Forums » RP Discussion » A bit of a dilemma

I've got a problem I'd like some advice on.

Y'see, there's this character of mine that I've rp'd for most of my "rp career", but in the span of these last seven months, she's undergone more downer/bad events than I care to think about, spanning all three categories of physical, mental, and emotional (especially the 1st and 3rd) anguish.

And now I've come to a point where all those events have tainted how much I used to enjoy playing her. Some of it is admittedly my fault and me not thinking things through, but others was decisions made by other players/their characters that were beyond my control and my willingness to force things not to change.

Frankly, I don't want to play her anymore due to this, but I'm very reluctant to get rid of her-- like I said, I've had her for a long time. So what do I do? Do I just let her go, or is there some way to regain that sense of enjoyment I used to have, or something else entirely?

Well I guess even though it would screw the development the character has had over the years you could always 'reset' her. Put her back at a point before all that crap happened and what not.

That's a possibility, but then I'd have to leave the rp group she's in-- or do a lot of explaining to the players as to why my character suddenly isn't acting "logical" around theirs. And they can be a rather fickle bunch in terms of reactions OoCly.

I can consider that though, in the least, Lance.

Personally i'd recommend explaining it to them first. I've dealt with a lot of RPers over the years who were understanding about how a character got so bad off it disappointed the player to use em anymore. Not saying they will but ya never know. Hope you find a solution that works for ya soon. I hate To see people ultimately get rid of characters they've had for years. Kinda sad really like if a family pet died or something.

Take a break from the character? You can write her out of the story, maybe she is having too much difficulty with all those bad things.

That leaves you free to create a new character in the same group and you can return to this character later on when you feel you can enjoy playing her again.

I've had this happen to a number of characters, many of which I later regained the enjoyment of.

My advice would be to stop playing her for awhile. ICly, tell people that she is going on some kind of wilderness retreat, or not leaving her house, or whatever. That she is taking this time to heal and find herself.

Then play other characters and don't think about her for awhile. It might be measured in weeks or months. Eventually, it may come to you how this character can assimilate what happened to her in a way that makes her stronger, that reaffirms her belief in herself or the universe. (ex: "The worst thing I could imagine happened to me, and I survived it. I must have some destiny I need to keep working toward.") And then she can come back a fun to play character, instead of a wreck of her former self.

I think the worst thing you could do would be to force yourself to play her, as it will only reinforce your bad associations with her. Just leave her be for awhile so she can heal.

... oddly enough, that's probably the best advise I could get all day. Thank you, Darth & Kim. I'll do a lil' planning-- it's not quite as easy as "whoop okay going to join up as a new chara now", but I can figure something out for this that'll hopefully work out in the end.

EDIT: ... well this is an ironicly good piece of news. *neck rub*
Had a chat with the player of a chara who's admitted to liking my chara before, 'cause I was afraid I had forced my chara onto his and wanted to know what he thought of the two of them before I decide to pull her out or not.

And as it turns out, we both OoCly enjoy their chemistry. I mean, it's just friendliness and derpy IC going-ons, but it's enjoyable. Maybe I won't have to set her aside after all. I'll see if this works out or not, but an outlet for goodness is... well, good, and she'd be away from the hooblah that caused all her foulness in the first place.

Not disregarding y'all's advise. I'm just going to... see if this plays out okay, I guess. Hopeful, I suppose?

Hopeful is good, and you can always do something else later if it doesn't work. Here's hoping!

I had this problem for my old character, Gin. I used him for years and then my enthusiasm became stagnant. I found that characters evolve as our imaginations do. I know you're rock solid on not changing your character, but sometimes a little reboot/reinvention can keep your character alive.

This can take the form of something subtle like a change of look, or it can be a complete historical rewrite.

However, I've remade Gin (only changing his personality once in five years) multiple times. He changed from a young neko, to a vampire, to a human, then back to a vampire. Then it got to where I didn't know what else to do with him. So I found a method that works.

If you want to continue using your character, but rp events have screwed her up too much, then turn her into a side character. That way she still exists, but you no longer have to put her through her on personal hells, or try to develop her personality any further. I apologize if I'm just repeating what was said. I just read the post and through something out there.