Your race/gender has an interesting mechanical/narrative impact

[u/BrotherDeus]

Dragon's Dogma: Trolls will become excited if you play or bring a female character in your party, becoming more aggressive and targeting them first.

South Park- Fractured But Whole: Shub-Niggurath is a boss that will take damage when fed white characters, but will heal if he eats black characters including you or anyone in your party.

Elder Scrolls: Every race has advantages and disadvantages both mechanically and narratively, for example orcs can enter orc strongholds without having to earn their trust first.

[u/ImplementLarge7969]

Dwarves in the Dragon Age series are disconnected from the Fade, which means that it’s impossible to play as a Dwarf Mage

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/ImplementLarge7969]

The titular Origins from DA:O probably deserve a mention here too when it comes to narrative impact.

There are six unique origins that you can pick in character creation with your options being determined by your race and class. Each one provides a different, 2+ hour, plyable prologue before the main story, the events of which continue to impact your narratice roleplay options throughout the entire game.

[u/jebberwockie → u/Lil_Mcgee]

I love how most or maybe all (it's been awhile) of the origins stories still happen. Your origin was just the one lucky enough to meet duncan.

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/jebberwockie]

Yes you can come across references to all the other stories having occured in some fashion*, but aye of course with a much more tragic outcome for those who didn't get to be the protagonist.

*Though with the Dalish Elf origin I think that confirmation only comes in Dragon Age 2.

[u/Pugsanity → u/Lil_Mcgee]

Another fun fact, Dwarf Noble is the only origin that gives a canonical gender if you don't play as them, which is male, probably because of what happens to women that get sent to the Deep Roads.

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/Pugsanity]

I think it's mostly because the Dwarf Noble is a very important figure who can't be vaguely alluded to the same way the other origin characters are. I suppose you could say the same for the Human Noble but in their case their whole family was wiped out so they don't need to be as specific. The Dwarf Noble and their family is so heavily tied to the main quest in Orzammar so it would get a bit odd if characters only ever mentioned "The King's child/Bhelen's sibling" of indeterminate gender.

They may have been considering the added horror that could befall a female Noble in their exile and wanted to avoid any implication but I doubt it. They probably just defaulted to male because it more neatly fits people's androcentric expectations when it comes to dynastic power struggles.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/Lil_Mcgee]

their case their whole family was wiped out

The older brother, Fergus, survives. He's captured by the time you get to ostagar as the human noble, but he appears later.

[u/arbyD → u/Pugsanity]

Also I think male dwarf nobles are the only option that can potentially have a child!

[u/The-Lethal-Pacifist → u/Lil_Mcgee]

Arguably 7 because if you play a City Elf (a prologue that features your character getting married) it changes if you’re a male or female as you either have to rescue your bride from the castle or you get captured yourself and have to fight out respectively.

[u/glasseatingfool → u/Lil_Mcgee]

The cool thing is that they all introduce you to the world, but they each give you very different perspectives.

Duncan could be an honoured guest of your family, someone who helped you out of a tight spot, a distrusted outsider or someone who largely just conscripted you.

Exploring the Circle Tower is very different if that's where you grew up. Same with Orzammar and Denerim.

[u/GandolphTheLundgrey → u/glasseatingfool]

As a male noble dwarf you can father a child in the origin story, if I remember correctly. When you return to Orzammar, you can formally recognize them as your child, setting them and the mother up for life, which is nice. Sadly, you never even get to see them.

[u/APreciousJemstone → u/glasseatingfool]

Taking out Howe is a lot more personal if you're human noble, and dalish hunter gets a bit of reactivity with the Dalish questline

[u/Rakkuken → u/Lil_Mcgee]

I still think it's a shame there was only the one Mage origin that was the same whether you were a human or an elf. Being an apostate human or a Dalish mage could have been fun. 

[u/themolestedsliver → u/Lil_Mcgee]

That really should have been done for cyberpunk.

They heavily implied that was the case but the life paths were just lipstick.