Contemplation...

[beccastareyes]

So, I once explained how I view characters when writing fanfiction -- that when I read a source, I'd create projections of the characters and setting in my brain as I read, and use copies of those to write fanfiction.

Now, here's my problem. I do this with my own characters as well. So I can have three or four versions all floating around -- same background, but different events. Or... let me use a character as an example.

I played Zack in a tabletop game (0). After that, I moved him to an online cross-over game with a couple of friends (1). Several years later, a friend from the tabletop game and I started playing one-on-one online, and we revived our tabletop characters from Zack's game (2). I also created another version of him in a different universe for another private game (3).

So that's three characters -- four if I split Zack-0 from either possible continuation of him. All have the same name and backstory, but have become different versions of the same person. It doesn't bother me -- I can keep them straight. What gets troublesome is when I do things like MAX, where I give people my character bios and ask them to draw things for me. Now, for a portrait or some things, the version doesn't matter. Others... like character interaction pieces, it does matter.

Worst case comes when the versions have differences in design.

So, a way to communicate this clearly to people. Besides the old fandom standby of X!(Name).

(This does remind me I promised our RP crowd over on the_nexus_rpg a wiki, just to keep track of the regular characters. The question would be to host it on my own site, or use a commercial wiki host.)