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Make up quirks that drive a character to interact with the world, rather than ones that close them off from it (Nega-example: "Does not speak to commoners").
1: Tries his best to be friends with everyone, no matter how much the other person may hate him.
2: Carves his name into nearby walls/trees whenever he's idle.
3: Buys and wears the garb in fashion of whatever land he travels to.
12. Collects trinkets while adventuring and once a downtime is reached adds/replaces/accessorizes armor with said items.
My original 3.5 bard/ranger did exactly this and wound up wearing leather armor with a flagon cut in 1/2 for shoulder plates, a bronze statue of a knight for bracers, a dungeon rug for a cape, and quite a few more, including an adult toy somehow...
13. Constantly takes notes, sketches, or doodles of NPCs and the environment and likes to show them off.
14. Randomly puts words from other races' languages into everyday speech.
15. Dresses with costuming and makeup to appear as a member of another race at all times.
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17. Cackles maniacally and wrings his hand/strokes his beard at even the most minor of jokes or puns.
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19: Is from a different latitude entirely, and will often complain about how the weather is too cold. If they're not complaining, they're wearing warm garb in the autumn. Or it's winter, and they're expressing astonishment that snow can pile deeper than an inch.
19B: In the winter months, hires prostitutes when the party stays in town for bedwarming duty rather than entertainment.
20: Composes battle hymns and poetry. Will often state WIP lines out loud to get a feel for the meter, or ask fellow party members if they know a three-syllable synonym for 'strength'.
21: Is an accomplished chef, and will cook up any monster the party kills for dinner. Absolutely anything, short of humanoids or otyughs.
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23. Whenever asked a question, always starts off with "No no no no, no no no no, NO no no no", and then the answer
25. Enjoys friendly haggling for every single item.
26. Trying to track down any distant relatives in whatever city being visited, and has a LOT of distant relatives.
27. Has a phobia of being alone, so always travels with a party or tries to be around as many people as possible.
28. Actually concerned about their hygiene. Uses things like grooming kits, or soap, or cleaning their clothing fairly regularly.
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29. Fascinated by religious beliefs. Carries an assortment of holy symbols (and a few unholy symbols, kept out of sight, so as not to make the wrong impression). Strikes up conversations with anyone of a new (to them) race or culture, to learn about their religion or deities, but is cagey about their own faith (if any).
30. Uses magic for pretty much everything, such as prestidigitation to arrange their hair or clean their clothing. Evangelical about the use of magic to better life, and quite happy to hand out items with spells like continual flame, at cost. (If they can get that spell as a spell-like ability, or find a similar way to eliminate the cost, or research a similar spell that produces warmth or refrigerates an area, or is similarly more utilitarian than 'good at blowing stuff up,' will do so.)
31. Comes up with nicknames or 'titles' for friends (such as 'the Fearless' for the one person not afflicted by a fear spell, or 'Feller of Giants' for a puny mage whose grease spell tripped a giant), usually based on some memorable achievement or circumstance (almost always complimentary, or at least mutually entertaining, never derogatory).
33. Insists everything in life is determined by a randomly chosen number, and invents extremely long calculations in order to show how "obvious" the correlation is.
36. Keeps a journal on every NPC s/he meets, including an itemized list on why/how they could be the BBEG.
37. Idly picks fleas from the hair of traveling companions when seated around the campfire, before eating them (the fleas, not the traveling companions). Generally communicates through use of the word "ook!"
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38. Knife flipper. But not very good at it.
39. When is trying to accomplish something, whines, "Come on!" loudly when it isn't working out.
40. Idly kicks things in their path while walking.
41. When they sneeze, they sneeze LOUDLY, and a ridiculous number of times.
42. Never calls people by their name, but instead calls them a nickname based upon their clothing, looks, or something that they just did. For instance: Party member just comes up from exploring the sewer; "So what'd you find down there Stinky?"
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43. Says "[name of patron deity] forgive me" before doing anything they're not comfortable with.
44. Uses historically suspect archaic speech patterns ("you lie" instead of "you're lying," "you make me laugh" instead of "that's funny," "in olden days" instead of "100 years ago," etc) in the misapprehension it makes them sound cultured.
45. Is mildly obsessed with "the Evil Eye" and purported methods of inflicting and warding it off; may or may not actually know what they're doing.
46. Is genuinely curious about the beliefs of foreign cultures, including their religious worldview. Tries to reconcile it with his own understandings and seeks tuition by druids and clerics.
Multicultural-Mongolian/Keleshite ninjaaaa!
47. Smiles widely and often. It is somewhat endearing.
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50. Adorns themselves with the taxidermied parts of fallen foes, oftentimes grafting favorite pieces into their own flesh. Insists that this constitutes formal wear at all occasions.
51. Inquires with all whom they meet whether they would be interested in volunteering to participate in an experimental medical research study.
52. Behaves as though under the influence of LSD or some other hallucinogen.
53. Smokes profusely, is passive-aggressive to those who complain of it and is overly friendly with those who join in.
54. When considering choices for most important decisions, lists them from least to most practical, but still thinks that their first option is the best.
55. Behaves completely normally, because what is more quirky than lacking a quirk?
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56. If a divine character, carries pamphlets extolling the virtues of their god; passes them out to anyone foolish enough to not firmly refuse the offer. Tucks pamphlets into carriage doors, leaves them on monster corpses, etc.
58. Is a professional seamstress or tailor and as such often tends to the clothing of the party.
59. Tends to offer fellow members to another mug of ale, just one more, it's fine!
60. Rather than prestidigtation tricks, with only sleight of hand performs minor tricks, card flips and hiding a ball under cups, bar performer.
61: Character converses with party members in a moderate and deliberate manner with no hint of mania or absurdity.
62: Character instigates conversations with intelligent humanoids rather than rushing to the conclusion that battle is imminent or inevitable.
63: Character is sometimes not suspicious when meeting strangers.
64: Character is not a gnome.
65: If character is a gnome, does not have a double-barreled/portmanteua surname, nor does the name anywhere contain farm implement, clockwork or drinking apparatus nouns.
66: Character is not against type - the brutish half-orc or…. whatever the other races are.
67: Character has been shaped by experiences in-game, not by an absurdly lengthy and over-complicated backstory involving far-fetched shenanigans. Somehow the character evolves and changes over time.
68: Character's traits have been chosen for story purposes that allow them to interact with the game world as well as provide meaningful in-game bonuses. Character can even use the flavor and concept of said traits outside of combat, or outside of "social" encounters/situations.
53. Smokes profusely, is passive-aggressive to those who complain of it and is overly friendly with those who join in.
Sounds like every smoker I've ever met. Except they all seem to also be consummate accidental lighter-thieves.
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69. Has a few 1-2-line fragments of annoying songs, some of which are tavern standards and others of which they apparently made up whole-cloth, that they sing repeatedly for no discernible reason.
70. Swears oaths by their weapon.
71. Swears oaths by their genitals.
72. Swears oaths by various layers of Hell, all of which they've memorized.
73. Corrects others' grammar every time they err.
74. Makes profoundly odd facial expressions and noises when they have nothing else to do.
75. Speaks constant gibberish in battle in hopes that they'll eventually wind up saying something that turns out to be words to an actual spell.
Dot!
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61: Character converses with party members in a moderate and deliberate manner with no hint of mania or absurdity.
62: Character instigates conversations with intelligent humanoids rather than rushing to the conclusion that battle is imminent or inevitable.
63: Character is sometimes not suspicious when meeting strangers.
64: Character is not a gnome.
65: If character is a gnome, does not have a double-barreled/portmanteua surname, nor does the name anywhere contain farm implement, clockwork or drinking apparatus nouns.
66: Character is not against type - the brutish half-orc or…. whatever the other races are.
67: Character has been shaped by experiences in-game, not by an absurdly lengthy and over-complicated backstory involving far-fetched shenanigans. Somehow the character evolves and changes over time.
68: Character's traits have been chosen for story purposes that allow them to interact with the game world as well as provide meaningful in-game bonuses. Character can even use the flavor and concept of said traits outside of combat, or outside of "social" encounters/situations.
These all seem wildly unrealistic! :)
76. Swears oaths by a number of fanciful made-up hells, like the Hell of Being Sliced into Thin Strips, Fried in Oil and Served on a Warm Baguette, which they explain if asked as '[my homeland] has a lot of hells...'
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61: Character converses with party members in a moderate and deliberate manner with no hint of mania or absurdity.
62: Character instigates conversations with intelligent humanoids rather than rushing to the conclusion that battle is imminent or inevitable.
63: Character is sometimes not suspicious when meeting strangers.
64: Character is not a gnome.
65: If character is a gnome, does not have a double-barreled/portmanteua surname, nor does the name anywhere contain farm implement, clockwork or drinking apparatus nouns.
66: Character is not against type - the brutish half-orc or…. whatever the other races are.
67: Character has been shaped by experiences in-game, not by an absurdly lengthy and over-complicated backstory involving far-fetched shenanigans. Somehow the character evolves and changes over time.
68: Character's traits have been chosen for story purposes that allow them to interact with the game world as well as provide meaningful in-game bonuses. Character can even use the flavor and concept of said traits outside of combat, or outside of "social" encounters/situations.
These all seem wildly unrealistic! :)
Well, I think Dieben actually beat me to it, more succinctly:
55. Behaves completely normally, because what is more quirky than lacking a quirk?
is a pathological liar and narcissist
80: Struggles with temptation (alcohol, forbidden magic, etc)
81. Has an irrational fear of treasure chests
82. Has a big iron bell (possibly attached to another possession, like a flail). Rings it to wake people up/alert them to danger/get people's attentions.
83. Constantly hungry.
84. Insists on carrying all the food. When dinnertime comes, he/she passes out the food, making it almost a ceremony. If religious, might try to get the partymembers to pray.
85. Always seeks the highest vantage point in any scene. If one doesn't exist, he/she stands on tiptoe, lays something down to stand on, or just shifts nervously, eager to move on.
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81. Has anirrational fear of treasure chests
Fixed. They're an adventurer, you know.
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86. Is intractably convinced that healing comes from food.
86a. Furthermore, believes that meat specifically heals more than fruit, and that better still is a complete meal.
86b. When in need of healing, reliably calls attention to the fact by shouting that they "need food badly."
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87. Always jumps to the most outlandish or fantastic explanation - if the choices are "That guy's insane/lying" or "That guy stems from another dimension even though we have no proof such a thing even exists and every other explanation would be more logical" you be pretty sure he won't pick the former.
87a. The character in question is very intelligent.
87b. Or the character in question is very dumb. But that wouldn't be as fun.
87c. The character in question is very intelligent and not prone to delusional theories except if the theory involves one particular thing. He will of course try to invent theories that involve that thing for everything.
88. Cannot keep names straight. Alternatively, has a very limited space for names and applies the same name to every person matching the original owner - be it occupation (every butler is James), age (every child is called Timmy) or race/ethnicity (every dwarf is Harsk).
88a. Bonus points if this leads to the other players getting confused about the plot because they all think you're the only one keeping the names straight.
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90. Communicates with flashcards to pretend to be mute. Often forgets the order he left them in, and mutters "Oops," when he realizes.
90a. When asked why he pretends to be mute, he responds by pulling out a crumpled and frequently-proffered flashcard reading "I'm not mute, I just have a fear of public speaking."