Person or persona?

[Intermipants]

Ahoy everyone!

 

Philosophical dilemma that I fancied throwing out there.

 

Here's the situation.  I've got two characters:

 

Kendo Barbie - a tank with a perfect build that's been tremendous through absolutely everything.  Really average to slightly poor concept with almost no opportunity for fun.

Elastic Bandit - deeply average tank that will never be as great as Kendo because of the powerset choices.  Has hilarious much beloved rubber band costume.

 

Question.  Can I rename and reskin Kendo Barbie as Elastic Bandit...and pretend that Elastic Bandit was always this build?  In other words can you transplant a beloved character's identity onto a different build and just carry on?  Is a CoH character a person defined by their powersets and journey?  Or are they a persona - a theme or costume that can live again in a new build?  Would love to know if anyone has made a "better version" of a character.

 

Yours worriedly,

 

- Elastic Bandit

Edited July 5 by Intermipants

[El D]

You absolutely can transfer character concepts, redux builds, and recreate established characters with new powersets/archetypes. I've remade established characters at numerous different points, especially when new, more fitting powersets were dropped or proliferated. My original main from 2004 was a Fire/Fire Blaster who became a Fire/Fire Scrapper in Issue 12, which was a full retcon of his identity up until that point for a more fitting concept. Another character was an Energy Blast/Ninjitsu Sentinel who was deliberately rerolled as Water Blast/Ninjitsu when the right story milestone was hit for unlocking their true powers and things carried forward from there. I've got a character who spent three years with his identify defined by being an Electric Melee/Energy Aura Scrapper and now has a 'depowered' Katana/Willpower variant due to plot reasons. Both versions exist simultaneously and are canonically the same guy - just armed with different abilities depending on if he's using magic or not.

 

So to answer your question yeah, you absolutely can. Also given the usage of the name 'Barbie' for Kendo Barbie, you probably should. As a forewarning, if that character is what the name implies (blonde woman in a pink outfit armed with a samurai sword, may or may not be from Malibu and possibly lives in a dreamhouse dream dojo) that's skirting an IP line Homecoming has limited tolerance for.

Edited July 5 by El D

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Intermipants said:

Ahoy everyone!

 

Clear reference to the Ship of Theseus.  Nice try, Minotaur!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

[temnix]

After any changes that you end up making, are you going to feel that you are playing the same character? That is the question.

[MonteCarla]

My first ever character on Homecoming was "Stars and Garters", a sidekick flagsuit character with atomic "firework" powers - represented in game as a Rad/Energy Blast Defender.

Have I remade her recently? I'll give you three guesses. 🙂

Yes, she's the same character. 
No, there isn't any continuity between the time Is spent playing her several years ago, and playing her now. Like no in-character explanation as to why she's level 1 with powers that work a bit differently.

[Amp Up]

8 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

Clear reference to the Ship of Theseus.  Nice try, Minotaur!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

Also known as the House of Skinnius "Are the walls made of flesh, or is he made of house? He knows not, therefore he skrem"

[lemming]

I've redone a few of my characters from one concept to another.   The biggest change I find is redoing all the costumes which isn't that big of a deal.  (Made me actually have different costumes in each slot...)

[Forager]

Ooph. Rough start...

 

OP is not only talking about remaking a character with new powers or a different build. Lots of people do that and talk about it all the time.

 

He is talking about reskinning an existing build with a new costume and different name, making it a different character.

 

It's a different thing.

Edited July 6 by Forager

[Forager]

14 hours ago, temnix said:

After any changes that you end up making, are you going to feel that you are playing the same character? That is the question.

 

I did this recently, and that's exactly how I felt. It felt like the original character in disguise. I couldn't shake it, and it made sense, so I gave in.

 

Maybe it was my subconscious at work.

[The Trouble]

18 hours ago, Intermipants said:

Ahoy everyone!

 

Philosophical dilemma that I fancied throwing out there.

 

Here's the situation.  I've got two characters:

 

Kendo Barbie - a tank with a perfect build that's been tremendous through absolutely everything.  Really average to slightly poor concept with almost no opportunity for fun.

Elastic Bandit - deeply average tank that will never be as great as Kendo because of the powerset choices.  Has hilarious much beloved rubber band costume.

 

Question.  Can I rename and reskin Kendo Barbie as Elastic Bandit...and pretend that Elastic Bandit was always this build?  In other words can you transplant a beloved character's identity onto a different build and just carry on?  Is a CoH character a person defined by their powersets and journey?  Or are they a persona - a theme or costume that can live again in a new build?  Would love to know if anyone has made a "better version" of a character.

 

Yours worriedly,

 

- Elastic Bandit

Yes! I've done this twice, and both times the switch ended up feeling right.

 

1. I had Plant/Storm Controller modeled after a Leshy that I played all the way into the mid thirties before the concept didn't excite me anymore.  I also had a Plant/Fire Dominator wizard who's concept I loved, but the archetype and powerset combo (while very powerful) left me bored.  I slapped this Dominator's costume, concept, and name onto the Controller, and that endurance burning bastard became a favorite.
    
2. I made a vampire: A Savage/Darkness Brute.  Before long, those powers didn't fit the personality I imagined my vampire having.  So a Dual Blades/Energy Stalker with a thick layer of dust inherited the vampire's persona, and once again my excitement for the character surged and stayed high.

I think the best characters deserve to be fun.  If you have to 'retcon' to get them there, then do it.  You can even incorporate the change into their backstory with some creative thinking.  I fully embrace the "Concept is King" mantra, and I have two Kinetic Melee characters to prove it.

[Erratic1]

I've levelled a character to their high 30s, realized the powerset choices did not quite match what I wanted for the character concept, and scrapped the existing in favor of new character, same name, with a more appropriate powerset combination. 

 

Not seeing why renaming is any different.

[keyguardactive]

The world of comic books if FULL of either different people taking over a mantle from the original. I've had multiple characters who I re-created the outfits of to have the sidekick take over the mantle. 

 

Or, conversely, how comfortable are you with a retcon? You can do an in universe one, where thanks to Time Travel or some sort of Crisis, things have always been this new way. That's probably how I would handle it. 

 

Worst case scenario you find that you CAN'T square that circle and you change everyone back. 

[Plutonix]

Dude no one is going to judge you for renaming and recostuming your character. You might get some confused psts from people that server friended you but that's it. Why is this a thing?

[Triumphant]

5 hours ago, lemming said:

I've redone a few of my characters from one concept to another.   The biggest change I find is redoing all the costumes which isn't that big of a deal.  (Made me actually have different costumes in each slot...)

Absolutely.  It's interesting how this can breathe new life into an old character that I've got a bit bored with.  Keep everything the same, just come up with a different name and concept and then rework the costume into something reflecting the new concept.  Suddenly old character is fresh again!  Huzzah!

Nothing wrong with it, IMO.  YMMV, of course, such things being subjective. 🤷‍♂️

[Ghost]

No one will ever even know if you reskin.

 

Me personally, I would create a new character and start over.

But I’m the type that doesn’t even like changing up the costume on a toon once I’ve hit a few levels - if I decide that I don’t like the costume, or come up with a better look (or even name), I remake and start over again.

[roleki]

22 hours ago, Ghost said:

No one will ever even know if you reskin.

Unless you count yourself, every time you have to select which slot to edit at the tailor.  Then you will feel the proper amount of shame. 

[Forager]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:58 PM, Erratic1 said:

Not seeing why renaming is any different.

 

Oh, I got you. We're not talking about "renaming." OP's post is a question relates to what you feel a "character" is.

 

When some people are talking about the "character" they don't mean the AT and powersets... they're talking about the person that the character represents. That's what OP means. What you're talking about is deciding that an AT and powerset combo isn't right for a character, and then taking that character and leveling them with a different AT/Powerset combo. It's the same character, same person... doing something different. It might be an alternate version, a special suit, a new set of abilities or ones he didn't use before. It's the same character with a different weapon, for example.

 

Renaming and putting a new costume on a build (AT and Powersets) is deciding that this is a different or new person. Just... poof! It's a new person. When I tried it, it didn't really take, though. It felt like the old character in disguise as this new character. LIke Hawkeye as Ronin.

 

Some people put a lot of thought into who a character is, and that headcanon follows them around while they're playing. Some people just view the "character" as the thing in the slot, it's name, costume, AT and powers. Changing the name would mean little to a person that thinks of them that way. To them it'd essentially be the same character, renamed.

Edited July 6 by Forager

[Forager]

On 7/5/2025 at 4:46 PM, Plutonix said:

Why is this a thing?

 

Thoughts and ideas about a subject? Oh. Just because. It's fun sometimes to think about things that are fun and then discuss them.

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, Forager said:

Oh, I got you. We're not talking about "renaming." OP's post is a question relates to what you feel a "character" is.

 

When some people are talking about the "character" they don't mean the AT and powersets... they're talking about the person that the character represents.

 

Yes, I understood that.

 

To me the character is what I have in mind. The game construct is an implementation. I will rename a new character to be what I HAVE IN MIND.

 

Quote

Renaming and putting a new costume on a build (AT and Powersets) is deciding that this is a different or new person. Just... poof! It's a new person. When I tried it, it didn't really take, though. It felt like the old character in disguise as this new character. LIke Hawkeye as Ronin.

 

That is a you limitation. For me, it isn't a problem.

Edited July 6 by Erratic1

[tidge]

Renaming is no big deal, from my PoV.

 

I've taken a few characters I leveled up but didn't love and created new characters (same name and costume) but different AT/primary/secondary and given them the original's name.

 

I've renamed beloved level 50s when I have thought of a better name for them.

[Forager]

20 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

That is a you limitation. For me, it isn't a problem.

 

Well... it's a thing that happened. It was an interesting experience.

 

And while I don't understand your urge to describe it as a problem or a limitation, I am glad that you enjoyed your different experience.

[Erratic1]

2 minutes ago, Forager said:

 

Well... it's a thing that happened. It was an interesting experience.

 

And while I don't understand your urge to describe it as a problem or a limitation, I am glad that you enjoyed your different experience.

 

I may have been a bit grumpy at someone explaining something to me like I didn't understand what was being said. Apologies.

 

My beloved Brute, Unconquerable, exists in my head in ways the game does not allow. If a go at implementing him had not gotten me what I wanted, I would have, like on other characters, reimplemented him and building a new character with the look and costume or renaming some other existing character (unlikely because if another character were basically him, I would be making him in the first place) is just an exercise in getting closer to what was in mind to begin with.

 

In my mind, several of my characters know each other and like, tolerate, or despise the others. A few are children of others. The game, like I said, is an implementation. If you do not see it that way, it is perfectly fine, but that leaves you with less options than I do, hence why I called it a limitation.

[Intermipants]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it’s interesting to see all the different approaches to the game!  I tried to change but it doesn’t feel right to me, as someone said above, it feels like the character in disguise. 

[Jacke]

Back pre-Shutdown, I rolled a lot of Toons as Magic Origin to take advantage of the old Yin-Origin Enhancements (also called Talisman Enhancements) which for Magic were for Accuracy.  A higher Level Toon with access to Yin's Market bought them for the lower Level Toons who could use them.  Cool, SO-scale Accuracy from L10 up, long before low Level SOs from DFB runs and L5 and up SOs were introduced.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Talisman_Enhancements#History

 

Recreated those Toons with Magic Origin on Homecoming in 2019.

 

But for some of those Toons, I felt that having them as Magic Origin was wrong.

 

In those cases, I've rerolled those Toons as Natural Toons, which seems right.

 

That Origin change can't be done without rerolling a Toon.  But these days, that Origin only matters in a few rare cases, mostly dialogue in some missions.

 

But I still needed to do those rerolls.  Because their Origin was wrong.

 

That's how important getting those little details on Toons right for me is.

 

 

Edited July 8 by Jacke

[Forager]

On 7/6/2025 at 10:42 PM, Intermipants said:

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it’s interesting to see all the different approaches to the game!  I tried to change but it doesn’t feel right to me, as someone said above, it feels like the character in disguise. 

 

I ended up having a lot of fun with this feeling, though. Sometimes I think they were always the same guy and my subconscious wrote that plot without telling me.

 

I've even played as one of my characters overtly wearing the mantle of another of my characters. Enjoy your headcannon!