Persistent Characters vs "One-and-Done" Characters

[Mistiel]

I've only ever kept persistent characters on two Proboards forums, an Eragon and Harry Potter respectively, and both are so many years long dead that I can say that without it being advertisement. It has been so long since I had a persistent character last more than six months at most that I have forgotten what it's like. My question for discussion is thus: is it better to have just a couple of characters that you RP in multiple threads, or is it better to create a new character for every thread you enter (tailoring that character to the theme of that thread)? Am I a bad roleplayer for making "throwaway" characters that are forgotten after their RP finishes or dies?

For me, it would seem like if I am creating a Harry Potter character - by way of example - that that character simply couldn't be adapted to anything medieval-related like Eragon. Conversely, it'd be difficult for me to tweak a medieval-based character to be in a superhero (one of the reasons why I don't typically RP in superhero threads :P) or sci-fi modernized thread. I know it can sometimes be hard to keep track of characters in your head if you create a new one for every thread, but I think the creation is half the fun. That half is slowly starting to melt for me though; hence my asking if it's more acceptable for me to just keep three or four characters on hand and make sure I can adapt them to any thread I wish to join.

[DELETED jdl3932]

I like making new one's. It's fun. Unless the CS is the length of an encyclopedia, in which case making a new character sucks. I keep track of each by viewing the roleplays they're part of as seperate universe's. But I can see how you would get burnt out from making new one's for every roleplay. Honestly, if you want to use the same one's and reformat them, then go ahead. In the end it's up to you as they are your characters.

[SleepingSilence]

Not to wag my finger about it, but reusing characters just kind of feels cheap to me. Even if they happened to be "tweaked", it just cheapens the past experiences. Maybe I'd find an exception to ones that had died before they even started, or so early on that there wasn't any character development had to begin with. If a story is over, and a new story takes place in the same universe, also maybe? Like a D&D style campaign. But even in those circumstances I'd prefer creating newer characters. Just how I've always enjoyed roleplaying. By not limiting creative potential, where this concept is a fine example of it.

[Ammokkx]

I've always had a pretty hard stance against the concept of just tweaking one character, over and over, for multiple RPs. It's like the Ash Ketchum of RPing; Ash isn't an interesting character because he can't ever grow because of the status quo. Keeping with one thing for too long is just adding water to wine, you dilute the experience to the point of meaningless. I personally don't even see the appeal of keeping with one character unless you're self-inserting, which... is interesting.

Making a different character for each RP you join also just leads to more interesting characters, as far as I'm concerned. It gets you to write multiple personalities or make something that slots nicely into the cast instead of having overlap with others.

The only time I'd personally re-use characters are in reboots or sequels. A reboot leads me to get a second shot at writing the same person, maybe with some tweaks to their base to make them more interesting from the get-go and take it in a direction I couldn't before. As for a sequel, I'd only use a legacy character as a side-role at best, as they've already had their time in the sun and I don't want them to be an Ash.

No hate on people who stick to one character, tho. You do you and you have fun; it's just never something I've agreed with. Even in my Tumblr RPing days,_(shudder) my one character was continually built on instead of having a soft reset each time. It helps I made him a dimension traveller back in the day, but I didn't want to take away anything from them each time I started a new RP.

[AlteredTundra]

I like creating characters regardless. Like, it's just that simple. I enjoy the character creation process. It's fun for me thinking how I can add my own spin to a stereotypical trope of certain "types" of characters and/or ethnicities I may go with. And as much as I enjoy making new ones, I also enjoy reusing and developing already-made characters. I don't see anything wrong with that. I mean, if you're just reusing the character because you're lazy and you don't want to make a new one, then I can understand the argument against reusing characters. I, for one, am on the side that likes to reuse characters to develop them. I can explore unexplored paths that I hadn't been able to the first time around. Using the same character multiple times allows you to get to know the character more and figure out things about them you didn't know before.

[Quincy]

Both creating and adapting characters have value, methinks.

[Skyswimsky]

I never understood the prospect of having one, or more, long-standing characters. Not that I'm hating on people who do that, but it just doesn't feel right for me? I haven't even been aware that this is a thing until a few years into roleplaying!

That said, I'm in a way not even sure if I don't have a long-standing character myself. A few years back I discovered a certain archetype/trope I enjoy roleplaying a lot. Ever since then, I often end up making a character that has some very same core personality traits, but with some differences. Outside of that, and the fact I re-use the same name 80% of the time if it's fitting as a sort of homage to my 'discovery', they are always different. Always will be. Also because part of my character making process is that I end up fleshing them out way more as the RP goes on, I guess.

Reading some other people posts about the whole 'cheap copy' gave me some food for thought about my own situation, though. This 'copy-character' of mine often feels like that too at the beginning stages of the RP. But thinking back on the three roleplays I participated in, which managed to go on longer without dying, said character/s(?) each ended up very different from one another. But maybe that's also because said trope has a very innocent world-view and a lot of room to grow as a character? Meh, whatever, now I miss those RPs.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

One of the fundamental issues experienced with creating a new character for every topic is the rate at which threads are prone to turnover, at least in this age of roleplaying where this instance appears more common than not. It becomes an exercise in tediousness, that each and every time there is a reasonable chance of a character that was strongly desired to be played that they will become irrelevant in short order. As no real progress or anything of merit will be done with them before the topic is likely to capsize and now said character is shelved, potentially indefinitely. So I believe it is not exactly possible to not make disposable characters when that is the new norm.

For me, this practice not only rubs the fur the wrong way and irks me to no end - I come from the days when people were one character and were associated almost exclusively with that character - as it is effectively a waste of time. Why so? If one goes through all the trouble of making a character they wish to play but the topic is likely to die, that investment of intellectual and creative energy is going to be mostly spent. Some elements of that character via the inner desire to manifest them may still linger and be repurposed, but in the end the majority of what was done becomes just words on a screen at that point, devoid of anything of value; not much connection was really to be had unless the author struck gold for themselves in developing that character, which is of course rare. Personally, I am fatigued with creating characters and trying to make each one new, novel, and distinct when I rarely will ever have the chance of playing them for longer than a few weeks. Owing to this, I would prefer to have just one, perhaps two at absolute most again, and commit to them here.

All in all, it is reasonably for the best to make a few general templates of characters who can stand-in for various genres with only a minor amount of alteration, as it is more courteous to make characters who fit into topics rather than just wedge one's ongoing characters in without canon appropriate changes. Again, speaking only for myself, I wish more did this and at such a point I myself am likely to resign to this standard given the issue of turnover, @Mistiel. No complaints to be had here if you choose to do so and I hope that more follow.

[Dervish]

I've got a foot in either end of the spectrum.

I reuse characters in fandom settings if I feel they didn't get a good run because of a game's early death, I still have a story I want to tell with them, or it's a series/ sequel. Like Harbinger said, it feels like a waste of time and energy if you spend days researching and creating a character only for it to get snuffed out in a few weeks because a game died. If a character is adapted to the new RP and setting, I don't see the problem.

On the other hand, there's something stagnant about reusing the same character across different genres and games and it brings to mind Theseus' Ship; if you replace every plank of wood on a ship across it's life, is it still the original ship? I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about her habit of reusing characters but basically changing everything but the appearance and name... if a character is so vastly different between incarnations, aren't you technically playing a different character?

Personally, I get bursts if inspiration for different ideas so while I have a handful of repeat characters, I write and create so many more original ones because it makes sense for different games. It's all very circumstantial.

Where I take exception and issue with people reusing characters is when it's an obvious author insert and/ or it's the same character across different RPs with no changes to accomodate the new setting. I've seen it a few times on the guild and it's definitely enough to make me steer clear. You need to respect a GM's setting and lore and make your character work for it, not awkwardly cram in a failed post apocalyptic setting character into a fantasy RP and then into a slice of life romance and then into a scifi setting with virtually nothing changed.

[mickilennial]

Yeah, adaption isn't as simple as a copy and paste.

[Mistiel]

The past few profiles I've stalked, it just seemed like everybody was keeping character repositories in some fashion or other. My characters whether they be rejected or an RP dies out early, just end up getting tossed aside. (I'm not salty...much. 3/10 on the NaCl scale, 6/10 on the KCl scale.)

[Dervish]

@Mistiel You never felt like it was worth giving a character another shot? That's curious!

[ayzrules]

I mean, I'll be the first to admit it, loud and clear, that I do re-use and tweak and continuously re-work characters from one setting/RP to another. Okay, so maybe it's cheap and lazy, but guess what? So am I. Sue me.

But the thing is, I've found that a character highkey copy-pasted from one RP to another usually ends up taking a life of their own, if that makes sense? Like, I made a steampunk version of a character I've used many times a few years ago, and she's really just...become almost an entirely new character, in a sense, barring FC similarities. In my mind, although the 2 characters came from the same place, they are pretty distinct even though I'm a lazy POS and their personality write-ups are probably 80% the same. Point is-recycling characters doesn't necessarily mean that they end up being carbon copies of each other, and can lead to greater development and understanding of both versions in the process (the scenario I've given being a prime example, for me)

Also, I think that character "categories", "templates", "tropes" are 100% valid. Case in point: I write a lot of femme fatale-esque characters. But only one of them is straight-up, stereotypical textbook definition femme fatale. The others are femme fatale subversions, femme fatale spin-offs, etc etc etc, that I don't feel like I can comfortably call 100% femme fatale, but they're not quite close to any other trope/category/whatever either.

I write a lot of girly-girls, too. But some are nice, some not so much. Some are there because I thought it'd be funny. Some are there because I just really like Elle Woods-y vibes. If you look at their personality write-ups and/or likes/dislikes _{and also my super fucking disorganized Pinterest boards for them}, maybe you'd be like- "whoa they're the same character!!!11!!!!1!!!" but I can confidently say that I can clearly differentiate them in my head (and in writing if we really wanna be extra like that), even if they all spawned off of one character in the beginning

anyway idk where I was going with this but I think recycling characters can be a helpful way to add complexity to all the "versions", since I've found that diff aspects of diff characters will naturally change/evolve through the course of diff RPs. maybe it's cheap and lazy, but maaaaan I do not have the time nor energy to make a completely distinct, influenced by nothing I've ever written ever, character for every RP I end up joining

[Mistiel]

If I use a certain play-by for a character, I feel guilty using that same play-by (a.k.a avatar) for a different character in another RP if the first character never got off the ground.

To conclude, I guess this means I'm okay to reuse one of my rejected characters whom I've been craving to play.

[Spambot]

I have a fairly extensive list of characters. However, I am quite strict on how they're shoved into settings.

Most of the time it is simply convenient to create a new one for the almost inevitable temporary nature of a thread. When the thread dies, the character joins my canon, and thus becomes persistent in the background.

Occasionally, a roleplay may fit one of those characters, and said persistent character is brought into the roleplay. If the roleplay goes well enough, the events are canon to the character, up to and including their death. If the roleplay is poor or the development is stunted, I ignore the results entirely and keep the character on the backend with no changes other than a few 'well that was weird' tweaks.

The characters made anew are a mold, which I usually end up using beyond their proof of concept stage. Once they are used beyond their intro, they become persistent, and every roleplay/backend lore experience becomes a permanent addition to the character.

[Knight101]

@Mistiel For me, one and done characters are good in the sense that a player gets to create and play multiple personality types, as well as backgrounds. Much like an actor on TV. But long lasting characters that are used for multiple stories are better fleshed out in my opinion because a lot more character growth/development can be made with long lasting characters. For me, I love using the same/similar characters because I'm not done telling their stories. One and done characters leave me feeling so unsatisfied. What if the RP dies before it truly starts? What if it lasts a month before ending? What if I want to revisit the same character later down the road, but can't because one and done characters are norm?

So, to answer your question, I think it's perfectly fine for you to hold onto 3 or 4 characters and adapt them as needed depending on the type of RP you wish to enter. I think a healthy balance is to do one and done characters as well as persistent characters.

That's my two cents.

[Greenie]

Despite creating new characters, I do have a (bad?) habit of tweaking and reusing characters from different failed roleplays. I guess for me it's the effort I put in creating and making the sheet- it feels a little sad not giving my babies ^^; another chance to thrive. My currently most active roleplay has a character I first created back in 2013 who I've consistently tweaked and changed with every version until, well, she's no longer the same, at all, save for her name and looks. ^^;

I don't find it cheap to reuse characters, especially if you never got to use them properly in the past. But I also don't find a person a 'bad' roleplayer if they simply scrap 'failed' characters and create news ones. ^_^ To each their own, as long as you're having fun!

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

I've got a backlog of characters I don't feel ever reached their potential or would like to use again, and I still generally make a new character every thread because I don't feel they're appropriate to the particular game I want to join.

[Malice]

I do believe there are merits to both and, ultimately, it's whatever the writer finds most interesting/convenient/important to them. Some people think it is lazy to reuse a character, but others find it too bothersome to invest in character creation when writing isn't guaranteed.

For me, it is whatever I feel currently suits the situation I am in. I have some characters who I just adore writing and I would rather tweak them to fit a setting than create a new character who just might not enjoy writing in the long run. On the other hand, character creation is fun and different settings allow me to create a diverse range of characters that I might not otherwise have devised had I simply been reusing.

Writing is creative and the same way that I would have no qualms about redrawing a piece of artwork with a different composition, I have no worries about rewriting characters. Some characters are kind of in between 'reuse' and 'one and gone'; I pour love and soul into creating them only for the roleplay to never take off the ground; these characters, if I am invested in their design enough and want to see the stories they have to tell, I pull in to another roleplay until I find somewhere they can call home. Sometimes they end up in roleplays where they have nothing new to tell me, so I will discard it from what I consider their 'canon' experiences. Sometimes I will tweak a character for a certain roleplay and consider what I am writing to be essentially 'fanfic' of my own character; I'm still writing it, enjoying it, there is nothing wrong with it, but it has no impact on their real story.

As a writer, something that interests me is seeing how minor changes can have a vast impact. That means I do sometimes deliberately run the same plot with the same character with multiple people; I am interested to see how different partners with different things to bring to the table, impact the characters I write. I don't feel this negates the experiences of my character at all and I do believe it helps me develop and better understand the motivations of my characters.

As I said, it's all about what any individual writer is interested in writing. For me, that often means keeping the same characters, who I know and love, and bringing them with me on new journeys. Sometimes it means creating new characters to explore new scenarios with. I both reuse and create and I enjoy both; personally I don't see one as being more beneficial than the other, as long as my interest is maintained and my writing and creativity are allowed to develop.

[Bert Macklin]

I sort of like using old characters just to see them react to new situations, though laziness can definitely be attributed to that decision.