[b]Mary Sues, God Modding, and the Quest for a Cool Character: Part Two[/b]

In the last part, we talked about Mary Sues and went over a method for turning crazy character ideas into usable character sheets. This time we’ll be talking about making a strong character that’s likable in post. But first, I’d like to clarify something about Mary Sues.

What makes a Sue a Sue doesn’t always crop up on a character sheet. You can have someone who seems to fit in the setting, but then circumstances cause unusual things to happen. Maybe a junior detective can single-handedly solve a case that baffled his superiors. Maybe an inexperienced hero turns the tables on an experienced villain. A character who never swam a day in their lives is a better swimmer than everyone else at the race. In a vacuum these examples could be flukes, but they challenge a reader’s suspension of disbelief every time they happen. The issue with Sues and God Modders is they do this all the time.

You may wonder why someone would do that if it’s so hated. Inexperienced writers might not know any better. Everyone loves an underdog story, but the novice writer is not aware of the nuances that make the event memorable, and fails to make it feel earned. Alternatively,  they may want escapism. The character can be perfect in all the ways the player wishes they were. Their character can have existent social skills, be smart, and never face adversity. In a role play setting where everyone has their own characters to play, their wish fulfillment fantasies often come at the expense of other players, if not the plot as a whole.

The best strategy to avoid writing a Sue is to get experience and not use your character for pure escapism. Making something that suits the world is a great first step, but we’ve already covered that. Moreover, a character sheet is a starting point. We’ll need to take our characters the rest of the way by writing posts.

There are some things that storycraft dictates we should do to create strong, memorable characters. There is no litmus test that can tell us if a character is strong or not. A strong character is simply a well written one. A Mary Sue may have traits that make them likable, but that does not mean that they are a strong or interesting character. let’s look at some elements that we can use to see how well written a character is. 

Those elements would be their…

	-Character Arc
	-Motivation
	-Activity Level
	-Struggle/Flaws
	-Likability

Let’s explore these in depth.

[u]Character Arc:[/u]

You want your character to have an arc. They start in one place, and as the story progresses, they learn and grow into someone else. At the end of the RP your character should not be the same person they were at the start. This is the mark of a character that can reflect and change their outlook as things move on. This can master some difficult skill, or learn to overcome a negative part of themself. They don’t have to become a totally different person, but their experiences should change them. These changes do not always have to be for the better. 

In most situations, a Mary Sue will start off perfect. They do not have an arc because there is nothing to change, as any change would only make them worse off.

[u]Motivation:[/u]

Characters should have their own core drives. A father might do anything to protect his family, a nurse might be motivated to save every life she encounters, a monster may wish to be seen as a person. Their core values should dictate what they do in the RP, and be strong enough that they drive their important decisions. This helps decide the people they work with and the people they avoid. 

A Mary Sue typically won’t have a drive like that. Their actions are dictated by the plot and what needs to happen.

[u]Activity Level:[/u]

Related to motivation, Activity Level is all about how frequently your character takes initiative. A sign of a strong character is one that is compelled to do things. They don’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. They make choices, often without being prompted, and do not passively react to everything.  Nobody can be active all the time, but most of your character’s actions should be a result of their decision making. 

A Sue does not need to make choices often. They are reactionary creatures, often stumbling into conflicts and allowing the situation to dictate their actions.  

[u]Struggle/Flaws:[/u]

Most characters will spend more time winning than losing. Otherwise D&D campaigns would be a lot shorter. But how easy do your character’s victories come? Everyone has a set of skills that they are especially good at, but they may have a weakness and/or come across tasks that are difficult for them. Everyone struggles with something, be it physical or mental. Characters that struggle to complete tasks, or even fail while doing them, earn our empathy and endear us to them. 

A Mary Sue does not struggle often, if at all. They are equipped for nearly every situation they come across. If they have flaws, they are often meaningless flaws that never prevent them from getting what they want.

[u]Likability:[/u]

This one is a bit more complicated… and one some Sues get right!

Michael Hauge is a renowned Story consultant and script doctor. He’s worked on a lot of Will Smith’s projects, before Will decided to slap Chris Rock. He’s also on the Board of Directors of the American Screenwriters Association and the Advisory Board for Scriptwriter Magazine in London. Most notably for our uses, he wrote a book called “Writing Screenplays That Sell”, where he lays out four character elements that make audiences instantly like a character. Those are:

	-Make a character good at what he/she does.
	-Make the character funny.
	-Make the character the recipient of an undeserved misfortune.
	-Give the character a strong moral code.

These are all traits that endear us to real people, and they work just as well with characters. Half of these  are built into most Mary Sues. A Sue is often good at everything they do. While not all of them are funny, many of them have a tragic backstory, and have no issue following their moral compass. This is why some Sues can be likable even if they are poorly written. 

[hr]

With those basic elements outlined, let’s take a look at one of the Rilla Müller sheets in part one and decide how we’re going to develop her. 

[quote]

[center]
[hider=Picture][img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0d/ed/47/0ded4758684964624d02291fb1d854b5.jpg[/img][/hider]

[color=gold][h1]Rilla Müller[/h1][h3]Backyard Tech Superstar[/h3][/color]

[b]Age 21 | Female  |  120 LBs | 5’
Mechsuit | Engineer | German[/b]

[/center]

Rilia is an up and coming engineer that built her own steam powered mech suit in her father’s workshop. Her suit uses pressurized steam to fire brass steaks and has a steam thrower for boiling targets that get too close. Lastly, her suit is capable of using its hot steam to propel her as she runs and jumps, increasing her speed and mobility.

[/quote]

We’ll just go down the list.

Because I wrote a pretty bare bones character sheet, there’s not a ton of stuff we can use to determine what her character arc could be. But for those of you that read my article on dialog, Rilia’s name may look familiar. That’s the girl that was arguing with her sister. If you remember it, you probably also remember her hatred for the Italian fascists that killed her parents. I like the idea of her having cognitive dissonance because while she thinks the best of humanity as a general rule, she also believes that Italians are the true scum of the earth, effectively becoming a racist. She would have many opportunities to see the error of her ways. Maybe one of the other players is playing a defecting Italian that she doesn’t trust initially, or she could have repeated encounters with Italian civilians. Either way, she’ll come to change her view on Italians and  learn to separate them from the acts of their heinous dictator. 

I should probably mention that this type of plot won’t work in every RP. Racism isn’t something every GM wants to tackle, even if they tolerate other dark themes. If you’re unsure, you may wish to talk it over with the GM before you dedicate time to writing a character they won’t let you play. But this is a war drama, and racism/nationalism is sure to play a big part of the story.

With the arc taken care of, motivation falls into place. She’s motivated by her need for revenge, which is secondary only to her desire to save her people. Before her arc concludes at least. If there’s an Italian soldier that wishes to defect or surrender, she is going to be the most insistent that they kill him rather than keep him alive, even if he has useful secrets.

To make her active, we just need to make sure Rilia isn’t passive in the RP. She will take orders from her superiors, but she should be self motivated and not always need to be told what to do. If two of her squad mates are shot in front of her, she needs to decide if she’s going to help neutralize the threat or focus on evacuating her allies. Being told how to handle the situation removes her agency. 

Now we move onto any flaws she may have, and anything she could struggle with. I think it should be noted that in order for a flaw to feel impactful, it needs to actually inconvenience the character. So while it would be tempting to write off her unbridled hatred for the Italians as a flaw, she’s in a war zone. Having contempt for her enemy is not a flaw that’s going to hold her back in all but a few situations. It would be a different story if she had to butt heads with an allied Italian, but I think I’m going to give her something else just in case. I have two ideal picks for her. We could give her another moral flaw and make her vain. She’s a nice person, but she needs to show off and frequently does things that are way out of her freaking element. This makes certain situations more challenging, as she won’t reliably follow orders and overestimates herself. Alternatively, we give her a physical flaw. Maybe she’s not good at fighting due to her inexperience, or she’s a paraplegic and can’t walk without her mech suit. If you’re going with the latter, make sure there’s a time when such a flaw can show itself. Remember, flaws do not have to stick with the character forever. Over time they can grow and change, and her lack of fighting skill or oversized ego could be resolved with time. That might even be a more interesting arc than her overcoming her racism.

Now all that’s left to worry about is her likability. She joined the mech suit unit because she was a good mechanic. Even if she isn’t as good at fighting as other characters, her skill in crafting crazy gadgets for her mech suit, ability to sing, and clever word play is sure to sell  Rilia’s skills. There will also be opportunities to do funny things with her. Do note that a character doesn’t have to turn themselves into a joke to be funny. She might just have comedic chemistry with another character or have a really good pun game. As described previously, her parents were killed when the Italians attacked, which is her undeserved misfortune. And her strong moral code comes from her underlying belief that no human deserves to suffer the horrors of war, which will get even stronger once she decides Italians are humans too.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you go about playing a strong character that almost everyone will love. We give our characters flaws, because they are strong enough to overcome them. We make them competent, but not perfect. We also ensure we don’t upstage other player characters unless it makes sense to do so.

I could end the discussion here, but there’s an elephant in the room that has yet to be addressed. Some of you are likely wondering if it’s possible to have something like a predetermined arc or direction to grow. You’re not penning a story by yourself. Your character is subject to the whims of the GM and other players. Doesn’t this make determining things like who your character is in the future kind of challenging?

In a word: Yes.

I think I’ll share another one of my war stories with you. I was once in an RP with a character called Benny. Benny was kind of strong. They were able to fight as well as the strongest characters in the setting, had lots of friends, and had a tremendous amount of political power because why not? They were a Sue, without question. 

I was invited onto the GM team to help determine the direction of the RP. I had a lot of ideas, and voiced my concerns about Benny’s strength. While I was acknowledged and systems I created were implemented, the GM would always make sure to add a little loop hole that Benny could use to exploit said system. I stepped down form being a GM, and left not long after that. I was pretty fed up with Benny and their player. 

About a year later, I met Benny’s player out in the wild. We just had a nice talk about Benny and we didn’t allow our past experiences with each other make us salty. I learned two things talking to Benny’s player. The first was that they didn’t understand basic storycraft. But the second thing was that Benny being this political,physical, and social power house was largely because of the main GM. Benny was only ever supposed to be a powerhouse of a fighter. Unfortunately, their powerhouse status made them quite desirable to all the player characters, and everyone wanted to be friends with them. This was further exacerbated by the GM, who refused to challenge the character. At one point Benny snapped at a powerful, irritable character that was looking for an excuse to attack Benny and the rest of the players. But rather than capitalizing on the opportunity, they were all  “I admire your passion and why you’re doing this.” Like, what? Even Benny’s player was a little miffed about the whole thing. Benny had been caught in a trap where they could do spectacular things, but none of it interesting. Their character had become a Mary Sue.

The lesson to be learned is that your character’s development isn’t totally in your hands, but there are workarounds. You can have a plan B or just be adaptable. As the RP goes on you can decide if the events your character is experiencing will shape your character differently. Your plan is merely a roadmap to help guide your character in the right direction. Don’t be afraid to take detours if they look interesting. Maybe Rilia doesn’t overcome her racism through interactions with good Italians. Maybe it’s seeing her own behavior mirrored by evil Italian officers that causes her to snap out of it. Alternatively, you can talk with the other players and GM about the direction you’d like to take your character in. I love being part of another character’s journey, and everyone that helps your character grow will be more endeared to them because of it. Also, sometimes desires change. After roleplaying a character for many years, you may decide to take them in a different direction.

And there you have it, a few elements to keep in mind as your character moves about the RP they’re in. It’s not the end of the world if your character is missing a few of these elements. Even something as seemingly important as a character arc does not need to be present for a character to do well. There is a concept involving “round” and “flat” characters, but I’ll talk more about that later. For now, just strive for strong characters, and readers will never accuse them of being a Mary Sue.

EDIT: I forgot to include this in my article somewhere, but [@BangoSkank] made a few interesting points on using your initial concept for further character development, which is worth a read and can be found [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5466223]here[/url].