How Many Characters Do You Play At Once?

[Waldo52]

I was wondering if most of you keep a lot of alts or just religiously play one guy.

For me there's definitely a main character I focus on, but I have several IRL friends who play Arelith. One has a main character of opposite alignment to mine so we can't play together and my other friends don't play as consistently as I do, throwing in two hours a week or remaking too often. My main guy basically can't do writs with any of them, and so I keep a backup character just for the purposes of playing with their lower level dudes. I do find it refreshing to change things up, especially after I've had an unsuccessful day of clearing zero writs and getting murdered.

I was just curious about the other players here: are you character monogamists or not, and why?

[Itikar]

I like to have two or three alts in general, but I must say on Arelith the roleplay is so engaging and immersive that I struggled to do so, and currently I am playing only one alt.

When I can though, I believe that having at least two heads to switch between tends to be healthier, as one grows more detached from both and can thus enjoy the story better.

[Exordius]

I only ever play one at a time unless i decide to make a one shot joke character to annoy people with.

[Hazard]

I tend to focus on one character at a time, but will have anywhere from 1 to 3 alts that just pop in and out for RP that isn't too plot involved.

[Amateur Hour]

I definitely have one "main", but I have several alts at this point.

There's three reasons I have alts:

1) I want to try out a different kind of character (different race or build) but I have no idea if I'll like it, and alts are disposable
2) I get so wrapped in the politics and RP of one character--and every character is subject to interpersonal politics, it's just the nature of the sapient condition even when abstracted to a game world--that I-the-player need a perspective shift to avoid taking the bad things that happen to said character personally.
3) Someone else wants to play with me in a way that our current mains can't.

[LichBait]

I tend to stick with my main rather religiously. Though I'll occasionally break and play an alt.

[Dari]

One Character.

I've tried playing 2 characters but, I usually ended up going back to my main character.

[Aodh Lazuli]

One... SOmetimes with a bit of an overlap with a second towards the end of a character's lifespan.

I don't really have the time to play alts.

[Eira]

As many as I have time + interest for. Right now I have a main and two alts, one of whom will be my next PC that I like to casually level while I'm not stressed for time

I play what makes me happy, so if one PC isn't interesting, I just do another until ready to switch back.

[Security_Blanket]

Alternate characters take away from the main character, for that reason I stick to one character at a time.

[Royal Blood]

Sometimes 2 if I am waiting to see which one will take off first.

But once I've got one set I usually do just one because it's hard even when playing in polar opposite areas to not get tangled into the same plots.

[Lexx]

1 main and at any one time I can have 1-2 alts depending my playtime availability and just what I am feeling like playing that day.

Sometimes I want to test a build in the field, or play something with a wildly differing playstyle to it. Changing things up keeps things fresh.

[Edens_Fall]

One main, with an alt to play to avoid burnout.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

While I tend to focus on one character at a time, I have a small group of characters in my vault, anywhere from level 3 to 24. I'd say I probably have about 5 or 6 - although, without doing a lot of research on a lot of updates I missed, some of them may be different than when I last played them.

I do this because, usually when a concept takes me, I'm usually in it for the long haul- and part of that is probably my disposition to playing elves of the various types - in an effort to get IC I try to think in terms of decades (RL years) rather than three-day months and month-long years. It usually blows up explosively in my face in the long run, because my elves lean to the good side, which means they lean away from their xenophobic nature and wind up intermingling their long-term slow moving plans amongst the chaos that is humans on Arelith.

By the very sandbox nature of Arelith, no such plan survives first interaction, and it's been both a great source of frustration and entertainment.

But this also means there are times when characters wind up feeling listless and lost - like after my involvement with the Wharftown debacle. I wasn't really sure what to do after that. Where do you go after being thrust into faction leadership at level 13 and being part of the erasure of a town?

And that's why there are the five other characters. Sometimes you need to side-step onto a new path to figure out your way through the old one.

/philosophical rant

My human characters tend to be extremes of a philosophical concept that interests me, and by their nature are destined for either greatness or absolute failure, either end of the spectrum possibly ending in their early death. I've retired a lot of elves- I can only think of one human I've retired, and it wasn't here.

[Airport Proximity Jesus]

I keep telling myself Ill juggle a few 30s at once but I can only ever actually dedicate time to one

[Arienette]

In theory I try to have one “main”. But in reality I bounce between a couple 30s depending on what’s going on.

I always have a character I am leveling to try different builds and RP styles. Some of these make it to 30 and become mains, some get shelved or rolled.

Pretty frequently I want to play Arelith but there is nothing going on for my mains so having someone to level at all times is nice.

[Scylon]

Generally one main for RP, 2-4 alts just to mess around with.

[xanrael]

Tends to cycle from many to one back to many.

If my PC gets killed in PvP I do tend to not play them for a few days so the death has a bit more meaning for the other side so may play an alt then even if I'm in the "one" stage.

[Waldo52]

I have a main in the twenties

I have a friend or two that want to join up with him and his allies bit didn't want to level up alone and so I have an alt just for leveling my friend's characters

I haave about three other characters in the 8-14 range that I was using as alts but lost interest in. I keep them around for potential allies for friends' alts, or potential level 16 retirement awards.

TL;DR

-Main
-Alt for leveling friends so they can one day do stuff with my main
-3ish semi retired goons standing around to be used as needed

[D4wN]

I usually only play one. I just can't focus on more than one character properly and give them the attention they deserve. Sometimes I might make an alt to prevent burnout or lower burnout on my main. Sometimes I end up loving the alt to much and then start gravitating them towards making them my new main.