History Main / SpecialSnowFlakeSyndrome

Our mothers always told us we were special snowflakes, each having our own unique beauty.

* The original Drizzt. If not intentionally written this way, he still captures the essence of this trope. He was fairly groundbreaking for his day, though most people forget that he was [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny the font from which all other angsty drow flowed]]. In terms of well-known characters, he could very well be the TropeCodifier.

** Such as the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Angry_Marines Angry Marines]] (''[[CatchPhrase Always angry! All the time!]]''). A homebrew chapter of SpaceMarines who just happen to hate the game, hate the fluff, hate the players who complain, hate the players who play the game, and are just, well ... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin generally angry about everything]]. What better way to defy every aspect of the game then by giving the whole damn thing a [[GroinAttack Power Boot to the balls]]!

* The attempted 2020 relaunch of ''ComicBook/NewWarriors'' died basically because of this trope, in particular because of new characters Snowflake and Safespace, a pair of psychically-linked twins with [[AnIcePerson cryokinetic]] and [[BarrierWarrior psychic shield]] powers, respectively. They were widely decried as tone-deaf, insensitive attempts at inclusion (to the point that there was significant speculation that they were actually deliberate parodies) and they managed the fairly impressive feat of offending both liberal and conservative comic book fans equally, resulting in Marvel deciding to simply give them and the New Warriors relaunch the axe.

Some gamemasters will forbid this kind of behavior, rolling their eyes at the guy who absolutely must play a dragon thief, Chaotic Good Drow ranger or an Avariel wereshark Elemental Archon of Fire. Making an interesting character has nothing to do with having an obscure background and grab-bag of powers, and everything to do with how well the character is played.[[note]]Of course, FridgeLogic might then suggest that if they indeed have nothing to do with it, all these things aren't automatically a ''hindrance'' to making an interesting character either...[[/note]] However, some will [[JustForPun roll]] [[OffTheRails with it]], letting people make up stat bonuses for the most ridiculous of races or classes.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Many of the Trolls from ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'' are explicity stated to be very unusual. Aradia and Sollux are incredibly potent psychics, Sollux is also a supergenius programmer with two dream selves (all other players of Sburb get only one), Terezi gets super-senses from being blinded and having an incredibly rare Dragon egg as a lusus, Kanaya has an incredibly rare blood-type, is immune to sunlight and has an incredibly rare Virgin Mother Grub as a lusus, Vriska has her "Vision Eightfold", Equius is ludicrously STRONG, Feferi has the highest possible blood type, sharing with only one other troll, which is the Empress. Oh, and Karkat [[spoiler:has a 'mutant' blood type, outside the hemospectrum entirely, that marks him as the Second Coming of Troll Jesus]]. Knowing how the trolls are presented however, likely all this mary-suism is quite tongue in cheek. And Calliope turns out to be [[spoiler:a cherub deliberately invoking this, by cosplaying as]] a lime-blood troll, who were all wiped out years before.

** Caitiff's can also be a source of this. Since they can theoretically take any discipline, they can be a workaround for a player who wants the powers of an extinct Bloodline.

* The ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' explicitly forbids hybrids of any kind, though some creatures can be thematic hybrids. Hilariously, the more of a hybrid someone would be, the more they would seem like a CosmicPlaything; a [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil hunter]] turned into a [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken werewolf]], ([[AndThenJohnWasAZombie this at least is something of a cliché]]) who dies and has his corpse made into a [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Promethean]], becomes human and gets turned into a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampire]], reaches Golconda and becomes human again, then getting an epiphany and awakening as a [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mage]], somehow having the awakened soul put to sleep by being kidnapped to {{Arcadia}} by the True Fae and turned into a [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changeling]], getting killed yet again and then coming back as a [[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Sin Eater]] with a Geist, then dying ''one last time'' and having his luckless corpse taken over by a [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummy]] who lost their original body (or everything in this paragraph happened 6,000 years ago and the character underwent the Rite of Return himself). But through all that, the character would still only ever be one type of supernatural at a time. And probably insane to boot.
** Fan gameline ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' has "Special Snowflake" as one of the Conditions that can result from overuse of the [[TheDarkArts Specchio Invocation]]. A Brat suffering from this condition must always be the most unique and special person in the room. If the football team is all boys, she must be the one girl who gets on, if she's in the debate club she has to be the captain, and so on. The only exception is explicit rivals (i.e. there are always two captains in a sports match, but that doesn't mean the Princess has to be the empress of the blue team or anything silly of that sort. She just has to make sure that she's the captain of the ''winning'' team).

** Given the number of types of Exalts, God-Blooded, spirits, and anything else under the sun which are supposedly completely playable, all with their own special rules, Exalted is guilty of endorsing this to an extreme, to the point where many storytellers would simply say "We are running a Lunar-only game" or whatnot just so they don't have to keep track of eight different kinds of special rules all at once, not to mention the difficult story implications of having, say, a Dragon-Blooded, a Lunar, a Gold Faction Sidereal, an Alchemical, and an Infernal Exalted all in one group.
** One sourcebook introduced Exigents, unique Exalted created by one of the thousands of minor gods in Creation. Most of whom can only spare enough Essence for one, maybe two Exaltations.
* Playing to this, ''TabletopGame/MonstersAndOtherChildishThings'' has a sidebar that says that, with GM permission, it's okay to make up unique skills for your character to make them unusual and stand out. It actually titles the sidebar "Special and Unique Snowflakes."

* In ''TabletopGame/HousesOfTheBlooded'', the designer devotes a section of the GM's section to "the Vach Problem," named after one of his players. Essentially, even though the game provides plenty of options for players to choose from, a player like this will want to play something that's not on the list of options. Wick's suggested response is to let them have what they want in such a way as to make them regret it.
** Of course, that's Wick's advice for [[KillerGameMaster just about everything]].
* Given that you roll randomly for two origins (like, say, AI-and-Yeti or Demon-and-Hawkoid) and you are encouraged to come up with whatever crazy reason you like as to how these two things merge into one cohesive creature, it's safe to say that ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'' clings to this trope like a fat man to a doughnut truck.
* In ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', there's a type of demons called lilim who are unique in that they have no angelic counterpart. (Most) Angels can fall from grace and become their demonic equivalent and demons can seek redemption and become their angelic equivalent, but lilim are universally created in hell. 'Bright Lilim,' that have sought out redemption and become angels are possible, but they're supposed to be extremely rare due to the fact almost all lilim owe {{Geas}} to various powerful demons, and are taught [[GodIsEvil lies about Heaven being worse than Hell]]. Bright Lilim are therefore very rare, to the tune of less than a dozen such ascensions happening in history, and those that do exist are generally kept in Heaven to prevent them from being found by Hell. They're also one of the most common PC character choices when playing angels.
* In ''TabletopGame/OverTheEdge'', you can literally play just about any character you want to. Whether this is a good idea to actually ''do'' is open to debate, given that the more "special" your character is, the more likely someone is to see you as a threat to their own plans for world domination (or whatever else they're aiming for).
* In any tabletop setting inspired by ''Franchise/StarWars'', a player wishing to play as a "Gray Jedi" character often translates as "a good guy who can shoot lightning, choke people, and use Dark Side powers without penalty".
** Alternatively, "Gray Jedi" are known as "Dim Jedi"...may not just be a reference to their Force powers...

Maybe it's for this reason that when people create a role-playing character, they often choose the very unusual. This can manifest in something as simple as being a member of a rare race and/or class. Or it can be a [[TokenHeroicOrc good-aligned member]] of an AlwaysChaoticEvil [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch race]], or vice versa. Players may even go so far as to make up a race/class altogether, so as to be truly unique. This can also show up in fiction when an author writes a character with aspects of themselves in it. It is especially common in {{Author Avatar}}s and {{Mary Sue}}s. But [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this is not always a bad thing]], for many compelling and interesting protagonists have these kinds of traits. There's something compelling about a character who is bucking the social norms or defying his entire race. If nothing else, a great deal of {{angst}} can be milked from it. Or if your player is TheLoonie, it can be PlayedForLaughs.

* The ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' explicitly forbids hybrids of any kind, though some creatures can be thematic hybrids. Hilariously, the more of a hybrid someone would be, the more they would seem like a CosmicPlaything than a MarySue; a [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil hunter]] turned into a [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken werewolf]], ([[AndThenJohnWasAZombie this at least is something of a cliché]]) who dies and has his corpse made into a [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Promethean]], becomes human and gets turned into a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampire]], reaches Golconda and becomes human again, then getting an epiphany and awakening as a [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mage]], somehow having the awakened soul put to sleep by being kidnapped to {{Arcadia}} by the True Fae and turned into a [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changeling]], getting killed yet again and then coming back as a [[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Sin Eater]] with a Geist, then dying ''one last time'' and having his luckless corpse taken over by a [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse Mummy]] who lost their original body (or everything in this paragraph happened 6,000 years ago and the character underwent the Rite of Return himself). But through all that, the character would still only ever be one type of supernatural at a time. And probably insane to boot.

* ''TabletopGame/WitchGirlsAdventures'' hangs an enormous [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] on this with the "MarySue" trait, which gives you a bonus when doing anything attention-getting or which demonstrates how special and unique your character is.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/CantrII'': Like you would not believe. Characters have walked into towns and asked if there was a plague, from all the stuttering, limbs missing, sobbing and wailing. No, just a Tuesday.
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[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/LuckyDayForever'', Proles have this in-universe and use the Great Lottery as a way to become one of the Whites.
[[/folder]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' attempts to address this with the Unusual Background advantage, which is basically permission for the GameMaster to charge extra points for traits they feel a "normal" character in their campaign shouldn't have but which they on the other hand don't want to outright deny to the player either. Points invested into this advantage literally buy the player nothing ''but'' the permission to actually build their character the way they want -- something a more cooperative [=GM=] might give for free, another refuse, or a third charge a different amount of points for. This approach [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment is not without its own critics]].

* The "Sparkledog" phenomenon [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sparkledogs as documented by]] Website/KnowYourMeme has its roots in this trope. Internet users' fondness for canids, including wolves and foxes as well as traditional domesticated dog breeds, often resulted in characters of the creatures. The problem being that sticking to actual real-world colors of the creatures in question makes it hard for any one character to be distinct, especially in artwork. The solution of alternative colors worked only for a short while, as some color combinations quickly became more popular than others (though the basic colors on the color wheel were eventually represented), leading to the same problem -- dozens of blue and purple wolves with golden eyes, for instance. The subsequent result of that further design problem was finer degrees of distinctiveness, including traits as sub-patterns in the fur such as stars or stripes, additional appendages like extra tails or wings, or accessories like piercings or articles of clothing. The end result of this design focus towards distinctiveness is a character that, while retaining the basic features of the original animal, often only tangentially resembles the source creature. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Opinions of this particular design philosophy vary greatly from community to community, and even individual to individual]].