I know plenty of people have opted to stick with their one and only Shepard to have more attachment to their character and the storyline. But for me personally, ME2 is so rich with replay value that I find it near impossible to not constantly head back in with a new look, origin, gender, class and to play with a varying personality. 
 
So far I've currently got four Shepards: 
 
Vincent Shepard - My Ruthless Vanguard who's mostly renegade but still has shown some compassion at points. Love interests where Liara and Tali.
 
Jane Shepard - My Sole Surviving Infiltrator who's a total girl scout. Love interest was Liara and still is <3. Though she's had a few lapdances from Kelly.. 
 
Janet Shepard  - My Ruthless Adept who is also my Queen Bitch Shepard but I've played her in a way she's simply making the harsh choices to get the best out of the upcoming war. Love interest has only been Garrus, who also died during Janet's suicide mission =( 
 
John Shepard - The War Hero himself, initially played through as a Soldier but then headed back in as a Sentinel for my Insanity run. John's sort of the opposite of Vincent, very compassionate and sensitive though only having so much patience and has made a few rash choices. Love interest was Ashley, then Jack during my 1st ME2 playthrough, but now with his Sentinel lifestyle I think I may have him stay faithful this time. 
 
Even with those four I still plan of creating at least another Shepard, who'll be an Engineer, in ME1 to port over to ME2. If ME2 has shown anything it's that how every minute choice you make may still have just as minute repercussions in ME3 - which are still surprising to find even with them being as uneventful as they are. 
 
So I'm curious if most have also gone this route, trying out multiple Shepards and also how different they try to vary one Shepard's character from the other, instead of just, say, one for the Paragon choices and the other for the Renegade.    

I know plenty of people have opted to stick with their one and only Shepard to have more attachment to their character and the storyline. But for me personally, ME2 is so rich with replay value that I find it near impossible to not constantly head back in with a new look, origin, gender, class and to play with a varying personality. 
 
So far I've currently got four Shepards: 
 
Vincent Shepard - My Ruthless Vanguard who's mostly renegade but still has shown some compassion at points. Love interests where Liara and Tali.
 
Jane Shepard - My Sole Surviving Infiltrator who's a total girl scout. Love interest was Liara and still is <3. Though she's had a few lapdances from Kelly.. 
 
Janet Shepard  - My Ruthless Adept who is also my Queen Bitch Shepard but I've played her in a way she's simply making the harsh choices to get the best out of the upcoming war. Love interest has only been Garrus, who also died during Janet's suicide mission =( 
 
John Shepard - The War Hero himself, initially played through as a Soldier but then headed back in as a Sentinel for my Insanity run. John's sort of the opposite of Vincent, very compassionate and sensitive though only having so much patience and has made a few rash choices. Love interest was Ashley, then Jack during my 1st ME2 playthrough, but now with his Sentinel lifestyle I think I may have him stay faithful this time. 
 
Even with those four I still plan of creating at least another Shepard, who'll be an Engineer, in ME1 to port over to ME2. If ME2 has shown anything it's that how every minute choice you make may still have just as minute repercussions in ME3 - which are still surprising to find even with them being as uneventful as they are. 
 
So I'm curious if most have also gone this route, trying out multiple Shepards and also how different they try to vary one Shepard's character from the other, instead of just, say, one for the Paragon choices and the other for the Renegade.    

I have 2 Shepards. I always play paragon because I feel bad about being a jerk. I do different class/love interest play through.
 
Canaan - My master save file. 
ME1 
Class: Solider  (LV 60)
Love: Liara 
Note: Killed  Rachni Queen, Saved Kaiden, Saved Council, Saved Wrex  
ME2:
Class: Infiltrator  (LV 30)
Love: Miranda  (& Liara)
Note: Broke Cerberus ties, no one died
 
Asher
ME1 
Class: Vangard (LV 51)
Love: Ashely
Note: Saved Rachni Queen, Saved Ashely, Saved Council, Saved Wrex    
ME2:
Class: Adept (LV 30)
Love: Tali
Note: Kept Cerberus ties, no one died 

I started a second play-through with a female Shepard, but didn't get very far.  Too many games came out, and never went back to it.

So far I've only had one Sheppard, but ever since there was no romance between Liara and Sheppard in the DLC, I thought about creating another one.  However, I'm a bit unsure about something, so I might as well ask it here: 
 
Do I need to replay ME1, end that with a Liara romance, and then import the save into ME2? Or can I just skip ME1, and create a new character from scratch in ME2. 

Aravice Shepard (this is my Paragon and Cannon Shepard, her class does not change, which kinda sucks cause Adepts were waaay better in ME1)
Gender: F 
History: Spacer, Sole Survivor of the Attack on Akuze
Class: Adept 
Relationships of Note: Liara T'soni  
Actions of Note: Saved the Galatic Council, Prevented the extinction of the Rachni,  Completionist (literally, 100% completed both games with her, every side quest and mission)
 
Nogatco Shepard (my first actual Shepard - I recently pulled his file into ME2 and don't really remember what he did in ME1, which is part of the fun really)
Gender: M
History: Ruthless, Survived attack on childhood colony (thus the hatred for Aliens....it's all gotta make sense!)
Class: Infiltrator 
Relationships of Note: N/A
Actions of Note: Sacrificed the Council to ensure Victory at the Battle of the Citadel. (I really can't remember! Shouldn't have bothered listing him, but he's my Alt-Shep)

" So far I've only had one Sheppard, but ever since there was no romance between Liara and Sheppard in the DLC, I thought about creating another one.  However, I'm a bit unsure about something, so I might as well ask it here:  Do I need to replay ME1, end that with a Liara romance, and then import the save into ME2? Or can I just skip ME1, and create a new character from scratch in ME2.  "

My canon Shepard is a female vanguard in a committed relationship with Liara, was renegade in ME and paragon in ME2. Let the council die, let the Rachni free, etc.
 
But I've got two male Sheps, one a sentinel and the other an infiltrator (one renegade, one paragon), and another female Shep that was a paragon in both ME and ME2, and was an adept. I've stuck pretty closely to all the same decisions in all my playthroughs, although I think my fully-paragon female Shep got it on with Kaidan in ME and Garrus in ME2. My male Sheps got it on with Miranda and Jack in ME2.
 
I've played through both games so many times that I've kinda forgotten what I did. I didn't get serious about keeping one character "canon" until ME2 came out. I had four characters from ME to import, and two of them had two playthroughs. I guess you can tell I liked the game. ;)

I have like 10 careers all called "Jane Shepard" which is extremely confusing, haven't beaten the game on all of them though.

• Nova Shepard - Realist Infiltrator with a heart of gold. She couldn't afford saving the Council and appointed Anderson as the new head instead. She brainwashed the rogue Geth but the Rachni were too big a risk. She doesn't trust the Illusive man. Total floozy. Slept with Garrus & Kaiden and flirts with every crew member. 
• Joanna Shepard - Girl scout Sentinel, savior of the Council, leader of the Anti-Cerberus Movement. Chose the lesser of two evils and saved the separatist Geth. Always loyal to Liara but close buddies with Garrus and Legion. 
• Adrian Shepard - Hardass Soldier, racist bastard - hates all aliens. He never misses a chance to commit genocide or punch reporters on TV.  Fits in perfectly at Cerberus. He was the reason I made this list. Love interest are fellow space bigot Ashley and Tali (who is no longer part of the flotilla)
• I also created a couple of Jane Shepards to tool around with Adept and Vanguard skills but gave up after an hour. Not having a carry over sucks. No Wrex = No dice.

I had three in the first game (so I could get all the Achievements for using the various powers), but in the second, you could get those by ordering your teammates to do the various powers (though for all I know, that may have worked in the first one too), so I just stuck with the one that I imported from the first game. 

I have four shepard all are the same name just different personally, so it's more of a  What If story if my character was like this.  I just jump around different classes and being good or badass. Also i ended up with a different women in each. I also look forward to playing each one of them in mass effect 3.

I have about nine saved on Mass Effect 1 but I've only beaten Mass Effect 2 with four of them, currently working on my fifth. 
 
I only have one I consider to be my 'canon' Shepard though.

Anyone you know ever try to take a path with no renegade or paragon choices? I'm curious what that'll do for the overall game, especially in the final stages.

Two; first career was with a Shepard created in vanilla ME2 with default character editor, second career was started with modded Coalesced.ini and custom Shepard made through the Gibbed Character Editor. First career was also pure renegade, while second is based on what I feel is closest to what I would actually say (turns out, about 50/50 paragon/renegade). Much more satisfied with my second career.

I've beaten the game with every class, but adept. Have two males and two females. Overall I would say I've played through the game over 7 times.

" Anyone you know ever try to take a path with no renegade or paragon choices? I'm curious what that'll do for the overall game, especially in the final stages. "

I did two, a male renegade for ME1, and then after reading about how much better Jennifer Hale's performance was in the first one, I did a female renegade shepherd for ME2. They were each named Agent Shepherd and default model. I found the female voice work more emotive. Also part of it is just that the default male shepherd model face is pretty void of expression

I am ashamed to admit I have never played the series with anyone but default male Shepard. I've become too attached to his story that he really fits the part for me. I did begin playing the first game again as a Female Shepard but I got really annoyed with certain choices I made so my character didn't last long. I really want to play both games again, it's always on my mental list of games I must replay, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Also I just bought MineCraft a week ago so that's been taking up most of my time.

Chris - My "main"

ME1 

• Spared Rachni Queen
• Saved Kaiden
• Saved The Council
• Kept Wrex Alive
  

ME2:

• Alliance Loyalty
• Brought everyone back alive from the Suicide Mission (including the crew)
• Destroyed the Collector base

Miriya - "Alt."(Have yet to play ME2 on this save)

ME1

• Spared Rachni Queen
• Saved Kaiden
• Sacrificed the Council
• Kept Wrex alive
  

I just finished my second playthrough of Mass Effect. It was mostly to refresh my memory of the series, but was also an attempt at a couple more achievements (getting to level 60, which I fell short of by just a few thousand experience points by the end of the game). The only choices I differed on were letting Kaidan live instead of Ashley (I like his voice actor that much) and letting the council die, putting Anderson in charge. 
 
I intended on making it a renegade playthrough, but I can never bring myself to do it. I think it's mostly due to the fact that whenever anyone offers a choice of playing "good" or "evil," they're just way too much on either side. I'm just not an evil person. I can't bring myself to do it. There's also a part of me that feels like there's a "right" way of playing Shepard, and even my last choice of letting the council die felt wrong to me. 
 
Currently working on my second Mass Effect playthrough, though I don't expect to be done with that this year. I'm mostly working to correct a few mistakes I made along the way with my other character. I'll be sticking with Liara, and I even downloaded the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC to work my way through eventually.
 
Someday I want to play a female Shepard. Maybe a renegade one, too.

I've had six careers in ME2, all default John Shepards with various backgrounds. All of them are 100% completed. And I have 5 100% completed John Shepards in ME. I should note that I have beaten the game multiple times with some of these Shepards.

Just one: nice guy with shotgun.

" @Abyssfull: It is really fun to play a badass renegade chick shepard "

how many? I just finished 29 times. of course, all classes I am done. 100% all missions  were finished every game.  I will hold up until new DLC will be coming out to finish epic 30 times. I never played that many times for one game before and in my life. it means that Mass effect 2 is the greatest game in the gaming history all time, and already became epic. it's rare that one game actually effects on a part of my everyday life.  

Have your say here...

What sucks is that I had saves for every class with different choice combos (Im curious if mixing choices has different possible outcomes in ME3). Then my HDD decided to crash and they all went down the drain.
 
Most of my saves are from ME1 characters. I was a bit sneaky and saved the ME1 just before you choose what you do with the council. Wrex is so bad ass that I would never wanna leave him out. The Rachni are kinda cool even if they are disgusting bugs. Liara is my lady. Cheating sucks even in a game.

Prarie Shepard started out as a Vanguard hero that saved the council in ME1 and then went off to be a Soldier in ME2 and a complete hero. Rather talks than fires her gun (who can blame her? She's so kickass its more of a challenge to try to solve shit verbally).
 
Prarie Shepard mark 2 - Infiltrator. A naughty girlscout that let the council burn, but dont take shit from anyone. Saved the Collector station out of pure curiousity whats in that bug ship.
 
Started a Prarie Shepard mark 3 as an adept thats a total jerk to everything and everyone. Its not renegade, its being a total dick. Probably gonna restart it and just be a badass.
 
Id like a Male Shepard aswell, but I kinda want a ME1 save for that one aswell.