Experiences Doublers: How do You Deal With The 'Transactional' Issue?

[Merciless Medic]

I personally do not care, in fact, I have the opposite problem where I sometimes end up having 3-5 if not more side characters (especially if the world-building comes from my own preposition) I don't want to accidentally overwhelm my partner with a bunch of characters while they're just trying to maintain the relationship with their one or two characters.

In my current 1x1 I myself have
Chinmi Tae - Princess and Sovereign Ruler of an entire Empire, as well as Princess and Highest Blood of the Vampire Race (Primary Main)
Rin Sun-woo - The Princess's closest ally and a Vampire with a rare Telepathic ability (Major Side)
Bo-Mi Tae - An adopted Werewolf daughter of the Chinmi Tae (Major Main)
Christopher Tae - Vampire, and Older brother of Chinmi Tae, no claim to the throne (and doesn't want it), a dorky lanky man and traveling volunteer EMT and Paramedic (Minor Side)
Bi-Hwa Hyeon - The former Princess of a Witch-Hunting cult, now a Witch with an affinity and fondness for plants (over people) (Minor Side)
Tessa Vindictus - Chinmi's Vampire fiancee, they're only marrying to get power from the other, has a rare ability to be seen as 100% sincere regardless of truth (Major Side, Antagonist)
Elijah Lewis - TransMasc British Werewolf Orphan, leader of a band of Werewolf orphans living in the Witch capital city Athame, and budding love interest of Bo-Mi (Major Side)
Bram - A large Norwegian Werewolf Orphan, he's an asshole. Part of Elijah's patchwork pack (chosen family essentially) (Minor Side, Antagonist)
Camille - A tall Greek Werewolf Orphan, one of the few Werewolves with fledgling Witch status, Part of Elijah's patchwork pack (Minor Side)
Mei-Xing - A small Chinese Werewolf Orphan, the oldest of Elijah's patchwork pack (Minor Side)
Alex Black - A Mad Expirmentalist Witch who was excommunicated from Witch society for taboo magical practices, currently funded by the Tae Royal family (Major Main)
Samantha Black - The amalgamation of a Vampire's Corpse and a Porcelain Doll, infused magical organ that allows her to perform magic, a sentient assistant to Alex (Major Main)

While my partner has like 2 characters
Witch - Chinmi Tae's love interest with an affinity for (forbidden) death magic with a Raven familiar (Primary Main)
Witch 2 - Witch Supreme; leader of the Witches Council, older sister of the other Witch and also hilariously/embarassingly has a human for a familiar (Major Side, Antagonist)


So you can see how it can sometimes be a problem, as while I end up having a lot of interactions with my own characters, I have to make sure to center and focus on my partner and essentially treat their character be the stories, main protagonist of the entire RP because spotlight anywhere else would be troublesome. I personally don't mind it, but it does mean I have to be very careful and not go overboard. (Like the last 2 haven't even been properly introduced yet, god forbid I make anymore)

OMG this sounds like me. XD Lmao

In my Naruto RP I have with someone, I've made at least 15-20 characters right now and a good 3/4s of them haven't even be introduced yet in the RP despite me talking about them. XD

 

[nerdy tangents]

To me I think the problem is doubling is similar to literate. When people use the same term to mean wildly different things.

I believe Idea was talking primarily about romantic situations where you are asked to play two specific characters.

It’s not “oh I am gonna play multiple characters.” Or even “Im gonna play two main characters because I want to tell two sides of a particular story.”

It is specifically Player 1 plays character A and C. Player 2 plays character B and D. Usually Characters A & B are paired together and Characters C & D are paired together.

For that matter when I see interest checks requesting doubling that is what is being requested. It’s not “oh hey please be willing to play multiple characters to progress the story.”

It is “I want you to play a specific character for me and I will play a specific character for you.”

If the person just wants a main character and multiple side characters (or multiple main characters) they ask for someone who “can play more then one character”.

 

[TerrorKitty]

OMG this sounds like me. XD Lmao

In my Naruto RP I have with someone, I've made at least 15-20 characters right now and a good 3/4s of them haven't even be introduced yet in the RP despite me talking about them. XD

I'm sad any time my word count isn't at least around 1,000 so having more characters means not only fleshing out the world but giving me more things to do and say each that's not just setting up a scene which I too also love to do

 

[Idea]

I believe Idea Idea was talking primarily about romantic situations where you are asked to play two specific characters.

No, I'm afraid I wasn't. My question was about any situation in which one player asks / proposes for one player to play a certain role in a pairing for them, and in turn the first plays a certain role from a pairing for the second as well (may be romantic, may not be romantic, the roles can be the same just reversed or be something completely different, role can be vague or a specific character etc... )

But outside of me not asking specifically about romantic pairings in this instance, I think your comment was otherwise right.

 

[nerdy tangents]

No, I'm afraid I wasn't. My question was about any situation in which one player asks / proposes for one player to play a certain role in a pairing for them, and in turn the first plays a certain role from a pairing for the second as well (may be romantic, may not be romantic, the roles can be the same just reversed or be something completely different, role can be vague or a specific character etc... )

But outside of me not asking specifically about romantic pairings in this instance, I think your comment was otherwise right.

My apologies I wasn’t clear. I meant the scenario you were describing is primarily used for romance.

This is mostly because romance is a situation where reciprocity is easy.

It’s usually not super important to say have two sets of rivals or best friends or whatever in any given plot.

In the case where non romantic pairings are needed it’s usually a multiple characters request. Because it’s less important that you divide up characters “equally” among the players.

In transactional doubling you are both playing the same characters. So both playing a male and a female. A canon and an oc. Etc.

If the pairing is platonic then you don’t have to play a specific character. Very few people are as strict about the gender of a best friend or rival character. You might occasionally get platonic Canon x OC, but as someone who does those pairings quite a bit, let’s just say that’s extremely uncommon.