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Team wooooork WOO!

Ok here's a question I like to know what others think of. You only have one player but do you only stick to one RP game at a time or do you try to join as many as you can?

Mm, Meushi's description also applies to having a Mary Sue character, and especially in role plays you should try to avoid that.

But to put it a little more... simply, godmodding is when your character takes control of a situation in a way it shouldn't have, and also affects the other character(s) without permission. It not only sucks (unless you're RPing a god, but that's very very rare) but it makes you look like a jerk and subject to divine retribution. TV Tropes has a lovely article on it.

I apologize if you had anything to do tonight.

More on the "God-Modding" subject, I just wanna present a good example of it.
I present this to all of you- I'm not saying who wrote this, I bleeped out their name for a reason, but this is just something from one of my Guild's RP! This is just an example of what NOT to do in an RP, because It pisses people off, and you come off looking like a show-off. Observe:

Now, you can imagine how upset some of the RPers were. Even I was, but whatever, sometimes holding a higher position makes you feel infallible- but anyway. Again, that was a REAL EXAMPLE from a REAL POST in a Guild Role Play. Please don't God Modd!

Yay! Thanks for this. I'm a total newbie at rping..so this helps a lot. I'll do my best..and I've said it soo many times..but if my character is a Mary Sue..please tell me!! I don't want her to be but sometimes..I get confused about what keeps a character from being/becoming a Mary Sue. I've tried my best to balance her out..but I'm still unsure.

Ah, the Mary Sues and Gary Stus. We use the term quite regularly without actually realizing what, or who, Mary Sue is. Mary Sue in the beginning was, in reality, a satirical character. She was someone a Star Trek fan wrote as a way to poke fun at female fan characters who appeared to be too good and too talented and became the only ones who could run the Enterprise after Kirk, McCoy, and Spock were suddenly incapacitated to the point where they couldn't do their jobs. As the Star Trek Expanded Universe says Mary Sue was named lieutenant at fifteen and a half, had Kirk wishing she were older so he could sleep with her, was on the same intellectual level as Spock, and was half Vulcan. She was the only one on the away mission to not catch an alien sickness, able to save the day when they were imprisoned by picking a lock with her hairpin, and ran the Enterprise as well, or better than, Kirk. She was so talented she earned the Nobel Peace Prize, the Vulcan Order of Gallantry, and the Tralfamadorian Order of Good Guyhood. In the end she did contract the alien sickness and soon died from it, which made her tragic death a national holiday on the Enterprise.

The Mary Sue character is so talented, so well liked, and so important to the story that she is too good to be true. She is without flaws and limitations and has often overcome a very tragic past to rise above it all to become the best and the brightest of her profession at such a young age that no one else can get the job done. In fact, without her/him the job would never get done because everyone is so lost they can't even begin to attempt to do the job. In fact, the Mary Sue can do no wrong and is never seen as wrong.

So how can you avoid this? Flaws are one way. Another, is to look at how old your character is and what they know and can do. If they're, for instance, sixteen and have the IQ of Stephen Hawking, are a sixth degree black belt in bagwa; judo; kendo; and northern Shao-lin kung fu, are a master swordsman, have telekinetic and psychic abilities, are a marksman of endless renown, and have a doctorate degree in the sciences then you more than likely have them set up to take the Mary Sue path. The easiest way to avoid this is to pull back on how much a character knows and can do.

Personality is another way to ensure your character isn't going to be a Mary Sue. Not everyone is going to like your character so don't make it that every person they meet instantly likes them. Make your character have a short temper or do something that makes people take a long time to warm up to them. For example, my own character's curiosity towards humans can have her appear to come on too strong. She hangs around someone a little too close and is the type to just pop out of nowhere and frustrate someone. However, when she finally dials back and gives a person some space they just might begin to warm up to her. It's one of those little quirks about her that can either make her friends or earn her the reputation of being overly hyper.

So, while we might be working with demons, mythical creatures, elves, pixies, the undead, and humans we shouldn't use what they are as an excuse to make them better than all the rest and the star of the show. We should write them as though they were real people with real flaws, real quirks, and real issues they need to work through. That is how you hope to avoid the Mary Sue.

Oh man, I wish I could find a bio I saved from a game I use to run. Someone had made the funniest Mary Sue I have ever read about. And they were being serious too. She was a beautiful immortal bounty hunter, who could seriously do it all. She could cook, sing, fight like batman, had the moves to shame James Bonds and she was super smart. Genius level somewhere around 39884093....seriously. When I asked could you give the character some flaws they said sure and added that she sometimes burns the cake...but only sometimes.... sweatdrop

Well burning cake is a SERIOUS THING!! gonk

That would be the greatest thing every. I think someone already did make one. I could have sworn I took it once.

I think we all have made sues or stus, depending on what. I've seen a few fanfics or fan characters. When I was younger I made a character who was rather ugly but was perfect at everything she did LOL so of course everyone would have to like her.