Forums » RP Discussion » Thoughts on Starting Anew

Have any of you all ever thought about just deleting all of your characters and starting over fresh, like a clean slate.

If so why? If not, what stopped you from doing it?

Yes I have. Mostly because I often started RPs on Furcadia that altered my characters just a little, but enough to tie them to that story. Most of my RP partners dropped off from those characters or just stopped playing, so I was left with characters I didn't know what to do with. Some had extensive histories but were developed to a point where it was difficult to start a new story from that without it becoming overly mundane and boring.

I found rather than erasing them (and all the artwork and whatnot!) I preferred erasing their personalities and history and crafting a new character with the same looks.

Edit: I also moved to the topic to RP discussion for you, I think it'll get you some more attention there.

Nope. Can't bring myself to do it. Sometimes they idle with time but never really from deletion as much as relevance. An idled character can return at any time, such as my recent return of Suzaku on The Keep, who's most recent art was dated as 2003 and that was already at the end of her play time save for a few cameos.

I can't bring myself to change their personalities or histories for convenience's sake either. I find that far more detrimental than losing artwork. Art generally takes a few hours for you or someone else to make for them. Their personalities, their histories, their very life is what we spend endless days of our lives building. Erasing it all because I can't be bothered to make an actual new character just feels like I flushed however many collective months of my life I spent at this screen, trying to build a realistic individual out of them.

In short: I retire. I don't delete. And people can come out of retirement.

I delete my characters when I get depressed. I've numerous times just gone and cut off the whole pack of them. Most of my characters get forgotten or no one is interested, so I just cull them away. What's the point of having them if there is no one to love them but me?

Sometimes I sell or give them away, if there is someone interested in the design, and they have enough art tied to them to be worth it. Some, I just 'shelf' for a while. Even if you delete the char on RPR doesn't mean its gone forever. Ive cycled out plenty of my chars on here, but I always save their art and info, so if I change my mind I can bring them back again.

I don't think I could stomach it. There's nothing wrong with it for other people I guess, but for me personally...I have put time and energy into creating these little "people". I'm sure it's the same way a novelist feels if a chapter turns out really really well, even if it doesn't fit into the book your writing at the time you aren't just going to chuck it. You fight for it.

I like to think that even though I may get frustrated with characters (I'm looking at you Remy), that I'll stick out out with them and see what happens next. Who knows, that character that I'm frustrated with now could be my favorite with some development. And that doesn't mean that he isn't developed now, but development to me is in game and dependent upon characters around mine.

All that being said I do shelve them on occasion, Viral has been shelved for almost a decade. Not because I didn't like her, but her story had come to a sudden halt and there was nothing else for her. Black_Helix is fully retired, and there have been others that have earned the big green pastures of retirement ville.

But I don't think I'd be able to just delete them all and make fresh new faces. That's not me, but you as an individual have to do what makes you happy and if starting fresh can do that for you then who am I to say you cannot?

If I were ever going to delete one, they'd have to be killed or destroyed, I don't do it as I get too attached to them. Some of my characters never get rp but I love some of the things I put into them.

I suppose one might argue I also do this shelving thing. Mostly because my character doesn't end up roleplayed for a long time, I don't want to throw out their physical designs so I keep them on the back burner, hoping to maybe find someone to play them with in the future.

Most of the time I end up losing such interest in their concepts, I redo them because it feels like such a waste to keep the art I paid for or worked hard on, hidden in some folder on my computer rather than being used.

If I feel I can't roleplay the character anymore no matter what, and I have pictures of the character, I end up selling the design itself.

Maybe it's because most of my characters' stories never quite finished. They just keep hanging in there somewhere, floating in the middle of a very specific setting and it just... doesn't work. I don't know.

I guess it's also just foreign to me, once again nothing wrong with it though. I've never known, before rpr, of people selling character designs nor never-ending story characters. But I'm also weird and always have a shelf-life on my guys.

As I said every person has to make their own decision and you only know what's right for you, no matter what other people think.

If you're into playing video games and have sold or lost one, think about how you feel when the sensation hits that you'd really love to play that game again. I've done it before, in both character deletion and the whole selling of a video game thing, and I have to say that it's not a good feeling.

After a few times of going through the same stuff I figured it was worth just storing the characters away and waiting for the feeling to play them to come back. Storage is free and not permanent, but deleting is forever!

All good and interesting points. I am a gamer Longinus xD so I do know how that feels, why I rarely ever sell a game. Maybe shelving is the best option for me.