I usually look for portraits of either gender that fit the class and concept of the character I'm trying to create, and then use whatever gender matches the best portrait I found...
As for names, I tend to use online fantasy name generators, 'cause I suck at coming up with them by myself.
Some of the characters I have created (many of them for Black Pits):
Viktor: Human male Undead Hunter Lothar: Human male Priest of Lathander Dernhelm: Dwarf male Dwarven Defender Thorin: Dwarf male Dwarven Defender Caledor: Elf male Archer Scarloc: Elf male Archer Roderic: Human male Paladin Cedric: Human male Paladin Wulfgar: Human male Barbarian Conrad: Human male Blade Felix: Human male Swashbuckler Nazdreg: Half-Orc male Berserker Aegon: Human male Sorcerer Albrecht: Human male Mage
Honestly, I'm pretty bigoted, as I mostly create human males. In BG1, I usually run with an all human crew consisting of Ajantis, Minsc, Branwen, Imoen, and Dynaheir. I do respect the dwarves for their hardiness though.
I play males because I am a male. I don't genderbend - no thanks. Any leadership capacity in my games will be male - though I may have females in supporting roles. I like to identify with my lead characters.
Names I usually make up as I go, I try not to repeat.
Yeah, I don't make male characters either, although more like 33-50% are elves. I use names from AD&D characters I used to play back in the day. It's fun recreating them for this game and going through some epic adventure.
I often roleplay charname as someone I know (just to see what happens), so that obviously determines the gender and also the npcs that fit that persons personality. As for names, I like to choose animals that I think fit the character's personality or attributes and then (just to make them sound a bit different) translate them into Afrikaans which is very guttural.
As for the female characters, I give them names (slightly changed) of girls, which I adored (in an animal reproduction kind of way) in my youth but where I was unsuccessful. "Nathalia Wildmage"
As for the female characters, I give them names (slightly changed) of girls, which I adored (in an animal reproduction kind of way) in my youth but where I was unsuccessful. "Nathalia Wildmage"
If I had used the same modus operandi, it would have given me an endless supply of names.
I usually use a 3-3 or 4-2/2-4 split for gender, and a mix of Latin, Greek, and Slavic names. That said, for my last playthough, I decided to do a party themed around the Argonauts:
Jason of Iolcus: Elf Fighter/Thief - Chaotic Neutral Medea of Colchis: Human Sorceress - True Neutral Heracles: Human Barbarian - True Neutral Atalanta: Elf Archer - Chaotic Good Meleager: Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric - Neutral Good (Nothing to do with mythological Meleager, I'll admit, but I needed a healer, and I probably needed him paired with Atalanta. Same reason Jason has Thief skills.) Orpheus: Human Bard - True Neutral
...Okay, it wasn't much different from what I normally use, and Atalanta proved much more imposing than Heracles, but I still enjoyed it.
As for the female characters, I give them names (slightly changed) of girls, which I adored (in an animal reproduction kind of way) in my youth but where I was unsuccessful. "Nathalia Wildmage"
Gods, if I did this, it would be the most awkward thing ever. I'm still friends with like 3/4ths of the people I've been unsuccessfully attracted to in my life.
Being entirely uncreative, I recycle characters, with the same name/gender/appearance. The usual suspects is myself as a wizardly or paladinish type (occasionally assassiny), a black-haired thief/assassin woman and a blonde paladinish/priesty woman. The rest of the party composition depends on what is needed and available. Current ID:EE party is Human Dragon Disciple, Human Shadowdancer, Human Cleric (the three regulars), male Dwarf Wizard Slayer and a female Elf Fighter/Druid. I'm thinking of adding a Skald or an Undead Hunter, though I guess the latter would be late to the party as I just finished the first dungeon.
On the rare occasion where I do have to come up with a new name, I fire up Neverwinter Nights and use the name generator there. I think it's pretty good. I even use it for non-RPG names. Gender selection is usually based on the available character portraits. Unless it's the protagonist, then I always pick male as they're an extension of myself so to speak, and I can't get fully immersed in the role with a female character.
I generally go 1 or 2 male to 4 or 5 female, but that's just because I love the IWD female portraits so much better than the male portraits. The male portraits are beautiful as well, but the female portraits just absolutely rock. Races match the portraits as much as possible, so they are all elves or humans. Occasionally, I'll brin along a dwarf, because there is one male and one female portrait for dwarves that I really like, but usually it's elves. I also adore some of the voice actors. So by the time I finish rolling up the character, if the voice actors didn't match my view of the character, then I'll remake the whole character again based on that voice. Then I write inanely long biographies for each of the characters. Names include: Katash Lady Aresa Blackwood The Midnight Cat Elaynya Ilieas Immortalis Nightmask Etc along those lines.
The majority of my characters tend to be female and almost always start with a pic/portrait that I like. I figure if you're guna spend hours looking at a character it may aswell be a good looking one.
Also almost all the characters that I've completed the game with have been sorcerers or mages...I have an affinity for magic users. I have had a few male playthroughs, also magic users of one kind or another. Party composition can vary but generally from balanced to all female.
Some of my charname creations:
Kara - CG Female Human Dragon Disciple - (currently playing)
Nymarah - LE Female Drow Sorceress (originally assassin but caved in to my need for sorcery and played through as necro-sorcerer lol)
Kesicora - NG Female Half Elf Conjurer
Seraph - LG Male Elf Sorcerer
Mordukhavar - CE Human Dragon Disciple
Lailah - CG Female Human Shadowdancer
Elora - TN Female Half Elf Avenger
I have made many MANY other characters either as potential charnames that I never carried on with or as custom party members. I wont smother the board any further or bore you with any more xD
Oh! forgot to mention Emberly my Bard. Also a "currently playing" character
I've always wanted to play as a bard but never had the inspiration manifest enough to do it properly til now. Its kinda my curent challnge playthough although I use the term "challenge" loosely as Iv done a solo poverty run which is an actual challenge. But the idea is pure rogues only, Imoen, Garrick, Alora etc.
Emberly NG Human Bard
Sorry for the long posts I didnt expect images to be that large :S
I usually decide on race/class for everyone first, based entirely on gameplay reasons. I always assign gender at random nowadays, and before that I just went with what seemed most obvious. As I create the characters I might change some of them, decide that I didn't really need a full mage and go with a mage/thief instead, that kind of thing. Then I name them all according to some theme, the party I'm using right now is named after the first six runes of the Futhark. Ideally this way I'll keep it simple, I can spend way too much time thinking about the name of a single character.
This thread inspired me to make a custom party. This is what I've come up with...
Kymahra Sylzairyn - CG - Female - Elf - Enchanter Athalas Throvain - LG - Male - Elf - Fighter Tinsy Sunbeam - NG - Female - Halfling - Cleric of Lathander Lailah Kitari - CG - Female - Human - Thief Logryn Goldanvil - LG - Male - Dwarf - Dwarven Defender Sehrovia Elyntide - CG - Female - Half-Elf - Thief/Mage
Thinking maybe to change out Lailah for possibly a druid/shaman seeing as how shes the only character that I didnt create from scratch and I already have a thief/mage
Ok replaced Lailah with a Human Shaman called Eidolona Wisp
My favorite for a 6 party is these names, I'm sure someone will catch the connection. I think they're all good names for an RPG: Thomas Rose Judith Magdalena Orestes Brenya
I usually invent names on the spot, but I do go into repetition with some names. Usually like this: Kestryn Ultor (female paladin) Bedwar Fireaxe (dwarf) Hobbo Lothus (gnome) Jaeryn Lifeleaf (female halfing) Hael'diira Zen'duis (drow female) Aerwyn of Iserath (female elf) Lothaire Guin (halfing male) Irmengard of Corelay (female cleric) Lydia Moonsong (bard female).
I am mading names up or using name generator (I created one too). But most often I create party with nicks of ppl I know, like friends etc. or my nicks. Last iwd:ee run was with like 4 chars in my party having nicks which I use :P
Gusinda Greycloak - Mage/Thief or Thief->Mage (Default charname for any game I first play and my very first AD&D round table character way back when...) Dwight Ironbeard - Dwarven Fighter Edmund Slackbladder the Seventh - Half-Elf Bard [Jester] (Blackadder wearing chainmail) Biorn Odinsson - Human Bard [Skald] (Born Odin's Son - figured it was okay for being a Bhaalspawn, and yes I had reasons for spelling Biorn that way...) Conorcan the Corcquerer - Half Orc Barbarian Von HellSinger - Half-Orc Blackguard Philos Toxon - Elf Archer (means 'Lover of the Bow' in Latin) JQXZ - Gnome Illusionist/Thief (Smart A&$# - Four top scoring tiles in Scrabble) Ki-LaurEm Jamus - Elf Druid (Used the names of the Grandkids to put this one together) Om-Ba Mana-Ka - Half-Orc Sharman (each syllable has it's own meaning within worship/magic) Australis Bellator - Human Paladin (means 'Southern Warrior' in Latin) Quitya Belchen - Dwarven Fighter/Cleric Dirk Gentlepea - Halfling Fighter/Thief (anagram of Peter Dinklage - guess what portrait is used) Argo Fkurslf - Half-Orc Fighter/Thief
I have many more and I don't think I have actually finished the trilogy with most of these as restartitus kicks in and I have a new name to try...
I am mading names up or using name generator (I created one too). But most often I create party with nicks of ppl I know, like friends etc. or my nicks. Last iwd:ee run was with like 4 chars in my party having nicks which I use :P
You'd be surprised on how many people used to do that on the old Interplay and BIS boards. It even had a nickname, "The Narcissus parties".
I typically use very original names for my IWD characters, like the following party:
Paladin the Human Cavalier (female) Cleric the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric (male) Druid the Half Elf Fighter/Druid (male) Archer the Elven Archer (male) Mage the Elven Sorcerer (female) Bard the Half Elf Bard (female)
Just for fun, I decided to look through all my save files in BG:EE, BG2:EE, and IWD:EE and see what the ratio of male characters to female characters was in the party of each playthrough. Below I have statistics of the number of playthroughs with each ratio per game.
Comments
As for names, I tend to use online fantasy name generators, 'cause I suck at coming up with them by myself.
Viktor: Human male Undead Hunter
Lothar: Human male Priest of Lathander
Dernhelm: Dwarf male Dwarven Defender
Thorin: Dwarf male Dwarven Defender
Caledor: Elf male Archer
Scarloc: Elf male Archer
Roderic: Human male Paladin
Cedric: Human male Paladin
Wulfgar: Human male Barbarian
Conrad: Human male Blade
Felix: Human male Swashbuckler
Nazdreg: Half-Orc male Berserker
Aegon: Human male Sorcerer
Albrecht: Human male Mage
Honestly, I'm pretty bigoted, as I mostly create human males. In BG1, I usually run with an all human crew consisting of Ajantis, Minsc, Branwen, Imoen, and Dynaheir. I do respect the dwarves for their hardiness though.
Garran Blackstaff; Fighter9/Cleric Dual Class Human Male - Chaotic Good
Kyrie Starling; Swashbuckler Human Female - Chaotic Good
Mammoth; Barbarian Human Male - Neutral Good
Bordag Battlefist; Fighter Dwarven Male - Lawful Good
Loki; Archer Half-Elven Male - Chaotic Neutral
The final slot is usually reserved for a caster at random.
If I'm not playing this group, I tend to favor female characters with widely varying names.
As for names, I like to choose animals that I think fit the character's personality or attributes and then (just to make them sound a bit different) translate them into Afrikaans which is very guttural.
Jason of Iolcus: Elf Fighter/Thief - Chaotic Neutral
Medea of Colchis: Human Sorceress - True Neutral
Heracles: Human Barbarian - True Neutral
Atalanta: Elf Archer - Chaotic Good
Meleager: Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric - Neutral Good (Nothing to do with mythological Meleager, I'll admit, but I needed a healer, and I probably needed him paired with Atalanta. Same reason Jason has Thief skills.)
Orpheus: Human Bard - True Neutral
...Okay, it wasn't much different from what I normally use, and Atalanta proved much more imposing than Heracles, but I still enjoyed it.
Oberon - Dwarven Fighter/Cleric, Male
Odessa - Half-Orc Berserker/Cleric, Female (EE Keeper'd)
Mendoza - Elven Fighter/Druid, Female
Hall - Gnome Thief/Illusionist, Male
Malice - Human Dragon Disciple, Female
So names like Illareth, Erlathan, Iliphar, Seith and the like, are normal go too.
On the rare occasion where I do have to come up with a new name, I fire up Neverwinter Nights and use the name generator there. I think it's pretty good. I even use it for non-RPG names. Gender selection is usually based on the available character portraits. Unless it's the protagonist, then I always pick male as they're an extension of myself so to speak, and I can't get fully immersed in the role with a female character.
Races match the portraits as much as possible, so they are all elves or humans. Occasionally, I'll brin along a dwarf, because there is one male and one female portrait for dwarves that I really like, but usually it's elves.
I also adore some of the voice actors. So by the time I finish rolling up the character, if the voice actors didn't match my view of the character, then I'll remake the whole character again based on that voice. Then I write inanely long biographies for each of the characters.
Names include:
Katash
Lady Aresa Blackwood
The Midnight Cat
Elaynya Ilieas
Immortalis
Nightmask
Etc along those lines.
Also almost all the characters that I've completed the game with have been sorcerers or mages...I have an affinity for magic users. I have had a few male playthroughs, also magic users of one kind or another. Party composition can vary but generally from balanced to all female.
Some of my charname creations:
Kara - CG Female Human Dragon Disciple - (currently playing)
Nymarah - LE Female Drow Sorceress (originally assassin but caved in to my need for sorcery and played through as necro-sorcerer lol)
Kesicora - NG Female Half Elf Conjurer
Seraph - LG Male Elf Sorcerer
Mordukhavar - CE Human Dragon Disciple
Lailah - CG Female Human Shadowdancer
Elora - TN Female Half Elf Avenger
I have made many MANY other characters either as potential charnames that I never carried on with or as custom party members. I wont smother the board any further or bore you with any more xD
I've always wanted to play as a bard but never had the inspiration manifest enough to do it properly til now. Its kinda my curent challnge playthough although I use the term "challenge" loosely as Iv done a solo poverty run which is an actual challenge. But the idea is pure rogues only, Imoen, Garrick, Alora etc.
Emberly NG Human Bard
Sorry for the long posts I didnt expect images to be that large :S
Jovan Goldmarsh - Elf, Male
Felicia Frostwind - Half-Elf, True Neutral
Gorris - Human, Male
Andy Gray - Human, Male
Ordmar Coppershield - Dwarf, Male
Lysara Fleetfoot - Halfling, Female
I always assign gender at random nowadays, and before that I just went with what seemed most obvious.
As I create the characters I might change some of them, decide that I didn't really need a full mage and go with a mage/thief instead, that kind of thing.
Then I name them all according to some theme, the party I'm using right now is named after the first six runes of the Futhark. Ideally this way I'll keep it simple, I can spend way too much time thinking about the name of a single character.
Kymahra Sylzairyn - CG - Female - Elf - Enchanter
Athalas Throvain - LG - Male - Elf - Fighter
Tinsy Sunbeam - NG - Female - Halfling - Cleric of Lathander
Lailah Kitari - CG - Female - Human - Thief
Logryn Goldanvil - LG - Male - Dwarf - Dwarven Defender
Sehrovia Elyntide - CG - Female - Half-Elf - Thief/Mage
Thinking maybe to change out Lailah for possibly a druid/shaman seeing as how shes the only character that I didnt create from scratch and I already have a thief/mage
Ok replaced Lailah with a Human Shaman called Eidolona Wisp
Thomas
Rose
Judith
Magdalena
Orestes
Brenya
Usually like this:
Kestryn Ultor (female paladin)
Bedwar Fireaxe (dwarf)
Hobbo Lothus (gnome)
Jaeryn Lifeleaf (female halfing)
Hael'diira Zen'duis (drow female)
Aerwyn of Iserath (female elf)
Lothaire Guin (halfing male)
Irmengard of Corelay (female cleric)
Lydia Moonsong (bard female).
Gusinda Greycloak - Mage/Thief or Thief->Mage (Default charname for any game I first play and my very first AD&D round table character way back when...)
Dwight Ironbeard - Dwarven Fighter
Edmund Slackbladder the Seventh - Half-Elf Bard [Jester] (Blackadder wearing chainmail)
Biorn Odinsson - Human Bard [Skald] (Born Odin's Son - figured it was okay for being a Bhaalspawn, and yes I had reasons for spelling Biorn that way...)
Conorcan the Corcquerer - Half Orc Barbarian
Von HellSinger - Half-Orc Blackguard
Philos Toxon - Elf Archer (means 'Lover of the Bow' in Latin)
JQXZ - Gnome Illusionist/Thief (Smart A&$# - Four top scoring tiles in Scrabble)
Ki-LaurEm Jamus - Elf Druid (Used the names of the Grandkids to put this one together)
Om-Ba Mana-Ka - Half-Orc Sharman (each syllable has it's own meaning within worship/magic)
Australis Bellator - Human Paladin (means 'Southern Warrior' in Latin)
Quitya Belchen - Dwarven Fighter/Cleric
Dirk Gentlepea - Halfling Fighter/Thief (anagram of Peter Dinklage - guess what portrait is used)
Argo Fkurslf - Half-Orc Fighter/Thief
I have many more and I don't think I have actually finished the trilogy with most of these as restartitus kicks in and I have a new name to try...
Gus
Paladin the Human Cavalier (female)
Cleric the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric (male)
Druid the Half Elf Fighter/Druid (male)
Archer the Elven Archer (male)
Mage the Elven Sorcerer (female)
Bard the Half Elf Bard (female)
BG:EE
All male: 9
5/6 male, 1/6 female: 1
3/4 male, 1/4 female: 1
2/3 male, 1/3 female: 7
3/5 male, 2/5 female: 4
1/2 male, 1/2 female: 10
2/5 male, 3/5 female: 4
1/3 male, 2/3 female: 3
1/4 male, 3/4 female: 1
All female: 4
BG2:EE
All male: 2
2/3 male, 1/3 female: 5
3/5 male, 2/5 female: 1
1/2 male, 1/2 female: 8
1/3 male, 2/3 female: 1
2/5 male, 3/5 female: 1
All female: 4
IWD:EE
All male: 7
3/4 male, 1/4 female: 1
2/3 male, 1/3 female: 3
1/2 male, 1/2 female: 4
All female: 10
Note: When a playthrough was "all male" or "all female," it was usually because I was soloing.
Malthorn, Male H/E Fighter/Druid
Galban Oakbridge, Male Dwarven Fighter
Merrim Tal'Shar, Female Elven Fighter/Thief
Ahriel Evensong, Female H/E Cleric/Mage
Vaylanne, Female Human Sorc.
The Mighty Gimzo, Male Gnomish Illusionist/Thief is currently on a business trip to Neverwinter.
Choices usually influenced by the character portraits and voice sets available. As such, a male dwarf is compulsory.