Holdover PCs

[Malifaxis]

I have come upon a very very excruciatingly annoying trend.  This thread is semi-sparked off of the same clan thread that frenchloser started.

Am I alone in that when a PC dies, if I don't have a thrilling offer, or an awesome idea, that I build a PC that is basically an 'in between PCs' PC?  Am I the only person that does this?  Or do others of you do it as well.

And if you other people do do it, do you ever experience an unbelievable string of luck on those 'holdover PCs' that gets you swamped with plotlines, gets 10-20 PCs that *count* on your presence for some event, and even though you really really want to move on to another PC, you find that you just can't?

(Disclaimer:  For those of you who know who I play, I am not thinking of retiring, but believe it or not, the PC is a holdover PC)

This has happened to me ENDLESS times.  My first PC was a 'holdover' PC, because I was going to get a feeling for the world.  He got in to the byn, hired out of the byn, sunk so deep in plots that it's unbelievable, and eventually at day 15 died.  Next PC:  I spent enormous amounts of time thinking about, had his whole life plotted... died on the second day.  Third PC, holdover... lasted 12 days.  Fourth PC... blah blah, trend continues.

In short:  The PCs that I spend a lot of time planning get whacked brutally within 5 days.  The PCs that I *want* to die quickly... don't.  Even if I try to arrange it, somehow my holdover PCs have this *OBNOXIOUS* luck.

It's really kind of amusing in a very incredibly frustrating way.

Anyone?  Thoughts, opinions, snide remarks?

[John]

I haven't had this problem actually. When I started playing I was getting sick of dying, so I made a string of holdover PCs. They died as quick as my other PCs did.

Nowadays when I make holdover PCs, I do so because I don't have much time to play, so I make them be loners (which mostly means hunters ). They die after a few OOC days

The closest I've ever gotten though was one time an Imm came to offering a char idea for me that had a little bit of Imm help and cause I have a habit of dying. He had noticed I'd just died and figured why don't I make a dangerous character and that way I can be part of a plot and have a more interesting death. I said sure because I didn't have any better ideas at the time and I made my char.

He'd organised for me to meet up with someone else, that person died before we got a chance, I stayed logged in a while cause I wasn't sure what was happening. The Imm eventually retired so I was stuck with this char. I didn't really care because I was busy with finals, but once they finished I still had the char  :shock: So I changed the idea for him to get rid of the Imm sponsored stuff (there was nothing indicated in his background and only a little bit in his virtual background) and figured I'd play him until he died.

Next thing I know a week's past, I'm getting into plots and he's alive  :roll:  The second I'm glad he's alive and want to keep him that way. He dies

[Bestatte]

Malifaxis..you're not alone. My score so far:

Char. 1) Test PC just to see if I could deal with a foreign game code and system (foreign to me, not from another country). Expected her to last a RL day, if that. Killed at 20+ days.

Char. 2) Test PC to learn magic mechanics (I got karma, woo!) Expected a RL week tops. Killed at 15+ days I think.

Char. 3) Imm-recruited position. Killed at 10+ days.

Char. 4) Imm-recruited position. Died at around 15 days (not killed..I SWEAR I thought it was wine, damnit!)

Char. 5) Test PC for purely OOC reasons - I was dying to branch something that a previous character I played never got to branch, just so I could play with that branched skill. Expected 2-3 RL week's worth of play time. Killed at 10+ days.

Char. 6) Test PC to try an oddball location and to finally learn the combat mechanics. Expected to get eaten by a gru or in sparring within a couple of RL weeks. Killed after 28 days.

Char. 7) Test PC to see how long my character could survive as a city-dwelling hunter type and not get clanned. Expected to live a few real weeks and ultimately be eaten by a grue. Still alive at 27 days.

So there you have it: 2 recruited positions - one should've lasted a very long time, and was short-lived due to my own stupidity. The other lasted longer than I expected, but not by much. The other five have lasted MUCH longer than I intended them to last, because they were ALL "holdover" PCs.

[John]

I just remembered. I made a soldier, he was spose to die after a couple of weeks. Lasted a few months.  :roll: I had to have made him the most disagreeable person and no-one killed him either.

Maybe I should list how all my PCs died  :twisted:

[UnderSeven]

I used to do this, but I think in general this is a bigger problem for the newer players.  Having been around a while, I have adopted this policy: If I don't have a char concept which I actually WANT to play, I just don't make a char untill I come up with one.  Now granted, we're not talking more than say a week usually to come up with something, but I think it's worth the wait NOT having a pc if you arn't really interested in playing it.  Anyway, sometimes after a char death it helps to have a bit of a break before starting up again.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I have around 30 new characters planned, from a lowly Byn merc to Muk and Tek's next competitor. I -never- don't have an idea.

[Carnage]

Char. 4) Imm-recruited position. Died at around 15 days (not killed..I SWEAR I thought it was wine, damnit!)

Happens to the best of us. One of my characters went the same way too.

[Mr.Camel]

Myself, I like creating a character without ooc planning for his life, and then just go with the flow, its much much more fun that way.

[spawnloser]

You know, I don't think I've ever NOT put my all into figuring out a character's history and personality.  I plan for every character to live forever.  I've heard people say that after a long lived character, create a holdover...that way, any karma you may have gotten from the long-lived would be there (but may not immediately after death) when the holdover dies.  Me...I can't bring myself to do that.  It just feels wrong.  It just seems like slacking off on the effort factor...and if I want everyone else to put some effort into the game, I should expect the same from myself.

[Stroker]

Muk and Tek's next competitor.

Don't forget Sandlord the lovable oaf.

[Faglore]

I don't know Dirr, I consider Sandlord to be more of a magickal entrepeneur, whereas Muk and Tek are gods. For this I shall throw mutilated human appendages at you until you admit that you love big brother.

[Barzalene]

I don't know Dirr, I consider Sandlord to be more of a magickal entrepeneur, whereas Muk and Tek are gods. For this I shall throw mutilated human appendages at you until you admit that you love big brother.

Big Brother 3 was good. BB4 sucked rocks. I especially disliked Dana, the man troll.


I've never made a character to be thrown away, but I have winged the app process when the character concept I invested all my creative energy in died before fulfilling my plans and schemes.

[Raesanos]

A few times I've made characters who were for the hell of it with no intention of keeping them very long.  Then they live forever, and I end up wanting to play someone cooler.  Nowadays I've decided that this is a bad idea, and if I'm going to make a character, it has to be one I'll be willing and happy to play for a long time.  That way of doing it seems to have worked so far, though sometimes it means longer gaps between characters.

[Stroker]

I don't know Dirr, I consider Sandlord to be more of a magickal entrepeneur, whereas Muk and Tek are gods.

How dare you disagree with me? The person stated that he was going to create a character as competition for Muk and Tek. Unless I am a crazy wildebeest, I assume he meant creating a defiler. Seeing that, I raise the lovable oaf as one of the main contestants in this odd, but yet somewhat exotic race to be Monkey King of the world.

With those words I leave you in an impeccable chain of communism to which you are bound and are now my slave for life.

[Faglore]

Big Brother 3 was good. BB4 sucked rocks. I especially disliked Dana, the man troll.

.

Barzalene, though I admire your sexual prowess, and look forward to doing it in RL sometime... I meant big brother from 1984. I watched the show a little its first season, not a big fan.

[Bushranger]

I usually play rough or outdoor type characters, so my lifespans are not all that great, but I experience something along these lines too. I don't make 'Holdover' PCs but it seems that the characters I make with inspiration for their Background and Description get killed quickly while my characters with rather bland Backgrounds and Descriptions last the longest.

For example I recently played a character with an inspired name and what I thought was a very nice description. He died at hour 6 after I became disctracted from the game. While another of my characters had a description and a background that I wrote up with a brain-fart so was run of the mill and he lasted several weeks and was involved in some interesting plotlines and doublecrosses.

[buzz]

I've only done this once (aside from my first PC ever, but that was before backgrounds and all that stuff) and had a wacko background which I thought would get him killed, but in fact got an immortal's attention who said they liked it.  He lasted about 30 days played, was a blast playing out some of his background.

I usually have a pretty good general plan in mind when I make a PC.  It's really tough to make a convoluted story happen because you just never know how things are going to play out and it's no fun to try to force things to go a certain direction.

So in that sense, maybe I'm not surprised to hear that some of you who make "general-purpose" PCs find they last longer than one that's got a complicated path ahead of them.  Just my thoughts.

[Bogre]

The holdover Pc's never dieing happens to me -alot-. Its really annoying, but funny at the same time.

I made a 'rinther, just cause I wanted to burn out and die. Of course, he gets in nice plots, despite almost dieing like 20 times. (He had the best luck EVER!!!)

So finally I'm like wow, I could keep playing this dude for a while, he has a lot of things he wants to do.

And he dies.

Of course, the PC's I made with a plan die within short days.