Your favored roleplaying tropes and tics

[Jeff the Green]

As the title. What tropes do you keep unconsciously coming back to and what tics consistently find their way into your roleplaying?

For me, it's the word "unwholesomely" paired with some generally positive (but inconvenient for the character) trait, like "unwholesomely civic-minded about thieves", "unwholesomely religious", or "unwholesomely clever". I blame David Eddings.

That and the "acquisitions expert" (i.e. thief for hire). Several of my characters have claimed to be one, and a few more have used it as a cover. It's actually rather handy as it can be a legitimate, legal profession and so offers deniability, but it's also obvious when you're using euphemistically. Also the variants "transportation facilitator" (smuggler), "freelance reputation manager" (blackmailer), and "woman of negotiable affection". (Okay, so I haven't managed to use that last one. Yet.)

I'm also fond of criminals who escape suspicion for one particular crime or sin by openly admitting to/bragging about others, like the kenku who admits he's a thief but neglects to mention that he's a much better swindler than burglar or the tomb-robber (one of the aforementioned "acquisition experts") whose cover identities usually include him being something of a cad.

[Ettina]

I often like to make nonhuman characters who don't think humans are special. My wererat felt that wererats were more important than any other race, including humans. My vampire cares only about her own family, and humans are just prey and potential threats. My illithid cares about its servants regardless of species, but sees anyone who doesn't serve it as either prey or a threat.

It bugs me when stories have the ideas that humans are special. So my characters never treat humans as special. They all have their own ethics system.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

That and the "acquisitions expert" (i.e. thief for hire). Several of my characters have claimed to be one, and a few more have used it as a cover. It's actually rather handy as it can be a legitimate, legal profession and so offers deniability, but it's also obvious when you're using euphemistically. Also the variants "transportation facilitator" (smuggler), "freelance reputation manager" (blackmailer), and "woman of negotiable affection". (Okay, so I haven't managed to use that last one. Yet.)

One of my gaming groups had `independent executor of judicial decision-making` (bounty hunter) at one point.

[mephnick]

It bugs me when stories have the ideas that humans are special. So my characters never treat humans as special. They all have their own ethics system.

I invert that trope too.

Humans are always the newest and weakest civilization in my settings, and every other race is well aware of it. The human super power to "survive, adapt and eventually conquer everything just because we are human" doesn't exist. Half the time, they're considered barbarians.

As for sticking to tropes...

I can't play a dwarf NPC without some variation of a scottish accent. I just do it subconsciously.

[PersonMan]

I'm not sure why a non-human character would think humans are special, but if that's uncommon then I guess you'd count that as a common trait among my non-human characters.

I'm a big fan of militant characters - most of them are the kind who, rather than scaring off looting soldiers, would just start cutting through them until the rest realized that they had to run or die themselves. I also like characters who worship Evil deities while being Neutral themselves. An idea I've built several around is that a sect of Erythnul's church decries the killing of anyone who doesn't die in battle (this includes those who surrender) as all souls killed by violence go to Erythnul's plane. The same logic, however, leads them to kill everyone who breaks the rule - in doing so, they send their souls straight to their god, for immediate justice.