I envy RPers who are able to re-app characters and do it successfully. I've tried it many times and they always end up feeling like shallow copies of the original to me. The only exception is when I re-app characters from RPs that died early, so the character is still technically "new" since they never got a chance to develop.

i don't really reuse characters as a whole all that often. i enjoy starting on a fresh slate since i can get new ideas going for plots. do i sometimes recycle certain parts like a personality trait or whatnot from saved characters i've made? sure. in a way though, they still have their own identity that's fresh from previously made characters.

ig the only time i actually recycle completely is if i'm just too damn lazy to make a new character lmao

Honestly, I've been thinking about this a lot while I've been looking around for a forum to set up shop on... I think I do enjoy making new characters tailored to a story's setting, but I do have a couple OCs in my pocket that I like to use first, to help me get my footing; I often replay/re-app a particularly neurotic one whose nonsense makes for good thread starters and tends to shepherd along plotlines, to help me feel like I've got a foot in the door re: getting to know everyone else's characters.

I think there are some characters I'd like to play again sometime, but they're so setting-specific that it really depends on the site and the plot to fit them in... I have one whose character imagery (caspian tiger!) revolves really heavily around her relationship with Persian culture & being a member of the diaspora, and I'd feel like playing her in a world involving fantasy nations/countries wouldn't be honoring that part of her character and identity— and, similarly, some more fantastical characters that I couldn't really bring to a SOL small-town-in-the-midwest-us type of setting (unfortunately, I can't really drop harengons in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin). But sometimes, when the shoe fits perfectly, I'm delighted. It's like a little treat...!

i only play six characters max, and two of them are very situational.

my brand is miss anima blair, my beloved little meow meow of suffering, and i think it's fun to make them fit to a new setting and translate them into it. they can diverge from their "baseline" p quickly through experiences and stuff and it's interesting seeing them get tested on their ideals in new ways bc they suck and they're thrown into sucky situations. can never truly explore the facets of a character.

this

i have a few characters that i reuse constantly (looking at my little princess) and others that i carry over occasionally (especially two of my oldest ocs, who i only bring back on occasion due to the high NPC energy they have) — i also think of it like an AU for them in some ways? trying them out in different settings, meeting new people, having different development arcs. it really helps to kind of explore all facets of those characters i’d never considered before. but i also like making someone new completely from scratch just to give me some balance :3 sometimes i think some characters end up having traits from other chars of mine and so on.

i reuse characters if i feel like they haven't really gotten much play the first time around. i love every one of my characters, but i usually make them specifically for the site that i'll be playing them on/the overarching plot they'll be part of. mostly, i don't want to get confused about previous plots i may have had, or feel like i'm somehow comparing them despite my best attempts not to. i want the experiences to be as unique as it can be each time i write a character, but if i really haven't been able to give them a solid plot before then ya, i don't mind trying again.

alternatively, if a partner wants me to bring back a character for a plot, i can do that too. there haven't been a lot of experiences that have made me hate particular OCs, so ya. i don't mind that, if my partner is missin' a dynamic.

I tend to play the same five guys on different sites. Their personality and looks always stay the same. I mold their past to fit whatever setting they are getting thrown into. I've had these characters for over a decade now. I love them too much not to keep playing them.

I usually always reapp my characters. Most of the time because I want to tell a different story but with the same characters or I want to follow certain story beats but then let the reigns go and see where they end up. It's fun, because by the end of it I can always count on having several characters with the same name, but the RP's they've been through have developed them all into completely different characters. And that's the fun of re-apping characters and why I do it all the time. (That and I'm unoriginal af and have like one or two new ideas every few half-decades if that.)