Reusing an old character
Some years ago, our friend Jason ran a short-lived Mage: The Ascension game in which I played Lost, a young Orphan mage. Her name came from a particular problem that I gave her — there is a background in Mage called Arcane, which represents someone whose magic (or just their Awakened nature) makes it hard for the mundane world to keep track of them. They don’t get jury summons, and people forget the details of meeting them moments after the Arcane character leaves.
Arcane scales from zero to five — and I gave Lost five. With the Storyteller’s permission, she was so Arcane that her parents forgot she existed and moved away, and the little girl couldn’t even remember her own name. So she would wander up to adults and tell them she was “lost.” She said it so many times that Lost became her name.
It was a ton of fun. The other players went along with my concept, perpetually forgetting that Lost was in the room and having to put her contact information into their phones again — which would inevitably glitch and lose the number within a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, though, the game fell apart after a handful of sessions. So I put Lost away into the file of my old characters and moved on.
But now, after seven or so years, Jason wants to Storytell another Mage game! I was working on a couple of ideas for the new adventure when I wistfully commented how much I loved Lost. Jason considered for a moment, then said that her concept would work in his game. I could play Lost again, if I wanted to.
Yeah, I wanted to! So let’s talk about reusing an old character. Sometimes it’s a concept from an abandoned game, or one you think you could play better now, or just a character you loved so much that they’re worth replaying. But in most cases, you can’t just throw an old character into a new game without making some changes. An orc scholar from Azeroth isn’t the same as one from Eberron, and you have a whole new story to interact with!
First, break your character down into as many discrete pieces as you can and figure out which ones are important to you.
Lost was an Orphan mage (meaning that she didn’t have a Tradition to teach her), had lots of Arcane, was a fringe member of the local chantry who served mostly as a guide, and made shadow puppets to talk to her Avatar.
Of all those, I only really wanted to keep her name and the high Arcane. The rest, I could take or leave while still playing the character that I loved.
Next, talk to your Storyteller about the specific needs of the new story and setting.
Jason’s new game is set in a town without any other apparent supernatural forces. In the World of Darkness, that means no vampires, werewolves, wraiths, or other mages — that we know about, at least. The Storyteller wanted Lost to be born and raised in this mysterious town. That meant that she couldn’t be a member of any chantries, which are sort of magical mage community centers. So I cut that part of the original concept.
But it worked well in this magical void to keep Lost as an Orphan. After all, with no chantry around, there wouldn’t be any other mages to teach her about the Traditions or adopt her into one.
Work with the other players to integrate with a new party.
The first iteration of Lost had developed relationships with the other characters in that campaign, like the mages she went to for help reading — she was illiterate — or who she guided through the dangerous places of the original setting. There’s some overlap in the new player group and that first one, but we don’t want to just fall into the old character dynamic.
So I cut Lost’s shadow puppet Avatar and replaced it with a half-mad version of Persephone. I took the Twin Souls merit and developed her alongside Hades, the Avatar of the group’s Euthanatos. Reuniting our separated Avatars will be a whole new and interesting subplot that the original Lost never could have done.
New game, new character — even if she’s an old one.
Lost’s new Avatar also means a new paradigm (the internal mindset that mages use to understand their magic) and new Spheres and Foci (categories and tools of magic), which provides wonderful new layers to this version of Lost.
Last, make it new in your own mind.
I’ve got a lot to separate the new Lost from the original. While I do want to play her again, I don’t just want to repeat the first time. Jason has a new adventure for us, and the last thing I want is to miss some of it or derail the story because I’m retreading old ground with Lost.
Just to make sure, I’ve selected new character art. I loved the picture I chose the first time around, but I wanted to make sure this Lost is different in my head. While I want to keep her personality about the same — a scrappy lost girl who is desperate for human contact — I’ll use a different voice and vocabulary for this version to keep them separate.
I think that’s about it! There’s a lot of fun to be had in revisiting an old character, but make sure it’s a reboot instead of a rerun. Show respect and care to the Storyteller and their new adventure, make some tweaks and changes — then go have a blast!
