Switching Characters - My thoughts

[Valo56]

A lot of people, myself included, experience what is commonly described as Character ADD. We just can't stick with one concept for very long, even if said concepts are widely viewed as exceptional by other people.

But there's also a certain stigma attached to switching characters, and I'd like to talk about it and offer advice to those who feel they can't abandon a concept.

Maybe what I say will be helpful, or maybe it'll all seem like it's from the bible of Captain Obvious.

What you can and cannot do:
There's very little you cannot do, in truth. No one can make you play a character. The only rule in regards to this that I am aware of is you cannot have an alt while playing an app'd character. If you applied for something on your current character, and then abandon him for some reason, going back will usually require a new app.

Typically this is only the case if you leave to play another character, but in the past it's been applied to people who have been gone from the server entirely for a long period of time.

So no, you don't HAVE to play your character. Everything after this point is about what I feel you should do, not what you have to do.

Switching every couple of days
We're all guilty of this at some point, I imagine, barring a few people. Some of us do it more than others. You start a character, play him a bit, and then get bored and quit after perhaps a week, or an even shorter span of time.

Just keep at it, and don't force yourself... unless you feel forcing yourself might be better in the long run. One strategy I've heard of is to force yourself to play a character for a week or two, then go to another concept until you don't WANT to go to another concept. So make yourself play that Banite Priest for a week, then go ahead and give yourself a week to play some halfling rogue, but then if you really love playing that rogue, just keep at it. Point is, give yourself a minimum of a week. Supposedly this worked well for the person who advised me to try it, though I myself have never tried it.

Leaving an app character
The biggest worry I've heard of from people is that no one will think they're reliable if they leave their app'd character. So they decide to stick around until they die.. which is often an accelerated process now that they want to go to another concept.

Well, you can leave an app character behind. Generally speaking, DM's are not going to care. Granted, if you're in the middle of some DM plot and are an integral part of the story, they'll likely be a little miffed if you suddenly leave. Here I would advise just taking a break for a few days and then coming back. No one will care about that.

DM's aren't going to decline all your apps because you quit your Spellguard Agent. They aren't going to decline all your apps if you have a history of quitting your characters, even. They might be less likely to give you big stuff until you show you can stick with a concept.. but generally, don't worry about it.

What do DM's want, and why are you here
Everyone is here to have fun. DM's, you, that random half-orc who smells... DM's don't want you to put down app goals that they want to see (I know that seems contradictory), but rather they want you to do stuff that you want to do and will be exciting for the server.

For instance, you might think that while applying for a Spellguard Agent, putting down that you'll write a series of intelligence and security reports, and employ the aid of third party organizations in acquiring this information will get your app approved easier. But what's the point if you are more interested in other things? Even if your real goals seem less impressive, you should put them down, not better-sounding stuff that you know you aren't going to want to do.

In the same way that you shouldn't force yourself with app goals, you shouldn't force yourself with characters. People want you to have fun, DM's and (for the most part) players alike. If you're not having fun with a character, leave it.

Responsibilities
That all said, there is one situation where I would say stick with a character even if you don't like it, and that is when there's PvP. If you have done something, such as killed another PC or stolen something, and you know people are looking to get some revenge or similar, you should stick with your character. Again, you don't have to. I've heard that you can app for DM's to turn someone else's ABANDONED PC into an NPC so that you can continue previous interactions, but I'm not quite sure if that's still or ever was the case.

In any event, leaving a character once the going gets tough, at other people's expense, seems like a bit of a dick move, and so not to be done lightly.



I'd wager you're likely to be more "successful" (by however you measure success) on this server if you leave characters you don't like and just keep doing what makes you happy.

But how do I maintain interest in a character?
Try and keep note of those things you enjoy most on this server. I have a few things I genuinely enjoy:
-Translating the tablets and tomes scattered about, and unearthing ancient lore.
-Spending extended periods of time in the Lowerdark. (Almost every character of mine is built with the idea of eventually living there, lol)
-Exploring new areas.
-Spending time in underwater areas.
-Hunting particularly powerful NPC's on my own. To date my favorite hunt would be me killing some drow and an Ysinode Destroyer in Traensyr as a druid.
-Making speeches. My ego is ginormous, yes. I like to make speeches.
-Herbalism is awesome, alchemy is scary, I love them both.

So find what you like, and then make sure new characters you make will be able to do one or more of such things, ideally sooner rather than later.

[Ladocicea]

Tip: Don't start thinking about another character concept while playing a PC. You will get into a grass is greener mindset and just want to play the newest thing you've come up with.

[Hound]

This problem is literally my bane.

[Kinslayer988]

What can I say. It is a consistant problem in EFU. Abandoning concepts is very easy and I have done it many times.

One of the things I have noticed is that it happens so often due to boredom during playerless hours, lack of interaction, a feeling that none of the goals are being accomplished, or thought that such a goal cannot be reached.

Imagine it like a tunnel-vision of what goals need to be done and accomplished. I have made many PCs that could of been successful or prominent worthy if I had just kept playing them.

Gerald Tommen - My Mystra paladin would have joined the conclave less than a month before the rise of the red star and I could have had awesome conflict with those within prior to the ritual.

Otoah - The bear Stargazer. I lost some halfling buddies and found my day to day dull. If I had stayed I could have fought the order or even tried to become a steward.

Quogma - A character where I saw some huge goals ahead of me and I thought I couldn't reach them. Turns out I missed being a member of one of the greatest plots in efu history because I was bored a few days.

Jaime Giron - my Order coward but I had bard blowout. Turns out there were a cool amount of order members just out of my timezone. I missed my chance to build a cool treaty with mistlocke.

If you keep with a PC, you WILL BE rewarded. In RP and experience or other ways. Try to avoid goal tunnel vision. Ther are tons of things to do besides going traditionally to your goals. It is not about being the next Otred, Leged, Theodigus, Quadima, or the main Mayor/Director/Dominator. You don't have to play those huge characters. You can find a lot of fun things playing a hench or just doing something simple.

[Nuclear Catastrophe]

If you enjoy your PC, but have played it too long / want to move on to another concept/ have achieved all you can achieve, you can always ask for an 'ending' if you feel so inclined and if the DM's involved are feeling benevolent may even get to have one.

If you have played a heavy PvP concept or have had a bounty or whatever then yes, we'll expect you to stick to the character for longer - if only to give the playerbase a fair chance to 'get' you themselves - in which case you don't just log in and sit in the pyrimo or crone whatever, you should get out there and genuinely give them a chance.

But generally, yeah it's best to stick to one character.

[Diz-e]

Here's my advice: spend more time while concepting.

That's right. If you create every new character with a zeal and excitement for the idea, if you put a lot of thought and development into your concept before you even roll up, you will have a greater investment in the character, and (hopefully!) be less likely to bail on it.

If you are one of those types who has trouble sticking to any one character for reasons of "boredom", consider possible trouble areas while concepting, preemptively. Are you likely to get frustrated being lonely? Maybe a lone ranger in the wilds is not for you. Will you have trouble being sociable and writing a lot of forum letters? Not going to make the best politician. Do you merely suffer from frustration during downtime? Conceive things to keep you busy that are self-sufficient activities or endeavors, beforehand.

Valo has a few good ideas there, and you can get creative and really shine with it. I recall one character of Cap's that used the writing system to create little 'placeables' describing how she slaughtered orcs, for travelers in the wild to find. Solo killin' orcs in the downtime, with story, what fun! And it flavored the character.

The sending system is a blessing which allows you to foster interaction at all hours. Whatever your character's goal is, you can use it, as well as any number of other methods to achieve it through interaction with other characters. Don't get pigeonholed or too clique-oriented, unless that's an integral part of your concept. Are you trying to find the ultimate trophy? Canvass the adventuring populace for information outside the shield. Spreading the word of your god? Preach to every passing stranger. Looking to build an animatron? Bother the Spellguard until they arrest you so you can get their full, undivided attention. Neither do you need to do it all in game. The forums are great for that sort of stuff. Seek out contacts, set up meetings, start up or join a FACTION.

Another word: Though I do encourage trying new things, don't get stuck on ideas of "oh, I want to try that" or "I've never played one of those" in a short term sense. Like Ladocicea says, it's a grass-is-greener mindset that will leave you unsatisfied when you realize you don't enjoy the mechanics of sorcerers, or whatever. Which can be avoided if you follow my original point!

Rich concept and development will help you get more enjoyment out of your character, and reduce the likelihood of abandonment overall.

[Kandebyn Olar]

I think the fact that it takes just under a couple hours to level up to where you were before, makes it even harder to stick to your character for long periods of time.

Same thing with dying. I feel a lot of players play stupidly brave characters, because even if they die, it just takes a few hours to level up and start some other insane, over the top, conflict-heavy character.

[Ebok]

My biggest suggestion is to be willing to adapt. If you have a character whose background suggests path A, but it's boring now (too little conflict, too little relevance, no traction with other players) etc, then embrace the lack. Change. If a man who believes in slavery ends up stranded forever around people that kill slavers on sight, it might be time to reform! It might be time to think of /why/ you had slaves before, and how you can get a similar but less... deadly version active at present. "Cheap Labor" "Entertainment" "Servitude" "Power" whatever, keep the core of the character and have them adapt to their new environment until it gains relevancy.

The world is what it is. If a concept doesnt work, keep it around and let the character's story grow in a different direction. Note: I am not suggesting that a CE person will suddenly become Lawful dutiful guard. But they might end up becoming more loyal overtime to someone that is similar etc. Nothing is written in stone except what's already happened.

[Random_White_Guy]

Just embrace the ADD I say!

Diz-E raised some great points about characterization but at the same time there's a spectrum.

Some hugely and very well concepted characters are by design going to only last a few weeks (Or days if you're a monster).

This is a videogame not a marraige where you have to "stick it out for the kids" or endure long periods of boredom, hardship, or otherwise waiting on your PC to hit some non-existent magical benchmark of "Around long enough" to get things moving again.

Granted it's fine to have long term PCs but it's not for everyone. The trick is finding what works for you and going at it 100%

[PanamaLane]

Let me preface by saying, if you hate playing your character, move on. But if you'd like to have a longer laster, here are some tips.

Concept:

Come up with a good background for your character including ambitions. I'm not talking about apped goals here, instead figure out what your character is driven by, be it to rule the world, to help the suffering, to uncover knowledge, whatever it may be. Your characters ambitions, while potentially secret, should drive most of their interactions. So, choose the things that you as a player are also ambitious about, something that will hold your interest.

In Game:

1. Use your ambition to foster relationships with other like-minded PCs and potentially some NPCs as well. Create "friendships" which will often get you through the tougher times.
2. Remain flexible. Remember, despite age, ambition, etc, your character is just beginning their journey at game start. In game actions will change your character and should. Don't become so rigid in the point of reaching your goals that you ignore the other opportunities that present themselves to your character.
3. View setbacks and deaths as opportunities. This is probably the hardest thing to do. A blow which brings you to level 4 can be hard to swallow, but its also a chance to meet and quest with new low level PCs, to rebuild your supply (some of the best supply quests are low level) and add "depth" to your character, who has endured difficult trials instead of caving into them.
4. If you are going to blow it up, try to go all the way with it before simply rolling a new character. By that I mean, instead of throwing away a character, start taking huge risks with potentially big rewards. Don't do anything OOC, but surely you can find IC reasons to go big. Then if you die, you die in style. If you happen to survive, you may just find the experience has endeared you further to your character.
5. Lose the ego. Yes, we are all beautiful shining stars. But in the grand scheme of a game world where the largest most important plots are usually out of your (complete) control, you got to remember that being the most "x" on the server doesn't really matter. If you can let go of your ego at times, it will seriously aid you in avoiding personal frustrations.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Find a group of people who generally play in your timezone and you get along with well.  Do characters alongside them that depend on them and they need depend on you.  When there's a sort of dependency in you playing that character, it's a lot easier to suppress desire to abandon them.

[Bouquet of Roses]

I do things very differently to most others, it seems like!

I usually start with a portrait, or a very base idea. Like, "IE fighter", "Caster Cleric", or "Spy Rogue". And then I go from that.
I don't spend hours planning or fixing up background/personality/ambitions- In fact, -if- I do, I find I get immensely bored, early on- Bored with the low-level grind, and impatient to get things going.
But if I start playing with the intention of fleshing all that out through interactions, I tend to get more involved with the character, itself, rather than "what do I want to do with this one".

Advice is always good, and it's great to see how freely the EfU players share their experiences- But fact remains, you're you, not anyone else.

Personally, I absolutely -hate- abandoning a character, unless it's completely dead to me. I might very well do something crazy stupid to get killed off, but I do my best to keep it within reason, and to some effect or other.
It's also worth reminding yourself that this is, after all, a game, and as much as the server, the dms, and the players are deserving of the respect of not just abandoning a character involved in all sorts of things- You're here to have fun.
Not to "tough it out".

Sometimes, frustrations with a character can be overcome by, simply, RP'ing. Not every interaction has to have an agenda, a purpose, a goal.
Sometimes, it's more fun to just take a break from pursuing goals, to just mess around.
Something else Cap's really good at. Even if he tends to focus on "Pants" (Or lack thereof) most of the time!

We're all different, though.
So you gotta find out what works for you.

But most importantly- You gotta have fun.

[Reylathi]

I'd like to explore a tangent to this conversation.

I have to  admit, I experience this problem a lot. When I first came to efu, I  didn't really get the concept of the server, and I made myself a "fleet"  of characters so I could play anything I wanted to at the drop of a  hat--it'd already be built, have gear and all that silly stuff. At any  given time I'd run out of quests to do with all my chars, so I'd just  make a new one. Looking back, I can only imagine how frustrating I must  have been to the dm crew. :p

But why I felt the need to do that  does illuminate a problem that's particularly faced by new, and especially younger  players to the server, and that's that without joining a faction, it's  damn hard to crack into. Dms and players have limited time to spend, and  if somebody is just playing a relatively ordinary character that  doesn't stand out in any way and running around in an orange cloak, very  few people are really willing to spend a lot of time with them. And  understandably so, it's a pain in the butt to hold the hand of somebody  who frankly just isn't very interesting. And the mechanics make it impractical for high and low lvl PCs to work together in most cases.

But I think we suffer  for our lack of "greeter" style PCs, especially because our playerbase  is so small. At any given time nowadays, the new guy is the only new guy around.  And it's just frustrating, especially given how the innate deadliness of  the world requires that mid-high lvl PCs always just tell low level  PC's "just go find your own thing to do, our stuff is way too deadly for  you", which is of course absolutely true.

To bring this rambling  post full circle, if you want somebody to stick with a concept,  especially a novice roleplayer, don't put it all on their shoulders.  Help them out a little bit, especially when they're new. Don't wait  until their character is interesting to interact with it, help them make  it interesting. Force them to make it interesting by asking them questions! It'd be especially fantastic if dms in  particular, but really everybody, would take a greater interest in level  2-3 characters that they have no prior knowledge of. Try to grab them,  sweep them up, involve them in your plots. Don't wait for people to push  themselves into the story (because that's really what it feels like when you have no help), YANK them into YOUR story!

Or else, unless they're fairly extroverted, they're going to get bored. And the easiest solution to boredom on efu is to make another efu character.

Okay I'm done.

Okay, I'm not done. Just by way of example, I have only ever once witnessed anybody trying to recruit new Spellguard Auxiliary in the square. Y'all post in the forums, sure, but how often does somebody come IG down to the square and try to rustle up some new Auxiliary? Has anybody ever tried to recruit new Auxiliary from within Starag's Rest, which would be the most logical place to do so?

Now I'm done.

[A Mystery Clock]

I'll drop in my two cents.

It's when you are genuinely bored of a character and thinking "yeah, going to kill you" that things start rolling.

Why? Because you'll actually make ripples, you will actively seek to fling your character into the maw of permadeath and you won't absolutely care if it's not wise to roam the Lowerdark on your own, or attack Drow by the gates of Traensyr.

Persisting is the key, as no good character springs out of the ground without pouring a certain amount of time and effort into it. Every character starts as fairly generic, and it's bound to remain fairly generic (heck, even boring) for quite some time and most importantly for as long as you'll care too much about keeping him or her alive.

Practical example: at a certain point when playing Sumah I started to find her incredibly frustrating. Upon trying to off the character for good, I found out that this isn't as easy as it looks, provided you won't "cheat" and make it happen off-screen. While trying to kill her and doing all kinds of reckless stuff, I had fun doing said reckless stuff and very predictably the character was killed (of my own volition! Was about to survive EVEN MORE!) during the umpteenth moment of recklessness.

In short:
- Persist. Persistence is the key of characterization, and every character feels boring to play when it's just the archetype of a class. There is absolutely zero need to think about your background in advance, let it unfurl as you play.
- Being bored of a character is good for you. Instead of rolling an alt, just think about the craziest thing your character could and would do. Murder a director in a Ceasar-like stabbing in Freedom Square? Raid Traensyr? Mug everyone you run across and see how long you can last? Set fire to the Moldmire? If it fails you win, if it doesn't you STILL WIN.