While I don't want them to draw a self portrait, I really like to know what their PCs actually look like (and not just a set of statistics on paper). So I always encourage them to list their physical attributes: Hair color, eye color, height, weight, facial hair, body type, age, skin tones, tattoos, or any other unique characteristics they might have.
I keep a collection of all the character sheets from all my different players over the years (sometimes useful for NPCs and often just for nostalgia) and I find some patterns:
First, for age, everyone's character has always been between the age of 18-26. I think that's that age when everyone has an ideal of image of themselves and we like to keep that frozen in time with the D&D game. Even if someone was playing an elf, they translated it to mean that they were young in elf years. So no middle aged, no young teens, and no seniors ever in my games.
Second, in terms of their general appearances, 9 times out of 10, the player creates a character that more or less resembles him/herself in the real world. One of my friends has the build of a football player, with dark hair and eyes, very short cropped hair, and slight facial hair. Teasing him, I pointed out to him the other day that his RL character, his old Dragonlance character, and another character were all triplets cut from the same cloth. They were carictures of himself. His younger brother, who is of smaller size, creates character images that are always of smaller size that his sibling (you'd think he'd do the opposite!). In fact, going down memory lane of all the people I've played with over the years, their characters always seemed to look at least somewhat related to themselves. Occasionally we'd get a daredevil who'd play a dwarf or some other demi-human, but they were rare and they didn't seem to last long with us anyway. The ones that were playing "themselves" in the game always have the most fun it seems. Even I was guilty of this, in my times as a PC, I always leaned towards making characters that were more slim, blonde, half-elven types.
For race, almost everyone always chose either a human, elf, or half-elf. Like I said, we had a few try to play dwarves, but they usually retired their characters and later signed up with taller, more familiar versions. Character class often varies, but most also played the classes they connect with themselves. I played thieves or bards, the football jock played warriors, the younger brother played some type of supporting class or spell caster (they really had that Caramon/Raistlin thing locked - and they don't even know it, having never picked up a Dragonlance novel. Some underlying psychological thing as they always put their "real life roles" into the game. But I have a tendancy to overanalyze things... )
I know some are going to say, that they or their group always chosen characters that were completely different from their real life person. I'm not saying it doesn't happen; but in my experience, most players will put themselves in the game. Are our PCs "avatars" of ourselves?
a friend of mine once said:
You can learn more about a person in one hour of play, then in one week of real life! Just watch and listen!
It takes a very good roleplayer to play a PC who is older or younger than your actual age. But you can never play something totally against your own personality! I had a lot of players who played another race, nationality, political opinion, and who did and said things in the game, which they never would do or say in real life. But they had to concentrate and to be taken serious, as soon as someone starts to argue or to laugh it's over!
It's funny how your PC are no different from the players. In my groups the players always discribe an idealized version of themselves. (Taller, slimmer, more talented, ...)
I encountered only two problems:
1.) I want my players to ROLEPLAY what they do. I had a lot of bards (D&D), politicians (Vampire - The Masquerade), Galliards (Werewolf) ... in my groups. The PC were eloquent and had gigantic bonuses on performance, diplomacy, subterfuge, empathy, sense motive, ... but if I asked them to talk with my NPCs they looked at me and started to stutter and stammer.
2.) Being a female I have another problem. Sometime I play male PCs but somehow not one of the DMs I played with can get used to adress me as a male. NPCs call me Mrs. or Ma'am, other players do the same. I started to wear a big name tag on my t-shirt to remind them. It didn't help!
I started to get mad (intime) if a innkeeper adressed my Noble Knight as
Mylady. I started feuds after being called a lesbian (being the Knight), refused my blessings (7th Sea Priest), ... in short I acted like my PC would if being treated like a female. (Be carefull: Never send a babarian to prepare the dinner with the other women!) No change!!!!!!!!!
). Right now I've got a group that is actually pretty good when it comes to roleplaying and they've created interesting backgrounds and personalities for their characters. It's just the physical appearances of their characters that I joke about because they look so much like themselves. My one player was actually kind of surprised when I told him that all his past and current characters all had the same look - his! But you know, I'm not really complaining about this anyway. What counts is how they play, not how they look. This group is actually pretty good at what they do, creating interesting backgrounds and personalities so, so what if their PCs look kinda like them? ;)
Cassandra, you've played male characters before? That's interesting...I've become female NPCs for my group, but I've never been one as a PC. But on some level, I do understand how you feel about being typecast or having labels thrown at you. An old player of mine got freaked out once, because I created an female NPC that was supposed to be a love interest for him. But he wouldn't bite, because he thought it was "gay" for me and him to roleplay it. *There was not going to be any real life physical contact between me and him, it was all in-character and in the mind. But he just couldn't do it. The other players would giggle and make jokes, and eventually things spun out of control into a joke fest. I aborted the campaign not too long after that (and the other guy wasn't invited back to join a new game later). It's not that I couldn't respect another person's boundaries, but the game got to be a little too juevenile to continue.
Many of the actors who performed Shakespere's plays were women in the role of male characters. What made you decide to play a male PC if I may ask?
You asked me why I chose to play a male PC. Well, I don't know!
I usually have female PCs, but sometimes I just feel like playing a male.
You know, it's funny! I had a D&D session on Saturday and I played a ball and all PCs had their NPC-parents on this ball. I managed to get nearly all of them a bride, and to make it look like they've chosen the girl! *giggle*