Frowned upon?

[Royal]

So let's say I create a shiny brand new character. I die within a span of 30 minutes due to me not paying attention with somebody but never even say a word to anybody. In fact, the only interaction is a few look commands. Is it frowned upon to reuse (what was a fairly generic name) and background information. I imagine I'd be obliged to completely create a new appearance though I wonder if I could get a way with somebody similar looking also. I really wanted to play a certain character concept and am kinda bummed that I goofed.

[TheWanderer]

I believe you can request a character resurrection if you die during the first three hours of play, but if you'd really like to start again, then... yes. I'd imagine it's frowned upon.

[BadSkeelz]

One hour, last I heard. If you actually died within an hour, there's a resurrection command (which I'm having trouble finding at the time). It's for uses in just these sorts of situations. When you respawn, you should treat the character as a completely new character, so your "new" character wouldn't know anyone who knew "you" before "your" death. Same biography and descriptions, however. Think of it as a restart.

[RogueGunslinger]

It's automatic, and goes away if you've got any karma.

[Royal]

Well, I'm fairly sure I don't have any karma but I have had several characters already. So I assume that resurrection doesn't apply to me?

[QuillDipper]

Resurrection works per character, doesn't it?

When you sign back in, where you'd make a new character, it has an option to resurrect. I think.

[BadSkeelz]

Every new character gets a free resurrection if you die within an hour of play.

[Royal]

eh I do believe I probably hit over an hour now that I really think about with my character. Ah well, guess it's on to the new character. Thanks, and that's definitely good to know for the future!

[Kismetic]

If I recall, at one point, when you died under two hours of play, you just popped back into the room where you exited the Hall of Kings.  Or I've been smoking skellebaine.

It is not only frowned upon to reuse the same name, but the code won't allow the same account to use the same name twice.  Using a cookie cutter background is okay, but reusing the same details in consecutive characters might not be a good idea.

[RogueGunslinger]

I'm almost positive it's 3 hours. Allllmooosttt. The first 3 hours of a characters life can go really, really fast. I spend that much time in the damn starter shops.

[QuillDipper]

One of my characters lasted an hour before they died, so it has to be more than one.

[Nyr]

http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,37502.0.html for the staff announcement and http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,37503.0.html for the player discussion on that change.

It is 3 hours if and only if you have 0 karma.

[FreeRangeVestric]

This 'only if you have 0 karma' thing is news to me.

May want to update the character approval e-mails, since they have the whole 'if your character dies in the first hour of play...' thing, regardless of your karma level.

[Barsook]

This 'only if you have 0 karma' thing is news to me.

[long live miley cyrus]

My first batch of newbies were all interestingly accidentally suicidal and I've only ever been able to resurrect in the rinth for some reason. Maybe I didn't leave the city fast enough

[Thunkkin]

So, the original question has nothing to do with newbie resurrection. I'm guessing that Royal just picked "30 minutes" out of the air as an example meant to represent "quickly." Royal is asking to what extent we're allowed to recreate a character/concept if our first attempt at that concept died before having any meaningful interactions or before other players would have learned details about the character/concept.

As Royal says,

I really wanted to play a certain character concept and am kinda bummed that I goofed.

The entire thread so far is a discussion of newbie resurrection and, while interesting, doesn't address Royal's question at all.

[Nyr]

Gosh, you're right!

To that question:

You can recycle some things "in general", but verbatim repetition of short description, description, name, and background are frowned upon, and usually outright disallowed by the code of the game itself or rejected by staff in the queue if it is noticed.  If the concept you want to play is what you want to play, you can usually repackage that pretty easily into a new character provided the character doesn't look like the old one.  If you need help doing that, a Helper is only a click away.

[bcw81]

Gosh, you're right!

To that question:

You can recycle some things "in general", but verbatim repetition of short description, description, name, and background are frowned upon, and usually outright disallowed by the code of the game itself or rejected by staff in the queue if it is noticed.  If the concept you want to play is what you want to play, you can usually repackage that pretty easily into a new character provided the character doesn't look like the old one.  If you need help doing that, a Helper is only a click away.

I heard my name.

If you do need help with 'repackaging' a character, I (and all the other helpers out there) would be more than willing to help you work through it. I've done it before with my first hunting character made to learn the land around Tuluk. The first one got ganked by some nasty beastie just after the two hour mark, and I promptly apped a reversed gender role for the same character (basically).

Mother taught him how to hunt, he likes hunting. Therefor he hunts.
Father taught her how to hunt, she likes hunting. Therefore she hunts.

Obviously that's only one way you could go about it, and probably not the best, but it's a pretty easy thing to do none-the-less.

[Royal]

Yeah, that's more in line with what I was asking. Pretty much what I thought but just wanted to be sure. Thanks!

[long live miley cyrus]

You can add a couple of details too to throw people off. Like,

you're easily angered
you dislike kalans and you don't know why
you really, really, really, really hate elves, enough to startle our already quite ignorant populace with how far you're willing to go
you keep having the same dream every night and it doesn't look like its going to stop
your sibling was shadow artisted/tossed in the arena, you don't know why, and you live in fear that you're next by association
you're obsessed with something unexplainable (the color yellow, cooking utensils, a pc templar)
you have a passion for cooking excellent food
you really really dislike a race other than elves, more than elves, for no good reason, you're just that much more racist (right) than everyone else
you really upset a noble one time and you live in constant fear that something will happen to you
you refuse to wear anything green

Something that isn't just a small detail, but helps to define your character, throw people off your scent and avoid that conversation where they subtly imply that they knew you before and enjoyed playing with you. Not that this is bad, but its not ideal to be recognized, you know?

[Harmless]

Honestly if you just use a different background with the same general idea and a different desc with the same general idea nobody's going to notice or know at all.

If, on the other hand, you were a long-lived character, had made lots of connections, and then violently and suddenly died, and then your next PC is the same general background and desc... people will start to wonder. That nears the bad-form territory. But if you died in hours it's very safe to recycle the general concept.

[Kol]

I die all the time! Honestly, after a while, it's a little hard to figure out a new and interesting way that you got where you are, not as hard to create a new description, eventually, you'll start to recycle the same backgrounds anyway, (Hunter trained by hunter, hunter trained by family, preferred it outdoors to the merchant family route ect...) For PC descriptions, I just take someone interesting I've seen that day (Or more than one...in some cases) and put them in the character...that half-giant with a crooked nose and squinting eyes could be a shopkeeper around the corner...you get the general idea.

Re-using is bad, re-cycling is good. That PC you had four PC's ago? Really liked the way they looked? Roll it up again, just change a few details, eye colour, hair colour, hair style....Ever seen a makeover show? How the troglodyte at he beginning becomes Carmen Electra at the end? it's all due to a change of hairstyle, clothes and other little features that we don't actively think about, but pick up on anyway.

I'm gonna stop there before I ramble on and start repeating myself even more, but hope this helps!

[long live miley cyrus]

I recycled recently. I felt that that type of evil person was just plain good for someone who simply wasn't going to find conflict for a while, and actually the person turned out quite different from the one I had before, only vaguely similar.

Without meaning to, I had two pcs, back to back, first was very short-lived and second got into the game the next day, they was mistaken for each other by three or four different people. They were utterly and completely different from each other save for three things:

1. They walked around although didn't live in the same general area (rinth and allanaki farm)

2. They had the same hair color.

3. They had the same skin color.

4. Same gender and race.

Everything else about them, name something, and it was different. Height, personality, background, mannerisms, profession, muscle mass, scars, anything in the mdesc, etc etc. Just something to keep in mind.

EDIT: Recently as in, you know, after 2012.

[Skeeter]

It might just because I grew up around other RPIs but I disagree with recycling characters to any extent - I believe it limits players growth and experiences. Let's say for example, someone likes people with black hair, but you keep rolling blonde all the time - you might never get to know how cool that person is, who would of taken you on adventures only imaginable in your wildest dreams...

I don't know... I just like to be as different as possible from each character to the next, seems easier to break old habits with the last character too that way.