A little worried with two.

[Satha]

I have two characters. I love them both, am attached to both... but... I am worried they will start to get too similar. To combat this I've tried to give them opposites in things, but I fear it isn't working too well.
I don't think I've roleplayed with them both enough to say they are fully developed yet, but I want to try and make sure they go their separate ways, you know?

The first one I've had since forever, though I re-invented her since no one knows who she was when I used to play (not even me O_o I've forgotten most of it) and I made the second one so I could do the things I didn't want my first to do mechanics wise... but I ended up making a story for her in my head as I went along, and I added some description and actually roleplayed with her... and shes much more to me than just a mechanics toy now. D=

But yeah, so now I have the problem of them becoming similar in ways I'm worried about. I love them both equally, so I can't get rid of one...
My question is to the people out there who have a two or more characters... how do you do it? xD

[iriss]

I keep my other characters as "donkeys" only - to carry my things, hold quest items I might need later etc. One Char only does Quest which my main Char spoiled. or to re-test quests. I never roleplay Alt's. There is only one personality I want to play and that is my main Character. That way I will not get confused as you did. 

Have fun

[Mordraugion]

I have 4 Chars I have a written list of each characteristics (although I no longer need it), I use Linux and have 5 separate installs each with a different window layout, skin, shortcut list etc for each char.
But no matter how hard I try my own personality seeps into each char so I try and give them one outstanding feature each so that hopefully not everyone can guess they are the same.

[Mathy Stockington]

The answer for me is personality.

Leama (Mathy's sister) was fun loving and told stories. She was shy like me around the males, but she loved them. Leama wanted to marry one day. As for Mathy, she is just shy. She tends to hold back when it comes to telling even her most trusted friends her deepest secrets. When Leama died it was indeed a sad day for me because I came to love that character. It became a part of my role play. If you wish you may read the story here on the forums to see how I did it.

So the most important thing to me is making them similar because they were sisters, but they had their own distinctive personalities. It was not so hard to do.

Have fun with it and do not worry. I am sure it will all work out.

[hitancrias]

The most likely reason for all your characters being too similar is that they all resemble you. So the first step in solving the problem is making your characters behave differently than you would in their situation. The easiest way to achieve this is to take one of your properties and give your character the inverse characteristic. Keep much of the rest the same, otherwise it would be very hard to RP it in a convincing way.
It works best if you invert your good qualities (virtues), i.e. it would be hard to RP a character that is more intelligent, wise, funny or patient than you are. The other way around is very possible. By inverting different of your own properties for different characters, you'll end up with different characters. Good luck!

Disclamer: The above is an untested theory. I've never played an other character than the one I created over four years ago.

[Bamko]

well, I hate to give away my secrets, but since asked.... 

I had 2 main characters, killed one off, and created another for same reason you mention, it was becoming a shadow of me.

Bamko is basically my personality, so it is the one I play most of the time.  However I have another main.. I played him a bit, almost became my main, but he is different.  way different.  Not evil, but not as nice.  I play him when I had a rough day, and I don't feel like being Bamko (nice, helpful, polite).  One day I met a nice person, while I was doing that, ended up getting out of the mood, and switched to Bamko.  when someone tells me, when I am playing the other, "hey, thanks a lot, you sure are helpful!" I know it is time to go back to Bamko.  If someone tells Bamko, "man, take a breathe", I know it is time for me to go to other character.  I find lately I have been Bamko more and more, which I guess is a good sign.  I use my mood to decide who I will play.  Don't get me wrong, they both have moods, but if I feel like sunshine and puppies, I should not log on as other main, and if I feel like running around, making sarcastic comments and looking for trouble, well, then I should not log on as Bamko.

of course, having lived with someone with multiple personalties probably does not hurt, eh?

[Under the moon]

Write for your characters. Don't become them. If you 'become' them, they will start to merge. Do not transfer your or your other characters like and dislikes on a new character. If you see someone you know with one character, do not 'try to think of a reason' to meet them with a new character. Roleplaying is no different than writing a story. Create a personalty and stick to it. A good way to do this is to base your character on another character, be it from a book, real life person, or TV character. Try to imagine what they would do.

I have had over 20 characters, each with a distinct personality. Some of them are a bit similar, but that is unavoidable and quite all right. It would also be unrealistic to try to make your characters have nothing in common at all.

If you find that your characters are becoming similar, here are a few little exercises you can do.

1: Create a small situation and write two short stories, one for each of your characters. If your characters react the about the same as you write them, that is ok. However, if they both -think- the same way as they react, you need to step back and reconsider if their personalties are the source of the reaction, or if it is your own personality.

2: Write another small situation where both your characters meet each other. Give detailed text on what they are both saying and thinking, as well as physical reactions (blinking in surprise, shrugging, etc). Perhaps they have an argument, or are trying to make a decision about something. Don't put in any names about who is thinking or saying what, and do not give descriptions. Do several things with the text when you are done.
    A: See if you can easily tell who is who. You may share the text with a friend if you want.
    B: Put names in for your characters, but switch them so that one character is doing all the other's actions and thoughts. As you read it, try to picture if it makes sense, or if you have the reaction of "<name> would not think that. This feels all wrong." If you do not get that reaction, then you need to reconsider your characters.

3: While RPing ingame, consider your other character you are not playing at the time. Think to yourself "How would he/she react to this? What would he/she think?" Make sure the reactions are always slightly different in your mind.

[Satha]

Thank you everybody, you've been very helpful! Hopefully it will work out, and I have a feeling it will. I'll just have to be careful.

I did make little character sheet type things for them at one point, but yeah, it wasn't quite detailed enough obviously. If I take all of your guys advice, plus the sheet I made before.. should work. 


If anyone else has more advice, it would still be appreciated... I need all the help I can get. xD

[Illysia]

Lovely Idea UTM but way involved.

I just make sure that my characters have different views on things (no story writing involved). For instance:

My main is a happy helpful person who goes out of her way for people, even if they are not close friends.

Her sister is relatively moody self serving person (relative to how well her plans go). She will do whatever she feels is necessary to accomplish her goals, as in faithfully following and promoting the law... until it no longer suits her purpose.

Another character is a generally agreeable and a nicer person but also has no problem working with the less nice and reputable if it will benefit her in some way. But she won't do anything that will directly hurt others.

And there are others...

The first two are polar opposites and the second and last are similar but not so much that they become the same character. Basically come up with a basic approach to life for the character and you should be ok.

Another thing to keep in mind is letting you character be shaped by the people they are around. All of my characters are shaped by the person they are around the most and that is what helps round out their personalities. Most of the time I only have a vague idea of what the character is like and the interactions with other players helps me decide where to go or not to go with the character. Most of my characters barely know the same people so they come out rather different.

[Mathy Stockington]

Satha,

You have been given some great advise. There is one more thing I wish to say. Remember this is a game and have fun with it. Do not work to hard to do so. I hope to see you in game soon.

Mathy.

[Raa]

When I first started playing, I did something to avoid this, and made a character that had a totally different personality than mine. Just to experiment... And it worked; none of the characters I've played are that similar. It's really simple, but it works, and you're able to play several different character types.

Or, if you want, you could fight fire with fire, and instead of making one of the characters completely different from you, you could make them almost exactly like you, but make certain traits to the extreme. Like, everyone knows I'm a total jerkarse, stubborn b!tch, so my new character is just like that, only worse.