Mary Sue: The RPG

“Mary Sue” is writer's slang for a character that is a wish fulfillment or author insert character, one who  resembles the author only often idealized or fantastic.  In a traditional RPGs play emerges from several people working together in cooperation and competition, and the social interaction is a big part of the fun.  But what happens if there is only one participant, who is GM and player all in one, and social interaction cannot drive the fun or the story?  You get a private fantasy, where the only function is to be satisfying to the fantasist.  Narrative, conflict, well realized setting and such can still make a fantasy more compelling, and dice, rules structures, and borrowed crunch or setting details can still help provide skeleton and drive for a fantasy, so we can still talk in terms of role playing games (ok it's actually a role playing toy, fine whatever).

Mary Sue: The RPG is intended to give a little structure and aid to private self-indulgant fantasies of a fantasist.  There are only 2 kinds of participants to this game, the game designers (us), and the fantasist, (you).  We don't know you and are just trying to design something that you might want to use as an aide. {Designer #2 and #3, that's the real challenge, what can we as game designers do to make private fantasies more satisfying for people?} The fantasist takes the roles of the game master, the players, and the audience.  As game master, you are designing the theme, the setting, the plot, the secondary characters, and running and adjudicating any rules issues that may arise.  As player you are creating a character, likely quite a bit like yourself only awesomer, and exploring it.  As the audience you are deciding what you are liking and demanding more of it.  On the downside, you don't have other people helping you much with story or characters or conflict, or even just social fun.  On the upside, you can tailor it to your own private tastes and moods, and be as self-indulgant as you want!  Things that would be impolite, or bad gameplay in other RPGs are AOK in Mary Sue.  Wanna be overpowered?  OK.  Wanna hog the spotlight? Great.  Wanna take things to dark uncomfortable places?  Or to sexy ones?  Or really silly?  All fine.  Wanna crib from other games or settings, even stuff you don't have IP rights to use?  Want to degenerate into shameless fanfic in which Capt. Malcolm Reynolds seduces Amy Pond away from the Doctor, and you have a torrid affair with a heartbroken Anara?  That would be extremely bad form in just about any other RPG, but in the Mary Sue it is just fine.  As long as you're liking it.  If it gets boring, try something else...

Base Rules, Meta-Rules and Process

In Mary Sue, we encourage constructing rpg-style fantasies via a layered process.  Taking notes and rolling dice typically helps.  Mary Sue uses an extremely minimal meta-rule system involving percentile rolls, and other techniques.  You can, at will, also use an underlying base-rules system, if you own an appropriate one.  Often it makes sense to pick a system you own and know well that is close to the genre you're wanting.  You could use the “Serenity Role Playing Game” (Margaret Weis Production, 2005), for the torrid Dr. Who/Firefly fanfic if you wanted, or you could use “Dr. Who RPG (FASA, 1985), or “Dr. Who-Adventures in Time and Space: the RPG” (Cubicle 7, 2009), or you could use some unrelated system you know well like FATE or d20, or you could just do without an underlying base-rules system, and just use the meta-rules.  If you use a base-rules system, you will likely have to alter various aspects on the fly due to the lack of other players, and the lack of seperation between player and GM.

The Meta-Rules

	There are 5 Meta-Rules (so far)
 1)	Do what you want.  What do YOU want?
 2)	When in doubt, follow the process and take notes of decisions.
 3)	Use a base rule system (if you want), to sketch characters, setting, etc. or to resolve conflicts.
 4)	When still in doubt roll on the table below

01-05	Something really bad happens, game changingly bad, a death, a serious handicap, etc. / Explore resiliance for awhile/ post-holocaust or horror
06-25	Something bad happens, a set-back, a new problem / explore problem-solving / sci-fi
26-50	Something normal, expected, or boring happens for a while.  Daily life. / Explore details, and motivations. / Realistic fiction, or modern fantasy in a setting that seems more or less like our world.
51-75	Something exciting, surprising, or adventurous happens / explore danger or opportunity / high fantasy, other worlds, or transformed world
76-95	Something awesome, cool, or desirable happens  / explore getting to show off or indulge fantasy or theme / supers or your favorite genre
96-00	Something really good happens, game changingly good, a redemption  / explore transformation / some genre you never do ...

	5)Use the seeds when you want

The Process

	The process has 4 steps:  Set the theme, sketch the setting and main character, sketch side characters, plots and conflicts, and “run” the game, typically as sessions and arcs.  

	Picking Themes: For starters you need to pick some basics of the genre and story archetype.  Sci-fi or fantasy or a mix?  How dark do you want it?  How silly?  Do you want to closely follow an existing setting or characters or make it all up?  It's important also to think about what you are wanting out of this particular fantasy.  Do you want a power fantasy, where someone a lot like you will have vastly more power than you actually have?  Or is the point to feel like you've accomplished something in the fantasy setting?  Or maybe you're really trying to fantasize about an ideal relationship, or having lots of friends, or great sex interspersed with occasional story, or a very different body than you actually have.  Maybe you're wanting to explore dark thoughts in a controlled and fantastic setting.  Maybe you just wanna kill bad guys.  
	
	Sketch Setting and Mary Sue:

	Sketch Supporting Characters, and Plot Hooks:

	Run the Game: 

Seeds
	Ultimate Toolbox or similar meta GM tools.
	Hit random on Pandora or Itunes etc. and use next song as inspiration
	Hit I'm feeling lucky on Google and use what comes up somehow
	Read a Mary Sue checklist and pick an element you haven't used in a while ...