We have a few times edited and reworked images created by others, @Orpheus/@BrokenPromise, as the appearance fit for the character, but not the colors... Naturally, if we wish to post up online, we always ask the original artist's permission first. We also make sure to heavily modify the image so it is not merely a quick change to the original artist's work.


And naturally whenever one does something like that, in addition to asking permission prior to uploading to any public place, credit should be given as is due. Some artists excel at creating new pieces of art from scratch, others are good at making existing pieces into new pieces. Neither is better or worse than the other in our opinion.

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anyways... Let's get back to the discussion on hand...

Attractiveness of any character is largely in the eye of the beholder. (center eye, not one of the eyestalks). As such, it will never be attractive to all. Each character should have its own ideal appearance. For some, that ideal might not at all fit with the common definitions of attractive.

If your goal is "crotchety old man" you probably won't use a picture that most younger audiences would consider "attractive".

Sometimes.

Of course, that is the way I used to go about things. However, in one particular D&D game our DM made attractiveness a point value, that's when I noticed something. Everyone (literally) chose high values, or maxed, these values.
This made me realize that this could be worked to my advantage. So that is how our game began, 4 very beautiful elves and men and women and one, short, ugly, rat-haired priest who had the patience of a cheetah on BANG energy drinks.
Sometimes being the one who stands out requires you to stand out just a bit less then everyone else.

Simple question, but one I've been mulling for a bit now. How important is the attractiveness of your characters to you? When looking for pictures of them do you look for ones that are attractive looking? Do you go digging for male or female models? Or do you just find one that fits the setting rather than how they look?

Almost exclusively female. Do some males, they are less interesting. I ignore the ugly ones regardless of gender, so why would I make an ugly character?

What about when writing out a description of their appearance, do you describe them with attractive features or even write out that'd they'd be considered 'good looking'?

If a picture by itself is not good enough then I won't participate.