Overeaction much?
To clarify, the title of this article came from re-purposing it. It was the title of another trope, but constantly misused to mean this trope. So it was made into this trope and the other trope renamed. No conspiracy, no condemnation. Perhaps assuming malice is a fault on your end?
In addition, the trope even explicitly states it can be a good thing. It's simply a trope that needs to be handled somewhat carefully, not a trope that must be avoided at all costs. Essentially, this can result in an overpowered God-Mode Sue, but it can also create an extremely interesting character that's fun to roleplay and play with. It's all up to the talents and imagination (or lack therof) of the player.
Hell, I'm the creator of this trope page, and I had an entry on the troper tales page stating when and how I've used it. There is simply no condemnation here and you're inventing a problem to be outraged about where none exists.
Edited by ccoa Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
The trope is not called 'special snowflake syndrome' because all snowflakes are the same and a player showing originality is a bad thing, its called this because all snowflakes are unique and therefore the trope means that the player tries to make the character as unique as possible, avoiding all possible similarities with other P Cs.
Not to say originality and uniqueness is bad, it is often essential, however it shouldn't be whole point
People often don't like it when players do this as in a game with a lot of source-books drawing elements from ones that wouldn't otherwise be used can bog down game-play when people have to go searching through them for rules and abilities, it can also cause issues with balance.
Ummm...can I just say 'don't shoot the message', the OP went off on a really stupid rant up there, but can I say that he/she has a point; I've seen on a lot of TTRPG entry's of people listing all of the sourcebook's possible character combinations and then saying "is your snowflake special enough yet?" It comes across as really condescending, and it imply's that anyone who doesn't use a race/class combination from the Core Book is trying to be a mary sue; which is simply not the case.
I know it says "this is not always a bad thing" but that imply's that it is a bad thing most of the time; which in my experience it's not.
The reason I came here to write this was because me and my game group had our first session of Dark Heresy the other day, I was GM'ing, one of the players chose a different variation on the 'adepta sororitas' class found in 'the radicals handbook' One of the other players (who reads this sight) laughed and said she was trying to be a special snowflake -a thinly veiled guise at accusing her of making a mary sue char-...she didn't...it was because the vanilla sororitas has a very limited personality (you have to be a fanatic devoted to the imperium/emperor) the version in the radicals handbook had a much less defined personality; anyway we told the guy to please clam-up but after that incident the whole session was kinda uncomfortable and we ended up cutting it short.
TL;DR Version: This trope comes across as a thinly veiled attempt at accusing anyone who doesn't use races/classes from the core-book of trying to make mary-sue chars.
OP: You are drunk, go home.
Obviously everyone is different, we all have our own uniqueness about us. Just like snowflakes, no two of us are alike. It's when one uppity ice crystal wants to say they're made of a much purer substance, or they're inherently better, that it becomes a problem (hence the term "special" snowflake). "Oh yeah, well, I'm a prettier snowflake than you because I'm more shiny, I won't melt as fast, etc.,"
Seriously OP, you need an ointment for that butthurt?
Errrr... he posted three years ago. I think he made it home.
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mphh,I hate to sound hypersensitive, but nowadays "special snowflake" is a casual insult towards non-binary people just sayin'.
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It has meanings outside that meaning, too.
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MagBas
Nominated to YMMV in this thread: {{https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=3tg6evewhfkzrkmbflgc97iv&page=56#1394}}
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Giraffe Choreographer
So is this primarily a tabletop RPG trope? Because I feel like it can apply to so many other places, especially real life (ignoring the fact that TV Tropes has a ban on real life examples on pages where they would actually be interesting for a change).
"AXEL ON STAAAAGE!"
Am I the only one who's unashamedly in love with this trope? I feel if the player characters aren't all as different as possible, they're not trying hard enough.
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I'm not. It's one thing to try to be unique. A fancy hairstyle or obscure feat or a cool piece of clothing can do that. When the player wants something wholly implausible for the setting, or breaking party dynamic and basic logic just because you don't want to be like everyone else.
I've seriously have a player in a DND campane walk in trying to pilot a mecha. The resulting session was so disgusting most of the group dropped and the campane died.
The same guy tried to play a creature from the far realms in a party with my NG mystic theurge and a LN samurai. He INSISTED on using that to be a douche because it "makes sense in character". My theurge was a build designed around killing evil outsiders and undead, so I blasted him after he pissed us off enough and forced him to reroll. He tried complaining on an internet forum, and everyone told him to stop being an idiot.
In the star wars saga game I'm running we're in the rebellion era. A different player INSISTS on being the "last HK in the galaxy". Since they're old, give off their true meanings before each sentence, and have comparaativley rare replacement parts, I'm not making this easy for him.
So to recap: It's fine to try to be unique in some small way. However when your entire build is based around being speshul and you get hostile when the DM says he needs something that downplays that in any way, you have some serious problems.
Yes, diversity is a very good thing. But this trope isn't about that. There's a fine line between making an interesting character and being obnoxious.
@the first replier...but the examples you just gave are blatant mary sues. This trope seems to be referring to anyone who uses a class/race from anything other than the corebook.
Wondering if it would be too pedantic to trim the New World of Darkness example, since it's flatly impossible; you can't make a Bargain if your soul's already spoken for, a Promethean is a distinct character from the person whose body was used to make it, Golconda is a deliberately vague concept that might well not mean becoming human again so much as simply becoming free of most of the weaknesses of vampirism, and nothing not human gets turned into a changeling by time in Faerie. The most coherent such chain of events would necessitate liberal use of qashmallim to "cure" templates via resurrection — you could go in any order between starting as a Promethean (going through the Pilgrimage) and ending as a vampire (dead vampires having died twice being beyond even the qashmallim's ability to save) with the only notable wrinkles being werewolves (do the Redeemed have the potential to inherit the legacy of the Forsaken?) and Sin-Eaters (this might call for resolution of the geist with the specific interpretation that sending one's own geist on returns one to ordinary humanity) and possibly changelings (though, depending on interpretation, a merger with the fetch could help this).
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Yep, if it's wrong, fix it. Be Bold and all.
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
Ave Imperator
Anyone know if there's a trope for when characters in a professional work seem to be overly "special", like in Mass Effect 2 where every single character with the exception of (maybe) Garrus and Jacob (except on count 2), has an extremely improbable backstory, angsts over elaborate issues involving/with their father, mother, or children, and have lots of "special" traits?
(Unlike in Mass Effect 1 where pretty much everybody but (potentially) Shepard and Wrex came from a fairly typical background for their species.)
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Anyone think settings a la Planescape, Spelljammer, One Piece, Exalted, etc. where it's the norm are worthy of a trope or subtrope? Cast of Snowflakes isn't it, Taste the Rainbow is kind of close on a meta level. (Came here looking for a trope for such settings, so I may be biased.)
"Special snowflake" is such a fuckdamn annoyingly condescending little phrase! It's bandied about no less than "nostalgia," "badwrongfun," and other such date rapists of open discussion.
The phrase implies that everyone and everything are common and exactly the same as eachother — much like snowflakes — therefore anyone or anything that attempts to be unique, different, or special, is foolhardy. That is a shitty attitude. Just what in the fuck is wrong with wanting to be unique, different, or special? Do you asswipes WANT everything, everywhere to be exactly the fucking same?
Should all tabletop game experiences follow the same railroaded script? Should we all watch the exact same movies, play the same video games, and read the same novels, indulging in exactly the same forms of entertainment? Must all earthly cultures be no different than one another? Shall we decide that all human beings that aren't the "right" skin color be purged for fear of not being normal (that's right, fuck you, I said it: if you hate "special snowflakes", you are FUCKING RACIST. KILL YOURSELF.)? Should the planet earth be coated in a uniform layer of cement so every inch of the globe is no different, not a special snowflake from all others?
THIS is what you dumbasses are implying everytime you utter that hateful phrase. You are standing proud of being the exact same height as those around you, of being cookie-cutter copies with nothing to differentiate you from those around you. You mustn't be a special snowflake! You must conform! Confooorm! Confooooorm!! Difference and uniqueness is BAD!!
Fuck you, I will be a special snowflake. I'm going my own way, walking my own paths, I will be free. And I bet that's exactly what you boring normal fucks are afraid of, isn't it? Well good! Look upon this special snowflake, and despair! For I have achieved what you and your lookalike fellows daren't dream.
Go ahead and sling all your prefabricated catch phrases about immaturity, childishness, "ur meeeaaan" AKA attacking the tone
◊, and stupid grunts and tut-tuts (by the way, that makes you sound like a retard) that reign in your fellow mindless, plebian farm animals. They are but water droplets falling from the umbrella's rim. Hey, I like that analogy: the rest of you and your bullshit is just so much falling rain that would sully my clothes were it not for my metaphoric umbrella to keep you twats away. But I di... gah, I so hate that pretentious phrase, but digressing I am so whatever.
And by the way, why in the world would you inane shits ever think I'd want to be like you? Sounds like a stagnant bore to me. THIS snowflake shall stay special, thank you very much.
Do yourself a favor, and read a history book sometime. There have been lots of people throughout time that hated special snowflakes to the point of campaigns of genocide. Where are they now? Dead, buried, their intolerance and racism stomped into submission by the special snowflakes they hoped to exterminate for no other reason than those snowflakes were not like every other. Keep that in mind next time you try and "correct" someone for wandering from the "one true way."
inb4/"well it's okay, BUT TO AN EXTENT-" like everyone above are saying. Just who the fuck are YOU to decide what is and isn't "too far"? Who the fuck are YOU to decide where "the line" is drawn, or that there is even "a line" in the first place? Is this what you say to gay people: "It's okay to like other men, BUT DON'T YOU DARE WEAR PINK CLOTHES YOU HOMO QUEERFAG!!1" Reminds me of that South Park episode where Cartman's talking to Token: "People like seeing black people on TV. [beat] SEEING black people, not hearing them." Inconsistency and moral relativity are such wonderful concepts.
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