Too much fantasy in my character RP?

[Aurilla]

I'll give you the short version. I played BM for quite awhile, then quit a few years back. I recently rejoined the game on a new account (old one deleted after inactivity). I rejoined my old realm which still has a few of the same people, and I want to be able to address them, as well as past events (which my old character participated in) without having to say "my father mentioned..." or "according to his journals..." It seems like such a hassle to have to constantly explain why a new character has knowledge of events he wasn't present for.

To get around this, I RPed that my old character participated in a battle where he was mortally wounded, and a witch saved him by transferring his "soul" into a new, younger body. Its a long story with a lot of detail that I haven't worked out yet (since I'm not sure if this is "legal"). But the basic idea is that my new character is the same person as the old, but in a younger body. I think its also worth mentioning that before I paused my old character, his farewell RP specifically mentioned travelling to "parts unknown." So this RP did not take place on a specific continent (where my RP could interfere with a rules, history, etc).

Let me be clear, I'm not giving him any kind of superpowers. He is the same as any other person. If he were stabbed in the heart, he would die... no fantastical notions of immortality. I also don't plan on using this RP to redefine magic in BM. This magic is, for all intents and purposes, a one time thing for my character. If he dies a few months from now, he's dead.

I know BM is a strictly low fantasy game, and I really dont want to step on any toes by creating events/abilities that shouldn't exist in the BM world. I figured it would be okay since Sage's exist in game and do have mystical powers. So I didn't think it was much of a stretch to say that a female version also existed.

So I'm curious as to what your opinion is on this. Am I overstepping my bounds? Any suggestions/feedback?

[LilWolf]

I'll give you the short version. I played BM for quite awhile, then quit a few years back. I recently rejoined the game on a new account (old one deleted after inactivity). I rejoined my old realm which still has a few of the same people, and I want to be able to address them, as well as past events (which my old character participated in) without having to say "my father mentioned..." or "according to his journals..." It seems like such a hassle to have to constantly explain why a new character has knowledge of events he wasn't present for.

Keeping things simple is usually the best way to go. Simplest of course being that you play your new character like he's new and don't cling to the past. If you have to take up the past you should be forced to explain it with something logical, like your character getting a hold of your old characters journal or something.

To get around this, I RPed that my old character participated in a battle where he was mortally wounded, and a witch saved him by transferring his "soul" into a new, younger body. Its a long story with a lot of detail that I haven't worked out yet (since I'm not sure if this is "legal"). But the basic idea is that my new character is the same person as the old, but in a younger body. I think its also worth mentioning that before I paused my old character, his farewell RP specifically mentioned travelling to "parts unknown." So this RP did not take place on a specific continent (where my RP could interfere with a rules, history, etc).

1. Your old character is dead and gone. Let it go.
2. If you go with that your character should be treated by others like he's crazy.

[Aurilla]

Let me clarify, my old character wasn't killed by the game engine. I simply paused him RPing that he was leaving the continent. Therefore, his "death" was completely my own invention.

I did mention in an OOC stub that I didn't want to trap other players into having their characters believe this story. Whether they did or not is, of course, completely up to each player. Part of my motivation for this RP is that some might believe it while others would regard my character as insane.

[egamma]

Let me clarify, my old character wasn't killed by the game engine. I simply paused him RPing that he was leaving the continent. Therefore, his "death" was completely my own invention.

Then why not simply RP that he has returned? You've actually contradicted yourself here--one RP that he left the continent, and then an RP that he was mortally wounded in a battle.

I did mention in an OOC stub that I didn't want to trap other players into having their characters believe this story. Whether they did or not is, of course, completely up to each player. Part of my motivation for this RP is that some might believe it while others would regard my character as insane.

The other players should burn your character at the stake for witchcraft. That would solve the problem in an a medieval-acceptable fashion.

[LilWolf]

Let me clarify, my old character wasn't killed by the game engine. I simply paused him RPing that he was leaving the continent. Therefore, his "death" was completely my own invention.

But as far as the game is concerned that family and character is gone. You're just weaseling to bring him back in some way. That just always seems cheap to me.

[Aurilla]

As my old account was deleted, I didn't have the same character to reactivate. Though I admit now that I had not considered simply making a new character with the same name.

As for the two separate RPs, I'm sorry for the confusion. This is all part of a timeline. When I paused him (several years ago) I RPed that he was leaving the continent. When I rejoined the game I RPed that in the last few years of absence, my old character was mortally wounded in a battle, then the rest of the story goes as I mentioned in my first post. Its not a contradiction, but a continuation.

I suppose you could call it weaseling. I'm not simply trying to revive my old character for the sake of nostalgia. There is a lot going on in the realm that would require first hand knowledge. And I don't like the idea of the cliche "well I found this old journal..." as I never once RPed my old character as having constantly written all thoughts and feelings in journal. To me, it seems cheap to simply say "I know everything because it was in this journal..." I thought this was a creative, albeit insane alternative. I thought part of the fun would be that some characters would react as though he were a madman, even though he would have firsthand knowledge that only my old character could have had... 

[Aurilla]

As far as my old family being gone: I believe an entirely acceptable explanation is that in the few years I was gone, the region I was once Duke of (and also contained my family home) was seceded to another realm(IG). My family would have been extremely opposed to such an action, and fled to a new region, under a new name for the sake of protecting themselves(RP).

While I am aware that witches were burned at the stake in medieval times, how do you account for sages in game? They are blatantly said to have mystical powers, and adventurers frequently use their services to create magical items, which are then used by the same nobility who is supposedly hell bent on the destruction of all things and persons magical.

[Marlboro]

I recently implied in an RP that a dead Hero C was part of an undead horde that attacked a unit of Daimons alongside her living cousin. This happened IG: cousin showed up in the capital that she died in, next turn the Undead that were camping out there, sitting out battles and eating peasants, fought alongside him (The only attacking human unit) because they were "out for blood". It was pretty glorious, but I dunno if it falls into the same vein.

[Indirik]

To me, this seems to be a very meta-gamey way to get a character back. And all just so that every now and then you don't have to say something like "my father's private notes said X".

The game won't let you do it, so I don't see any reason that your story would be ok.

[Aurilla]

It's not all to avoid the hassle. The RP value of my old character is so much greater than what I would have in a new character. Its difficult to explain this without a lot of details and I don't wish to bog this thread down. But suffice to say my old character has opinions (based on his own experiences) that a new character could not share simply from not having been there (or talked to that person, etc).

I don't understand, what do you mean the game won't let me?

Let me ask a second question. Would it be appropriate if I created a character with the same name and started him as older/more experienced, and RPed him as returning from his exploration?

That way, there is nothing magical about it. The loss of honor and prestige is understandable. After all he did (according to my RP 2 years ago) leave the continent.

[Indirik]

My point was that there is no way the game itself will allow you to move your mind to a younger body. You can't suddenly turn a 70 year old character into an 18 year old body. Aging is specifically one-way. In addition, there are severe negative consequences of aging. What you've done is sidestep around all that. You've kept all the good stuff of your character (RP, history, knowledge, etc.) and gotten rid of all the bad stuff (less hours, higher skill loss, susceptibility to wounds, etc.)

For your second question, I might go along with it if it were a comparable age. (Only a couple years off.) If you lost a 79 yr. old character and brought back a 28, no way. That's just poor play.

[Aurilla]

I don't remember his exact age, but he definitely was not an old man (he hadn't even come close to reaching the reduced time pool). He was still relatively young. I want to say around 33 or 34?

Granted, I don't know how old a "older, more experienced" character actually is. I suppose I could check the wiki and find out.

[Marlboro]

25.

[Aurilla]

So it would be an age difference of about 10 years. That makes me cringe a little, but the character would technically function the same.

[Perth]

It always annoyed me when people would get rid of an old character (died, retired cause of reduced time pool, deleted their account and came back, etc.) and then created a new one with the same name or a slight name variation or the (II) tag and expected everyone to treat them exactly the same as the old character.

However, this is not exactly what you're doing, I understand. Still, if you character came around me saying he was some guy from a long time ago put into a new body, my character think your's was either bat-!@#$ crazy or involved in some kind of evil witchcraft. Both could be some pretty cool RP.

So, I wouldn't say you can't do it, but I would say you shouldn't expect to do it and for people to just say "oh, okay cool" when you explain it.

My advice is to let go of the old character, start a new one and forge some a new identity and build new RP. That's half the fun of this game: building new stories.