About leaving roleplays and not being able to delete your character

[Xavirne]

I looked around to see if there was a thread like this, so, if there is, I apologize.

Anyway, I was wondering why it isn't possible to delete our own characters? I don't know about my fellow peers, but I, for one, don't want someone else to earn the right to control a character I made. I was just wondering why a legit "Delete" option wasn't available.

There are some roleplays that never got off the ground and I wanted to clean up my roleplay log by removing my characters from the games. When I selected the "Leave" option for said roleplays, it put my character up for adoption. I now have to send PMs to all the GMs to tell them to physically delete my character. I think it would be easier if the creator of said character could just straight-up delete a character. It would not only be easier for the roleplayer, but it would also be easier for the GM, too. Or at least that's my opinion.

[Brook V]

I remember that Maneki said that there isn't a delete option because even if you leave people should be able to access details about your character if they need that information further into the storyline. Also abandoned characters becomes disabled so that people can't adopt your character but still see the details... I think.

[Xavirne]

If they became orphaned and locked then that would be okay. But all my characters appear as "adoptable" and "playable." :\

[Brook V]

Can you tell me about one of these characters and which roleplay it was orphaned in? I can check if it's disabled or not. It might appear for you but not for other people.

[Xavirne]

Brilliant plan!
[ x ] That's the roleplay. I was Lilith.

[Brook V]

I tested to adopt it and got a message that the owner needed to approve first!

[Xavirne]

Hmmm. Interesting.

[Brook V]

Did you get a message? If you did I think you should decline my request, don't want to take over your character.

[Xavirne]

Nope, but it's not my roleplay. ^^;

[Maneki Neko]

There are two options a game host can select when they create a new RPG or edit an existing one:

Disowned Characters
Set the default status on a character when its player disowns it. If a character is orphaned it can be adopted and owned by other players. If it is locked, it can't be adopted and will be hidden from general view.
Locked Orphaned

Locked means that the character is locked (not able to be adopted) and archived for story purposes. It keeps the information there about a character. That way if someone is having a bad day and decide they're going to quit the game in frustration, if they change their mind, the information is still there. Or, alternately, if the character were very important to the storyline, it doesn't delete all that information about an important character as if they never existed.

I have been in games where people have had their hissy fits and deleted all information about a character and regretted it. I've also been in games where people left in a huff and took a very important character out of the game, leaving a hole in information. (For example, imagine how bad it would be if they were married to another character and that player couldn't remember something very important about their character's spouse without looking it up! Or pretend that the character was a badguy that the entire cast of characters had ties to for one reason or another - and the player left the game, leaving all the players only with what they could remember or dig up from transcripts. It can be a monumental task to gather together the information wanted - and impossible in other cases.)

If it's very important to you that when you leave the game your character not be Orphaned and Adoptable, then you should ask the game host ahead of time how their game is set up. I'm not sure if that's part of the information about an rpg or not. If you leave a game, it's up to you to talk it out with the GM because they probably set up their policies on that for a reason (or, alternately, set up their game before this "Lockable" option was put into place).

If I'm somehow misunderstanding this thread, please correct me. ^^;

[Brook V]

I think you understood it correctly. Thanks for explaining!

[Xavirne]

:O That makes more sense! Thanks!

[Brook V]

A follow up question: Can a GM lock up a locked character for adoption? I did not find any way to do that in one of my roleplays (I run on the locked option but I don't got any orphaned characters) Or do I have to change the option to orphaned first (in the rpg)?

[Maneki Neko]

I dunno, I'd have to test it. xD; I suppose the way around it might be to temporarily set the game on "Adoptable", set the character as "Orphaned" and then reset it to "Locked" again. I doubt anyone would go through the trouble of doing something like that unless the character were agreed to be able to be adopted by someone else. :'

Though, really, if you're excessively paranoid about your character being reused, you can always post jibberish in the character sections, save it, and then leave the group. I just don't think that's really fair on the other players unless your character weren't involved in the game yet/enough to matter.

[Brook V]

OK, thanks for your insight. It was just a thought I had.