This is something I've never had a second thought about. I've always liked the idea of characters living on beyond my time playing them. When 4e came out we started a new game, set in the same world, but several years after the 3.5e campaign we had spent the last few years playing. It was like a fun easter egg to meet my old ranger, who was now the grizzled old warden of the woods, or to see the effects our actions has caused in the world.
My DM never asked permission to do these things, but at the same time I'd imagine if I had said
"Hey DM, I'm not super comfortable with how you've presented my old character here, and I'd prefer they not have an on-screen presence." He probably would have accommodated me.
This has got me thinking I'll have to reconsider my own game. I'll need to have a talk with my players as to whether or not they'd be okay with me doing something similar. If not I'll have to re-imagine their involvement in my world.
Question, for those of you who are very particular about the usage of your character after you've stopped playing them.
Imagine that you play in a long term campaign, and your character, Jerry the Gnomish Conjuration Wizard reaches a pretty high level. Like D&D tier 3 or 4. Over the course of the campaign Jerry and his companions have bested evil liches, saved countless orphans, liberated enslaved peoples. They're the kind of heroes that Kings and other world leaders request their audience, and Goblin tribes tell their young boogeyman stories about them.
Maybe over the course of the game you and your DM worked together to come up with a new system of teleportation magic, and the DM wrote up some new spells that Jerry invented.
That campaign came to an end, and a year later the DM reaches out to ask if you'd like to play in their next game. You have other obligations and regretfully decline. The DM mentions that he's setting the new game in the same world, and asks how you'd feel about Jerry showing up as an npc. You respectfully ask him not to use Jerry as well.
A few months later you're meeting with this DM for lunch or something and ask how the new games going, and he tells you about it. You realize that a key PC in his story is essentially just Jerry re-imagined. He's a world renowned Conjuror that has developed a new system of teleportation magic, and has since opened up his own school to share his knowledge. One of the new PCs is actually an apprentice wizard at his academy.
Would this bother you? If so, would it be less upsetting if it was fully reskinned, and now it's Alumthora the Elven Conjuror, who while she has all the same accomplishments, titles, and profession as Jerry, she is a new character with differing mannerisms and attitude? Rather than a lazier reskin of like Terry the Gnomish Conjuror?
Also, if you're opposed to this as well, what would you prefer that the DM just acts as if Jerry never existed to begin with? Or are more subtle references to his past deeds okay?
