'Broken' PC? Awesome PC!

First off, I  like playing characters that many would consider 'broken'. I'm never the guy who uses the concept of the 'dump stat' at character creation. It's tempting to give your dwarf fighter maxed out Strength and Constitution at the expense of Intelligence, Charisma or whatever (I'm using D&D stats, just because they're familiar to everybody), then you just kind of hand-wave the fact that you've created a functional moron who exists only to chop things up and take damage.

But if you were to actually role-play this kind of character, he'd be almost pitiful: he'd be noticeably stupid, or horrifically inept with people, depending on what you picked as your dump-stat. Easily tricked, quickly confused, total avatar of derpitude. I know when I see the kids down at my FLGS rolling up the XP-machines they call characters, they don't see them as these moronic meat-head axe-swingers; then again, I don't think they even see them as stalwart Gimli-types, or Conan, or Kull, or whatever. I think they see them as XP-machines, with only the fuzziest of concepts behind them.

That's annoying. That's what you do in video games, where your character is, even in the best of them, still mostly pre-defined.

INTRUSIVE NOTE: links have died since I wrote this back in the day. This post is a near-nothing. But I still believe in the basic premise, so I'm updating it a bit.

If you're gaming to kill shit and accrue experience points, go ahead and click off right now. But if you're looking to make collaborative stories that you'll remember for years, stick around.

All I'm saying is this: play to your character's weaknesses. One thing I absolutely adore is the Savage Worlds mechanic of writing weaknesses and faults into your character, and getting role-play hooks for doing it. Go ahead and roll up a character that's seventy years old: she might be shaky in a fight, but she'll be wise...and, most importantly, that's a hook you can use to play that role. Lean into it. It's a gift, I promise.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: don't gimp yourself in whatever your role is. Don't be a wizard with low intelligence, or a fighter with low strength. Be good at your role. If you do that, you're just boning the rest of the adventuring party (your fellow players). But take that 'dump stat' and use it for playing a role in the story, for standing out from the crowd. Don't be an XP machine. If you max Strength at the expense of Charisma, play an awkward, socially inept meat-mountain. 

This is old advice, and wasted on them what most needs to hear it, but remember: you're playing a character, not an optimized machine. Play to strengths and weaknesses, and you'll end up with stories that'll have you laughing years down the road, "holy shit, you remember that one time?" stories that make the hobby more than just leveling up and killing monsters.