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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 2430618" data-attributes="member: 5143">Well, he hasn't been extrordinarily different ever.  In 2nd Edition when the character was passed on to me from its previous player (I was new to D&D, they didn't want to wait for me to make up a character, so I was given one already in the game), he was a half-elf fighter/thief.  I played the same character in about 3 different 2nd Edition games pretty much exactly the same.  One DM objected to his stats, so I was forced to reroll them for that game.  Sometimes my level went up or down to match the average of the game.  My equipment got changed a couple of times.  In each game, he still WAS Majoru Oakheart, he just grew up in a different city, had never heard of his previous friends and didn't go on his previous adventures.  But his personality and abilities were basically the same.  Often, I even kept a couple notable things from his history that could be easily ported from one campaign world to another without getting in the way.In 3rd Edition, I played a version of him that was Fighter/Rogue.  Then I played his son, the half-drow Fighter/Rogue who took after his father.  Recently, I played another game where I finally got to return him to his roots and be in Forgotten Realms again (where he was created).  This time, however, I was a half-elf Fighter/Rogue/Nightsong Enforcer.  Same concept, same personality...entirely different stats, equipment and abilities.  Still, he was still Majoru Oakheart.I mean, some of the things in his past might not be allowed by some DMs.  They might say "no, you can't be married to a Drow", and I make a change to my background and it becomes "Majoru who just didn't marry a Drow".I simply view it in the same way I do when I read a Star Wars novel that seems to have really bad writing of one of the characters.  I think "Aha, this is an alternate Luke Skywalker who seems to have no powers at all for some reason.  Well, it's an interesting story involving him at any rate."I don't expect any of the Majoru's to ever run into each other, they are all in different universes.  They can't possibly do so.  In their universe, they are the only Majoru.  Just as Majoru acted the way he did (and likely different than I'm playing him) before I took control of him from a previous player, he may act differently than I play him when the DM takes control of him.  I accept that the character has a life beyond me.  He is not MINE, he is himself.  Sometimes he may make different decisions than I would make for him.Well, true.  I've never really felt the need to change to much to an ex-PCs character.  Then again, there's been very few characters in our games worth actually keeping in the game after they are gone.  We don't remember most of the names of the characters we've played in the past since there's been so many of them.For instance, one of my players retired a character named Mark the Red (yes, I know, I tried to talk him out of the name).  Mark the Red ran into 2 women that he rescued in a dungeon and then the player decided he was bored of the character, so he had him chase them back to their home town and attempt to seduce them.  I told him he wasn't having good luck.  Last we mentioned the character he was stalking them and trying to convince them to have sex with him.  We haven't really had need of Mark for a while, although I did use him as an introduction for a new character.  I mentioned that Mark told him where to find the party.I doubt I would change him too much, but there doesn't appear to be a story reason to change him at all.  If I needed a villian that had intimate knowledge of the group and did a lot of damage, I could see him being converted to evil or at least duped into evil.  Mark's not so smart, and he's....obsessive.  If one of the women said he had to kill everyone in the world to have sex with her...he'd do it, not really caring.  Or, at least...that's how *I* see his character.  I might be completely wrong about it and the original player might say "he'd never do that".  But without consulting the player every time I make any decision as Mark, there is no way I'd know for sure.  Since the ex-player of Mark is still in our group, if I wanted to use him as a villian, I wouldn't ruin the surprise by asking him in advance.  I also think he'd be fine with it.  If he wasn't, he'd shrug and say "really, you can do whatever you want with it, I don't play him anymore, but he wouldn't do that."</blockquote>

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