Dual Characters?

[Blue]

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.

[Orion]

With a few cosmetic changes, that's exactly what dual characters is.

[Blue]

Oh. My bad then. >.> I'll shut up now.

[Victoria]

All of my story arc's have featured NPC's, more often that should be, but I never got scolded. It was integral to the story and plot, to feature these NPC's and their feelings and such. Really I think the whole NPC rule thus far is very loose, and so long as it isn't abused, it's not very harsh. What I've done so far is well enough for me to enjoy what I've written so far.

I still support this idea. It's clever. If I had more muse, I'd do up another character.

[Orion]

All of my story arc's have featured NPC's, more often that should be, but I never got scolded. It was integral to the story and plot, to feature these NPC's and their feelings and such. Really I think the whole NPC rule thus far is very loose, and so long as it isn't abused, it's not very harsh. What I've done so far is well enough for me to enjoy what I've written so far.

Yeah, what you've done so far is great. You have a measure of freedom with NPCs, just as long as you keep it sensible.

[Vad]

Yeah...

I have an NPC that pals around with my player character and I have a few custom techniques that she performs to him that involve regeneration.

I've been pushing the term NPC since day one xD

[Celena]

Trixie's a prime example of how far you can go with an NPC. She's literally connected to a PC.

[Sigfried Hunin]

I think I've even seen more than a few examples of stories centering around, and sometimes even from the perspective OF NPCs.

[Tyr]

Trixie's a prime example of how far you can go with an NPC. She's literally connected to a PC.

XD

I think my character is too young for that kind of stuff.

[Belle Hibiki]

I think I've even seen more than a few examples of stories centering around, and sometimes even from the perspective OF NPCs.

I've done posts from NPC perspectives before, I know that much.

I think Warm Hands was really the only one where things seemed... predominantly NPC (Sayana in that case).

However, when I start writing again, I can easily see me doing several more from exclusively an NPC perspective.

[Orsalis]

Aside from the current conversation, I am absolutely loving the ability to swap between characters. When I'm not motivated to write for Sigfried, I usually feel pretty good about writing for Orsalis, and visa versa. When I finish writing for one, I jsut wanna keep on goin, and usually write for the other.

It's perfect.

[Juno]

Uh, for the record, I think it defeats the purpose of creating a character on an RPG to write a story from an NPC perspective. You created one character to write stories of, so why would you create an NPC and then write a story from their point of view? That almost seems like cheating to me, even if your original character is a part of the story.

That's not to say that I don't think heavily-used NPCs are alright, I just don't like it when point-of-view strays from your main character. It's alright in novels, but this isn't a site about writing novels, it's about creating a character and using them as the vehicle for your story, in my personal opinion.

That's why I think dual characters is such a fantastic idea. It gives you the opportunity to use a different vehicle, and create different stories that you feel you can't create with your original character.

[Victoria]

You might be right, but this place inspired me to write a novel from my story, which in itself is complete. Who says it isn't about writing novels? It's a stepping stone, surely many of the members here (old and new) feel that way?

I found myself more inspired to write when I could involve my NPC's, and more than one person has told me that my story is fantastic and that I should keep going.

If I couldn't do what I'm doing I think I'd end up leaving. There's no way I can make Jeremy the character he is by making him an actual character.

[Belle Hibiki]

Uh, for the record, I think it defeats the purpose of creating a character on an RPG to write a story from an NPC perspective. You created one character to write stories of, so why would you create an NPC and then write a story from their point of view? That almost seems like cheating to me, even if your original character is a part of the story.

I'm sorry, but that's fucking stupid.

Shit tons of great writers tell stories from multiple points of view. This is well-fucking-established in writing in general. You can say 'oh we're not writing novels,' but we're still WRITING. We're still developing techniques.

If someone wants to write from a few different perspectives because they think it'll heighten the quality of the story they have in mind, I say great. It's not like it's hurting me.

Now, of course, one should always guard against egregious examples, and prevent people from making NPC stories that have *nothing* to do with their main character *at all* (and are never intended to), but fucking Christ I really hope the day never comes along where we start hamstringing people that much for the sake of such a fucking idiotic rule.

edit: Of course I'm BIASED since I did it rather FREQUENTLY and no one seemed bothered at all.

[Kaden]

That's not to say that I don't think heavily-used NPCs are alright, I just don't like it when point-of-view strays from your main character. It's alright in novels, but this isn't a site about writing novels, it's about creating a character and using them as the vehicle for your story, in my personal opinion.

What's important is more that the writer keeps things relevant to their character, not so much how they write it.

Now, if I made an NPC named JoeBob who went off and had some grand adventure that had absolutely nothing to do with Kaden and would never impact him in the slightest, then I would agree with your "it kind of feels like cheating" stance.

I haven't seen a situation where that's been the case, though.

[Ashe]

Here's something I considered doing on Reijin, but didn't want to go too close to the line (though I may write this in the future). More or less, I wanted to write the story of Reijin's parents, mostly from their perspective and maybe small bits involving Reijin. Unfortunately, the story wasn't primarily involving him, or impacting him in any way other than to explain his birth. Essentially the same as if you were playing Goku and wanted to write the Bardock movie.

[Orion]

I wrote The Story of Orion Part 1 from multiple perspectives, namely Orion and two of his former crew (Cabbis and Tirak). Cabbis' point of view features heavily in Part 2, as do a few others, but Orion is always involved. In my opinion, multiple angles for the same story makes it more involving and immersive; seeing the same situation from different points of view is fascinating.

[Juno]

Fascinating, yes, but in my opinion, it defeats the purpose. Just my opinion, doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading you guys' stories. That's just the reason I've never had a post solely from an NPC's POV. I feel like I came here to write as Juno, or as a dual character, and not as Juliet, or any of my other NPCs.

Obviously, my opinion is in the minority, so I will resume my quiet dislike of NPC-vehicle'd stories.

[Jesper]

Being allowed to expand the viewpoint of a story is one of the few things that separates Chubbs from other sites.

[Juno]

I'm going to make another thread about this, because it definitely isn't on topic but I would like to have a little friendly debate about it.