Mary SuesOne main risk in creating a character is creating a Mary Sue. There are many definitions of a Mary Sue (Mary sue definition at Wikipedia might help give you a better idea). A Mary Sue is basically a character made with more idealization than logic, so perfect you want to kill them or try to steal the spotlight with their drama. Mary Sue has what we'd all like in a real person - niceness, a wide range of skills, charm, attractiveness - but not a fictional one.
Mary Sues are usually kind, righteous, have a heart-string-yanking past, more skills than they should and are prone to godmoddling. They might be propped up with 'interesting' traits, such as having a 'curse' which only serves to enhance their abilities, a lineage involving a canon character, a hybridism of different species or even going as far as creating their own race or mix up aspects (or indeed use the full aspect) of non-existant ones such as Aliens and Terminators.
Mary Sues or their traits tend to annoy other roleplayers by being cliché (Most people have seen and heard of the sons and daughters of Illidan or half-demon/demon-possessed people), impossible lore-wise (vampires do not exist in Azeroth), attention-grabbing (a character that was beaten up by their whole family that is still happy and cheery, but occasionally cries on the shoulder of a handsome stranger about it) or just plain over-the-top (a character that is part demon, part naaru and part goldfish with laser eyes). These kind of characters are highly disliked, so you should strive to avoid them if you don't want eyes rolled at you.
* DO NOT make a half-vampire son/daughter of Illidan. It's been done to death, impossible lore-wise, and no one can pull this off without being blacklisted, unless of course your character fries up in the sun and tells no one of their relation. No seriously, it just isn't going to work. Don't have a character with a relation to lore figures, unless of course it is commonplace for their species.
* Don´t tell everyone you see your 20 pages long background. How you would act in real life? Example:
HOW: "Ah, death knight? I don't know if we should accept you to our group..." "Yes I understand, but the Warchief promised fair treatment to death knights, I see that I was too optimistic..."
Not like this: "Ah, death knight? I don't know if we should accept you to our group..." "You call me death knight? I was valiant knight of Lordaeron and my parents were good people I just got to bad company and cult of the damned were recruiting people..."
* You can have a character with an angst-filled past, skills and beauty that isn't necessarily a Mary Sue, just cliché. Watch how you roleplay them. Don't dodge everything, don't use your angst past as an excuse for your actions and only tell close friends your secrets.
* Give your character flaws. No one is perfect. Embarrassing habits, disabilities and the occasional cruelty can make for a much more interesting character.
* Stick to your character's flaws. Don't suddenly wipe away their arachnophobia when they go to the Ghostlands and get jumped by a crypt fiend, or else your character's flaws won't count.
* No character in logic would brag about being the secret lovechild of Illidan or some other big villain. It would be like saying "I'm the secret son of Hitler!". No one likes Illidan. Hardly anyone would believe you. Characters would think you were crazy, and you'd have no proof of such relation.
* Let your character make mistakes. Don't blame all wrong-doings on 'I couldn't control myself' or 'My rainbow dog named Pockleberry died last Tuesday and I've been feeling very upset'. Someone who admits they were wrong and doesn't try to make it look like they were right all along is much more believable and noble.
* The world does not revolve around your character. No character will ever be the centre of all roleplayer's attention, everyone's friend, the biggest hero of all time and only the enemy of two-dimensional villains. Trying to grab everyone's attention by speaking of your drama will only do the opposite.
* Even a mean character can be a Mary Sue villain if everything goes their way. Signs of such a Sue are a mass murderer that never got caught, having an angst past or vengeance to try and excuse their actions or being unfairly unbeatable.
* Avoid having a hybrid character, or at least make them believable avatar-wise.
* Let your character fail every once in a while. Don't make them invincible. Just because someone types 'Picklejuice swings an iron bar at her' instead of 'Picklejuice smashes the elf's brains with an iron bar' doesn't mean you get to dodge it all the time. Someone trying an attack doesn't necessarily mean it missed.
* A better way to roleplay is to give attention rather than try to draw it to your character. Instead of trying to draw attention from the crowd with your rainbow eyes or that pet scuttling about your bag, go and strike up a conversation with another character.
* Watch you don't commit deus ex machina. It can become annoying to other roleplayers if you continue to use magic, some plot you made up on the spot in the situation or otherwise to escape a predicament. If your character beat up someone and now has said-person's big brother coming after them, don't run, face the consequences.
* Mary Sue quiz, if you get negative, stop roleplaying Arthas:
http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm * If you happen to be a Mary Sue and don't want to change then don't get involved in roleplaying, your character will probably anger them but so they don't break the mood, they'll hide it. If they come after you later with a dagger then that person probably roleplaying a maniac.
ClichéCliché is bound to happen. The maniacal, scheming, evil Forsaken warlock with a grudge against the world may seem appealing to some people: It's a start for a villainous character that heroic characters will enjoy pasting. However, like Mary Sues, excessive cliché will tend to illicit groans, eye-rolling and little to no RP from your fellow Roleplayers.
To handle this, one needs to add twists into his or her character: chances are, the evil Forsaken warlock with a grudge against creation will probably be either Chaotic or Neutral Evil. Throw a monkey wrench into this and give yourself a moral code, making yourself Lawful Evil. Hide your grudge and make it difficult for people to figure out your true intentions or keep your ego in check and don't let your grudge get in the way of or drive your agenda.
Using some cliché might be a place to start, but don't run with it for the existence of your character, it will get old fast.
The fourth wall/meta-gaming
In the theatre, the fourth wall is an imaginary wall around the stage through which the audience watch the show. The idea is that this wall separates the two worlds. A common example of the fourth wall being broken is when a character directly addresses the audience, such as a character in movie talking directly to the camera.
In roleplaying, the fourth wall is there to separate the characters from the mechanics of the game, but also from information they couldn't possibly have. This is more typically described as meta-gaming. Examples of fourthwall breaking/meta-gaming include:
* References to character statistics Characters do not know that they have a crit rating of 33%, not do they know that they have 3000 health points. These figures are part of the game mechanics, not the lore.
* Unusual knowledge of world events It's unlikely that a human born 20 years ago would have an indepth understanding of events that took place 3000 years previously on the other side of the planet. Even in modern times, most people have a very limited knowledge of world events beyond their immediate circle. It's more realistic for your character to know little of most events, or to hold a distorted version of the story. For example, how would your character have precise details of the fight between Arthas and Illidan? It's unlikely that either Arthas or Illidan would be in the habit of telling people what happened and your character wouldn't have witnessed it (note that this could be rather easy for undead or blood elves; horde always seem to have an advantage in RPing).
* Knowledge of the future As expansions are launched, some players make the mistake of endowing their character with knowledge of future events. For example, a character knowing that the dark portal was going to be opened and that they would meet the Naaru, prior to the portal actually opening. Rumours can be an effective approach, but claiming definitive knowledge of the future is bad.
If your character has knowledge of a major world event, ensure that there is a plausible way in which they could have learnt of it. Players often react negatively to characters who just seem to know too much, and they risk being considered a Mary Sue.
OOC Traps The main key to role-playing is, of course, staying in character. It may be necessary to go Out-of-Character (OOC) briefly when explaining a technical aspect of the game to a new player, or when pinning down a standard time to meet. It is important to remember that every time you go OOC your character credibility and the role-playing atmosphere suffers. Be careful not to fall into some of these OOC traps when playing the game:
* Do not mention real world events and items. Beepers, Star Wars movies, Oompa Loompas, mace (not the dreamer, the spray), Gumbi, and spell checkers do not belong in Azeroth.
* Also consider Information Separation:
o Player A chats with you on ICQ (or for simplicity's sake, whispers you): "Oh man, Sorsha just totally dissed Blenson! She made him cry!" This sounds like an interesting thing for you to see, but wait! How can you? Your character does not know what has transpired. You want to go ask the questions that will get you the answers, but you have no IC reason to do so, even though it would make for interesting role-playing. In game information learned through OOC means is still just that OOC. Separate it. Even though you do want to comfort poor Blenson.
o Also, your different characters do not implicitly share information. Your NE priest has no way of knowing that the guild leader of your troll mage's guild just resigned.
* Stick to your character, no matter what...
o Is your character truly more concerned with turning in his latest quest to his trainer than finding out why his house crumbled? If so, why?
o Does the game (world) truly seem so uninteresting that the best thing for you to do at all times is sit around and mope? If so, why?
o Do you make a habit of ignoring people that seem distraught and confused? If so, why?
* The driving question is always why. Why would my character do this or think this? Why? If you can not answer the why, then it is not an IC action or thought. Why would Sklar flatter her? She is a woman. Why would John be nice to Lady Arlington? He wants her cloak.
* Don't break the fourth wall. This is a tricky one to explain. Basically, don't use terms like AFK and level in ic since these do not exist to the characters.
* Don't blurt out your life story to everyone you meet. It's common for new roleplayers to tell their entire life story to everyone they meet, or to tell strangers about their tragic past. When this happens, conversation sounds very unnatural and scripted.
Elitism You're a good Roleplayer, and it shows. You know the lore, you know the ropes. RPing, just like raiding, though, can potentially have its share of hardcore, holier-than-thou, superior players with a stick shoved up their butts. Don't be one of them. If you screw up your roleplay, it's not going to result in you not being number one on the raid progression charts. RPing is just for fun, and people who take it too seriously tend to drive away those who just enjoy it on the side. Just because somebody isn't 100% versed with every tiny detail of Warcraft lore, doesn't mean that they are a newb and should be shunned. If somebody is god-modding, help them to understand that emoting something that shows that he just killed everybody is bad RP.
Know the Line There is a line between OOC and IC. Know where it lies, and avoid crossing it. Harry Potter hates Draco Malfoy's guts, but Dan Radcliffe and Tom Felton get along quite well. Similar concepts exist in RP. Grudges stop at your character.
At the same time, if you see someone you routinely RP with doing something that might be considered OOC (such as a Warlock character who is sworn to the Burning Legion killing mobs that are, you guessed it, Burning Legion) and when asked what they're doing they respond something like: "((Oh... I'm just leveling up. I guess I forgot to switch my <insert RP mod here> to show that I'm currently OOC.))", take it in stride. At some points in Outland, it's impossible to level up effectively without killing a few Burning Legion mobs.
Don't assume everything being done in the game is done from an IC standpoint. OOC exists, and people might not want to walk slowly through Orgrimmar when all they want to do is drop a few Titanium Bars off on the auction house.
Do attempt the quiz and tell us your score. That way we can make a board of what we must correct, according to our Mary Sueish behaviour, since only the others see our flaws some times.Also, after reading all these... Do tell me...
WHO OF THE "GOOD" ROLEPLAYERS OF THIS REALM DO NOT BREAK 3 RULES AT LEAST?! 
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