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Do you openly discuss all of your characters?


Flahme
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Alright, first up I confess I haven't looked past the most recent page to see if this has been discussed before.  Forgive me if it has, and if not, please give me your perspective on the below.

 

I noticed on the site where I began my RP existence that people didn't openly discuss alternate characters they had in the game. Some people were downright secretive and others openly stated who their other characters were. Since each character had their own account effectively, and rules to govern how many you could have, there was no distinguishing that this new character was tied to this or that person. For me it was never an issue, because I interacted with the character for the most part.

 

Since then I have met other RP'ers who think it's a form of deception to not tell others all of the characters you have. I find it all a bit confusing and on my own site have suggested it is entirely up to the player to reveal who their other characters are or not.  However a recent perusal of various RP forums have shown that often this information is publicly stated.  I kind of like the openness of this as I can change my board so everyone can see this information, but am in two minds about it.

 

What are your thoughts on this?  Should alternate characters remain the domain of the player to tell or not tell which are theirs, or does it really matter at all. Is it better to know who the player is in case you've had issues with their style or such?

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Honestly, I have never thought about this. However, it would make plotting with people really hard if you did not know which characters they played. I could see maybe hiding an Admin's NPC or something if it is strictly being used in a narrator fashion or as the foil in a major plot. 

 

All of my sites have auto-magic Who's Who lists. This would not stop someone from creating two accounts and splitting their characters up between them. It'd be going to alot of effort for very little gain since that means they would have to log in and out of multiple accounts. My sites also use a one account with multiple characters attached to it system - not an account switcher or sub-accounts.

 

So far, no one on my sites has problems with discussing their characters. That could change, I guess.  I suppose my thing is why hide which characters belong to you?

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I mean I want plots, so why... wouldn't I?

I'd get nothing out of it, except people finding it weird I decided NOT to mention my 3 other characters on the site? Some might think I was steering them towards Rping with that character, when I could just tlel them my characters, say I already have an idea for x or y with this one, and then let em decide for themselves.

 

 

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I won't repeat the reasons already listed but yeah, knowing what characters a person plays is definitely important to me on a personal level. I can't imagine a single good reason to hide that information? It leaves your community pretty vulnerable to wider effects if someone comes along and takes advantage. As roleplayers we are all here to have fun. If someone is not fun to write with, I would be pretty disappointed to end up in 5 threads with them because I didn't know which characters were theirs. If someone is inappropriate OOC I would be downright angry to end up in thread with them when I would have chosen otherwise had I known. 

 

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Thanks for the perspectives. I agree and I don't know why it is so encouraged not to talk about them on the site I started on. I prefer to be open, and as has been mentioned above, this can open your characters to more plot lines. If people see how well you handle one character it is potentially a good recommendation for your other characters as well.

 

 

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I can actually see settings that might be delightful to have hidden characters on, especially if intrigue is built into the setting.

 

I can see it appealing, too, if one might much rather sit down and write rather than getting tripped up on untangling OOC assumptions that might be interfering with IC posts.

 

And sometimes - hey, we just want a little mystery. It's not going to last long on most places because it's a small community, but it's a good way to encourage people to step out of their comfort zones and try new things.

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I have a plotter page with all of my characters listed, a link to their app and a mini-shipper spot for those who want to see it. 

I've been on boards where the players and even the admin hide who they are and some have even gone so far as to have OOC discussions with "themselves" to make it look like they were multiple people. One group even took it so far that they forbade revealing which Discord tags belonged to the Admins themselves. - I don't know if its the truth for everyone; but I know that this group of people was sketchy as hell and their characters tended to succeed a lot more often on dice rolls and stuff than anyone else's. So for me I don't trust it at all. 

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I've been on sites where I didn't know who was BFFs with the admins at first but eventually figured it out. However, I've never been on a site where players were secretive about who they played. On the site I'm at we have OOC accounts to which characters are linked, so it's easy to find out who's who.

 

Personally, I prefer to know who's playing who - it allows for more plotlines as already mentioned above, and it may also let you figure out whose style jams better/worse with yours instead of having you ask yourself incessantly (hello all my fellows anxiety sufferers) what's wrong with you when you can't seem to jam with several characters.

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I am curious what kind of RP people would want to be secretive about their characters. As many others have said, its counterproductive towards plotting in most cases. However, I did have one RP where everyone's identity was specifically masked to avoid bias in which characters RPed with which since it was a Mafia/Werewolf-styled RP. Beyond that very specific setting, I am not entirely sure why you'd want to do such a thing.

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I don't want to just repeat everything that's already been said, but I do agree with wanting to know who is playing who. Mostly for plotting purposes. Once I've posted in plotters, I usually like to talk to the person one on one and consider all their characters and my characters. It's a lot easier than going back and forth on a plot page. 

6 hours ago, Liv said:

it may also let you figure out whose style jams better/worse with yours instead of having you ask yourself incessantly (hello all my fellows anxiety sufferers) what's wrong with you when you can't seem to jam with several characters.

 

This as well. Sometimes your writing style doesn't mesh well with someone else's and that's totally ok. But it would be a real bummer to keep trying to have threads with certain characters and having them not pan out because you didn't realize it was the person who played Character A, and you already know that your writing styles/whatever don't collaborate effectively. 

 

On that note, even with a member directory, I sometimes can't remember who plays who. 😂

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@Somniac I hear what you are saying. I had an interesting incident occur where I really did not gel with a specific character, call them character A.  Then a new character I made interacted with a different character, character B. I was told they were the same player but I didn't believe it because to me the writing was so incredibly different and I personally didn't like the style of character A.

 

It turned out they were the same player and I loved writing with her other character, character B, we got along famously.  It was quite an eye opener. Interestingly we almost never talked ooc, but then the association didn't last since I moved off that site.

 

I feel overall, I still prefer to know and have changed my RP forum accordingly.

 

 

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"You tie the knot, I'll start the fire."

~ The Amity Affliction

 

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The World Withing - Modern Supernatural Roleplay (JCINK 18+)

 

 

 

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Huh. I never even thought of this. The software on my site lists sub accounts in the member list. And I love looking through directories and such to see who plays what characters. 
 

As for my thoughts. I don’t think it should be up to the players but rather the staff of a site. It would be weird to me if one player had a list and another did not. But if it’s part of the board setting and rules, like a murder mystery, I could see it working. 

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My sites are account per person, not account per character, so by nature everyone automatically knows which characters belong to who.

 

I don't see why I would make it a secret as to who I play, anyway. It makes it easier to plot and set up threads. That doesn't mean I am open about all my characters' individual secrets, though. I keep a lot to myself for the purposes of surprises and twists and shit.

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I actually have never thought about this.  I like discussing my characters and I want other writers to know so that we can discuss plots without trying to not know who is who. I would think it was sort of silly, though I suppose people have reasons for it?

 

 

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from a member standpoint, i mean if you... want to not discuss your characters that works? it's a little unusual but sure if you want to keep them secret, go for it? most of the sites i run or am on we have a who's who list or sub-accounts attached to a main account so it's generally moot. however, from a staff standpoint i would want to know who was played by who - because if someone was consistently breaking the same rules, but with different characters and i didn't know who played that character, i wouldn't be able to appropriately handle the situation.

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