Persistent Characters vs "One-and-Done" Characters

[coffeeflower]

I'd say create them and let them live. I love creating characters and I love it the more I explore internet but I tend to think of them as actors. They are my miniatures (the equivalent to figures in strategy and tabletop RPG games) but as I write and discover I've realized they're both: miniatures and actors so I would feel like killing one of my actresses if I decided to make a "disposable" character and no, I'm not killing my actresses/miniatures/dolls

[Reno Cascade]

I've been playing the same main character since around 2002 in a consistent setting with an ongoing plot. My group and I aren't "lazy". We create new characters within the scope of the plot as needed, but our main characters are the primary focus. We've taken our characters to other forums plenty of times and created new sub-plots within whatever persistent worlds those places have had. I reckon it's a preference. I don't particularly have any issue with one-off characters and RP's. I used to engage in those kinds of things quite often myself. As my overall free time dwindled (life responsibilities, etc), I ended up just focusing mostly on what interested me the most, which happens to be my main character and his ongoing struggles.

With a character like that, at least for myself, I feel drastically more connected to them. Like they're alive in a way. This sort of thing is only possible after a set amount of time, I believe. Well, at least for me. I can't rightly speak on how it is for others. I think it's also important to note that a majority of the games that I've participated from the start have been largely war and battle-oriented. A persistent character jumping from one battle to the next is eminently more "experienced", which confers an extra advantage to the player as time goes on (I know there are likely folks who would disagree with this for whatever reason, but that's a whole different discussion).

End of the day, I just have a lot more fun playing my main guy and exploring his story towards whatever completion it might eventually reach (if any). For me, fun is the main draw. If it stopped being fun, I wouldn't do it anymore. I sure as hell ain't gonna rag on folks for having a different approach anyway. Long as they're having a good time, there's no harm being done. If they don't like my way of doing things that's fine too. I'm not gonna fret over it as long as they don't go out of their way to harp on me over it for no good reason.

[Silver Carrot]

Generally, I feel creating new characters is better than having a pool and going 'Oh, I have a character that'll be a good fit in this canon!'

But when a character you've used before clicks, and especially if that canon then dies, you want to give them another shot. You'll enjoy giving them another shot. You'll be putting effort into them.

[PrinceAlexus]

I've reused a few charceters but they also a have grown, adapted and the previous tweaked into back story.

Eoaments, parts, remade, new ones added and tweaked.
Defenitely not a copy.

Name s often get reused. But some just stick and work so....

[Foster]

I've re-used most of my characters in some way, shape, or form. Although none of them are a 'main' simply because my RPs span so many different genre none of them are one-size-fits-all... yet.

Sometimes I just allude to some old half-forgotten RP for old time's sake, sometimes they lift their backstories directly from a previous RP.

With a character like that, at least for myself, I feel drastically more connected to them. Like they're alive in a way. This sort of thing is only possible after a set amount of time, I believe. Well, at least for me. I can't rightly speak on how it is for others. I think it's also important to note that a majority of the games that I've participated from the start have been largely war and battle-oriented. A persistent character jumping from one battle to the next is eminently more "experienced", which confers an extra advantage to the player as time goes on (I know there are likely folks who would disagree with this for whatever reason, but that's a whole different discussion).

@SpaceRenegadeX

That.. at least for me, is a different can 'o worms.

When a character becomes persistant, their motives quickly become a complicated tangled hot-mess, but nevertheless, the characters are often highly motivated in whatever they do, and believably-so; no matter how ridiculous their story may sound.

And every so often, I run into a quirk of characters not only getting more skilled than the myself the writer, but also managing to see plot-events coming, prepare for them on their own, and actually outsmart the writers... Or rather, just posting what the character would do normally, and find out in OOC chatter that I somehow had my character outsmart some other character when in the meta of OOC I was outsmarted/fooled by the other writer.

But that has more to do with how I work on writing a post than character-persistance (well, aside from granting them an independent train of thought and letting that run for a few years without me). And how that jives with the more traditional writing-style of people I RP with.

It doesn't really give them a direct advantage, but usually they end up befriending other persistant characters, which usually means a whole can of spec-ops hurt is just one seemingly random phone-call away. Which may or may-not involve a phone-book and a baseball-bat IRL.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

As promised to myself and through this topic on its own, I have more or less completed a character sheet for my own, actual character rather than any number of generic ones. It has been many, many years since I dared do such a thing; not because I was concerned about it, rather because I had all but given up the idea of having one true character. While it will certainly not work in every circumstance and obviously must not be a matter forced where it plays no reasonable part, the exercise and endeavor all itself has proven tremendously valuable. Putting something of meaning down in record, collecting formalized ideas over the years, and seeing them back into one, continuous place and entity is a tremendous success itself.

All that remains now is the most obvious and glaring issue of adaptation, as said character would not reasonably belong in most elements of plot or would stand as a grand outlier at the very least in those that would permit. So that means the hunt is on and must continue, but all in all it is a pleasure to see it again, even if it means undertaking added effort.

[NuttsnBolts]

I've had a few characters I've reused, mostly due to a lack of use in an RP or I wanted to explore them in a new light. Typically they're a character with a unique perk or style and I already know the direction I can take them. It also means I can refine an idea that I may not have been happy with at the very beginning.

In saying that, I still will have the one offs that I won't revamp. Some characters are just too difficult to place them in a new setting and by the time you do the only similar part is the name. At which point I would look for a new name as I often associate the name with the style of character.

[The Elvenqueen]

I tend to have a pool of characters that I cherry pick from, mostly because those characters tend to already have a fleshed-out backstory that doesn't feel forced, even if I have to tweak it slightly to fit them into a slightly different time setting.

I also suffer from "favourite child syndrome" oops What? I mean, I just have certain characters I never get tired of playing/writing as, that's all *whistles innocently*

That's not to say I'm not capable of making up an entirely new character if I have to, just that most of the time one of my pre-existing ones are more of a go-to.

[Morose]

I tend to do a mixture of persistent characters and creating new ones. When I first started RPing here on RPG, I made a few characters that were essentially "updates" to some of the very first RP characters I had created. But I also made a huge host of new ones. Now that I essentially GM a persistent RP-verse with @BlueSky44 I will have characters pop up in multiple RPs, since it is a continuation of their storylines. It's like how in the Arrow and the Flash TV shows, the characters can make appearances in shows that aren't their own - same thing with the MCU really. Doesn't mean I don't create new characters though - I do. It honestly is just whatever the mood strikes me for. If I have a character I made who I want to use again, then I'll use them. If I have a new concept I like, then I'll go with that.

[Carlyle]

I really only use characters again in reboots or if I was looking forward to RPing them only for the RP to die an early death. I'd like to use a character throughout multiple RPs in the same setting but that would require a RP to be considered completed, which I hardly see happen these days. They all get dumped in the same character thread, though.

[cosmicangler]

As someone who's been in rping for a while, (On the site for a bit too, but only just decided to make this place properly my home for online rping) reading/ understanding this has been super insightful for getting different opinions on the matter. For a long time I've done exclusive one and done characters although reading this had given me to recognising a few persistent tends which come up throughout my writing and characters.

So a simple thanks for sharing all your points here, it's been super interesting reading them all ^^

[One Who Tames]

I’ll not pretend to understand mentality of people who describe legacy characters as somehow flawed or those who play them as inferior. To me, all that means is admitting an inability to adapt one’s own world view as well as the arrogance to declare anybody who disagrees with you as simply “wrong”. I could go so far as to describe the practice of discarding one’s characters after only one use as shallow and lazy, but that would only be me being spiteful.

Legacy characters gain the benefit of being established and better developed than ones made up on-the-spot. More love and heart can go into a creation that persists than a simple one-off who will be forgotten in a year but I digress.

The simple fact is that both one-offs and legacy characters have merit. Any GM can tell you all about that. Arbitrarily condemning one or the other is a sign of weakness on the part of he accuser. However, preferring one or the other is simple opinion. I enjoy a mix of the two as a GM and, in fact, find the “disposable” one-shots essential for the random NPCs that don’t really matter. A few, even, have gone on to become fleshed out and beloved additions to the party.

[Obscene Symphony]

I have a whole cast of old characters that I have tweaked for different settings. I usually do this when I see an RP that I think one of their personalities (or a few aspects of their personality - more on that later) would fit into well, and I take the core concept of the character and mold it in such a way that it fits the new setting. I still occasionally make new characters if I have a flash of inspiration for them, as well. It really depends on the setting and feel of an RP I'm joining. Whichever way I go, I always know immediately; somehow whenever I see a story that piques my interest I automatically know what sort of character I want to play, and that'll either be a stock character or a new build. I try not to deliberate on my characters too hard; usually whichever way my knee-jerk reaction goes, I follow it.

Now, that being said, I do have one or two characters who I think are actually too well-established in their worlds to be adapted, mostly because it would feel wrong to put them anywhere else. Likewise I have characters who started as stock characters but developed into something different enough that I consider them separate from the character they're based on. (Funnily enough, I have one character who fits into both of these criteria). Usually I find myself adapting old characters more often than making new ones, but I think that's mostly coincidence, since I've done plenty of both recently.

So yeah, for me it's kind of a knee-jerk thing, I do both. I really do like my legacy characters though, since I know them so well, and yet they still offer a new experience in every new setting I put them in. I also quite enjoy the process of adapting them, it's fun to see how set-in-stone traits can apply to new settings (ex. how can I take this character who's a priest in this world and play him in a world where religion is outlawed? How do I represent this set of twins as one character instead of two?).

[Ammokkx]

I’ll not pretend to understand mentality of people who describe legacy characters as somehow flawed or those who play them as inferior. To me, all that means is admitting an inability to adapt one’s own world view as well as the arrogance to declare anybody who disagrees with you as simply “wrong”. I could go so far as to describe the practice of discarding one’s characters after only one use as shallow and lazy, but that would only be me being spiteful.

Legacy characters gain the benefit of being established and better developed than ones made up on-the-spot. More love and heart can go into a creation that persists than a simple one-off who will be forgotten in a year but I digress.

The simple fact is that both one-offs and legacy characters have merit. Any GM can tell you all about that. Arbitrarily condemning one or the other is a sign of weakness on the part of he accuser. However, preferring one or the other is simple opinion. I enjoy a mix of the two as a GM and, in fact, find the “disposable” one-shots essential for the random NPCs that don’t really matter. A few, even, have gone on to become fleshed out and beloved additions to the party.

@One Who Tames

But there is a difference between a legacy character and a re-used one to me.

'Legacy' implies just that- the character has a history. This would imply that, if I played a mecha pilot in one RP and this RP got to its conclusion- I would then bring this character into another mecha RP with all of the experiences of that previous one. It intrinsically links one to the other.

I simply don't agree with resetting a character to 0 and invalidating their past experience, unless they never had any experience to begin with. In the latter case they're a concept, not a character. Playing the same thing over and over is boring and pointless to me- the least you could do is give them a facelift.

It's like playing an already established character to me- why would you bother? Make something new, something fresh. Continue to experiment by writing something new. I recognize people will still re-use characters and I'm in no position to tell them they're wrong for it or should stop, but I don't see the merit in it on a personal level, not anymore. I've had only one 'persistent' set of characters from way back in my Tumblr days, and each of them never got reset. They carried every experience and (tried) to grow or change as a person from them.

The only time I'll do a reset to 0 is a literal reset to 0- with which I mean a reboot of the same idea. No reason not to give it another shot at that point, as the explicit purpose is to try the same thing again but different at that point.

I realise I completely shoot myself in the foot sometimes with this- I'll never be able to pull of Cyll, Yasu, Tamatsu and Kyogi again. But the thing is that those were tailor-made to the story that was trying to be told there and I couldn't just import them to another RP, because I might as well play a new character with how I would have to change them. That seems more interesting to me than forcing this square-shaped brick into a triangle-shaped hole. Sure, I could cut off an edge or plaster some stuff on it to make it fit the shape, but it's not really the same object by the end of it. Better off just grabbing a pyramid.

[One Who Tames]

@Ammokkx Don't you fucking start nit-picking over terminology with me. I made it clear what I meant.

I don't really have much more to add without repeating myself. I have no desire to change your mind. Doing so would only ruin what you currently enjoy and that isn't how this one does things. We're just going to have to disagree.

[Ammokkx]

@Ammokkx Don't you fucking start nit-picking over terminology with me. I made it clear what I meant.

I don't really have much more to add without repeating myself. I have no desire to change your mind. Doing so would only ruin what you currently enjoy and that isn't how this one does things. We're just going to have to disagree.

@One Who Tames

I mean, you're in a discussion thread lol. If I didn't want to argue about it, I wouldn't have replied in the first place.

Even then, my first sentence includes "to me," which is my attempt at setting an expectation for it being a subjective distinction. I still think words like that have merit, because it carries a certain implication. What's there to "legacy" if there's no "legacy" to speak of, right?

In particular, you never explain why one and done is "shallow and lazy." To me, it's the exact opposite from this, as you're putting effort into building something new from the ground-up each time you undertake a creative endeavor.

I also don't see how you can be better developed if your development doesn't carry over- and I'd dare even call this a detriment as it would imply a certain unwillingness to change them. Development is good, both in the negative and positive sense. A character should, ideally, change throughout the story- at least in a leading role, which is what each character barring NPC's in an RP are. It's good to have fairly one-dimensional ones in supporting roles since they don't get nearly as much spotlight, so having someone to learn from is ideal. But if your focus is on a singular entity, they should ideally be molded over the course of it to keep it fresh and interesting, and also make the story have weight and a point.

I also don't see how one character over-and-over has inherently more love put into it than a one-shot. Especially not in the case of Tamatsu, which I will never shut up about because she's a stroke of genius I'll never be able to replicate and that makes me upset :c. As a person, I grow from trying new things, so I'd like the perspective from someone who sees merit in repeatedly doing the same thing and growing from that.

[One Who Tames]

@Ammokkx You only seem able to tell me what you can't do. That is one of the reasons I don't see a point in arguing with you. Another is that many of the things you brought up were already answered in my first post. If that wasn't enough for you, then I'm not sure how effective it would be to just repeat myself.

I'm not overly concerned with your desires.

I did explain it. I specifically said that it would be me being spiteful.

Some people like playing a certain personality, capability and/or theme. They like taking a character or character concept and seeing how it would work in a different setting. If you have seen the two Sicario movies before, then consider that as an example; the same or similar characters in two unrelated stories enduring different circumstances. It's not that complicated.

[NuttsnBolts]

@One Who Tames@Ammokkx
You two are arguing and stering the topic off course so I would strongly suggest that you refrain from attacking each other. I would rather not lock this.

Treat this as a warning.

[Ammokkx]

@NuttsnBolts Alteady dropped it my man.

Thought I stayed on topic, though.

[One Who Tames]

@Ammokkx Same. Good talk.