This is a page with helpful roleplaying
hints.
Beware of Godmoding
Godmoding is either trying to control another person's
character or making a character who is too perfect or too
powerful. Make sure when you roleplay that you
describe only your character's actions and responses to
other character's actions. Also, don't make a
character who knows everything and can do anything. For
example, no one but Stryker should know all about
Wolverine's past, and even he can't know absolutely
everything. Xavier doesn't even know everything there is
to know about Wolverine's past, so why should your
character know more than him? Also, be careful about your
character's abilities. They can be pretty powerful, but
there has to be a limit to their power. Even Magneto has
his limits. If your character is a teenager, they can
have a certain amount of power, but they shouldn't be as
powerful as an adult mutant like Storm, and they probably
shouldn't have as much control over their power since
they're rather young. Skills and abilities should be
reasonable as well. Since this is a comic-book-movie
reality, your character can have more skills than common
sense allows in the real world. However, there are still
limits to their skills. For example, your character
shouldn't be a genius computer hacker who is a 10th
degree black belt in karate and can speak 10 languages
fluently. Your character can be a computer hacker. Your
character can be a black belt. Your character can speak a
few languages fluently. But they cannot do all three.
Pick one talent and go with it.
No Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus
A Mary-Sue is basically a character who is too perfect
(especially when it comes to appearance) and has little
depth. A Gary-Stu is the male equivalent. Often, the
profile of a Mary-Sue character focuses on physical
appearance and achievements rather than personality and
character motivation. It is a form of godmoding, though
godmoding tends to focus more on skills, talents, and
powers rather than appearance.
Here's an example of a Mary-Sue
profile:
Destiny Love is 5'6 and weighs 100 lbs. She has platinum
blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She is a human but
she is on the side of the mutants and is good friends
with Xavier. She goes to Xavier's school and is captain
of their cheerleading squad. She has a crush on Bobby
Drake, but he doesn't know it. Right know, she is wearing
a pink tank top from Abercrombie and Fitch and a white
miniskirt with ruffles. She is wearing purple eyeshadow
and red lipstick.
Notice how the person begins by
mentioning appearance very specifically. The character is
severely underweight, but somehow the person considers
that attractive. Despite being a teenaged human, her
character somehow managed to not only befriend Xavier but
also gain admission to the school despite having no
powers at all. She also has a crush on a canon character,
and the roleplayer probably intends on having her
character date Bobby and fulfill the roleplayer's own
fantasy rather than be realistic. She keeps focusing on
appearance and unlikely circumstances. The name of her
character is very unlikely and too much of a cutesy name.
It also has nothing to do with the character herself; it
just "sounds pretty." Please avoid all these
mistakes. This is not a real profile (I just made it up),
but sadly, many people have written profiles very similar
to this one.
Names
Try to name your character something reasonable. It
doesn't have to have some kind of meaning, though that
would help. It doesn't have to be fancy. After all, Jean
Grey and Scott Summers are examples of names of
characters in X-men, and they're not fancy. The mutant
nickname (like Cyclops or Wolverine) should have some
meaning, but it's usually not hard to think of a name.
Please don't just give your character a weird name just
because it sounds cool. In reality, it usually sounds
pretty stupid. I've heard of names like Butterfly Fire
and Jade Diamond. Who the hell would name their kids
that? You don't have to give your character a really
common name, but try not to go overboard on the
weirdness. Also, NEVER make up first names like Godd'iss
or Emberfire. If you want to name your kids that, fine.
Just don't name your character that.
The Tortured Soul
We have way too many applicants whose characters are
orphans, abused by their parents, murderers, runaways,
and/or have some kind of overblown, overdramatic past.
Although it is true that in real life, people have been
abused by their parents, not everyone in the world has
had some great trauma in their life. There are other ways
to make your character interesting than to add
melodramatic event to their past.
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