Consider placing your character into difficult circumstances more often

From a brief skim-reading it seems like the original post and the less heated discussion can be summarised as one big reference back to Danellos’ old guide on how to avoid being a Mary Sue - which is a fair point, and it’s worth contemplating when you approach roleplay.

If you perceive the community you’re in to have a lot of characters like x (x being a stand-in for just about anything), maybe it’s worth trying something different to make the dynamic interesting. The full piece can be read here - but here’s a few relevant snippets.

3. Avoid creating pity-beggar characters.

The pity-beggar Mary Sue is a common one, often leading a painful life with hateful parents, perfect siblings/friends or no friends at all, no lover, no man or woman taking a fancy to them, and the list could go on. The worst part of this is that the character who has suffered these injustices would have little or no reaction towards these experiences.

Pity-begging characters tend to spend a great deal of time talking about their awful pasts as well, and this is not something that people really always enjoy in roleplay. Don’t dwell too much on these things.

I am not saying that giving your character a horrible past is necessarily a bad thing, but I am saying that basing your entire character concept around it would be dangerous.

In real life, we’ve all suffered some degree of injustices. Its just the reality of life. Over-emphasizing it on your character is more often than not going to cause eye-rolling.

4. Make it difficult for your character sometimes.

It is very easy for players to make their characters out to be this individual that “just seems to get everything right the first time". Like a druid mastering his flight form on the first try, for example.

Fighting skills, special talents, strong relationships, and any special powers of some sort should not have come easily to your character in the beginning.

For example, this current character I am posting with struggles endlessly understanding the branch of druidism related to curing land corruption. In fact, he may never fully grasp the concept at all, and this may in turn prove to be a disadvantage to him!

There is, in fact, an engaging balance to be found between the two above poles.

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