Hi. I tend to like playing every sort of character class in a game, and I like having a lot of alts to swap between as the mood takes me. However, I've never played on an RP server before, and I was looking for tips on staying IC across a range of 5-6 characters. I've got some little bios stored in my message account on thses forums, and was thinking of copypasting that into character journals for reference.

The major problem I have is on knowing which of my chars knows which other PCs. Does anyone have a better suggestion than simply recording in the Journal whenever one of my alts meets somebody, or indeed any other tips for keeping multiple characters at a reasonable quality?

I keep a “PC’s I know” log in the journal portion.

PC’s Rip knows: Micky Stones (associate) Sylvyr (female elf) Kirix (kobold at the Pisser) Colara (lady fighter at the training hall) Etc... Etc... Etc...

Mind you I don’t mark acquaintances, I only put them on the list if I have spent any extended time with them.

I really have no tips for you. In fact, I completely recommend against it. By playing multiple characters, you obviously increase the risk for the sort of metagaming and overhead issues you are already noticing, but I strongly believe there's something even worse at stake. You're minimizing the potential of one of your characters from getting deeply involved and realizing their full potential.

I think if you're truly serious and want to experience the potentials of the experience you can get here, you have to stick to one solid character that you play from beginning to end -- a character that coexists with the setting, meets all the new faces, is recognized by anyone on the street, gets involved with (or conflicts with) multiple groups and plots, and has the ability to really flesh out their own story. We're also are more likely to notice and pay attention to a character we continually see online and getting actively involved as it's more worth our time to focus on a character who's going to reach others and make an impact rather than someone who'll disappear in a few minutes. By playing multiple characters at once, you only water down the level of detail, involvement, and enjoyment you can get on a roleplaying server.

Yeah, I've noticed that becoming an issue for me. Stuff like "Ah crap, now I'd better avoid Lower on Dent because Egon saw a useful shortsword in there and I don't want to be lame". Or when I think "You know, this would really be a more fun situation if I was playing on my fighter".

My reason behind having a bunch of alts was I decided to roll up one of most of the classes, and whittle them down to the one or two I enjoyed the most.

I think I'll relegate all but 2 of my characters to "redshirt" status, and leave them in case one of my main chars gets irrevocably killed. I'll stick with the bard and fighter, as they're sufficiently different in their approaches that I can play not going to confuse their roles and acquaintances. They're also the two I enjoy playing the most from both a tactical and an RP point of view.

Best solution is to have only one character at a time with a very large array of goals that he wishes to pursue, that way, you will always have something to do with him in-game.

Multiple characters will lead to that at time you will metagame, not intentionally but simply because human memory is flaky. You could keep a journal of who you meet for each character but that's a lot of work to revise everytime you go in-game to make sure which character knows what.

You'll also be noticed more easily if you keep with one character and it will be easier for others to hook up with you.

I asked similer questions on IRC, and got responses like Exilestrife. It makes sense really, to just dig one hole at a time.

That's a good idea, and actually it's the way my bard's heading. What would you reckon about expanding him, but keeping the warrior a simple character that's amusing to play with and as?

I like Elwicket because I don't need much thought to play him, just to remember that his goals are, in order: 1: Fighting. 2: Big damn blades. 3: Shiny hats. and that i need to keep up a constant stream of chirpiness, battle mania and smart-aleckery.

On the other hand, I'm fleshing out Egon with a wide set of interests, goals and associations and trying to start a small player faction with him.

Strife and Mort's recommendations are fantastic. Also, I would personally recommend that you first play the character you enjoy the most, and then if you can't decide, play the fighter for the fact that EfU is a hard server, bards can be hard to play, and bards require a special amount of "extra effort" to be really awesome, such as writing songs, dances, or whatever, and generally acting in ways that befit a character with 14+ charisma.

A quick recap because I like the quote:

You're minimizing the potential of one of your characters from getting deeply involved and realizing their full potential.

Get your bard or fighter involved with something! Seekers, Watch, Spellguard, New Dunwarren/Temple of Tyr, become a city clerk, get a demon-possessed mirror and take over Lower Sanctuary... whatever.

I personally think keeping a strong silent type PC as a secondary character is handy for those days I don’t feel like typing/talking much...

And as far as factions go, Ripley Rippplebark has never belonged to a faction and quite a few PC’s and one or two DM’s know the happy-go-lucky little Halfling street kid.

Considering how I have about 500% the playing time to spend of more or less anyone else on the server, I make a habit of having a main character so to speak, which I play 125% of the time and also log in whenever I find people I need to interact with or who are relevant to my character in any way.

I also have plenty of side characters of varying lvls and classes, that I mostly play for the amusement of it. Usually, this also results in that whenever my main character dies or is retired, I can immediately start more heavily on a character who doesn't need to spend hours on delivery quests just to get started.

Instead, I currently have half a dozen or so characters at lvl 5 or higher, with decent xp and atleast one 'friend' on the server.

One of my best examples of this is my character Milmamir. I played him very heavily for a long time, and he is now lvl 8, but now I have another character for my main. Instead, I now play my senile old elf only when I find I need to surround myself with some good.

I find playing like this very relaxing and comforting, and whenever a character dies you're not nearly as frustrated as at those times when you lose your lvl 9 char and have to start over again at lvl 2.

It's even so advanced I now get sadder from other people's character deaths than my own.

I'm pretty sure everyone already echo'd this, but I recommend sticking to one character. That way your one character will grow and develop more, and become recognized by the community as a person, rather than trying to attempt to recognize five or six people at the same time.

I am probably notorious for this. I have currently over 10 side characters, but as time goes on, I tend to focus on one more than the other. I might log one on to troll, but beyond that it's meh.

Stick to one, trust me.

Thomas, Notorious isn't a strong enough word. Thy art god of the alternates. :P

But, aside, I have never been able to play more then one character at once. When your truly IC, its essentially impossible.

I generally try pretty hard to spend all of my time on my main character but I will admit, if my main isn't a fighter type then I usually keep a frontliner "strong and silent" type like RIPNogard said, on the side. Sometimes you just want to go and smash Goblin heads...

I have prototyped a bunch of different classes like you were saying but I don't do it much anymore. If you are going to do some real rollplaying then I think it is a disservice to other PC's to swap in and out alot. Prototyping is good, I know for example, that I suck at playing bards....

Thomas_Not_very_wise I am probably notorious for this.

LOL, what should i say?

Get a main PC for real RP.

Its really best if you don't create lots of alts at all, and just stick with one character all the time. You'll find it is less stressful and you'll be far more successful.

MadCaddies Its really best if you don't create lots of alts at all, and just stick with one character all the time. You'll find it is less stressful and you'll be far more successful.

Doubt the less stressful. When I focus on one character I start getting stress, hence why I am the god of alts.

I am usually good at keeping track of character information (unless I am tired and very rarely slip, which of times I could probably count on my fingers). I was totally wondering why it was so frowned against anyway. If people have problems with having multiple characters, that is their own fault. That goes both ways, as if someone is having difficulties and cannot minimize their leakage it might be best to eliminate it. That said to all the haters: not everyone has a flaky memory. If even being tight on the lip and casting doubt on what your character knows as far as any fuzzy memories go won't help, you might really need to stick to one PC.

Do whatever is enjoyable and fun. Prototyping is cool and eventually you'll find whatever mood and concept you feel like playing as a main anyway. Personally, I think doing the 2-3, 2-4, and then 2-5 quests should give people some good insight on the build as to make a decision, time for brainstorming concepts of the character, and character building through interaction. Sometimes it takes a while and just plain playing and experimenting can be good enough to not stick to one. After all, not everyone has a grasp of NWN + EfU low level low magic mechanics.

PS: Yes, sometimes having just one main is stressful.

A lot of the reason it's recommended to focus on one PC is because if you focus on a single PC he will be vastly more successful as people gradually come to realize he will be around for a while.

Do whatever you want though.

I'm pretty sure I have like 50 characters, half of which were made on days my character literally had nothing to do. Those 25 characters quickly became forgotten and lost amongst the character vault, probably to be found by me when my main dies.. Anyhow, I'd suggest focusing on one character, three at the most. Sometimes the server gets slow and your character can't do any questing, it's at those points when I make an alt...most of the time.

Thomas_Not_very_wise Doubt the less stressful. When I focus on one character I start getting stress, hence why I am the god of alts.

Well, I recall your Garagosian Redshirt (He wore red, rushed into danger, and got ganked out of the blue, or so I heard. He may as well have beamed down to EfU with Kirk :wink: ) He was a great concept, really entertaining to see him bellowing out on sendings most days, but didn't last long. That would have irked me if I'd only taken the one PC.

It got really irritating to me when my first main character got killed twice in an hour, and having an Lvl 4 alt or two to log on to helped me avoid a bad case of Fist In Monitor Syndrome :P.

Sometimes the server gets slow and your character can't do any questing, it's at those points when I make an alt Yeah, when you're right at lvl 2, you're mostly just grinding the Fedex jobs until you've got a bit of equipiment to let you safely party up.

My alts are now there to let me jump into something with a little power if my mains bite it. I find there's much better RPing opportunity if you can join with people for a quest rather than get chatting, then have them rush off to do a job your char cant cope with.

Thanks to everyone who's chipped in on this thread so far. You've helped me find a balance between getting the RPing part down, and my liking of mixing up things on games by swapping chars so I don't get stuck in one play style. Expect to see a lot more of my bard, and have my rogue fade into the background (Heck, I've even got an good RP excuse for that. He's asked Instructor Melve for mage training, and he's now shut in the library poring over scrolls.)