This is something I've been thinking about for a little while, and it just occured to me that posting on here would give me access to many, many people who are more intelligent than I.

Basically, I think of a mary sue character as a cliche rather than 'too perfect' etc. If it wasn't so common, I'd have no problem with them. It's just that they're unoriginal and boring. That suggests you can come up with a list of traits that are mary sue-ish.

The list of mary sue traits in HS or HP is really simple.. but it's a little more complicated in gothic/horror and vampire boards. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
I'd be really interested in coming up with a decent list.. it could turn into a useful resource, yeah?

I generally don't define them by traits, but by how they are played, and I have a pretty simple definition: A character is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu if they have to be the center of attention in every or almost every thread they are in. Generally people who play their characters like that tend toward cliched characters that either are the best at everything, or have to be the center of all the drama.

Well, I don't do goth/horror/vampire RPG's, but I've heard that vampires who'd rather be Humans are Sues. *Shrugs*

I agree with Ros, a Mary Sue is really about how they're played. You can catch this in the faults that they give their character in the application process. Basically, anyone who has no physical or magical weakness you should keep an eye on. They'll start to show Sue tendencies in battle sooner than anywhere else. If they can deflect any attack and never get hit. Or, on the other side, if they take a hit for someone else. I normally regard Sue behaviour as a blatant disregard for other Roleplayers, and no knowledge of story creation. Some people just don't realize that it's a group effort to create a story, and instead think of having to beat out other characters to get the spotlight. Really, I think being a Sue has evolved into a very broad term, I know for myself I've used it for everything from whiny princesses, to canon whores, to Xena wannabes. It's a style thing, and I really wonder where they picked it up, it could be great research.

Lots of Mary Sues are written somewhat vaguely in the application, so you can't really tell at first. Others put weaknesses down, but never use them. For example, I have had some very well written character applications in the past where the player has given some pretty strong weaknesses, but you never see those weaknesses played out.

Kinda dealing with that with one person right now. The character is supposed to be senile, despite having some powers, but they player is playing them like they are utterly coherent. Several other players have complained to me about him, and I have to give him a warning. I only accepted that application on the basis that the weaknesses would be prominent, and he is not being played that way.

Well, even if it is how the character is played, these traits help for a vampire:

-the sharpest teeth
-the darkest hair
-the palest pace
-the best body (popularity and your figure still countsfor vamps!)
-the gloomiest clothes??
-the all-around toughest-looking person

That's all I can think of now.

For vampires, I generally consider these as Mary-Sue traits;

1) A suffering soul that longs to be human but if forever stuck in an immortal body.

2) A vampire that is extremely beautiful (Queen Jess had already described it perfectly).

3) They are regected by all society.

4) A kind vampire thay scares away people with it's immense power on accident (suprisingly, this is a lot more common then you'd think).

The normal Mary-Sue traits are just a prevalent in vampire RPGs as any other one, though. I don't see much of a difference. I'm not even sure if what I posted could be considered Mary-Sue traits. In the horror/gothic genre, there just isn't many of them. Funny, because you'd expect that genre to have the most unique traits...