Character death: does the concept die with them?

[Treguard]

So here I discovered a curious idea when playing in a mate's one-off adventure a while back; during a particularly tough encounter one of the players piped up towards the DM, jokingly, "You know some of us want to keep these characters for other campaigns when we're done here!"

This at first struck me as odd. I wondered, upon hearing this, whether he would simply discard characters upon seeing them fall in battle. Would he ever build that character again? I asked around, and apparently quite a few of the older gamers (at least in our gaming community) share this ideal, which is fine really; personally if I like a character or charcter concept enough & maybe through, say, an unsatisfying demise I would have no qualms in revisiting a character in a different adventure. Another friend, my current DM in fact, has a signature psionic character which he'll constantly reuse, no matter the campaign.

So what about you guys, do you recycle characters or let them rest in peace?

[UglyPanda]

I don't reuse characters often, but if they don't die or retire during a campaign, it kind of feels like they're still out there in the RPG universe, waiting for their story to continue. If they die then it feels like, that's it, end of the book.

[RTGoodman]

For me, it depends on the campaigns the character had been in and how they ended. If I had a really neat character that last about 3 sessions because the campaign (that was supposed to last a while) just ended, then I don't feel bad about using it again.

If the character lasted a while and died well or the campaign ended really well, I probably wouldn't use the same character (though I might later come up with the same basic idea.

I've had players, though, that have never played more than one or two closely-related classes and no race other than Human, Elf, or Half-Elf. It irks me to no end, but apparently some people really like keeping the same character ALL THE TIME, including personality, though the names might change.

[Treguard]

I can relate to the "closing chapter of a book" mentality; when an adventurer finally hangs up his scabbard/spellbook it can be satisfying leaving them to rest. I guess what caught my attention was that at the time we were only playing some inconsequential, one-day-only adventure. If my charcter were to die in that sort of scenario, I'd just dust him down, tinker with him and hope I don't make the same mistakes when playing with him in the real deal.

Edit: Die apostrophes, die!

[Shades of Gray]

All my character's quote the previous character I played.

And my last 3 characters have the same name, Will Firebrand I (or II or III)

[TRM]

I never reuse characters. For me, much of the thrill comes from making someone new and unique every time I start a campaign—and taking an old character and using him again steals this enjoyment away from me.

Of course, in theory, I have really no problem with a character being recycled; this is especially true if the character never really reached a "conclusion"; if a campaign ended after one session and another player wanted to play their character again I'd have no problem with it.

I've had players, though, that have never played more than one or two closely-related classes and no race other than Human, Elf, or Half-Elf. It irks me to no end, but apparently some people really like keeping the same character ALL THE TIME, including personality, though the names might change.

I know! This pattern of character creation annoys the hell out of me. I've known one player who always played a charismatic, intelligent, über, two-weapon fighting, suave, sophisticated, human or half-elf without any variation.

[Mastikator]

I never had a character of mine die, but if I did then I'd have a new character right up. I get more character ideas than I have chances to try them out :P

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I always plan to re-use good characters after a campaign ends, no matter whether they lived or died, but somehow I never do so.

Though I was incredibly annoyed after I retired a character, I lost my sheet a few sessions down, so he got brought back for just that session, until I could re-roll. He died. Everyone loved him, too. Though if I ever get around to DMing, he may make an appearance.

[RTGoodman]

I know! This pattern of character creation annoys the hell out of me. I've known one player who always played a charismatic, intelligent, über, two-weapon fighting, suave, sophisticated, human or half-elf without any variation.

One guy has never deviated from Elf or Half-Elf Ranger (though he does switch up combat style), while one exclusively plays Rogues, Ninjas, Ninja/Rogues, Clerics with the Trickery domain that don't really cast spells, and stuff like that. I've yet to tell him about the Beguiler, but I imagine he'd play one of those, too.

[monty]

I do tend to play characters with high Charisma, probably because I like being the party face, and I tend toward spellcasters, but beyond that, different character designs make the game more interesting for me. So far, I've played a rogue/warlock, two exalted clerics (I recycled the first one because the first of the two campaigns failed in a weird, unfinished sort of way - judging by the other posts, doing so is not uncommon), a druid, and an illusionist. I try to play a different concept every time.

[Orran]

A friend of mine and myself are currently playing aasimar clerics called Deric and Eric, imagine Mario and Luigi crossed with the chuckle brothers (if you know them.) You can bet when they die they'll be used as npc's or enemies in another campaign.

[arguskos]

I've got one character I use in most games I'm in, simply because I love him so damn much. His exact details and build always change (though his core of elven wizard doesn't shift much), but to me, it's about his development as a person. However, I never make characters that are repeats of themselves, like if Hex dies (my wizard), my next character in that game will be someone totally different.

-argus

[Chronos]

I guess what caught my attention was that at the time we were only playing some inconsequential, one-day-only adventure. If my charcter were to die in that sort of scenario, I'd just dust him down, tinker with him and hope I don't make the same mistakes when playing with him in the real deal.

Personally, I wouldn't use a "real character" for a one-off, at all. I'd just roll up a new character, slap some stock orphaned-as-a-child backstory on him, play him for the night, and then toss him afterwards. I probably would use a basic concept (race, class, and such) that I'm more-or-less familiar with, since I won't have time to really get a feel for what the character can do, but I still wouldn't make him mechanically a clone of any of my real chars.

[Triaxx]

Depends. I've had enourmously successful builds that were obliterated by pure luck. In such a case, if ressurrection or reincarnation are unavailable, or undesirable (Risk of going from Half-Giant to Kobold/Rat Barbarian), I will continue the concept, but use either the follower if I have leadership, or if it's a magic user, an understudy or apprentice.

Usually I'll take a level penalty, provided it's not going to hurt the build too much. 5 levels is forever to a Fighter, but nothing to a Wizard.

On the other hand, I will blatantly reuse certain characters, even if they've been stoned, imprisoned, and disintegrated. (Yes, the DM is that mean.)

[Emperor Tippy]

It depends on the character, what game it was in, what the new game is like, and what other concepts I have floating around.

[Da Beast]

So far I've never recycled a character, mostly because I tend to have more ideas than I could ever find time to play in the first place. That being said I don't see anything wrong with the idea and would kind of like to play as a few of my old favorites again.

[Covered In Bees]

So here I discovered a curious idea when playing in a mate's one-off adventure a while back; during a particularly tough encounter one of the players piped up towards the DM, jokingly, "You know some of us want to keep these characters for other campaigns when we're done here!"

This at first struck me as odd. I wondered, upon hearing this, whether he would simply discard characters upon seeing them fall in battle. Would he ever build that character again? I asked around, and apparently quite a few of the older gamers (at least in our gaming community) share this ideal, which is fine really; personally if I like a character or charcter concept enough & maybe through, say, an unsatisfying demise I would have no qualms in revisiting a character in a different adventure. Another friend, my current DM in fact, has a signature psionic character which he'll constantly reuse, no matter the campaign.

So what about you guys, do you recycle characters or let them rest in peace?

I have a few characters who are just plain fun to play and whom I'll play again occasionally if I get the chance. Obviously, there's no continuity between campaigns.

[Gorbash]

Why not? If the character still has a story to tell (mine really really wants to become an earth elemental) and you didn't get bored with him, go for it. I just finished Red Hand of Doom with my all time favourite character (in the signature), and after killing the dreaded

Spoiler

Show

Aspect of Tiamat

, he decided to travel to Cauldron and join another adventuring party. Basically, I still wanted to play a high lvl wizard, why would I play another character then? Stuff of legends! Right, Boo?

[Prophaniti]

I have done both. I've had characters who's deaths felt... wrong, or the campaign just ended, so I ran them again in hopes of a more satisfying end. I've also had characters who either died in a way that I liked, or turned out less fun in practice than in concept, and I've let them rest. I have one kobold sorcerer that I like to keep bringing back, he just won't stay dead. Likes to say things like 'You can destroy this shell, but you cannot slay the dragon within me.'

[xPANCAKEx]

i tend to vary my characters - even if two look very similar on paper, i try to keep them from being the same person (so as to avoid constantly playing wise-cracking, mischievious halfling rogues... that would be fun, yet repetative)

half the fun of DND for me is creating a character, no matter how odd, and bringing them to life

[Tengu_temp]

I sometimes recycle characters from campaigns that ended abruptly, if I liked them - I'll probably play Calista one day, for example. I have the same stance with NPCs, but do so only when playing with different people or when I purposely want them to experience deja vu.

[elliott20]

I have found that past a certain point, a lot of character concepts and archtypes become cyclical and repeat themselves. It's pretty much inevitable for me to repeat characters at some point since every other week my group would be playing a new game system with new character sets.

in some cases, some of the players have severe fixations for one particular character type. i.e. one of the players at my table loves people with psychic powers or mystical arcane powers. As a result, in the Sci-fi game I ran, he ran a psychic character. In a high fantasy game, he played a warlock with focuses on manipulating illusions and mind based stuff. In a sword and sorcery, he was the sagely shaman. all of them were basically the same character, different setting/system.

me? depends entirely upon how much time I have for prep. the more time I have to think about the game, the less likely I play stock characters.

[The_Werebear]

I'll reuse crunch with no problem. If the character lives, I'll occasionally bring them back or make shout outs (One great example, I brought a friends character from a one shot back as an NPC who they had to deal with. It made his night). However, if they die, then their name and persona are dead, and though their crunch may remain, they are dead as far as stories go.

[mabriss lethe]

It all depends.

something like a one shot game, I have absolutely no qualms about recycling that character regardless the state of his health. One shots don't matter, so why should you discard a good idea because of it. Though ususally, I don't invest much time in creating a person for a one shot, just slap together a character sheet and roll out.

Characters that really complete their story usually get a nice long retirement. they may show up in high powered one shots, make cameos in other games or something like that if I'm feeling nostalgic.

characters that die before their time or, for some reason or another, don't finish their stories tend to stay on the roster of replayable characters. I may or may not play them though, since I tend to come up with at least one or two viable character concepts that I'm dying to play every month.

[LoneStarNorth]

I reuse old characters if I think the new campaign suits them somehow. Like, if the focus of a new campaign was on arcane magic being banned/the ruling class, I'd dust off my evil power-hungry wizard and see how he does. And sometimes a game dies and I don't get to use a character to their fullest potential, so I'll give them another chance.

As a DM, however, I reuse all my characters. Every single character I've ever had that I didn't come to hate completely has become a legendary figure in my homebrew campaign setting. The aforementioned wizard, for example, eventually gained enough power that he replaced a powerful demon lord and became a central figure in the world. Two of my old barbarians became heroic legends. Some of the character concepts that I've never got to play end up in there too, usually just as legends or as one-shot villains/allies.

[Irreverent Fool]

Every time a character I play dies, I am very sad. Here is a character... a fantasy person that I've watched grow from a simple seed of a personality and motivations into a full-fledged (fake) human-being (or elven-being or dwarven-being etc...). They have their own hopes and dreams and in the one moment they err or throw caution to the wind or become distracted or wander too far from the cleric in pursuit of a recurring villain they just can't let get away this time... they fall and are gone.

I miss Nikolai.

Actually... that's the only character that ever died (and not been resurrected after a shortish amount of time) and I think he was my favorite. Nikolai was the son of a retired adventurer, so he was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth. A youth filled with re-enacting his father's great deeds with wooden swords, hearing stories, and meeting mysterious friends from his father's past filled him with the desire to seek out his own challenges, having never had any real hardships in his life. He was a devoted follower of Rudd (goddess of challenge... from a dragon magazine I think) and readily charged into dangerous situations with only his rapier and buckler to protect him. He was jovial and obnoxious. All the other characters hated him but had a begrudging respect for his ability. All the other players loved him and loved hating him.

He may be my favorite simply because he didn't live long enough to get dull.

Anyway... I don't think that a particular build needs to be discarded just because your character died. I do think it is important to stretch your imagination and play a different personality or role than you usually do. Sure, it's fun and comfortable to stick with what you know, but you can have great fun playing something opposed to what you normally do.

One of my friends had an elven spirit shaman who died in the first combat at first level to a critical hit from an orc. Bad luck. He recycled the basics of the character as well as the exact build. I mean, he hadn't even done anything yet, so we wouldn't have even known if he hadn't told us.

But if you just play the same character over and over and roll up a specialist diviner human wizard when your specialist diviner human wizard dies, it's hard to make that fit logically into the game. "I see your party is lacking an arcane spellcaster!"

If you think you can roleplay, try going your total polar opposite! What is the class/race combo you hate (other than broken mechanical reasons)? Maybe you detest drow because they've usually got that angsty fanboy thing going*. Try one on for size!

(*If you have played a drow and have not been an angsty Drizzt clone, I wasn't talking to you. If you're upset about my comment, then it's probably true!)

[ghost_warlock]

Though I tend to play new characters for most campaigns, I have a suite of characters that I tend to re-imagine for each system or when a supplement gives me the "yes, that's what was missing" feeling.

I have an entire party of adventurers - my first characters ever - that I've remade continually over the years. They migrating from OD&D to AD&D 2e to 3.0 to 3.5 and now to 4e. I've also re-imagined a couple of the characters from this party for other systems, such as GURPS or WoD, and even to a homebrew game an old college buddy of mine came up with (and which required the most adjustments, considering it was a far-future mecha game).

Some characters are just ageless classics and I love trying to recreate them with different mechanics while staying true to the core of the characters.

[Tallis]

I never reuse a character within the smae campaign, but there are a few characters I've had that I would love to use again if I had the chance. Most of them were made for campaigns that never got very far. One I used for a long time and had a pretty good ending for, but there were still some things he wanted to accomplish. Plus it's been about 8 years since I played him, so I'd be witha totally new group.

I do tend to recycle characters that I like, both my own and other players', to be NPCs in my campaign world. If you do this be careful though. You can't allow yourself to be attached to NPCs in the same wqay you are to your PCs. They can can be great for fleshing out the world if handled correctly though.

[ghost_warlock]

I never reuse a character within the smae campaign, but there are a few characters I've had that I would love to use again if I had the chance. Most of them were made for campaigns that never got very far. One I used for a long time and had a pretty good ending for, but there were still some things he wanted to accomplish. Plus it's been about 8 years since I played him, so I'd be witha totally new group.

I never reuse a character in the same campaign, either, even if a character dies. About the closest I've come was a temporal anomaly in a 2e campaign. In the campaign, my thief had recently become...involved...with a drow warrior he'd saved from being slaughtered by the rest of the party (ah, love at first sight). The relationship was rocky (she was CE and he was CN), but not impossible. Out of the blue one day, though, a half-drow claiming to be their son appeared, more-or-less out of nowhere, saying that he'd been hurled back in time by a burst of wild magic.

As it turned out, my thief had been dual-wielding a vorpal longsword and a shortsword of sharpness that had been family hierlooms and were quite distinctive. When the half-drow produced identical weapons, he was pretty much immediately accepted by the party and adventured with them for quite a while afterwards before the plot hook that sent him back to the future.

Most of us were running 2 or three characters at a time in that campaign, though, so it wasn't really that jarring for the extra character to just show up out of nowhere. This was actually one of the better justified reasons for the sudden appearance of an extra character in that campaign - usually one of us would just show up for the session and say something like "I made this character I'd like to play, too." Nothing like a 12-character party of win!

Edit: Hmm... This story reminds me of a Red Dwarf quote: "I've never been seduced by predestination theory before..."

[Saph]

I love reusing characters and do it whenever I can. For me, though, the whole fun is keeping continuity. So the adventures of the previous campaign become part of the character's backstory. It's really good for developing a character's personality.

If a character dies after a decent career, I usually pack them up - not just for that game, but for all games. If the death was really arbitrary and unsatisfying and if I'd spent a lot of time on the character, I might recycle them, but if the character dies twice I take that as a sign that it's time to play something else.

- Saph