Do you allow members to create the same character everywhere?

I do. Don't see an issue with it, personally. Their characters, their stories. If things are adjusted to fit the world, I'm chill with it all.

 

I used to be generally okay with this, provided the character was different enough and could fade into the scenery of the given game; used to do it myself even. But over time, the lines started to blur a little, and watching other players become ultra lazy with things like this started to rub me the wrong way. Players should always be adaptable, as much as we GM's are in our writing.


-Cat

 

I have had to deal with a similar issue where we had one guy who uses the same faction over and over again to the frustration of our junior admin. The last time he brought it back and our Junior admin threw a fit so I basically had a sit down with this member and helped him edit and adapt the faction to the Roleplay setting. I am pleased to say that we actually made his faction work for what it was. With the next part of the RP coming up it is likely that I will have to help him explain the continuation of the faction over our time skip.

 

I don't see any reason to stop them as long as the character fits the story and story line. If that's how they prefer to play - with the same character over and over, why would i stop that? Roleplaying is first and foremost about having fun. If I want people only to play with OC's created specifically for this game, I'll put this in my OC, but unless we aren't in 5 game together, I don't see any reason to.

If other members come to me with this issue, I'll deal with it as a staff member on a case-to-case bases. But even then the main reason to interfere would be because the player doesn't adhere to the set rules and guidelines for the game.

 

I think you can make it work so long as you are still altering the character in order for it to fit with the sites lore and history. If the creator is trying to alter the site to fit the character, then there's a problem.

 

We are a multi-genre site so there's always a pre-requisite that the character has to fit the setting and story the GM is proposing. As long as that is all good, we generally have no issue with people reusing characters.

 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - comes to mind. If a player is comfortable with a certain character, it can help ease them into a community, unless that character doesn't fit with the setting at all - then it might require some gentle tweaking.

Osamu Tezuka for example, loved to reuse characters between works - he would have the same stock characters appearing in different roles. He described it as having a cast of "actors" to choose from, so that's the idea I run with - it's not the same character, but it may be the same "actor" portraying them, if that makes sense.

 

I do this myself sometimes and I definitely don't see a problem with it if you manage to make the character fit. It isn't that hard to do so if all you're carrying over is the character's personality and maybe a generalization of their background which you change up to fit each setting. Sometimes a character trope is just too fun not to recreate somewhere else! Especially if you didn't get a good opportunity to play them out as much as you wanted to on a previous site, maybe before it closed, became inactive or whatever.

On the other hand, if someone literally copy and pasted a character from one site onto another without bothering to make the effort to make the character fit the new setting, then I'd find it irritating.

 

It doesn't bother me. I mean, it's their character... The only thing that's going to annoy me is if they take a bunch of our canon together without even talking it over with me.

 

My game is a member of a fleet, so we don't allow members to join with a character they already have within that specific fleet. However, if they have a character in a different fleet and want to use that character on my game, that's fine. That being said, I will ask them to modify the character to fit better within our setting, if necessary.

 

I feel it's incredibly limiting to expect a member to make a brand new character every time they join a new site, as character creation is often a very involved process.

Some people have more muse for their "main" character, and honestly? There's no harm in them partaking in multiple sites with the same character. As long as it fits the setting, timeframe, and rules... why not? In the end: it's their character, not yours. No one's making you join your character to multiple sites and each person has varying levels of muse.

Personally, if I could handle roleplaying on more another forum while alos being an admin on my site + also roleplaying there, I'd have my mains be part of both sites at the same time too.

 

I am one of those people who has a token few characters that I like to bring along to sites I am on. Largely, this stems from the fact that I no longer play on more than one site so I like to bring along the cast that I want to portray, but it used to be that I had a cast of characters - all of whom were active - and I'd join sites with one of them (whoever fit the story really).
That being said, I also create original characters specific to sites and take wanted ads.

I don't think that there is anything inherently wrong with attempting to make a character fit. While no two sites are the same, and some characters are more flexible than others, there are certainly various types of lore that are consistent. Rather than trying to do something that doesn't work, though, I try to think of a few different things:

• What aspect is most important to the character?
  Basically, what must they have in order for their character not to drastically change? Is it that they're a vampire or a wizard or powerful? Is it something more mundane? If something isn't important or crucial to their character and can be adapted, then I don't care if the site I join has it - it becomes desirable but not mandatory - whereas things that they absolutely must have become dealbreakers.
  
• How much am I willing to deviate to fit the character in?
  This boils down to how much of the character I'm willing to change to suit the world; whether it be lore based (vampires are different) or world based (medieval vs. modern), etc what about the character's lifestyle and role in the world am I willing to change? Goes in conjunction with the above, really, which is more about their build than the world.
  
• Is it worth the changes that would be necessary?
  This is the final, crucial question I ask myself because it boils down to a simple thing: am I just creating an entirely new character with all the modifications I need to make? If I am, maybe I should be making a new character, but if I'm not then keeping that one is fine.

At the end of the day, I have a rotating cast of about 10 characters who I've played on various sites and have various versions of because they are adaptable. One character, for example, needs the ability to change her hair and eye colour and doesn't have control of it - this could just as easily be a metamorphmagus from Harry Potter or a mutant with biokinesis. The important part at the end of the day, however, is to make sure that you're not using terms that don't exist in the world - e.g. "Muggle" wouldn't be used in a medieval fantasy, likely - and that you're adhering to the lore (cellphones not existing in the 20s and dragons don't exist in the real world, etc).

On that front, I kind of agree with what Verridith said on the first page.

 

Given we are mostly a freeform RP site, we let people reuse characters as much as they want. Anytime, anywhere.

They just have to do it in different threads.

 

As long as people bide by the lore then I don't care what they want to play, my game is for them. :)

 

Yeah. I tend to reuse ideas for characters and personality traits I like if that idea speaks to me. I've had a thing for certain character types and I have ported characters from one site to another after some editing to fit the new setting.

 

I personally do not... though if I see where I can use a character on a different site because they fit really well, I may. I usually try to take up canons or want ads as my first character just so I have automatic playability with them... but originals I usually make after I've figured out the site and know where I can add someone that will play really well into things.

 

My site has had this situation arise a few times. If they are able to modify the character to fit our site, we permit it. It can be a lot of work for the member sometimes though. So, while it's the "same character" they always make, it's also been completely customized to fit our site.

 

I'm not exactly going to run around checking whether someone has the same/a similar character on another site! Ain't nobody got time for that shit.

If a character fits the rules, the lore and the setting, then it's good; if it breaks the lore or doesn't follow the rules, then it's not going to be allowed. How many AU versions of them exist elsewhere is neither here nor there.

 

I personally do not care if members reuse characters on other sites.... it is their character, they have developed it. Let freedom ring is my saying.... not really but yea. Not my business where they rp their characters outside my site.

 

I don't have issues with it. I personally re-use my own characters all the time. Just change them a bit for different role plays.