06-27-2010, 12:46 PM
Hi. In case you don't know/remember me, I'm that guy who used to be known as Blue/Spopovich/etc. I have so much trouble keeping up activity that I doubt most people here even have a clue as to who I am. I've switched multiple times on multiple sites. And even with this background I'm against the dual character idea. It's not going to solve anyone's activity problems or their tendencies to switch characters. Eventually, a player will get bored of both their characters and end up switching one anyway. That's just the fact of the matter, as I know from intimate experience.
An alternate resolution might be to allow players to diverge from their main characters in personal roleplays and let them write a bit as an NPC. Right now the rule is that all roleplays must feature a player's character as the main protagonist, without giving any NPCs excessive face-time. What I'm suggesting would be like the following. My main character, McGraw, is an intergalactic detective who's assisted by his sidekick Poncho. After finishing a job with him, I lose direction and motivation for his next move. To keep up activity, I decide to write a little side-story using Poncho. I decide that McGraw was kidnapped and that Poncho is on a mission to rescue his boss.
In this "system" a player could roleplay as various NPCs from their character history, effectively allowing a character to switch multiple times, for short duration, without losing their main and without needing a second character sheet. The rules would be that they could only write as their NPCs in their personal roleplays and that each "story" would need to be relatively short and that all writing as the NPC would only be counted half for roleplay awards.
Of course, this is a pretty rough outline of this style, but I think it would more effectively counter the switching bug without causing additional work for staff and the headache of a hardcore system for dual characters.
An alternate resolution might be to allow players to diverge from their main characters in personal roleplays and let them write a bit as an NPC. Right now the rule is that all roleplays must feature a player's character as the main protagonist, without giving any NPCs excessive face-time. What I'm suggesting would be like the following. My main character, McGraw, is an intergalactic detective who's assisted by his sidekick Poncho. After finishing a job with him, I lose direction and motivation for his next move. To keep up activity, I decide to write a little side-story using Poncho. I decide that McGraw was kidnapped and that Poncho is on a mission to rescue his boss.
In this "system" a player could roleplay as various NPCs from their character history, effectively allowing a character to switch multiple times, for short duration, without losing their main and without needing a second character sheet. The rules would be that they could only write as their NPCs in their personal roleplays and that each "story" would need to be relatively short and that all writing as the NPC would only be counted half for roleplay awards.
Of course, this is a pretty rough outline of this style, but I think it would more effectively counter the switching bug without causing additional work for staff and the headache of a hardcore system for dual characters.