When do you usually decide to roll/retire your characters?

[Void]

When do you usually decide to roll/retire your characters?

Just curious.

[Gods_Kill_People]

For each person its different, for me personally, its when I feel the story has been told and its just going in a loop.

[Iceborn]

A) I may shelve them if I'm not having fun with them anymore, but I don't think I'm done with the character. If time passes, I may decide to come back to put a full stop punctuation to the story or just roll them.
B) This concept is not going anywhere and it's beyond salvage.
C) Something has happened that has hit my character right in the narrative. The stage is set as an invitation to roll them.

Level is irrelevant. I may play characters to legendary and roll them, I may take them to 30 and play for a long while. I may rebuild and try again if something in the build itself is what I don't like of the character, but I like the character itself.

[PinataPlethora]

When there's nothing left of their story to tell, or I've lost interest in telling it, because it's not interesting enough.

[Kreydis]

the MoD god decides my fate.

[MoreThanThree]

when I get bored of them
and then regret it three months later

[Jagel]

when I get bored of them
and then regret it three months later

Yup

[The Kriv]

The degree to which characters get rolled has its positives and negatives... A big positive is you always have fresh faces running around. A big negative, however, you always have fresh faces running around.

[Durvayas]

When it feels right for the narrative, and I'm high enough level that it would be worth rolling for. I'm not likely to roll a character under lvl 26, because I dream the nearly impossible dream of having a 5% roll someday, and I take too damned long to level.

[Rebel4ever]

the MoD god decides my fate.

Brave!

[Ork]

Only the MoD god can judge me.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

My first character I rolled after 2 years. Then my next 3 characters each lasted about a year.

Generally, a year is a significant span of time IG - it's about 12 years. More than a decade, that's 12 different Cordorian Chancellors, probably 2 different major conflicts, etc. 12 years can also fully encapsulate the rise, climax, and fall of any particular faction.

One of the most significant factors for a lot of people is when "all of the people they knew are gone." I won't argue with that reasoning, but one of the best piece of advice I was ever given about roleplay and Arelith, is a "shift" in mindset and character attitude you have to take when you start reaching epics.

When you start getting to that period of influence and "wealth" (however you define it, whether it is wealth of knowledge, connections, gold, etc.) characters AND players should start looking to lowbies to befriend. There's significant clout to be had if epic characters realign themselves to start giving more attention to the up-and-coming than to their immediate peers. I'd argue this is how Amadeo is such a successfully long-lasting character. He can immediately make a level 3 character feel important, and that will plant the seeds of a new long-lasting relationship. (this was also Shaalira the Younger's tactic too)

It's a bit of a sidebar, but I think if you're wondering "how do I increase longevity?" if you have to look no further than lowbies.

[Cuchilla]

I smoke my chars down to the filter

PS
I don't smoke

[JediMindTrix]

Right now, bye bye Imrae

[Anime Sword Fighter]

Only managed to roll two characters. First one wasn't epic, decided to kill him off so I could move past the cringey first character stage of playing. Second character was, I got really depressed with how tedious/unmotivated playing the character was and I just wasn't having fun anymore. Felt like I was in a rut that really wasn't helping the depression around playing.

[ActionReplay]

At level 2

[EnigmaticSpirit]

When it becomes apparent that there are still certain builds out there that can comfortably kill four or five level 30s without breaking a sweat and as long as they exist, I won't get anything done, because I'm not a PVP monkey.

[Sockss]

When it becomes apparent that there are still certain builds out there that can comfortably kill four or five level 30s without breaking a sweat and as long as they exist, I won't get anything done, because I'm not a PVP monkey.

Pray tell

[Kreydis]

Let's not turn this into yet another complaint thread. And let's not complain about my complaining. It's an interesting topic.

[Hexgoblin]

Those 4-5 level 30s were most likely very weak. Arelith's in a pretty good spot in terms of class balance, as opposed to a few years prior.

To reiterate the topic, though. Most of my characters have a lifespan of 2-3 months, which might seem short, but is usually enough for me to finish up an "arc" of story, if you want to call it that. That "arc" could be the character running a settlement for a term and the plot leading towards it, being an active member of a very involved faction, having been the leader of a faction him/herself, or things of the sort. It's rare that my characters complete an arc and transition into a new one, as opposed to sinking with their figurative ship.

The moment my characters hit a downtime during which things are stable and drop in momentum, I tend to roll them. I don't like doing re-runs of things I've already done with the same character, and due to how actively engaged a lot of my characters are when I'm vested in them, I weirdly get tired of reading my character's dialogue patterns eventually. Almost as if my character has a voice that I'm getting sick of hearing.

At which I generally take a break for a month or so, before rolling up a new character, the activity of which will pend on inspiration, company and what time I've available. Some end up engaged in story, others just dungeonbuddies for friends. It's a pattern that works pretty well for me, honestly. That said, I've had some exceptions with characters that for various reasons lasted far longer.

[BegoneThoth]

When it becomes apparent that there are still certain builds out there that can comfortably kill four or five level 30s without breaking a sweat and as long as they exist, I won't get anything done, because I'm not a PVP monkey.

Link to builds

[Iceborn]

Let's not turn this into yet another complaint thread. And let's not complain about my complaining. It's an interesting topic.

*Complains :)*

[Rockstar1984]

Once my character has an appropriately dramatic death scene that I think is so epic it warrants them dying permanently, I permakill them. I don't even like the term "rolling" because that implies you're doing it for the reward. On past servers I've played we call it "permakill" or "permadeath". My personal style is not to make a character with any particular story or goal in mind, or to play them out for one arc. I make a character, see how the world effects them and where they go. If I get bored of them I simply stop playing them and perhaps I may pick them back up.

I have only permakilled one character (Lucia Bellrose) in the last few years and she was only level 15, but her final death scene was such an epic and climactic moment that I decided that was the time for her to die. If someone killed Alice in a dramatic way that makes me think "Man, if this were a novel this would be a perfect way for her to die" I would roll her right then and there on a whim.

[DM Always This Late]

This is a cool thread because the topic is super important!

I think that a really important idea is to know 'when' it's good to roll a character. For every player, this might be different! And we have no rules regarding -when- to roll. But these are some things I consider when I roll and I think they work out great.

Deciding to roll a character, for me, breaks down into these groups

1. Am I enjoying the concept?
2. Has my character found a resolution on their personality traits? Or- has the story run its course?
3. What is the 'world' around me like and where does my character fit in?

I'll explain briefly each point, though they all kind of tie into one another.

1. Is logging on a chore? If it becomes a chore you have a few options

A: Mix it up. Do something dramatic or different!
B: Just keep logging in!
C: Find a resolution to the story and move on!

To clarify, enjoyment shouldn't come directly from "Am I winning?" if victory is the standard used to determine whether or not you are enjoying a concept I would really caution against that because sometimes, you won't win. In fact, you might chronically lose! The point is to enjoy the story whether your characters agenda is being successful or not. And if it's not enjoyable? Move on! That's the beauty of it Success in Arelith is not determined by the number of victories, but rather the enjoyment you, and others, draw from a character.

If a character becomes frustrating, i'd consider shelving it, or wrapping it up entirely. Knowing when to throw in the towel is important. It could save you, and others, a lot of irritation.

2. Where are you at with your story? Has your character found a resolution to the things that make them 'tick?"

What I mean by this is when you make a character, what are their motivators? -Who- are they? Are you content with the story that's been told? If they are a cleric to some god, have they spread that gods word and founded a church that told a story? Like what have you done to meet your characters resolutions? Again, this doesn't mean "What have you accomplished" because failure is sometimes apart of the story.

Reaching a point where you feel like your character's story has been told and you don't know where else to go with it is a good indicator that it may be time to move on and begin something fresh! Personally, I loathe the idea of my characters becoming 'stale' where I feel like all my actions are just 'grey' or super repeitive. If I feel like they've run their course, I'll roll!

Pass the baton off to the next generation of characters! Set the stage for others to tell their stories.

3. Has Arelith's 'world' advanced past my character?

This one is tricky to explain, but I'd break it down like this...

Sometimes you reach a point where all the characters yours originally started with, and knew, have moved on. You're in like... the next generation. Maybe a few from your character's 'early days' are still active, but how do you fit in? Does your character -know- anyone? Or has everything moved past?

Or like your faction, or order, has everyone cycled out? How many are left that you still know or is it all fresh faces?

For example... One of my characters, I was playing casually as I was busy IRL, when I was really able to sit down again, I found IC most of the people my PC knew had wrapped up! It was all new faces! Instead of trying to take my older concept and implant it into a new environment I wrapped that story up in a way that I was happy with and rejoined with a fresh PC that just felt a lot better to work with.

This is maybe more personal preference but like I mentioned before, I am afraid of my characters becoming stale for me, and for other people. For me, i'd rather have one last emotional sensation from a character, rather then keep them around so long that they just become bland and uninteresting to me.

So, in conclusion none of these are "Rules" or what you -must- do, I really want to stress that everyone has their -own- play style and I'm not 'forcing' this on anyone. But coming at character rolling with these thoughts in mind work for me. I've really, really had a lot more fun trying out new concepts. Remember like IG time is moving -way- faster than IRL, so when you kind of scale that down to your characters actions things play out faster.

I usually last about 3-4 months on a PC before I reach a point where I feel like i've really had that character run its course. The story, whether it was filled with victory, or defeats, was fullfilling to me and I enjoyed the ride and it's time to hop onto a new one. Or like I've reached a 'brick wall' and my character cannot progress anymore because of the way I RP'd their story out-.

The great thing about Arelith is that there are a -ton- of build combinations to adhere to a ton of play styles. And unlike conventional MMOs, Arelith is changing fairly frequently in design over-all, let alone the constant ebb and flow of politics in one of the many different cities. This means, from an RP point of view, things are often fresh and different so it's not the 'same old same old.

That would be my advice for considering when to roll a character.

Ultimately, do what works for you and what is enjoyable. That's really what it all boils down to.

[METAL BAWKSES]

At level 21