Special Snowflakes

I'm pretty guilty of playing such characters back in ye olden days of my roleplay 'career'. It was when I was like 13 though so of course I wanted to play as a character who was EVERYTHING because CHOICE and ~reasons~. Now, I've grown up a lot and I love to play flawed characters with terrible quirks and stuff.


Come on man, most of us are guilty of Mary/Gary Sue-ing at one point! Embrace it!
 
Cooper said:
I'm pretty guilty of playing such characters back in ye olden days of my roleplay 'career'. It was when I was like 13 though so of course I wanted to play as a character who was EVERYTHING because CHOICE and ~reasons~. Now, I've grown up a lot and I love to play flawed characters with terrible quirks and stuff.
Come on man, most of us are guilty of Mary/Gary Sue-ing at one point! Embrace it!
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No one is saying we didn't do the same thing. But just cuz we made special snowflakes too doesn't make them any less annoying. Just at one point in time we annoyed everyone else as much as these characters annoy us.
 
Oh man.


I ran into one who was supposed to be young enough to be in elementary school but already was well aware of her sexual orientation. I can't complain TOO much about that though; I'd let it slide if it were just that due to not having any sexual orientation myself, so I don't know how early that comes about(Romanctic orientation is a different story). This kid was in a relationship with another girl, constantly talked about how insane her family was and how she wasn't — which was a blatant lie. She tried to convince the cast to go see her brothers, who she had just said were insane.


She also regularly emphasized that she, as an elementary age kid, had an excellent QuickDraw and could fill someone with bullets from her revolver (which the character sheet said was unloaded and she didn't know how to use) "quicker than they could do anything." She also put a gun to one of my characters' head and threatened to kill her best friend.


Later, the two packed up and decided to abandon this kid with the others. She immediately started throwing the orphan card and crying about how wrong it was to leave and held a gun on my character again. My character plainly pointed out how stupid it would be for her to stay, because... Well, that's the kind of person she is.


Not to say I don't have snowflake traits either. That character involved in the situation was also an orphan and raised herself in a pretty rough place, but she doesn't really talk about it or ask for sympathy. The other character I play with her has PTSD, but I never intentionally play it for attention. But the nature of the issue makes it a bit snowflake-y.
 
I have a lot of stories about characters like that, but just to bring up one: I ran into in February of 2015 that had a really overdone edgy character, and I still have a screenshot of his character sheet. Just to go over a few things about his character:


His surname had shadow in it. He is surrounded by shadows. His eyes aren't real eyes, but just black flames in the sockets. He has completely black "assassin like" armor made of leather, but when it is struck it's as hard as plate. He has a grimoire covered in chains on his side. His voice echoes and "sounds dead". His footsteps sound like chains hitting each other. He has black metal bracelets. He has a jet black pistol. He has a scythe made of bone that has necromantic energy radiating from it. He has a dagger that causes extreme pain whenever it touches flesh and also disables all magic it comes into contact with. He is hard to kill and regenerates quickly because he was experimented on thousands of years ago.


Also, he had a fully grown dragon.


Of course, I can think of a few characters I had that were probably worse, although I don't remember many specifics. One thing I remember is that I ran a generic "medieval fantasy RP" years ago and every time I saw or thought up some sort of ability that would be cool, I simply stuck it onto the one character I had so he ended up being about 15 different classes.
 
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Alright guys...


I'm reading through these posts, and while I'd love to think that I'm a half-way decent writer, I'm suddenly terrified that I'm guilty of this. No, none of my characters are the last of anything, and none of them have any special powers, abilities, or the like. However, some of my characters have had it rough, and as a result, they're addicts...or assholes.


Is there any chance at all that someone wants to look over a few (3-4) of my characters and tell me if I'm guilty?
 
Tryss said:
Alright guys...
I'm reading through these posts, and while I'd love to think that I'm a half-way decent writer, I'm suddenly terrified that I'm guilty of this. No, none of my characters are the last of anything, and none of them have any special powers, abilities, or the like. However, some of my characters have had it rough, and as a result, they're addicts...or assholes.


Is there any chance at all that someone wants to look over a few (3-4) of my characters and tell me if I'm guilty?
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Lol no worries as @sharkradio put it it's all about how the character is written and most importantly if they fit the roleplay.


For instance if your character is an addict for the sole purpose of forcing other characters to feel sympathy for them. Or their an asshole yet are still supposed to be super popular and everyone is just supposed to be okay with them treating other characters like crap.


As long as you understand that there will be some sharing when it comes to characters each getting their own strengths and limelight. And that your characters actions have consequences then they're probably fine.
 
readingraebow said:
Lol no worries as @sharkradio put it it's all about how the character is written and most importantly if they fit the roleplay.
For instance if your character is an addict for the sole purpose of forcing other characters to feel sympathy for them. Or their an asshole yet are still supposed to be super popular and everyone is just supposed to be okay with them treating other characters like crap.


As long as you understand that there will be some sharing when it comes to characters each getting their own strengths and limelight. And that your characters actions have consequences then they're probably fine.
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Oh no.


The one character who really fits this (if for no other reason for the fact that his mom was an unstable bitch) was created to be the bad guy. He's a sociopath, and created for the sole purpose of people hating him.


As for the other characters, I sincerely hope I never come off like that. While I have been known for flashbacks, it is with the intention of getting to know the character more.


Most of the time, my characters prefer to hang back in the background, only popping in to make some snarky comment. Although one character did wind up saving someone once, but the teen in question was basically helpless. And despite Benjamin being a cold son of a bitch, he's not completely heartless. He wouldn't let someone drown. I mean...not if they hadn't already pissed him off, at least.
 
Tryss said:
Oh no.
The one character who really fits this (if for no other reason for the fact that his mom was an unstable bitch) was created to be the bad guy. He's a sociopath, and created for the sole purpose of people hating him.


As for the other characters, I sincerely hope I never come off like that. While I have been known for flashbacks, it is with the intention of getting to know the character more.


Most of the time, my characters prefer to hang back in the background, only popping in to make some snarky comment. Although one character did wind up saving someone once, but the teen in question was basically helpless. And despite Benjamin being a cold son of a bitch, he's not completely heartless. He wouldn't let someone drown. I mean...not if they hadn't already pissed him off, at least.
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Yeah like I said just a bad attitude or a tragic backstory doesn't make your character a snowflake. What makes them snowflake is the fact that they take over the roleplay and/or if they act in a deplorable way and yet still somehow expect to be treated like a perfect person.


So basically if your character is trying to make the roleplay about them and only them then they're a snowflake.


If they work with the flow of the story than their fine.
 
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readingraebow said:
Yeah like I said just a bad attitude or a tragic backstory doesn't make your character a snowflake. What makes them snowflake is the fact that they take over the roleplay and/or if they act in a deplorable way and yet still somehow expect to be treated like a perfect person.
So basically if your character is trying to make the roleplay about them and only them then they're a snowflake.


If they work with the flow of the story than their fine.
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Oh!


Somehow I read the original post as though if they've had a tough life, they're a snowflake. I'll admit that most of my characters have had a hard knock or two, and while some are worse than others, they've all experienced some form of loss.


Whether it be that they never knew who their dad was, that a past lover or friend died, or they've decided to distance themselves from their family for one reason or another, they all have their own set of plights.


Except Charlie.


She led a pretty blessed life, but is a compulsive liar that feeds off attention.


...But I only bring her out when I need cannon fodder. Someone to die in the event of participating in a murder RP.


Edited to say: I feel a lot better now :)


Thank you!
 
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Tryss said:
Oh!
Somehow I read the original post as though if they've had a tough life, they're a snowflake. I'll admit that most of my characters have had a hard knock or two, and while some are worse than others, they've all experienced some form of loss.


Whether it be that they never knew who their dad was, that a past lover or friend died, or they've decided to distance themselves from their family for one reason or another, they all have their own set of plights.


Except Charlie.


She led a pretty blessed life, but is a compulsive liar that feeds off attention.


...But I only bring her out when I need cannon fodder. Someone to die in the event of participating in a murder RP.


Edited to say: I feel a lot better now :)


Thank you!
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lol no problem. character creation is a tricky thing sometimes because really any character type under the sun could be used incorrectly just as it takes all kinds of characters to make a roleplay interesting.


just as in real life a roleplay will in compass all walks of characters and they each have their strengths and drawbacks. really a special snowflake, over powered, or otherwise obnoxious character is typically the result of a player not knowing how to properly incomporate their character into the action and so they just kind of shoe-horn them in with bright flashing lights saying "look at me, look how awesome i am". And even that in and of itself isn't really wrong. We all start somewhere. It's the idea that someone continues to make a story all about them even after they have been informed that this is detrimental to other people that really sticks in most people's craws.


As long as your polite and you acknowledge other peoples feelings you really have nothing to worry about regardless if your character is a thirteen year old who somehow is a doctor, lawyer, ninja, assassin, holy warrior all at once. Or if your playing someone who watched their entire planet get destroyed and yet still manages to laugh and joke around. As long as that character doesn't bother you partner than play them to your hearts content.
 
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Actually, I've had multiple experiences with people who have both been 'special snowflake' players, as well as attempted 'special snowflake' characters.


One of my most recent disasters was a player that hadn't read literally ANYTHING in the role play- not the rules, not the character information, not he cultural background or history.


I've just finished creating my very in-depth, Post-Apocalyptic Zombie- Esque world set in a fantasy universe, and its got a very detailed and specific plot line. I had said individual come in and ask me if he NEEDED to use real pictures for his character, saying that his picture was 'super realistic', and asked me if he could just use that. I let him down smooth the first time, but then he comes back and says-


"Let me just show you the picture that I have." And sends me this very sketchy painted figure, as if I was going to go against the theme and continuity of my entire thread and let him be the special exception just because HE thinks his anime picture is GRAND. Not to mention, when he sent in his reserve form, he got two of the sections mixed up, and tried to say his character was an independent contractor. Right. Because there's businesses running after the fantasy world ended 200 years ago.


Yikes.


But you know what I absolutely despise? You know how some plots have organization tabs, groups, or nations affiliated with them? It really grinds my gears when people come in with characters from certain groups and invent all this new cultural stuff special to their character, and just expect you to let them butcher your hard work- just so they can be a 'special snowflake'. As in, they just added a bunch of cultural/ group info that would have contrasted with everything that organization stands for, and they've got all this extra shit that makes them better than every other character from the same group. Or, for example, if they were a member of a very culture rich faction, they create their character to hate that culture, to the extent of breaking theme continuity for that organization and making you shake your head in amazement.


Ugh.
 
I had someone join my RP and say that their character was an orphan but they were thrown out of the house by their parents at the age of five. At no point in the backstory did this person specify that their parents died. Not only this but they talked about their parents (the character application was written in-character) in present tense, as in they were very much alive.


@theManCalledSting
 
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I once created an RP that was in a completely realistic world. I accepted one character who didn't seem like a special snowflake. However, during the RP, this character was talking about how she was turned into a cat by a witch.
 
Were you or someone you loved hurt or killed during the formative years of your life?


Where you always alone?


Did you fail to develop a reasonably decent personality, yet somehow everyone actually shows interest in you?


Do your eyes change color, or have special properties? Are they associated with your abilities?


You might be a suffering from SSPD. Special Snowflake Personality Disorder.


Symptoms include...


brooding,


fangirls showing up,


angst,


pouting,


strange and disproportionately potent abilities,


If you have SSPD, visit your local roleplay forum for tips on how to treat the problem. You're not alone.
 
I once was part of an rp where I ended up the third wheel to some snowflakes. There were only 5 or 6 of us to start, and were all pretty powerful, but that's what the rp sort of called for as we were to be taking on huge fantastic challenges. Well it didn't take long for a couple people to just disappear from the forums completely, they were the type who joined a forum and went straight to the roleplay section, expecting to make such cool characters (conveniently and obviously based off popular anime) that people would fall over and be forced to love them, which didn't happen. So it was just myself, the gm, and a girl character. And... I kid you not, these two started some odd relationship based on, "my past worse than thou" histories that contradicted, changed the geological location, and age of their characters. Completely ignoring my character and the story, which of course, the gm created. And when I attempted to interrupt their insane luvv fest with an enemy or something, they god moded it away. When I stopped posting then, it devolved into a snowflake tragedy 1x1 romance which involved time travel both forward and back, so they could see the deaths of their parents, how they grew up (more contradictions ensue), and then the deaths of their own children. It was nuts.
 
GoodJobDino said:
I once was part of an rp where I ended up the third wheel to some snowflakes. There were only 5 or 6 of us to start, and were all pretty powerful, but that's what the rp sort of called for as we were to be taking on huge fantastic challenges. Well it didn't take long for a couple people to just disappear from the forums completely, they were the type who joined a forum and went straight to the roleplay section, expecting to make such cool characters (conveniently and obviously based off popular anime) that people would fall over and be forced to love them, which didn't happen. So it was just myself, the gm, and a girl character. And... I kid you not, these two started some odd relationship based on, "my past worse than thou" histories that contradicted, changed the geological location, and age of their characters. Completely ignoring my character and the story, which of course, the gm created. And when I attempted to interrupt their insane luvv fest with an enemy or something, they god moded it away. When I stopped posting then, it devolved into a snowflake tragedy 1x1 romance which involved time travel both forward and back, so they could see the deaths of their parents, how they grew up (more contradictions ensue), and then the deaths of their own children. It was nuts.
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Holy shit...


I'm sorry.


That sucks. :/
 
The question is, would the character sheets be special snowflakes with good spelling or would people go all the way?
 
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