Bulldrek v3.0

How stereotypical do you play a character of a specific race/profession?

For example: If you're a dwarf, do you go in for the long beard, the mining, the smithing, the living underground and whatnot?

Likewise, if you use a stereotype, where do you get it? Tolkein? Pratchett? Warhammer? Star Trek? Star Wars Before Lucs Fucked With It?

It's a pretty broad question, but for my own part I'd play a stereotype if it suited my purposes. I.e. if it played into my overall character sceme.

At times if it suits my needs as a GM, I will use stereotypes.

[Edit]As for whom inspires my stereotypes I use a mixture of Tolkien, and other fantasy authors at times, and in others I use various fiction authors who have written ins everal genres.

The closest I tend to get to playing stereotypes is making the "typical" opposites. Such as a drow paladin of a sun god in D&D (a char I still want to play, but people twitch for some reason ).

I like playing archetypes, personally. It's fun for me to make your 'typical' type characer actually interesting in a way that's more than just saying, "He's your everyday dwarven fighter, but he likes bananas!"

I like playing stereotypes as well: dwarven warriors with big fucking axes, halfling thieves, elven wizards or ranger with long bows. It just seems...right. I just screw up the personalities, that's all: that elven ranger will be abrasive as all hell, the halfling'll have a complex about his size, and the dwarf might be a little pansy with girly hands who doesn't like to get his armor all bloody. Who knows?

However, I also like playing wacky off-beat characters, and if there's a race that doesn't get a stereotype, so much the better. Show me a monster out of the Monster Manual, and I will make a character out of it.

Actually, that's one of the reasons I like Shadowrun so much: before D&D 3E, it was so easy to buck trends with dwarven mages and elven street sams, but then again, you really couldn't pigeonhole any of the races into a certain role and only that role...

I don't try to avoid it, but it doesn't seem to happen all that often, anyway. A character with a logical background seldom turns out to be stereotypical in any but the most peripheral ways.

D&D: I rarely play your average races, if i can get away with it. I don't mean i play bugbears and centaurs, but i like Hobgoblins, Orcs, and Goblins. Those a always fun to play.

As far as stereotypes go, i agree with three-two. If you sit down and logically create your character, and come up with an engaging story, then the character doesn't have to be stereotypical. Ideas like the son of a nobleman knight, who's son joined the Magic Guild. He was a wizard, but he had expertise and Bastard Sword skillz.

Or a human fighter/rogue, who is little more than a common street thug. Stereotypical, perhaps. But it makes excellent sense.

Clerics who are quite forceful in their condemation of other dieties and their worshippers.

I only ever seem to play as humans, so there's not much in the way of stereotypes to run with. The closest I get is that I always try to make my character as much like me as possible, only originating from the game world. (I'm sure that there's a psychological analysis in there somewhere...)

I once had a campaign with no humans. None. The reason why is because my group was bitching about stereotypes. Mainly elves and dwarves being "Elder races" and why they sucked next to their "young" human companions. I put this down to the fact that few games reach the point where PCs die of old age, wherin the demihuman players would have an advantage; and of course everybody wants to be Elric of Melnibone and Gotrek Gurnisson.

Shadowrun was actually the first game I came across that really shattered demihuman stereotypes; even Dark Sun didn't do as much to change how I looked at how the characters could be played rather than how most books play them.