Getting attached to your RP characters

[London Fog]

I'm pretty sure that everyone who has ever roleplayed with me under normal circumstances knows that I'm in love with my character, Felix Bergfalk. Prior to creating Felix, I used to play a lot of dark, stoic, "unfeeling" characters, and Felix himself was kind of an experimental character, being pretty much the opposite of my usual archetype. That is, he is clumsy, easily spooked, and a little out of shape, but also super sweet, naive, loving, selfless - a very wholesome character. There also seem to be a lot of masculine characters around these days, so I made him more on the feminine side, which is yet another thing I wouldn't normally do.


Playing Felix was super refreshing, and I found his personality fun to work with. I've played him in a lot of different roleplays now, and I'm constantly looking for more. It's kind of difficult to find roleplays for him, as he's very domestic and requires some sort of house to tend to, and he belongs strictly in the realistic category. But I'd do anything to roleplay Felix, honestly. Out of all the characters I've played, he's really something special.


But has anyone else really gotten hooked to playing their own character? What got you attached to them? *whispers* do you want to make a roleplay with our awesome characters???

 

[theplasticdemon]

[QUOTE="London Fog]But has anyone else really gotten hooked to playing their own character? What got you attached to them?

[/QUOTE]
my answer: ohhhhh yeeeees


i always have a set of characters in my private workshop that i will enslave play as for many many reasons, such as:


cool faceclaim (something distinct that i know will set other characters apart)


and off of that i make up personalities, colourful backstories, etc., because i find that a lot easier than saying "hmmmm....what do i want to be" though not to say that i don't get most of my character concepts that way.


but i digress.


i love my characters, the more i work on them the more i L O V E them, you can tell the effort i put into them


IF I BBCODE I REALLY FUCKING LOVE THEM


the roleplay doesn't even matter, even if rps die before i use them, i still love them~~


i always get attached to characters that aren't too uptight, i don't discriminate, i love all types of characters if they are played well, knowhatimsayin'?

 

[call me rae]

Well I don't know as I've ever gotten super attached to any of my characters. There have been a few backstories that I've been reasonably proud of in terms of execution and creativity but that's about it.


Then again I mostly do fandom roleplays so I rarely do OCs anyway so that could be a good reason for it.

 

[marorda]

My answer is definitely yes.


Like there's Mialee, the first RP character I ever made. It's for tabletop, but that doesn't matter. I love her entire attitude. She's happy-go-lucky, very kind, determined (and stubborn) to reach her goals, and the general blurt-out and comic relief who puts the others in the group in trouble more than just occasionally.


And there's Freyja. My first LARP character. This means I actually AM that character on events and group weekends. Well, then you really quickly get attached to them. She's a worrywart, always concerned about the well-being of her friends and family, but she's also a coward and the first to run away at actual danger. She's kind and always ready to help, as long as the risks for getting in trouble aren't too high.

 

[Idea]

I make a ton of OCs. Usually the ones I get attached to are the ones that I worked harder on, usually because of some idea I had for them that I thought was brilliant (it may or not be, but it felt like a stroke of genius at the time).


Unfortunately, I can also get overexcited about it. It is actually I see happening all to often, people (including me) getting really excited about this or that character and dragging the whole rp in order to have the spotlight on those characters or make the whole rp half-heartedly because they only joined or made the rp to showcase the characters.


But I did have my good times. I think many of my loved characters would have made it far, if it was not for my horribly irregular schedule, that I`m pretty sure is one of the main reasons so many of my rps just stop getting replies...But this thread ain`t about that, so I`ll stop here.

 

[Kenjinx]

I don't think I've ever reused any of my roleplay characters, the closest I remember coming to that was when I rewrote one of my characters and kept some of his original character ideas in the new version. That being said, I've had a few characters that stick out as some of my favorite ones, although they're all long-retired by now so I don't ever do anything with them anymore. Other than just liking the characters themselves, what makes them stick out in my mind as my favorite characters has quite a bit to do with the other people I met while roleplaying said characters and the experiences my characters had because of it; even though I developed their backstories, the majority of their history is comprised of things that actually happened through roleplay.


As far as my all-time favorite character, it may have to do with the fact that he was pretty much the first time I actually worked seriously on characterization: his mannerisms, outlooks, philosophies, even down to the small habits he had in his daily life. That (and a bit of joking about said character's surname that all sorts of people seemed to PM me about all the way from his inception to his retirement) is why he sticks out to me, and despite the fact that I'll probably never end up roleplaying him again, he'll always be my favorite character.

 

[marorda]

Unfortunately, I can also get overexcited about it. It is actually I see happening all to often, people (including me) getting really excited about this or that character and dragging the whole rp in order to have the spotlight on those characters or make the whole rp half-heartedly because they only joined or made the rp to showcase the characters.


/QUOTE]


I recognize this. I like my characters and get excited about them. In my case it's even so that I somehow end up bringing in a lot of plot. Not necessarily to make my character the most important, but more because I'm full of ideas and my character is always somehow involved in said plot. Thankfully the "GMs" never seem to mind. In fact they're glad with the plot I bring in. It's happened several times that I subconsciously ended up being a bit of a co-gm


(probably also because I don't just throw the plot in, but discuss it with them first to ask if it's a good idea)

 

[Seiden]

I created some roleplay characters in 2009. I stopped playing them in 2011 because the support went down.


You have no idea how much I loved them....and how much I still love them.


They were not the character created for a one-shot, I've did tons of roleplay with them, and with lots of people. And I totally was addicted to them. When they were hurt, I was hurt as well. I cried when they were crying and I felt happy when they were feeling happy. I wasn't controlling them anymore, they lived by their own, but I was feeling all of their feelings with such an empathy.... It was so hurtful, sometimes... but there were also so much joy.


I was living for them, they were my only hobby because nothing was more enjoyable than roleplaying them. I was addicted. Day after day, all of my free time was for them.


But I had to stop playing them. And, damn, this was so hard.... I had to accept it, but never really did.


Actually, this is kind of why I am here today. I have the hope to find a way to play them again. The thing is that it is kind of hard to bring an already existing character with his very own story into some made-up plot. They wouldn't fit, and I still want them to be free and, mostly, to be themselves, the ones I used to roleplay for. Not like an "alternative version". But the reason why I just re-started roleplay is because I really want to find a way to play them again.


While I was waiting for them, the only thing I could do is making story including them (not like fanfictions, just daydreaming), and, mostly.... Gathering art of them. I'm not an artist but I found a nice community where I can buy art with virtual money, and I'm just obsessed with it. I've bought tons and tons of art of my character, requesting every good human artist I may find (well, not that much actually), because I wanted to get lots of art for them. Just for the sake of having something for them. I won't use this art anyway, but... I don't know, it was like another way to make them a bit alive until I could roleplay them again. Then I'm just stalking the "art sales" thread of that website, waiting for some new human artist to pop up and request them some piece of one of my beloved characters.


I'm still able to kill them, thought. What have to happen will happen, I'm not trying to get the perfect life for them, and some of my lovely chara's died already. I still love them. But, yeah, they're dead.

 

[Kylesar1]

I tend to get attached to my character's abilities rather than the character himself, creating multiple character while altering the power in many ways. There is an exception to that rule, however. I do have 1 character that I'm really attached to. The name is Luke Cross. He was the intelligent support character in the tech department


Unfortunately, the RP is basically dead, so I can't use him anymore

 

[SpamBot]

I find it difficult not to get attached, even to characters I don't much care for.


I adore my hitman, Azriel, he's the one I'm the most attached to. I've done so much writing with him, since 2010. At first, he started off as a terrible character, but the more I wrote him, the more I learned about him, his character changed. He's just one of those characters I can't help but think of more things for each and every time. It never gets old.


I have killed off characters before, but not Azriel. There was a point in a roleplay I did about two years ago where he was pretty close to death... Realistically, I probably should have killed him. But I could not bring myself to do it.

 

[Pariah Stark]

Character death has a certain, special sweet spot to me. I love it in plots. I love it in character development. Almost no character I make is exempt from that. If I get into a roleplay, chances are, I will eventually try to find a way to make multiple characters so that I can kill one of mine off. Admittedly, I dislike killing my only character, but considering my willingness to create several, that's normally no big deal and doesn't detriment my openness of killing them. I see so few people do that and if they do, they do it with a character that is more of an NPC than a true character.


No.


Any of my characters can die, and if they do, I want to do it in a way that gives massive impact to the story. Or, maybe they're just a casualty. Maybe it's the exact opposite and they just become a number. The death of a single man is a tragedy, but the death of a million is a statistic. Either way, I'm almost never so attached to my character that I won't kill them if I feel it's a good situation for it.


You could say I'm far more of a storyteller than a roleplayer.

 

[Harmiko]

I don't only get attached to my characters but also my partners, but i never reuse anyone. Every play has it's own cast and my favorites just are a part of my soul and memory. Sometimes i write short stories for them but they will never be used anywhere else with anyone new.

 

[Capella]

I can't say that I've ever been attached to a character like that.


I'm fond of certain "motifs" that I reuse, but not the manifestations of those motifs.


I think I'd like to role play a single character long enough to form that attachment. n.n)


I just haven't had the pleasure in a long while.

 

[hyakinthos]

I'm so, so terribly attached to my OCs... I can't even bring myself to think about the possibility of killing one of them off or anything.

 

[Evenice]

I am very much attached to two of my OCs, and one of them I drew to make her an "Official" original character of mine. This particular one is actually an extension of myself. She's a lot like me, except a bit more amplified when it comes to the personality. I will never stop roleplaying with her, even if the roleplay she's in becomes inactive. I will continue to draw her and make stories of her


The other one I'm attached to is simple a character I liked. I love how I made the character so I became attached to her.

 

[Grin]

For a variety of reasons (of which I'm certain some of you share), my imagination is such that my characters share nearly equal tangibility/importance in my brain to actual breathing people. I find that thinking about a character I haven't thought about for a while will result in updates to their "life" that I don't remember coming up with. So it's easy to say I'm "attached" to my OCs, but there's one in particular that got some special attention.


There was a period in time when I experimented with the notion of granting a couple of my characters the knowledge that they were fictional characters. I'd do this by having the character come across the book "Breakfast Of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut (a book from our world which explores that concept near the end), and determining based on their character type how they would react after reading it.


One of my characters, Bechdel Kush, was treated badly by some of the other characters in her game (as a proxy for how their IRL handlers felt about her). She was initially created as an attempt to explore some questions I had about female internet users and the whole Gamergate thing, and true to her purpose, I discovered the hard way what women have been complaining about. Along the way though, I began to empathize with her situation so deeply that I would dream about hanging out with her, drinking coffee and discussing her problems. I began genuinely caring about her as a person, and hating the way other characters treated her.


I decided she didn't deserve the ridicule, and that she would never find out she was fictional. When handed a copy of "Breakfast Of Champions", she was advised by another character not to read it because it contained forbidden knowledge. She was happy with that explanation and threw the book in the trash. I then wrote one final RP for her, "the rest of her life" (basically giving her moderate success, long life, and a loving family) and shelved her.


I haven't played her since, out of respect.

 

[UndisclosedDesires7]

I get super attached to my characters! I've created a lot of OC's that I deeply care about as well as existing characters that I loved to play as. Currently I have a role play I'm doing of the new tv show Jessica Jones in which I'm playing the villain Kilgrave. I'm already getting into his head space (which isn't a good one to start with) and I'm putting a lot into with my own twist.

 

[Nero Kunivas]

Being as I don't normally reuse RP characters, I haven't had the chance to get attached to them, not to mention the previous site I was on had frequently dying RPs to the point where there could be a Graveyard for them. However, I love the idea personally! Hmm...I should have a character or two that come back for other RPs...

 

[Magattahana]

I absolutely adore my characters, especially the twins I created. Zane and Abigayle. Zane's more of a self-insert tbh, and Abigayle's personality contradicts her brothers in a lot of ways, so she's really fun to work with.

 

[The Chronicler Croi]

I have a few I am attached too and I every oc gets a back story and I love writing and creating my art

 

[The Chronicler Croi]

I have a couple sets of twin oc's they are well siblings are fun to play off of each other

 

[Face Nemesis]

I've had a lot of characters who I've become really attached to. The first ever character I used is one who's changed so much from his initial use that I've become really attached to him. He was initially a dark, brooding sort of person (I wrote him back in middle school when I thought that type of character seemed really cool), although in recent iterations, he's become a lot more silly and laid back, though he does still have a more serious side when that needs to be shown. I think the fact that I've used him for almost 10 years now shows just how attached I've become to him. Of course, there are some other characters that I really like as well.

 

[Windhover118]

Soon after I started role playing, I became involved in an ongoing series of role plays involving an interstellar war between two rival human factions. I created a character which at first meant nothing to me. He was just there as a way to get me into the RP. But as the RP went on I created for the character a unique personality, interesting habits and he basically became a real person to me. When the second RP in the series started I chose to play as this character again and really worked on character development. Unfortunately at the end of the RP, the game master decided for the sake of overall plot, my character and several other major characters were to be essentially killed off. I never really got over it. All of my subsequent characters in the series shared mannerisms and were basically watered down carbon copies of that original character. This was also my first serious role play so not only was I creating a character, I was creating what I guess could only be described as my own style of role playing.

 

[SilverSanctuaries]

Alright so I have this fandom-flexible OC I absolutely adore. He's very far from anyone I'd normally write with, and he's one of those characters who stays with you in your everyday life. This boy has given me more confidence to talk to people despite my social anxiety than anyone's words could even try to.


His name is Vaughn Liberato Caverly. His development and his story is one of the most bittersweet things I've ever written, and I'm so goddamned proud of him.

 

[Umbra Regalia]

You have no idea... I've been so attached to my character Revnoir Kayrouz that some of my RL friends call him my imaginary boyfriend 'cos I just don't shut up about him. Everyone else: "OMG, like, look at this hottie right here!"


Me: "But... Revnoir's still better."


It's gotten a little out of hand... Sometimes I name my accounts after him (it gives me some problems on some sites, like Wattpad even) but my gosh Revnoir Senpai please notice me. I use him for everything and have made like four different versions of him to fit into all my RPs. Sometimes I wonder if I'm OK...