I try to avoid that
I don't really RP angels or demons or such. Immortals of any kid. I like the aspect of 'regular person with X (skills? knowledge? ????) being thrown into situation Y' rather than Immortal/powerful beings just being powerful and immortal. What's the fun in that yoooo

I do what I enjoy the most and have fun with?
Yerks are hard because I don't like being mean, so if I RP that character they'll usually have at least something 'redeeming' to them. Do they actually care? Are they just acting? Memes?

A lot of my characters have at least some blue colours to them, either hair, clothes or their eyes. Blue isn't even my favorite colour but it just happens to make it into a lot of my designs.

I'm also curious.

almost all of mine are easily made moody and are pretty darn dogmatic just as a baseline. the large majority are male - 7/9 - but that's just because i'm bad at creating females that have any depth. darn this patriarchal society. working on it, though. and they're all in the same universe, too.

So as someone who plays both Males and Females... I find that for me It's very easy to slip into a male role. They feel more confident, more boisterous... they feel more aggressive and more forward.

My longest played character is a female, but what I've learned from playing a female is that... They have a tendency to go through a bigger emotional range. They have this ability to be both a badass and a submissive. But I also feel like, once a female character goes soft ... That it's hard for them to maintain that confidence, that sense of self without having to overtly be a huge bitch.

I also think we just hold to a socitial view on what it is to "Play a female correctly" because we are told and shown everything a woman has to be.. when really, it's just a gender thing. In many societies, we are shoved into a box of what a woman looks like, how she's supposed to be.. and we equate that to 'this is what all women should look like' ... Just an end thought.

I would say my character trends tend to fall into gay boys (not sorry) and magic. Because I can play either gender, but when I play males, I tend to play them bisexual or gay and most all my characters can produce magic.

Keep in mind this is more just me sorta analyzing myself. I'm not claiming this is how it is for anyone else, or that my prefs and style are better or worse than anyone else.

On the subject of preferring male characters...

Through most of my history I've had a strong preference for male characters. The type has evolved over time, or I go through cycles where I like more rugged, vrs 'pretty' men, but still about 80-90 percent of my characters are male. I actually think -some- of my pretty-man pref was developed over time because it's 10 times easier to find artists to draw them.

While I'm female and identify as such I've also never really had much in the way of traditional 'feminine' qualities. Even as a kid I preferred jeans to dresses, I played with dinosaurs and he-man and 'monster' toys rather than dolls and teasets. To this day I'd rather wear comfortable jeans and a faded out metal band t shirt and my boots, vrs anything else. I have nothing against makeup and fancy dresses, it's just not me and how I'm comfortable.

My first characters were female who tended to act really aggressive and hard, they were usually warriors. Funny however, my first major male character was an elegant elf wizard. It was really freeing and for me I noticed right away a difference. I felt more comfortable as a male character perhaps because there was a greater 'disconnect' between me and the character. Having bad things happen to my female characters would usually make me uncomfortable. Sexual situations would often just kinda squick me out a bit so I avoided them as female characters. Playing dudes became more freeing, and because I wasn't so uptight and protective of my characters, my rp improved.

As time went on I suppose I just got a bit typecast. People -loved- my male characters and my females never did as well, when I'd make one, so I went through long periods of not really trying to play one. When I did they felt a bit wrong and off to me, not to mention I often felt like no one would give them a chance to be their own character. As hard as I tried to make them an independent character with their own story, all that would be overlooked and people would try to box them in as a 'love interest' When I wasn't down for that suddenly my character wasn't worth keeping around. I also tended to get way more creepy-gross whispers on female alts which further deterred me from wanting to rp them.

So it's ended with me being less motivated and being more tense about RPing them, and guarded, and gotten to a point where I just 'girl' really badly because I'm way out of practice, as well as just not finding them as appealing for me to play, personally.

Now this is kinda from the opposite side as I'm male but play more females than males, but I play as more females because I can more easily relate to them I guess, probably because I've had far more women in my life than I have had men, cause I got two sisters, my mom, my grandma, and used to have my great grandma before she passed that I regularly see, and then I have my Dad, and Grandpa. So not sure if this answers your question at all but I felt someone with the sorta opposite character situation would be able to answer.

Thank you all for your thoughts! I can totally understand sex biases due to physical preference or peer preference. I am mostly curious about what it means to play a man or woman which makes people concerned that they're not doing it realistically.

Personally, I wouldn't worry! I don't think there is a wrong way to write such things, especially when the gender spectrum is so varied. If there are indeed male and female ways of thinking, there are inbetweens and outliers too. Everyone's brain is unique, just wrapped up in similar packages. If anything I would figure that social environment is more important.

As for my own character trends, it's definitely monster races. I love humans and elves and dwarves, but goblins, dragons and aliens will always be my weakness.

Now this is an interesting question. From my experience, I've felt it was easier to play as females at first because I didn't usually consider the so-called stereotypes that came with being a female. I never really grew up with that kind of exposure, and all the people I knew back then were females, so it wasn't a big deal to me. Males were more difficult because I never had many if any male friends, and I was awkward around men, nor did I have much masculine influence. Thus I would feel awkward about playing a male character because I didn't know how they ticked.

Currently, I don't have a preference for playing males and females in general as I love the nuances of each gender equally, though I do have preferences for males or females depending on my mood. From what I've noticed, I do get more play with my females, but my main male character is a choosy thing to begin with.

On a side note for character trends, males and females that basically cross stereotypes or turn at least one of them on their head are the ones that I enjoy playing the most. I also notice that I adore variety in terms of ethnicity, race, origins, and species.