Reusing Characters

[Grytorm]

Across multiple campaigns do you ever use the same character twice? Some character ideas just seem to good to waste, but they die in the first session, or the campaign dies after the first session.

[Lurkmoar]

I've reused some characters, but never with the same GM. The only time I've reused the same character with the same GM was when my first halfling Ranger in Dark Sun 2e bit it in the arena. We didn't use the character tree at the time because character generation was a bit rocky (GM insisted on rolls in front of him, and a look over at the each character when finished).

So he didn't begrudge me when I replaced Rorkcarus the halfling ranger that favored slings with Rothgar the halfling ranger that favored slings. They also both loved human booze and games of chance.

[valadil]

Usually no, but I've made exceptions. If I don't think the character got a satisfying amount of play a first time through, I'll recycle him and try to give him a proper play through. I'll also turn favorite PCs of mine into NPCs in my own games, but only for groups that didn't see the original incarnation.

[KillianHawkeye]

Usually no, but I've made exceptions. If I don't think the character got a satisfying amount of play a first time through, I'll recycle him and try to give him a proper play through. I'll also turn favorite PCs of mine into NPCs in my own games, but only for groups that didn't see the original incarnation.

This is as far as I would probably go. So far I haven't even done this. But I think if I did I would at least change the character in some way mechanically (rather than just slapping on a new name).

[Thefurmonger]

I do but like others not with the same DM.

Some characters are just too much fun never to play again.

[Knaight]

I actually haven't*. I don't get to play much, and have way too many character ideas to put in play to reuse any.

*The exception consists of pseudo-one shots with recurring characters, which kind of count as parts of a greater campaign. Its complicated.

[Acero]

Yes, if they take place in the same universe or the levels sync well enough.

i.e. Darg, in his first campaign, was a careless young Dwarf. He swung fireballs and lightning bolts and what was in front of him, and didn't think much more of it. Near the end of that campaign, a Npc got too close to a battle andwas burned horribly by one of his fireballs. Darg could be considered careless, but he was still Good, and built firewalls to protect him while the Celric attended the burns. He lived, but was badly scarred. Darg was serious from then on. He used becaqme more of a support character, who just used precision shots when he had to fight. And when he did, he would never prepared AoE spells. That campaign ended.
In the next one, I played a older Dwarven drunkard named Darg. He didn't speak much, and other members often wondered why there weren't any fire spells in his spellbook. One guy in that group was in the first campaign, but stayed quiet about my character's past. However, he couldn't stop smirking when my character snapped and burned half a castle down.

[Zaq]

Once upon a time, I retired a character whom I really loved but whom I couldn't stand to play anymore. You see, he was a Truenamer, and while I had managed to make him barely effective, I was tired of having to bend over backwards to be merely adequate. I loved his fluff and his personality, but he just wasn't fun to play anymore. So I retired him.

Cut ahead a couple of months to when I was about to start a 4e game. PHB3 had just come out, and with it came the Runepriest. For those of you who don't know, the Runepriest IS the Truenamer (they use the fundamental language of the universe for power, all of their major abilities are reversible, and WotC adamantly refuses to show either the tiniest scrap of support), and I just couldn't resist that kind of bait. So I said that one day (as he was in the library to which he retired) he was trying to say something in Truespeak but sneezed at the wrong time, thereby causing a dimensional portal between editions to open up and send him hurtling to the world of 4e. I'm still playing him, and I'm having a hard time imagining another character pleasing me quite as much. (Runepriests can be built to be almost as complex as a noncasting 3.5 character, thereby preventing me from becoming too bored with the simplicity of the system. Of course, my friends hate it when I'm GMing or out sick and they have to play my character instead, but oh well.)

Other than that, I've never recycled a character. I did once play two characters who had the same name and same class, but 1) their builds and personalities were totally different and 2) the campaign in which I played the first version lasted only one session before crumbling into drama, so that really doesn't count.

[Coidzor]

I was initially meaning to do so with a plane-hopping character of mine, but then I got sick of him and didn't really want to have him in other campaigns as a higher level future self or lower level prequel version.

A few of my friends have played lower level versions of characters they've established in other campaigns before.

[Hawriel]

I played my first AD&D thief character for 13 years. He was updated to 3rd edition at 10th level. Did I take a brake from him sure. I had a ranger back in 2nd ed too. Never played him in 3rd ed.

I had 4 other characters in the past 9 years. A dwarven cleric that I made when my friends and I converted to 3rd ed. He was retired at the same time as my thief. My last character was chreated when Pathfinder came out. I played him for about a year. He will be used again when my friends and I get around to D&D again. If I dont run a game.

[Tengu_temp]

I re-used a character only once: I put a lot of effort into a Lunar in Exalted, but the campaign she was in died very quickly. So I used her for another campaign. Which also died very quickly. Sigh.

[Starbuck_II]

I've reused some characters, but never with the same GM.

This very much...

I have to change something to use in same campaign. Like add a numeral.
Like Samuel II instead of Samuel.

[Shade Kerrin]

I re-use characters all the time, but have never done it in the same campaign.

Often this is because there are multiple ways in the given system to actually represent them, or because I wasn't satisfied with how they turned out the first time.

This is mostly because my typical character is thought up independently of any game system

[Greymane]

Our whole group does so on occasion, at least our particularly memorable characters. Partly because we never tire of building on that character's story (assuming they don't die), and partly so our fellows can turn to look at us on Day 1 of a new game and go: "Oooohhh. Him."

[Kylarra]

I don't play often enough to get to reuse characters, though I do considering reusing base concepts if the niche is called for.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Not in the same edition... or even game system <.< >.>

I have used Dusk Eclipse in a BESM game, a 3.5 edition (his original incarnation) in 4e... and now I am considering using it for the Anima Beyond fantasy game I am joining.

[arguskos]

Usually no, but I've made exceptions. If I don't think the character got a satisfying amount of play a first time through, I'll recycle him and try to give him a proper play through. I'll also turn favorite PCs of mine into NPCs in my own games, but only for groups that didn't see the original incarnation.

Agreed. I do this. I also recycle old NPCs into fresh incarnations and re-imaginings for groups that never met the old NPC.

I've recycled PCs for PC use again, but mostly when they just don't get enough play time, so, mostly in PbPs, since those are terrible about actually seeing play time. Otherwise, I tend to create and create characters. I've got a log of standing NPCs, all uniquely created, all of varying levels, just so if I need an adventurer or something, I've got a number to pick from.

[senrath]

If a game ends up dead before the character does and I really liked the concept, I'll reuse them. Occasionally I'll reuse old characters when I can't come up with anything, but that's generally pretty rare.

[Shade Kerrin]

Not in the same edition... or even game system <.< >.>

I have used Dusk Eclipse in a BESM game, a 3.5 edition (his original incarnation) in 4e... and now I am considering using it for the Anima Beyond fantasy game I am joining.

Real life game, I assume? Because as far as I know, there's only one PbP game of Anima going on this forum

[Scarlet-Devil]

I never have, that I can recall, although my first few characters were all Elf Rangers . I don't really have a problem with recycling characters, I just haven't yet. My first DM loved to have his old characters, and even player's old characters from other campaigns, make appearances, and I always liked it too.

[Dr.Epic]

I once used a PC for one campaign as a boss in another.

[Kuma Kode]

I reused one character that was originally made for a PbP that died after two encounters, and put him into a real-life campaign. Otherwise, I don't.

One of my players reused her warrior from that real-life campaign in one I'm running now, and another player has reused the same character in a zombiepocalypse, a steampunk setting, and space opera sci-fi. Pretty much ONLY reuses characters. He'll actually discuss with another friend which concept he'll reuse this time.

[kamikasei]

Yes, mostly due to games dying early. (And sometimes, I'll apply a character adapted from a dead game, and either not get in or have that game die early too.)

At the moment, I'm playing a Risus game with a character (heavily) adapted from a Maid game that died on me a couple of years ago.

[dsmiles]

I don't play often enough to get to reuse characters, though I do considering reusing base concepts if the niche is called for.

Ditto. Reusing concepts is ok, but reusing characters I don't like. Granted, sometimes I'll take a PC from another game and turn them into an NPC in my own campaign world, but as far as playing the same character more than once, not gonna happen.

[Mastikator]

Not really. I usually get so many character concepts ideas that it's more likely that I get bored with the current character, sends him home and introduces a new character.
I'm not against using the same concept twice, but not the actual character, if a character dies fair and square, then his time simply has come.

[Fri]

I recycled one particular character three times, since the first two games she was in died early. But even when I don't mean to recycle character, my friend once said that I actually only had a couple templates for characters, and all of my characters are variation of those templates. I guess I really like those kind of characters.

[BobVosh]

I have never reused mechanics, but I have played very similar character personalities. In fact I only have 5 or 6 personality types that I even consider fun to play. That said they can come from vastly different backgrounds, etc so they are different. However they do tend to react similarly.

[TroubleBrewing]

I've run a Call of Cthulhu campaign about once every three months with the same group of people for the last two years, and in every campaign, one of my players plays as a different member of the same family. He's played the family patriarch, two of his sons, the patriarch's father, and the patriarch's uncle. A running joke surrounds these characters having the Lockpick skill, regardless of occupation. His first character was a thief by trade, and his second was a corrupt private investigator, so it made sense for them. His third character was an aging librarian, and every time he'd pick the lock of a door he'd make some comment about how "he forgets the combination to his briefcase quite frequently."

[dsmiles]

I've run a Call of Cthulhu campaign about once every three months with the same group of people for the last two years, and in every campaign, one of my players plays as a different member of the same family. He's played the family patriarch, two of his sons, the patriarch's father, and the patriarch's uncle. A running joke surrounds these characters having the Lockpick skill, regardless of occupation. His first character was a thief by trade, and his second was a corrupt private investigator, so it made sense for them. His third character was an aging librarian, and every time he'd pick the lock of a door he'd make some comment about how "he forgets the combination to his briefcase quite frequently."

That's...pretty awesome.

[EccentricCircle]

All of the Games I run are set within the same expanded Universe so players are allowed to use the same character in as many campaigns as they like so long as we can justify how they got to that part of the world, planes or universe. whether this counts are reuse or not is debatable as the games are essentially sequals. a later game is generally assumed to be later unless otherwise stated, levels don't always match up but this is generally handwaved as its fairly well established that anyone who doesn't train or adventure for a few years will start to forget their levels anyway.

my first D&D character was used in tons of games, all run by different people, but as each one had slightly different character traits I consider them to be aprocryphal versions of the original.

there are some characters I reuse quite a lot, my ranger for example, as I've never had opertunity to play him in a campaign, so try to use him in lots of oneshots.
there are other characters who have been played in long campaigns who are so much a part of their world that I could never reuse them in another game unless it were an actual sequel run by the same DM.
I do like the Idea of recycling old characters as NPC's both my characters and those of other players in my games.

and I did once while thinking through what to do in the game later that evening find my old Rogue character giving my new rogue character some advice. I figure she must have popped into his shop on the way to the adventure and told him a bit about what she was getting into.