Oh, good, thanks, that makes me feel better. I thought it meant something else. I shouldn't have a problem, then.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 4:58 pm
by The New Velociraptor Empire
Tasarinan wrote:Hello. I want to join PL, but I'm very new to rping. Before I create an app, I just want to know: What is your definition of a Mary Sue, and do you have advice on how not to be one? Because I want to learn how to rp well, but I think I tend towards Mary Sue characters. '~'
A Sue is a Self Insert that is perfect at everything. But that is just my definition and I am not an official authority.
Torsiedellious and Sturmovosk wrote:Okay, anything happen IC-wise? I've been going around an Army Base all day
Replied with Lance.
Probably won't be doing much until tonight, on my phone mostly today.
Cool. I'm home, so I can reply now.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:01 pm
by Erucia
Tasarinan wrote:Hello. I want to join PL, but I'm very new to rping. Before I create an app, I just want to know: What is your definition of a Mary Sue, and do you have advice on how not to be one? Because I want to learn how to rp well, but I think I tend towards Mary Sue characters. '~'
"Mary Sue" actually encompasses several things. The most basic definition is a character with no noticeable weaknesses. One that's strong, smart, handsome, well-liked, etc. But they can also have a few other tendencies as well: -Characters who attempt to form arguments against the Mary Sue can't seem to get by without being refuted or being forced to resort to violence and meaningless banter. -The Mary Sue's enemies are generally always wrong for arguing against the character. -Powers that the Mary Sue cannot possibly have given his/her predicament. For example, a skinny character who is perfectly normal and yet can lift a 230-pound man up into the air and throw him. -A Mary Sue often knows the best answer all the time, and sometimes things that s/he shouldn't know. -Has non-natural features that really have no good explanation (e.g. being born with blue hair from parents with normal brown hair). -And because NVE covered it: a Mary Sue can and will usually also have several similarities to the writer, and will often be heavily based on and treated almost as the writer.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:03 pm
by Giovenith
Tasarinan wrote:Oh, good, thanks, that makes me feel better. I thought it meant something else. I shouldn't have a problem, then.
Yes, Mary Sue has been leaning towards many false definitions lately. The most annoying to me is, "any OC paired up with a canon character." While many of these kinds of characters tend to be Sues, this alone does not make them one, and there is still a chance that such a practice can be done right.
Also, a Mary Sue is not necessarily always perfect at everything (many people have tried to justify their Sues by saying things like, "But she's bipolar, that's not perfect!"). It's more so that a Mary Sue has no "true" flaws, in that the flaws they have tend to exist for the sole purpose of making them endearing to the reader (either by being "cute clumsy" or using various tactics to make us feel sorry for them). You can read a good report on it here.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:06 pm
by Swith Witherward
Tasarinan wrote:Oh, good, thanks, that makes me feel better. I thought it meant something else. I shouldn't have a problem, then.
We welcome new players. This is a good spot to learn the basics.
Make an app and I'll look through it. I'll point out anything that seems weird or needs tightening. Let me know in TG if you want to run something incredibly superpowered. I recommend starting off with something very basic rather than powerful since you're new to RP. You can always add characters later.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:09 pm
by Tiltjuice
Tasarinan wrote:Oh, good, thanks, that makes me feel better. I thought it meant something else. I shouldn't have a problem, then.
A penguin for you. *nods*
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:24 pm
by Tasarinan
Thank you all for being so welcoming and supportive. Thanks also for the link. Unfortunately, I do have one bad streak of Mary-Sue-ishness, which is that I don't really know how to make/play a character who isn't at least mostly an author avatar. I will try to make up for this by avoiding all of the other Mary Sue traits, and trying to broaden my character as much as I can.
Oh, yeah, I also need help with the app because I don't know how to make a link, and I'm sure no one would appreciate a huge block of rp example in the middle of my character description.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:33 pm
by Giovenith
Tis okay! I'm sure you'll do great! It's good to be open-minded about these things, for many people, Sues are a stage, not a darnation.
And it's not necessarily TOTALLY bad for a character to have some similar traits as you. It only becomes bad when you try to use them to, for example, live out a fantasy of what how you see yourself. e.g., A girl who has people she doesn't like at school in real life will make a character who is basically a glorified version of her, yet has the ability to slaughter who ever she feels like (usually stand in's for the people she doesn't like) with her uber chainsaw-karate skills.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:45 pm
by Swith Witherward
Tasarinan wrote:Thank you all for being so welcoming and supportive. Thanks also for the link. Unfortunately, I do have one bad streak of Mary-Sue-ishness, which is that I don't really know how to make/play a character who isn't at least mostly an author avatar. I will try to make up for this by avoiding all of the other Mary Sue traits, and trying to broaden my character as much as I can.
Oh, yeah, I also need help with the app because I don't know how to make a link, and I'm sure no one would appreciate a huge block of rp example in the middle of my character description.
Don't worry too much about linking posts. I read through yours and you seem to be very open and have a desire to learn. That's always a good quality when starting out.
To link other things, like a character picture: We don't want the actual picture in your application, only the link to it. Find a pic you want for your character and copy the address for it. Put it between [ url]www.example.com/yeah[/ url] brackets.
Nation Nickname: Aman, the Blessed Realm; a.k.a. Valinor
Character Name (can be different than nation name): Finduin
URL to Character Picture or a few sentences about what they look like: Female, 53 years old, 5'9", 135 lbs, fair-skinned, very expressive face with green eyes, waist-length, bright golden hair, fairly slender but with reasonably well-developed muscles, wears a thick, hooded robe of dark forest green.
Character Species (nation personification, human, alien, etc): Calaquendi; a.k.a. High Elf
Character Powers/Special Abilities (if any): Very gifted at both language and music, and is able to gain the love and trust of animals with uncommon ease.
Character Weaknesses/Flaws: Doesn't work as well in a group as she does alone, perfectionist to the extreme, somewhat withdrawn and has difficulty being outgoing, also has strong emotions which occasionally rise to the surface as a fiery temper.
Character Background: A daughter of Finarfin, Prince of remnant of the Noldor in Valmar, and Earwen, Swan-Maiden of Alqualonde, who was born sometime after the departure of the Exiles from Valinor.
(Everything in that sentence except for my character's existence is copyright of J.R.R. Tolkien, as many other aspects, backstories, IC stuff are/will be as well; I hope he won't mind if I roleplay using the world he created; I just want to be clear that it's his, not mine.)
Finduin's name, in Quenya, the High-Elven-tongue means, roughly, "Hair like a long river".
(Fin=hair, duin=long river. This is actually cannon Tolkien Elvish.)
She grew up in a land of bliss and peace, but her parents always told her the histories of the dawn of the elves, and of the Two Trees, which were no more, and of the treachery of Melkor, and the kinslaying at Alqualonde, and the flight of the Exiles, and of her sundered kindred who were among the Exiles, whom she had never met. She lived happily enough, save that she often wondered what lay outside her protected home, out in the wide lands of Middle-Earth. She liked at times to travel alone to the gap in the Calacirya, the Encircling Mountains, to gaze at the stars and listen to the sea. It was on the last of these trips that,as she stood looking out over the wide sea, she seemed to see, on a sudden, wide lands rushing towards her. She was torn between fear and fascination, so she hesitated, and so it was that she was caught up in a rent that occurred momentarily in the fabric of the world, and hurled ungraciously into another time and place....
Additional Notes: Finduin loves language, poetry, song, music, horseback-riding, sparring, swimming, dancing, and she loves all manner of flowers, trees, beasts and especially birds. However, at the moment of her arrival she was completely terrified and it took her a while before she was able to overcome her fear of her new surroundings and sadness at the loss of her home and family and to take an earnest interest in life once more.
Link to RP examples: (this MUST be a DIRECT LINK to your IC post in an RP, NOT a link to the RP itself. If you don't have examples, make your biography good.)
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Queen Freawaru Erikson of the Northern Alliance sighed wearily and thrust her sleek i-phone as deep as it would go into the pocket of her business slacks. Another offer for the Scaninavian Oil and Mineral Deposits. Another offer she would turn down. Another meeting of Parliament during which her ministers would frown at her. Another news announcement that would anger many of her subjects. It was always the oil and minerals these days. Things had reached a point where it was difficult for the Queen to remember a life without constant offers, pleas, remonstrances, threats, even, pertaining to the mining of, or otherwise, of Scandinavia's rich deposits of natural resources.
The deposits had recently become available since climate change had thawed the heretofore frozen lands containing the underground wealth. It seemed half the world wanted to buy it from the Northern Alliance, and what was worse, Freawaru often felt she was the only person within the Alliance itself who did not support the mining of the SOAMD. Called an environmental extremist, a tree-hugging hippy, the world's greatest fool, even crazy, Queen Freawaru sometimes wondered if she were not all of them at once. Nonetheless, she would not change her mind. Not yet, anyway. Not until it was inevitable. She secretly entertained the fantasy of ODing if things ever reached the point wherein the pristine wildernesses of the north lands would be permanently, messily and obscenely destroyed.
The Queen pulled herself suddenly out of her reverie, and with an air of finality, touched a small, round, white panel on a screen mounted on the wall. A soft chime sounded from somewhere outside the door to her personal study. Freawaru took a deep breath. After a moment, she heard a polite knock on the oak-paneled door, which was immediately followed by the entrance of a tall, white-haired man whose striking blue eyes contrasted with his somewhat portly figure. The man gave a quick bow, followed by a studied murmur of, "Your Majesty."
Queen Freawaru spun her chair quickly around to face him. She nodded quickly at the man, whose bland features did not entirely hide an expression of dislike. In a curt voice, she addressed the man. "My answer to our latest prospective buyer is the same as always. No." There was a pause, during which the two people regarded each other, one with an air of rigid determination, the other with cold politeness and ill-disguised contempt. Then, her voice a shade sharper, Freawaru Erikson said, "That is all," with the obvious expectation of being obeyed without question. The man waited for just half a moment, flirting with rebellion, before nodding, with another murmured "Your Majesty", and then turning and leaving the room, closing the door soundlessly behind him.
Queen Freawaru sat as still as ice for a moment, retaining her dignity, as if she fancied her subject to be listening outside the door for her to sigh or groan. Then she slowly spun back toward her desk, allowed her shoulders to slump, and pulled out her i-phone. She typed herself a memo;
"Turned down another offer. Jared Ferguson is testing my authority. Remember to watch him, especially during parliament."
IMPORTANT: One paragraph that sums up your character. This paragraph is what we'll use on your player tab on the first page of the thread. This MUST be brief. Your tab will contain a link to your application so people will have full details:
(Everything about my character's world except for her existence is copyright of J.R.R. Tolkien, as many other aspects, backstories, IC stuff are/will be as well; I hope he won't mind if I roleplay using the world he created; I just want to be clear that it's his, not mine.)
Finduin is a female High Elf who has lived her whole life in the bliss of Valinor. She is a daughter of Finarfin, Prince of remnant of the Noldor in Valmar, and Earwen, Swan-Maiden of Alqualonde, who was born sometime after the departure of the Exiles from Valinor. She is wise for her age, funny, generally friendly although she is somewhat withdrawn, she loves all living things, although her strong emotions and fiery nature sometimes make it difficult for her to get along with other sentient beings. She enjoys language, poetry, song, music, horseback-riding, sparring, swimming, and dancing At least, she was and did all of these things, until a temporary rift in the fabric of her world caused her to be warped into another time and place. At the moment of her arrival in this universe she was completely terrified and it took her a while before she was able to overcome her fear of her new surroundings and sadness at the loss of her home and family and to take an earnest interest in life once more.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:03 pm
by Swith Witherward
Tiltjuice wrote:Why do I smell herbs? Swith, have you taken to stealing into my house and spraying herbal scents everywhere?
Or maybe I should stop eating in my room. Hmm. Hmm. That could be it.
Perils of studying comp sci...being a shut-in. NA, read, and learn. *mystical flipper gesture*
Not me! I made Italian stuff earlier, and just finished making pudding fish.
And now I'm being booted from the laptop. Fair enough, it's not my laptop. My craptop may not want to behave, so I might be offline the rest of the night.
Bran... we can wrap up the collab tomorrow. If I threw too much at you, tell me.
-Wake up Fortu IC -Do another Let's Play that isn't horrible -Do some work I took home (I don't work on weekends ever) -Help the new girl -Kill Aeten and eat his liver -Check Eru's case again
Well, I think I'll start at the bottom and work my way up.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:05 pm
by AETEN II
Swith, what's the audio thing you used so I can upload mine?
Also, thanks to me not using a script, it is over a half hour long.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:08 pm
by Swith Witherward
AETEN II wrote:Swith, what's the audio thing you used so I can upload mine?
Also, thanks to me not using a script, it is over a half hour long.
I did mine live via BTR (radio show/podcast) but you can upload to YouTube if you make an account there. I think that's what nearly everyone has done. I couldn't figure out how to do so without having a picture (video... with a broken lens), so I settled on BTR.
NVE and Urran would know how to cobble together audio and a picture.
Did you ever get a chance to respond to Tipper IC?
AETEN II wrote:Swith, what's the audio thing you used so I can upload mine?
Also, thanks to me not using a script, it is over a half hour long.
I did mine live via BTR (radio show/podcast) but you can upload to YouTube if you make an account there. I think that's what nearly everyone has done. I couldn't figure out how to do so without having a picture (video... with a broken lens), so I settled on BTR.
NVE and Urran would know how to cobble together audio and a picture.
Did you ever get a chance to respond to Tipper IC?
Going to. Also, don't want to upload it on youtube. Link to where you uploaded yours?
And shit, I sincerely apologize for how much I say 'uh' 'basically' 'hm' 'like', because I really should have planned out what I was going to say. Instead of doing improv.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:17 pm
by New Aksarben
Tiltjuice wrote:Why do I smell herbs? Swith, have you taken to stealing into my house and spraying herbal scents everywhere?
Or maybe I should stop eating in my room. Hmm. Hmm. That could be it.
Perils of studying comp sci...being a shut-in. NA, read, and learn. *mystical flipper gesture*
I'm fine with that. One of the benefits of being autistic is I'm better over computers than IRL!
I'm a bit annoying IRL! I believe....
Oh, and I'm back from the German Club Mini-golfing thing. I got a 91...... The par was 40..... T.T
AETEN II wrote:Swith, what's the audio thing you used so I can upload mine?
Also, thanks to me not using a script, it is over a half hour long.
I did mine live via BTR (radio show/podcast) but you can upload to YouTube if you make an account there. I think that's what nearly everyone has done. I couldn't figure out how to do so without having a picture (video... with a broken lens), so I settled on BTR.
NVE and Urran would know how to cobble together audio and a picture.
Did you ever get a chance to respond to Tipper IC?
I used Windows Live Movie Maker, it came with my computer.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 8:28 pm
by Tasarinan
Did I put my application in the right place?
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 8:31 pm
by Erucia
Tasarinan wrote:Did I put my application in the right place?
Yes, don't worry. The OP (Cer) needs to review it now.
Swith Witherward wrote:I did mine live via BTR (radio show/podcast) but you can upload to YouTube if you make an account there. I think that's what nearly everyone has done. I couldn't figure out how to do so without having a picture (video... with a broken lens), so I settled on BTR.
NVE and Urran would know how to cobble together audio and a picture.
Did you ever get a chance to respond to Tipper IC?
I used Windows Live Movie Maker, it came with my computer.
Also, using Windows Movie Maker. FUCKING HELL does it take a long time to convert into WMV file. Goddamn. It's closing in on an hour now.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 8:38 pm
by Tiltjuice
AETEN II wrote:Also, using Windows Movie Maker. FUCKING HELL does it take a long time to convert into WMV file. Goddamn. It's closing in on an hour now.
I hated Windows Movie Maker. I was so thankful when I got my hands on Adobe Premiere Elements.
Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 4:56 pm
I will try to make up for this by avoiding all of the other Mary Sue traits, and trying to broaden my character as much as I can.
