A Question on Characters

[Azunara]

Yeah, Senna...But I don't want to be in an RP where I have no idea who half the characters are. I get you want to have your number of characters, that's okay. A lot of people do...But I think we should have some sort of rule. I kind of like the idea of having to prove yourself for more. It's a good compromise.

Okay. How does it ruin the fun? Please, tell me that. Really. I have to sit and remember who character X is. And who Character Y, Z, A, B, and Z are. And that's just for Player 1. Player 2 has C, J, I, F, O, L, M, and N. And there's still several more players' characters I have to remember.

Hey, Senna. Sat was in for about half of RotS and all of WoD.

However, this thread seems to be getting a bit heated. Maybe we should calm down.

[Lupis]

[qoute]Maybe we should calm down.[/quote]
Big time. O.o
Guys. It was just a thought. Calm down.

Lets just set out some base thoughts without going at each other's necks.

I personally think a suggested character limit would be a good start, at least. Not "this many ONLY" but "This many would be a good idea".
If you have a ton of characters, try to keep them active. Keep people familiar with who they are.
If you have trouble with that, you might want to cut down on characters. I only actively play one or two, Buzzard mostly, and I really enjoy it because I get to expand greatly on his personality.

[Senna-Umbreon]

It ruins the fun because what if I want an evil character? What would I do then? If I have too many characters already?! That wouldn't be fair.

I.. Guess that's it then. I won't be joining the next RP. Good luck with your boring character limit idea! And don't come crying to me when it backfires and ruins the whole damn thing.

[Kira]

I can't pick an opinion because I'm kinda on the fence about this one.

On one hand, I Really hate the idea of a limit. I mean, I can understand the idea of having things happen to old character that you wanted to use new ones for but...what if it doesn't go with that characters personality? Or if you think you've had enough happen to them? And you have no more space, so your idea goes to waste..or starts bugging you in your brain and making you go nuts. I've had it happen.

On the other hand...I can get too many characters. Heck, I'm one of the ones that Has too many! I've got Del and her kids, Aeris and her two kids, Sosa and his child, Arkon, plus Kyuu and family. That's too much, and I'm admitting it right now. However, I'm planning on Really cutting back in the next one. Three, maybe four characters for me, plus a villan if I decide to have one.

But putting limits just...kinda ruins the fun ya know? But that's just me. I'm not saying anyone is right or anyone is wrong, I'm just putting my opinion out there.

Edit: Personal limits I am completely fine with however. Like I said, I'm giving myself a limit. But imposed limits? No..just...no.

[Saturo]

If anything it'll save it, Senna. Guess why I quit? There was no order, and keeping up with it was tedious and boring. If you want an evil character and we go trough with the limited characters idea, you'll just have to send the excess ones on a "vacation". It'd be the same for everyone, so it would be completely fair.

[Azunara]

For the love of...

Everyone. It's an IDEA. Obviously, people are freaking out over it and are throwing a huge hate storm. I kind of predicted this when I came up with the idea. People evidently hate the idea and will stop the RP and quit, which was never intended.

I see that people disapprove of it immensely, so I can see it not happening. That said, tempers are flaring. Again. Relax a bit.

Sorry if I seem hostile myself. It's just distressing to see people get so upset over a small thing. xD

[Saturo]

Azu, if you look at the poll it's six against two. I think this is something that is really necessary, and I can pretty much guarantee ya' that limiting the number of characters would work out just fine. five is not what I had in mind, but obviously it's going to be required to get people to cooperate. Five characters leaves you with PLENTY of space for old characters, new ones and a bad guy!

*Sigh*
Always so irritating when people get angry at common sense.

[Lupis]

I agree, Azu. O.o
It's... just... an idea.
And one that didn't go over well, so obviously it won't be enforced.
She wanted OPINIONS, and she got them. O.O Very, very loudly.
So calm down and restart.

[rubybeam]

Okay this is how. You have an idea you want to use that connects to the rp? the rps dieing and you need ideas. great! yours might come in and work, but oh noes you alreadly have to much character! goodbye rp have a good time burning up then, sometimes old characters just fizzle out and new characters need to come in, a limit may prevent that, plus you can't just get rid or old cherries out of thin air either it messes with the story, yeah limits keep it more organized but they also kill it, theres also those times when you need to make a quick side character that dies later on to show how much trouble the main cast may be in this is why I hate limits they make me so irratated. so yeah no limits for me please!


EDIT: slow post sorry. didn't feel like erasing it all

[Kira]

Actually Azu, I have to say my respect for you has gone up another notch. I think that puts you above Varian, I'd have to check.

Like I said, my opinion is just that. I think that it'll end up getting a lot of people mad, and it already has, and it'll help out other people. A hard limit isn't my cup of tea, but if you asked everyone to put a self imposed limit and then had a board for them to name their characters, so they could keep track, I think it might make things a little easier

Just saying.

[Azunara]

I think before we try it on a huge thread, we do somehing of a bit of a trial thread. Just make a quick haphazard core concept RP, impose a limit of...oh say 5 characters, and see how it goes. JUST so people can try it. And I want people against it to take a stab at it too. It'll be away from pokemon, probably based in something else, (I have an idea.) in order to ensure you don't have your favorite characters to pick and choose.

Just a small trial to see if it works. So yeah. What do you think about that? Like I said, I even want people against the idea to give it a try.

[Saturo]

Having sidecharacters was never mentioned for prohibition, Ruby. Heck, I did it all the time. The thing is, we're not talking about sidecharacters here, we're talking about characters which feature prominently all along. If you think your old character is boring, and you don't want to play it anymore? Nobody's preventing you from saying "My character is boring, so he's going to go away and try to hide from the new treat. I have another character instead.". That lets you keep your flexibility, and still allows you to bring in fresh meat, so to speak.

The problem wouldn't appear in a fresh thread though, Azu. You'd need to test it with a RP concept where everyone already has characters to duplicate the problem.

[Azunara]

Mmm. Point. I do think we try it out before we launch it in the next big RP thread, because I know people were looking forward to it, and I don't want to see people quit it because of something that hasn't even really been tested out.

[rubybeam]

Actually I mean needing to make more main charries that are deeply intertwined with the plotif your past your limit, you can't do that

And on squiby iv'e been in rps that had character limits, the rp althgether kept on dieing and needed to be bumped most of the time and didn't get to finish in the end

[Saturo]

Ruby, what I'm trying to say is, you don't NEED to make more characters! Just use the ones you already have! Trust me, you'll find it a lot more fun to have a few core characters you know EXACTLY, than to have lots that you need to improvise with all the time. It's more fun for everyone.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I personally like the idea of a limit. Why? Because I have so much fun with the RPing here that my overactive imagination keeps coming up with new character concepts that I want to try out. Do I really need to implement them all into the TotH thread? Probably not. It would be incredibly overbearing on Azu and Sat who only play two or three characters.

If you desperately feel the need to bring a new character into the story, write out one you're not playing actively at the time until they're needed again.

Hell, I'm considering doing this with my priest in TotH because I feel that she has no overall story (she's the only character I never developed any semblance of a backstory for), and that she's just there to be there. I almost feel bored of her and I think that's represented by how few lines she gets anymore and how her posts are tied into my death knight's.

I also feel that perhaps some of the people need to look at this from a third person perspective. Yes, a limit may be less fun for YOU, but what if it makes it more fun for the group as a whole? I know that I'd have trouble following 7+ characters for each person in any one story, especially if I was following more than one RP like some people here do. While personal fun is important, I think we also need to keep the group's fun in mind as well. If the group doesn't enjoy the RP anymore because they can't keep up, the RP is likely to die and then your personal fun goes too.

Just my two cents.

[Lupis]

A test can't hurt at all. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I think another thing that could help would be responsible watching of your characters. I'm terrible at this, so I'm probably going to cut down my character count. But basically, if you have a character that hasn't shown up or done anything in an age, just write out that character. If you really like the character, try working with it more. But a bunch of forgotten characters can be confusing.

As for Main characters, if you keep them posting and active, I don't mind myself. We can recognize that character. Just not thirty characters that jump in and out randomly.

In TotH, I have... Three characters? Faron, Dalinda and Luare. I can somewhat juggle them all, but I forget Luare in battles often. I really enjoy playing them all, though. It's fun to deeply explore a character's personality.

Again, I'm bad at this. Don't look at me for examples.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I forget Alarial a bit, I just keep her because our group would benefit with a healer. I'll probably keep her until/unless I can come up with another healer character concept I enjoy more.

[Moonlost]

I can see where both sides of the conversation come in, so here's my two cents.

Look on your characters, however many you have.
Now look how many you reguarly post with. And I mean really mean reguarly, over the span of your entire time roleplaying.
How many characters do we come up with that just get shoved to the side just because typing up a response for each and every one of them takes too long? How is that respectful to that character who gets lots by the wayside, or to the person who was attempting to roleplay with that character? During RotS, I had 5 main characters, with a few side characters. I tried to keep those 5 reguarly active and that was a handful, often leaving me behind other posters.
Yes, having the option to have more than 5 characters is nice, but how often do you really use those other characters? What sort of development will they have?

I like the idea of setting a limit of "Main" characters for the next RP. Which isn't to say other characters can't occasionally pop in once and a while when there's a bit of fun happening, but they won't be participating with the main events of the story. This isn't about limiting your creative freedom, despite what it may seem like. This is about giving proper respects to your characters and to other players.
It is NOT fun for someone if their character is stuck in limbo waiting for you to reply because you're busy with your other seven characters doing other random crap. It is NOT fun for you if you're only posting once a page because you're having issues keeping all your characters up to date with everyone else. It is NOT fun coming into the RP after a few days and wondering "Wtf, who's this new character, what's happening?"

Normally, I'd set the limit at 5 characters... HOWEVER, considering the nature of the next RP, where a character of yours may be taken by somebody else, I'm going to say 5 characters and one antagonist, which I feel is more than fair. Again, side characters are free to pop up when there's a lull in the plot for some fun.

[Azunara]

*point to Moon.*

Listen to her. She....pretty much collectively nailed my thoughts. I agree with that. It's fair to everyone, compromise all around, and I honestly can't see how anyone can complain limiting is unfair using that idea.

That said, I probably won't have all five. I just can't make up and maintain that many characters, especially because I'm in another RP. xD