I've seen a lot of people say varying things on this. They have a main character, they have 5 main characters, etc.
For me, personally, I tend to fall under the category that your "main character" is a character that you will be logging in on, every day, and spending the majority of time as them barring some extenuating circumstance (levelling something for a change of pace, going on your whatever build for whatever reason, another character in a story) that changes that. If Jane is on, then chances are nine times out of ten Lana the Hyur is who she's playing.
I feel this way because there's a lot of other baggage main characters have. If I'm going to build any sort of meaningful relationship past generic friendship (best friends, rivals, lovers, enemies) then I tend to avoid people's "alternate" characters for that sort of thing. My main character is important to me and her story is important to me and getting that tied in with a character who someone could or couldn't play depending on their mood for the day is... well, it can be rough. I've definitely been in the place where I had to justify why my character's boyfriend who she'd rescued from dark forces just.. was, you know, not around for a couple of weeks and it did get a bit tiring especially when other people's stories (which were awesome!) started to affect my character and ostensibly she would go to her main peers to talk about this and cope but... none of them were on.
That said, I recognize some people can juggle more than I (with me? Two characters. That's the most I can maintain before going batty) and thus they can main more than that.
Since there are expectations that come with meeting other people's main characters both good and bad (the bad being people WAY too attached to their character, or people who love their single character so much they don't really want anything to happen to them because they've already plotted out how their growth is going to look and they're going to do X, Y and Z regardless of any interactions you put out there) I had questions that I thought might be interesting to get a read from for both new and old RPers:
1. What do you think is a main character?
2. What do you think makes a character an alternate character?
3. Do people have a responsibility to make certain "mains pair with mains" if you sense an interesting relationship (friends/rivals/lovers/enemies/long-lost relatives) forming or is it okay that someone's just not going to be around at random or for long periods of time?
4. Have you ever discovered that your main was paired off in one of those situations with someone's alt? They just didn't play them at all or played other characters? Did it stall out your story? What did you do?
5. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who only have one main character?
6. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who suffer alt-itis and swap characters often?
7. Which are you? A single or two main characters? 5 main characters? A bunch of alts?
8. How did you usually break up your time between your main characters? Play on demand? Always on one, demand for the other? One with one group and when they all sign off switch to the other?
For me, personally, I tend to fall under the category that your "main character" is a character that you will be logging in on, every day, and spending the majority of time as them barring some extenuating circumstance (levelling something for a change of pace, going on your whatever build for whatever reason, another character in a story) that changes that. If Jane is on, then chances are nine times out of ten Lana the Hyur is who she's playing.
I feel this way because there's a lot of other baggage main characters have. If I'm going to build any sort of meaningful relationship past generic friendship (best friends, rivals, lovers, enemies) then I tend to avoid people's "alternate" characters for that sort of thing. My main character is important to me and her story is important to me and getting that tied in with a character who someone could or couldn't play depending on their mood for the day is... well, it can be rough. I've definitely been in the place where I had to justify why my character's boyfriend who she'd rescued from dark forces just.. was, you know, not around for a couple of weeks and it did get a bit tiring especially when other people's stories (which were awesome!) started to affect my character and ostensibly she would go to her main peers to talk about this and cope but... none of them were on.
That said, I recognize some people can juggle more than I (with me? Two characters. That's the most I can maintain before going batty) and thus they can main more than that.
Since there are expectations that come with meeting other people's main characters both good and bad (the bad being people WAY too attached to their character, or people who love their single character so much they don't really want anything to happen to them because they've already plotted out how their growth is going to look and they're going to do X, Y and Z regardless of any interactions you put out there) I had questions that I thought might be interesting to get a read from for both new and old RPers:
1. What do you think is a main character?
2. What do you think makes a character an alternate character?
3. Do people have a responsibility to make certain "mains pair with mains" if you sense an interesting relationship (friends/rivals/lovers/enemies/long-lost relatives) forming or is it okay that someone's just not going to be around at random or for long periods of time?
4. Have you ever discovered that your main was paired off in one of those situations with someone's alt? They just didn't play them at all or played other characters? Did it stall out your story? What did you do?
5. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who only have one main character?
6. What's the biggest stereotype you think of when you think of people who suffer alt-itis and swap characters often?
7. Which are you? A single or two main characters? 5 main characters? A bunch of alts?
8. How did you usually break up your time between your main characters? Play on demand? Always on one, demand for the other? One with one group and when they all sign off switch to the other?
