Long-Term Character related question thing

[DocRock]

So this is a question, tied to how I've seen it done in a few places, but for folks who end up having characters last a long time through multiple story arcs(same thread or not), like a "main" do you end up taking time between needing to reply to work on little side stuff, like character responses to say, an ask box?

Asking because where I came from, some of us put together these collections containing loads of little character trivia that we wrote as we developed our characters over years and years. That and in the place I came from, we had an ongoing narrative, one world backdrop, with folks going wherever they wanted, while occasionally world altering plots popped up. We also had other connected writing groups, and would go between them for story adventures(in other words, we went to different G+ comms for different tales, like going to an Eggman based community to battle the bad guys on their home turf, or visiting an ally comm and accidentally sparking an intermultiversal war that lasted all of a month before the guys who barged in got their asses handed to em multiple times).

Just wondering if anyone else has done this, I've not seen any setups here for something like that, but it never hurts to ask, y'know? I might just be missing things. I just found it was a nice way to record the organic development of a character, and also let me goof off and do some fun in character stuff that while not full on canon, does shed light on a characters current mindset. Currently trying to get all that data I wrote over the past three four years safely downloaded, so I can bring some of it here.

Hope this is fine to post, wasn't sure what the best title was, and well, as you can see, I sorta rambled, lol. What can I say? I love building stories, and going on all sorts of whacky adventures. While I may never get to use my "main" from elsewhere here readily(not unless a GM sees the sheet I have planned to post soon that's a very slimmed down version and wants to have the character at least make a brief cameo), beyond say, my own stuff, I still well, want to share my work, and see if anyone else has done something quite like this.

Always fun to experiment with ideas and stuff, I suppose-

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

This phenomena I recall being much more common with the older roleplaying environment, especially as early forums rose to popularity at roughly the same time as instant messenger roleplaying became more mainstream, @DocRock. That said, I have not seen much of it in the past decade or so, where a continuous character is used and a separate topic devoted to them carries on, to include interaction from other players. It is, in some ways, a relic of the past and in terms of community here, few players continuously use the same characters time and again, let alone interact much with one another's in the out-of-character context.

There are places to do so, such as here on the Roleplayer Guild under the "Character Sheets" section, where the thread creator can appeal to feedback and interaction, as well as keep an ongoing log of events for that character. That would afford you the ability to work on small details to have questions posed in public.

[Rawk]

This is probably one of my favorite things about character creation, @DocRock

But I would have to agree with @The Harbinger of Ferocity in saying that it seems to be a dying art. Way back when (Circa: just after the earth cooled...?), characters were a lot more valued and players wanted to continue their stories, just like in their "table-top" counterparts. But, we're dealing with a fickle society of RPers now more than ever, so multiple characters that seem to come and go is the norm.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

It would be quite nice, I admit to you both, @Rawk, @DocRock, if there were a topic dedicated to keeping a sort of long ongoing story with different avenues to approach. It has been tried before but canons tend to only function linear on the Roleplayer Guild for one reason or another. A main topic, a hub of sorts, then a few others that spring up over time and cover particular arcs of the story would be a pleasant return to form in that sense.

I, for example, have not been able to use my actual character in many years, as the last thing I would want to do is wedge them into any topic that they would not belong in and thus cause issues for players there. It would just be inconsiderate of me to do so and would really not be an ideal outcome for anyone. Either way, if that is something you wish to do, please at least inform me; I would be all the willing to look into the topic and perhaps participate to get back even a bit of the glory from those days.

[DocRock]

@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Rawk
Thank you both for the feedback, it means a lot.

I agree, its an art that seems under valued. Sure, where I came from, our version of a forum was all one interconnected story, with each thread focused on a specific group of people's tales. Like say, a G+ post that's just one big raid battle, rather than dropping in the middle of an ongoing thread, is its own thing.

I'd certainly be interested in what you said Harb. My own character, Doctor Rockwoman, is not someone I can readily import, due to the years of development, plus the monster amount of data I have in the wings for her(such as her immense treasury from her adventures, or even the fact she's designed multiple android models in a vein like her grandfather, or other genius's who design such), would likely spook some. Its why the CS I'm posting soon for her is going to be a slimmed down version for ease of reading(as opposed to the google document that is her current G+ profile, as I've yet to begin work on her post G+ version 7.0 profile, yes, I had patchnote style profiles, good times). If folks did say, want to see her treasury, I could make a separate thread devoted to posts that chronicle each piece of her treasury, and the memories of those she honors by having said items.

My original approach to rp was much like how the forum is now, at least when I got to G+, back in my original forum days, we had characters we built up over time, but at the same time, switched to a new generation as needed. By the end of my first forum run, I was on the third generation of our tales. We'd battled Eggman in the first and second generations, battled Enerjak of Archie fame alongside Xehanort in the second generation, and made it home to Earth by the advent of the third(after one of our android buddies crashed our space ship into a mountain on purpose), and all around, had fun.

Not that I have any issue with how we do things currently in the Threads, just that since each tend to be their own canon, it's not what I'm used to in these days. Expanding Horizons is close to what I'd do with the Rockwoman, but since it seems dead(unless a dedicated group of rpers wants to revive it's interconnectedness), we'd have to do something else. Something I have planned(a variant of what I submitted to All-Verse in fact), could be used by folks who want to bring their characters together, since I do see some threads that do massive-crossovers. It's just a matter of dedication. Those like myself may be a dying breed, as even where I came from, folks could never remain active, they'd make alts like candy on G+, make hundreds of various CCs, and never stick around, make OCs, and vanish within a day. It was sad, since I'd written the world lore of the G+ comm I focused my efforts in until plot drove me to a friend's community, where I've been since(being comatose and getting transported along with another landmass to another universe by a creator deity to avoid the final boss of Fate Grand Order destroying the entire world makes for interesting adventures, as does being unable to return home when the universal barriers harden and prevent cross-universal travel).

Am I rambling? Perhaps, If so, I do apologize a tad. Folks I know in a few places do love it when I ramble about the stuff I've written, not out of boasting, but just, guess they like to hear the months, nay, years of effort put in. From combing through game lore, to carefully trying to justify a given power, and then built upon foundations. To an entire google document devoted to each person met after a character was metaphorically refreshed and given a second chance at life, to just hours spent compiling the treasury's links, to eventually flesh out with more data. To even notes on the races that inhabit the world.

Whoops, rambled again. As a published writer, and as a long time rper, I like to discuss the written word too much for my own good. Or typed, in this case, I suppose. I should start importing the species list of the Rock Imperium here at some point, but still waiting for G+ to archive all my stream data, I think, so I can share my work with the world.

tl;dr: I wanna do interconnected tales beyond what massive year spanning threads do, but also don't know how to do so here, or how to fit in, perhaps? I dunno if this is a good sum up, lol.

[BrokenPromise]

I think the main problem with yee olde characters like that is that it's nearly impossible to find a setting where they really fit along side other characters. mutliverse worlds make such a thing easier, but that has its own problems. Power scales tend to be a problem regardless of what you do.

[DocRock]

I think the main problem with yee olde characters like that is that it's nearly impossible to find a setting where they really fit along side other characters. mutliverse worlds make such a thing easier, but that has its own problems. Power scales tend to be a problem regardless of what you do.

@BrokenPromise

Very much so, though one tactic I employed, at least when it came to combat or scaling, was to try and find some way to "even" the field if I was stronger. Whether this was using a surrogate in place of my main at the time, or relying on a specific set of equipment, or just outright pulling back if the other broke down a "health bar," I tried to make it fun for both. Though I'm pretty sure this isn't precisely what one means. Generally fitting an older character into a new setting, even if they aren't the strongest, can be tricky.

I mean, by the standards of the series she hails from, me ye oldie main is a high tier for the verse, but when said high tiers get folded by the mook enemies due to how the levels system works for monsters(i.e. you could have the best gear, but if the enemy is high enough level, if your health isn't high enough, its gonna be pain), its also eh. I suppose that's not it either what you mean.

...I mean, I also ignore stats unless they become needed, as where I came from, there was a time where folks were religious with stats so much that it just killed the point of mismatched battles or just fighting for the sake of fun, or telling stories for fun. Suddenly it was all about who could stomp who. For me, it was always the story, if a character went up or down a tier due to their adventures(like gaining something, or losing something along the way), so long as it was for story, that was fine. Sorry if I'm not making sense for whatever reason, I'm not sure if I'm being precisely on top of what you were talking about. Not that I'd use the Good Doctor unless when I commented on an interest thread or OOC for a new rp I wanted to join, they requested her for some reason. As I'm beginning to relearn how to make OCs that are their own thing for each thread.

As I used to go from community to community back where I came from, making new OCs for new settings like candy(As back then, communities were like threads here). I kind of just want to showcase the amount of love I put into her by posting her CS here, I guess that's all? I dunno. Hope I'm making sense.

...I'm rambling again, I swear, not my intent-

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

Power scales tend to be a problem regardless of what you do.

@BrokenPromise

It has always been a trend of the genre to make the "Next best thing, totally guys, my character is awesome!" type scenario, @DocRock. I am not so confident that implementing statistics and mechanics of any kind will do much to resolve the issue of having such disparate powers and dynamics in play. It comes down to, in all honesty, having reasonable players and not ones who are attempting to "power game" roleplaying topics, which is far easier said than done. More often than not, these kinds of players tend to be younger, more inexperienced, and prone to abuse of well tread tropes and cliches that others now cringe at.

Continued, the community you are speaking to and about here on the Roleplayer Guild tends to have a great number of factors in play that work against the proposal of something more mechanical in nature, among the others noted earlier. People tend to not like anything too complicated in that matter and a fair number are a bit difficult to convince to not create wildly disparate levels of power, let alone use them respectfully; there is no real consequence for them exploiting multiverse and power based issues other than being shuffled out of a topic. They can and do simply go elsewhere on the forum, meanwhile the prior topic tends to suffer due to the frustrations involved and the fact it readily upset the plot.

I suspect, in no small or better way to put it, to select and cater to a number of people you can trust for such a roleplay. Failing that, it is mostly left to you to construct something and govern it with the hopes of reaching those desired results. It appears to me that this would not be terribly difficult for you between your experience and motivation, to say nothing of the fact that it is what you appeal to, so how you go about it is the larger element I would suggest looking into. The short of this being is vet your players wisely, reach out and appeal to those you would like to play with, be active and proactive, and develop an identity for the topic.

[DocRock]

Mhm, very much so. Not everyone is suited for a given topic, and neither is the given thread suited to all. I've had this experience before, in part why the multiverse setting appeals to so many, as well as setups for those who wish to do their own thing to do so without say, disrupting the larger story. It's why you'll find folks recreating the Goku vs. Superman fights somewhere else, while say, the main threat on one world is free to progress without fear of a stray attack ruining their plans.

That's also why I enjoy the idea of a sandbox. Sure, a nice backdrop story, such as an interstellar war, is often good to keep activity going(or to frame what's going on), but often times just letting folks loose can produce interesting results. I have a map somewhere that is the result of this, where a Magneto dragged an entire desert over to a more mild climate landmass, just so mutants or visitors wouldn't have to brave the dangers of whatever lay in the ocean(as the series lore had massive kaiju ready to wake up and rain havoc on unsuspecting travelers, such as four variants of their own Godzilla, or just giant slimes for the lols), or a Sauron set up shop next to a Skeletor, and somehow the two got along.

It was weird, whimiscal, and downright strange at times. There was even a Goku Black who hung out by himself in the mountains, after scaring the pants off the entire writing group for a time. To a Neo Metal Sonic who attained incredible power, by somehow going unnoticed by CC and OC players alike, until it was too late and "oh hey kids you snooze you get bamboozled."

Though I feel as if I strayed a bit from our line of discussion. Not that rabbit holes are bad, merely that they can lead to...interesting lines of dialogue. That said, if you want to discuss things further, one on one rather, PMs here or DMs on Discord work well. You might like the six part series I put together on the lore of one specific series, only because well, our lore for the writing group at the time needed an overhaul, I had time, and was driven. I do plan to eventually, either as GM or finding someone willing to be a GM for me, do a fantasy/science-fiction thread drawn from the Rune Factory series, and yes, its because I have an absurd amount of love for that series, despite its endless hiatus. That and the place I came from with its shutting down nature upset plans for a campaign I had intended for the interested masses. Campaign in the sense that its a given plotline, and see who steps up to do word battle with series of raid bosses, and just general adventuring. To get back on track, it really is just finding the right set of players to work alongside, and to have good co-DMs who share the vision you have, or can cover your weaknesses(such as if your weakness is building tension, but strength is world building, bring in a co-DM who can handle creating tensions).

We were all young once, and we learn from our mistakes, usually(unless you're this one guy I met, who has to be obsessed with the idea of making extremely edgy OCs who break series lore, or just is a nightmare to shift through. Imagine someone doing a composite of all things, a Leviathan, to a point where it contradicted itself at numerous points. Utter headache, always liked flexing and trying to be OP just to kick over people's sandcastles, and then duck and run when called on their godmodding or powerplaying. And then act like it wasn't them later, or lie about stuff.), and in some cases, we live with our cliches. I mean, my character I like the most still suffers from a slightly changed version of her mother issues, where instead of craving attention, she wanted to make their mother pay for all the actions they had committed. Getting the Loki treatment in Avengers from the Hulk can do that. Course, that was a result of the plot, mother ran away when she was little, came back years later as a probably brainwashed, masked villain serving their creator against their will.

There's no way to balance power and stats unless you set an upper limit in the thread, and even then, it can constrict ideas. Say someone wants to do a really fun power(my friend loves thermal energy manipulation, and that's a tricky one to fit into some stories, due to the amount of applications it can have, akin to why tech manipulation is spooky), they might not be able to. I personally think that an upper limit should be flexible, and if things do get out of hand, to introduce elements that help those who have say, gotten stronger than anticipated. In other words, offer different options to different folks. Different types of plot, in other words. I hope I'm making sense. When it comes down to it with characters, I tend to follow a simple method, are their powers justified, clearly explained, and logical? Like if say you have a Fate Gilgamesh type character with a treasury(akin to mine, though their collection is a cross between Gate of Bablyon and Unlimited Blade Works(by accident actually) in terms of how it actually functions), what are their notable items or gear, and why did they get them, how?

Sometimes, its fun to just make a character for the sake of making, for the sake of improving yourself as a writer. Its partly why I stuck to one character where I came from, so I could clearly track my progress. Use the character or their setting as a testbed for new ideas, and if they don't work, trim off what doesn't work until it does work, or repurpose as needed. So for example, if the first attempt at a given plot line doesn't work, take the time to refine it, determine what went wrong, and reboot as able. Roleplaying is a form of writing, and thus an art, so one should take the time to make it beautiful, but not be afraid to reframe ideas as they come. Okay, now I'm really unsure if I'm making sense, or if my rambling has just gone down into pure randomness.

I'll end here, since I'm unsure what else to do or say, to get back on track and the like. I hope this was enjoyable for your reading pleasure, and good for a response. I am enjoying our discussion.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

I appreciate your lengthy responses, even if they do deviate frequently, @DocRock. Really the only comment I have to add is that while you seem to have noble ideals about what is reasonable within roleplaying, say people being rational with upper levels of power for the sake of plot rather than just having the nebulously "best" character, I am afraid as much is a rarity, not a norm. Having been present in and originally one of those who tried to set the framework up for Expanding Horizons, it proved to me that this community does not operate that way. There was, contrarily, a measurable trend of players specifically making characters to hard counter others and be better, to the point that things became so incoherent that it was one of the issues that toppled all of it.

This comes back to my emphasis on choose who is participating and what is being participated with. If you do intend on doing anything like this you and whoever else you assign, if any at all, need to ensure people more or less do not destroy the game even in the meta. You might assume it is just different play styles and desires for gaming, which it can be, when in reality it is mostly just a vehicle to alienate audiences and potentially interested players; a standard, uncompromising at that, needs to be set and held to. No technicalities or variances or deviations, either characters are too much for the setting or they are not.

Our world of roleplaying is not how it was a decade and more ago where power gaming and "god-mode" players received blacklisting to the point they generally became community untouchables, where no one would allow them in or not see them banned. Frankly I have not seen anything keeping to that higher standard, so I again urge you to be exceedingly careful in what you do and why you do it, otherwise you will have mostly spent all your work cataloging and building on your character for very little gain.

That in mind, I wish you the best in your endeavors, whatever you so choose here on the forum.

[DocRock]

I'm already pretty settled in, but I agree in regards to how power has shifted. Those more interested in story are rarer, as opposed to those who just want to beat each other up, when there's no limits given to power. But when limits are presented, or enforced, it does force folks to focus on character, rather than say, power.

It's also one of the reasons why I scaled back the overall power of the Dark Rockverse in the All-Verse, in comparison to the material it was based on. As some of the characters who were from the early days of the Rock-Army, aka what the Dark Rockverse is based on, could have reached nutty levels of power. No point in having characters who vaporize solar systems on their own, if it doesn't fit the setting. That does more harm than good. It ain't Marvel or DC, where such power scaling does exist and for good reasons. It's roleplay, some stuff has to be dialed back.

I have noticed that most threads these days deal with more street level stuff, to perhaps city level. And that's very good. Even if it can constrict some fun ideas, in favor of power. That said, I lost my train of though. Watching Macguver with family, so that's a trip. But I think I rmember a bit of what I was going for. Sometimes, its fun to just write, and see if folks enjoy it. I think that was it. I dunno. Meanwhile, the biggest concern I have right now is a good CS layout, because I'm indecisive.

[BrokenPromise]

The reason why I don't create muti-RP characters (and I suspect others do this as well) is because crossover/multiverse RPs don't do anything for me. My characters always feel like an original work to me when they are in the world they belong in. once they start crossing over into different worlds, things start to feel like a fan fiction. I also find that most of the people who still do that style of roleplay are often more interested in their characters than anything else that's going on. Everything just sort of becomes a matter of "what will this do for my character in the end?" But if you can find the right people, maybe such a beast could work. Whatever floats your boats I guess.

Continued, the community you are speaking to and about here on the Roleplayer Guild tends to have a great number of factors in play that work against the proposal of something more mechanical in nature, among the others noted earlier.

@The Harbinger of Ferocity

I'm not sure how you derived "layered mechanics and systems" from my once sentence response on power scales. That is exactly the opposite of how I'd handle things.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

Your quote was not in relation to that element, @BrokenPromise. I was referring to the issue of people causing problems due to disparity in power scaling, hence the jab at the overly eager power gaming player who is a bit egotistical with how great and mighty their character is. Again, the idea I am appealing to is just that the rules be firmly laid out, simple, and left to good judgement by the member leading the topic and the players actively desiring to contribute rather than dominate a thread.

[DocRock]

Yeah, that's reasonable and understandable in terms of focusing on the character, rather than the others. Crossovers/multifandom are more what I'm used to only because that's what I've done for most of the past six years. I found a place I liked, settled into the community, and moved to a new one that continued the canon, but in a new setting. And then from there I went to a place that was basically the Root in some philosphies, with folks from all walks of life or series doing their own thing. In essence a sandbox.

Nice place though. But yeah, I getcha. It is funny how this went from more asking if others kept up their own minor notes on their characters as they developed, regardless of multi-rp or not, to more just discussing various ideas. If I'm tracking my own late night question last night right. I just try to provide enjoyable, and compelling content for folks to either just read, or engage with if they like. Not saying bad funny, just that its nice how organic things are here. As back where I came from, debates tended to occur too often over "oh x character is stronger than yours! Nyeh!" Silly stuff like that. Nothing wrong to discuss stuff, but its about telling stories. At least, that's how I've tried to see it these days. Regardless of the nature of the thread. Tbh, in a sense, where I came from is like one thread, but if exploded outward, so everyone got their own minithread. Not sure if I was conveying it right before, because its hard to translate a social media community designed for rping to an internet forum designed for such. If you get me?

Really though, thanks for engaging with me on this, its nice to discuss stuff. I'm not sure if I lost the line of conversation here again or not, or if you were referring to me at the end of your last post, Broken, or if it was addressed to Harb.

On a side tangent, I really do wanna try my hand at GMing sometime, since I used to do a lot of Dungeon Master style stuff for friends who wanted to explore stuff. But I'm too shy, especially since I just got here, and I'm not sure if there's an unspoken thing about waiting before trying something out. I'd do an interest check first of course. I was thinking reopening a project of mine, rewriting what I did for All-Verse, or something else. Unsure. Sorry if that was a bit off topic, but it's going through my mind.

In all seriousness, if I'm seemingly not engaging directly on the stuff you're saying, sorry, not sure what's not clicking. Unless its just me listening to some scary story tales here.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

In all seriousness, if I'm seemingly not engaging directly on the stuff you're saying, sorry, not sure what's not clicking. Unless its just me listening to some scary story tales here.

@DocRock

I would say not to view them as scary stories, read them instead as forewarning. You are not the first to propose these ideas and there are some notable trends that have blossomed over time on this site, as they do with any other site, that makes this difficult. I can speak for no one else but myself so I will not even try to claim as much, yet the reality remains the points laid out earlier. All I can say is that I hope, should you try it, you take the advice from the varied users here seriously and try to shape things around it, lest you be disappointed otherwise.

[DocRock]

Oh no, I should have clarified. I was listening to a video of scary stories. My bad for confusing. Sorry for that. The video I'm listening to could have gotten me distracted.

If you ever wanna do a thread or something, give me a holler please, I love rping with as many as I can, to build fun memories.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

I've never really thought of it as working on her, but on the Discord for an RP I'm currently in I've discovered a lot about my current character just by shooting the breeze with everyone else. Someone will ask me the clarify something, or the conversation will just flow in a direction that makes me think about something I hadn't before in regards to her. I've never written it all down or consolidated these little things I've discovered in a single place, but I know them and if it weren't for the rest of the players bouncing ideas around she'd definitely be a flatter character than she is now.

[DocRock]

Yeah, that kind of stuff can really help to flesh out a character's motivations, or overall nature. It may not seem important, but it can often help to cement where a character sits in regards to everyone else. Plus who doesn't love making up little headcanons or ideas about their characters to implement down the line?

[Lady Absinthia]

It is actually a rather common thing in my Rps. Many of the rpers in them have characters they have played in the past and continued their story line into one of my Rps or even to another of mine once it finishes. We have a good dozen that have been in at least 2 rps, some that have been in 3. A couple that have hit their 2nd RP and even one that is on their 5th in a row to just to continue the story line.

I actually have 1 rp that is devoted to a characters "second chance" after death so that whole cast is nothing but a continuation in a new light. It can get rather complex as people have broadened out to other Rps outside of mine and we have done cross Gm tie in to other whole story lines. It has created a very wonderful dynamic in the over all group to have so many tie in's, back story's, people their characters can meet that know of other characters, even family lines that cover hundreds of years and dozens of RP's. Some even break off to 1x1 privately to build up back story during a time jump or down time in an RP.

It might not be a common practice but it is out there and thriving.

[DocRock]

@Lady Amalthea
Nifty, perhaps if I can get her CS done, my off site character, or one of her creations could pop up in one of your tales?

Also hope its fine, but I'm quite taken with your Sci-Fi sheet on the template thread of yours, and while I'd probably have to make some minor modifications for my personal use(since not from the Firefly universe or anything), I'm gonna use it. Because its so nice and clean looking, and I was bashing my head into a wall to come up with a good sheet that would work with the sheer amount of biographical data my gal has. I put a lot of work into her personality about a year back, when I updated it last(was gonna update the personality in a past update, but I was dead tired of writing and updates, so I left it for a future update), and other stuff, so its fun times.

Surprised more folks popped up here, but its nice. Always nice to discuss rp concepts and the like, heh.