Some Advice...

[Arkcon]

Well, each stock race has a story. So, if you want to role-play you have somewhere to start from. A fun thing to start with is play the organic or crystalline race -- and only use the racial weapons and armor. No organic armor + stealth armor. No crystalline armor with anti-proton beams. It's actually pretty challenging. Those weapons and armor are weaker than standard late game technology.