Experiences Exchanging characters

[Onmyoji]

This will mostly be about fandom rp, but I'm also curious if anyone has ever tried or considered this for OC.

Imagine you play "Character A" and your rp partner plays "Character B".
So you play them for a while, complete some scenario maybe.

Would you consider exchanging characters and play "Character B" instead while the same rp partner takes "Character A"?
Or would you play "Character B" while an entirely different person plays "Character A"?

Why or why not?

 

[rae2nerdy]

So like you play your partners character and vice versa?

 

[Shuusuke]

I've seen movies and anime where people switch bodies and stuff, I'd imagine it'd be something similar to that.

While I did enjoy the anime Kokoro Connect which has an arc that revolves around that (I recommend that anime by the way, high-school slice of life with twists like that, which provide interesting character development) I wouldn't be comfortable playing someone else's character. It's the same reason I only RP OCs and not canon characters, created by someone else. Though I'd be slightly curious to see how someone would RP as one of my characters, I guess.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I suppose a body swap would be an interesting idea. I dunno if I’d try it with roleplay characters.

That is one of those things that work in other mediums but won’t work in role play. The reason is a body swap story is usually one person writing two characters. It is not two people writing two different characters.

The thing about role play is it’s a collaborative medium between hobbyists. I don’t think a role player is going to have the skill to mimic the writing style of their partner unless said partner writes like super simplistically.

So unless the characters are super one note and bland I wouldn’t attempt a swapping of writers.

If you want to merely change appearances that might be interesting. So you have the same character it’s just Geeks Character is trapped in Susies Characters Body.

 

[Onmyoji]

Hmm. Body swap is an interesting take on this.

I meant mostly that - if you and your partnter play two canon characters in a fandom rp, would you consider swapping those canon characters. They'll still be canon, so technically, writing style of the partner doesn't matter if you can stay in character with that canon character. Like, imagine they're both popular characters that everyone wants to play XD

 

[rae2nerdy]

Hmm. Body swap is an interesting take on this.

I meant mostly that - if you and your partnter play two canon characters in a fandom rp, would you consider swapping those canon characters. They'll still be canon, so technically, writing style of the partner doesn't matter if you can stay in character with that canon character. Like, imagine they're both popular characters that everyone wants to play XD

I suppose although I’m not sure why you would bother? Unless you just got bored with your story. In which case I don’t know that trading characters would help. But I don’t suppose there is anything to stop you from trying.

 

[Idea]

I have once attempted a roleplay where players would create each other's characters, with a minor ability to interfere in their own character creation (so that they had something that interested them about the character regardless) via the spending of these points. Unfortunately the RP never took off as it took too long to get characters made and players lost interest.

As for the idea proposed by Onmyoji I think it sounds incredibly frustrating. It'd feel like someone was stealing my work right in front of my eyes and I was letting them do it. This would not be an objective assessment of course, but the emotions with which someone approaches a productive activity will heavily effect their overall productivity.