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Replaying the same character


Matt

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A lot of people tend to play the same character in multiple games on here. Why is that? Is it because it is easier? Is it because those are just the types of characters you like? Is it because you don't want to make new logins? Or something else???

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Since I do that a lot, I'll pipe up. Due to the transient nature of the games around here, I have rarely gotten to finish a PC's story. I'm not talking about the plots that they're drawn into, but the story that I built for personal resolution. Just as an example, with 200x Morrigan, it was to get her back to a sembalance of human, for her to grow up and become her own person. As QF was a continuation of 200x in many ways, I brought her over to there and will finally finish her story.

Technically speaking, I also don't play the same character in different games, usually. Sometimes I'm reusing the old login and account and the barebones of the old concept. Othertimes, there's only the barest of resembances. But each time I reuse a PC, I make sure that it is altered to fit the new setting and to be appropriate. To me, that's more important than getting to replay an old concept that I never got to play out - to make sure that even if the PC's been seen before, you're still going to see something that fits the world its in.

I hope that helps.

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Chiming in, cuz I do it a lot too.

There's two things to this phenomenon that aren't always immediately obvious.

1) I don't so much replay characters as replay archetypes. Sometimes new iterations have the same name and are pretty similar to what came before...other times there are significant differences. Even so, the archetype is modified to suit whatever game it surfaces in. Juno in Future Imperfect was not the -same- as Juno in another game. Many aspects are preserved...arguably the 'identity' of the character is preserved...but others must change to suit the new setting and premise. But on a deeper level, Juno is a reiteration of a much older character...who is a development of one of the first characters I ever made. Most of my characters fit into one of a handful of broad archetypes that find expression in multiple characters...who can then sometimes hop from game to game, especially if the games they're in don't finish. Bringing me to...

2) ...when a game doesn't finish, my character is a tale unfinished, and that sometimes bugs me. Especially for a character I really like, and come up with a lot of stuff for, it creates a kind of pressure to try to find another avenue to get all that stuff out. So, another game, another iteration. I seldom make a character who doesn't interest me, and about whom I have nothing to say (or if I do, the character doesn't last long), so if a game dies untimely, then my character doesn't rest easily. I look for an opportunity to reincarnate it.

So yeah. Basically what Dawn said, only with a numbered list. ;)

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For me, personally, I like to make characters. In City of Heroes, when I could still play it, I made many characters, because I thought the powersets were cool and the creation was the most fun part. Of all the dozens of characters that I made there, only 2 (one hero and one villian) caught my interest enough for me to actually play them, level them up, give them a life, and not just forget about them.

I'm not saying that the same thing happens here, but it is at least similar. I'll be looking through the book, I'll find a set of powers that look cool to me, create a framework for a character and then try to find someplace where I can plug them in, flesh them out, and see what happens with them. If I don't get the chance to get a good feel for them because the game ended or fizzled, I'm likely to try them again in the next game that I find.

I never create a character that I don't think will work, but some end up meaning and becoming more than others. So basically the same as Dawn and SM said, but with the added didn't get a good feel for the archtype/powerset.

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Neither. The setting, ST's reputation and system used are way more important to me than all of that. If I reuse a PC, it's because I think they and their concept will fit in a setting and world really well. If an ST wanted all-new PCs and I wanted to play, I'd make something new.

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The term 'new character' is trickier than it looks.

Does it mean, "A character not directly descended from a previous character?" Or does it mean, "A character spawned from an entirely new core concept that has nothing to do with anything else you've ever done?"

The first is easy. The second, not so much.

I mean, Juno is not the same character as Melara Richter, but they're both fruits from the same archetypical branch, if you get my drift. If I put them side by side, you'd probably see the family resemblance, even though there are quite a few differences too.

...

So I guess in answer to the question, it wouldn't put me off much to see a game like that. Because I'd be pretty confident that I could fool the GM into thinking a character was new...whether it was or not. ;)

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I'll chime in from my own perspective. In 'Infinity Hour', I stipulated 'new character'. What I meant by that was that I was telling a story in the ItB continuity from a perspective that wasn't covered in the first iteration of that game. I didn't mean 'never before played in any game', I meant 'not your old ItB character'. Dunno if that perspective helps, but I thought it might add to the discussion.

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I'll chime in from my own perspective. In 'Infinity Hour', I stipulated 'new character'. What I meant by that was that I was telling a story in the ItB continuity from a perspective that wasn't covered in the first iteration of that game. I didn't mean 'never before played in any game', I meant 'not your old ItB character'. Dunno if that perspective helps, but I thought it might add to the discussion.

And that brings me to an interesting point. I haven't recycled, all my old PCs. Fang, for example, fits ItB so perfectly that I couldn't put her in another game. It's never even occurred to me to attempt to put her elsewhere, including in Infinity Hour. She just wouldn't 'fit' anywhere else, except *maybe* in another N-Day game. Even then I doubt it.

So there are some PCs that don't get translated to other games.

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For myself I generally try to approach each character submission from a completely blank slate. I know I've made more than one teleporting character, but they are usually vastly different in build and background. Occasionally I will reuse a name, though that is as much my own difficulty with names as anything.

On the rare cases where I do rebuild a specific character or concept I do my best to make them as different as possible. Antoine LeSalle in WoDA was entirely different from the prior version. The only similarities ended up being name, race, size (very large), and the WoD attractivness merit. One could easily end up with similar between entirely different players just from the use of the same actor or model for an Avatar/Image.

I rebuilt Travis for Dawn's Magisterium game at her request, not that I regret doing so, but I did have a second character idea that was entirely new (ok, I reused the name Carter Linwood, like I said, I suck at names). But regardless I have done what I can to make this Travis as different as possible. The core powers remain, as do some character aspects, but his history is entirely different and the character plays differently as well.

For the most part though I prefer to keep to original characters, and when I GM I have preferred to have original characters in my games. Part of my preference comes from not wanting players to be carrying over baggage from prior versions as well. If you want to make another magnetic man, or another ice controller, I don't mind but when I see the same name and similar or identical personality traits and background aspects it turns me off as a GM. The same thing turns me off as a player when I see other PCs that are that way.

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Like just about everybody else, I would say that the new character stipulation wouldn't effect me positively or negatively. Like I said, my bag is more powersets and bare bones, not so much a fleshed out idea. Though, I do apparently have some difficulty when the character that I want to play I can't, which has happened to me once.

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I recycle accounts, but many of the characters I've played, rebuilt and used in a different game are different in many ways. There will be similarities yes, but I tend to play things I like, and am not above having very similar powers to a previous PC I've made, so long as I had a good time with that character.

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