I'm trying to figure out how to make a character "owned" by the entire group, so that everyone can post as them.  Is this possible? What am I missing?

Hm. I know the GM can post as anyone else's character, but I also know they can't post as another GM's character. So I think you'd have to do this: make everyone but one player a GM. Assign shared characters to that player. Anyone with GM access can post as that character.

If there are other solutions, I've never come across them.

Remake the same character over and over - but, with a slight difference in typing or add a _1 or some such.

Then assign one to each person in question.

Ouch.  I was hoping it wouldn't come to kludgy solutions like that.

Thanks, everyone.

I'd suggest creating ambiguous NPC accounts, giving each player one. Then create a thread of 'recurring characters' which includes a list of all the shared characters open for play. The list of shared characters can be placed in the character description area under each NPC. Players use their NPC profile to post for any shared characters within the game.

Might not be 100% tidy on the cast list, but it will allow for sharing characters among players.

You could make the character an NPC and make everyone GM's as well. Then they could all post as them. GMs just can't post as the other "GM Characters"

 That sounds perfect.  Just like what I was looking for.

Just a word of caution, GMs do have quite a lot more power than players/characters, so be aware, any player you raise to GM status will be able to read PMs, delete posts etc.. If you're playing within a group you trust, no worries.

Well, they won't be able to delete posts made by other GMs, and since all players are GMs... we're probably fine?

Any method you choose will be 'kludgy', because Rpol doesn't provide for shared characters. The disadvantage with making everyone GMs (besides them being able to destroy your game if they're so minded) is that everyone can see everything - there are no more private lines, no more hidden characters, no more 'GM only threads' where you can store your data and future plans, etc, etc.

When I had need to share a 'spear carrier' (actually, I think he was a rocket propelled grenade carrier)I made:
Fred Smith
Fred Smith.
Fred Smith,
Fred Smith'
Fred Smith!
Fred Smith:
Fred Smith;
Fred Smith..
Fred Smith,,
Fred Smith''
Fred Smith!!

etc.

By the time you had the wording and identical avatars, you didn't notice the punctuation after the name. Personally, I'd find everyone being a GM to be a lot more problematical than having a few punctuation marks kicking around.

Let's face it, a lot of players don't read punctuation marks anyway. ;)

I have to ask the basic question: "Why?"

It's a collaborative rule system. No need for private lines.  All play is out in the open, and players are allowed to play any NPC they want during any particular scene (only the player characters belong to any one player).

this works splendidly on the tabletop, so I'm hoping it will work splendidly here.

If it's for one of those games where everyone controls part of the same body, you could always just name each character a body part.

Fred's Heart
Fred's Brain
Fred's Right/Left Arm
Fred's Right/Left Leg

etc.

Same goes for a game where everyone is part of a computer, just have each person be a part, like graphics, audio, CPU, etc.

Or nodes on a network.

Here's how the game (in person) works:

Let's assume there's 4 players (A,B,C,D).  Play goes around the table.  Player A chooses to make a scene for their character, and sets it up with description.  They say "I'd like to see B's character and C's character in this scene.  D, can you play <NPC>?"

Once the scene is done, now it's player B's turn.  They make a scene for their character, and set it up with description.  They think it'd make sense to have player D's character in it, so they say "Hey, D, I want to have a scene with you."  And then they set it up, roping in A and C to play other NPCs.

Now it's C's turn.  Repeat.

Now it's D's turn.  Repeat.

Now it's A's turn.  At this point, everyone has taken a turn.  So, A can take a turn from the point of view of a very important setting NPC (specifically "the Magus").  This will have mechanical implications if A chooses this.  If A doesn't choose this, repeat the above scenario, having a scene from player A's character's perspective.

If A declines their opportunity, B now has the option to take a turn from the important setting NPC...

etc. etc.  As the game goes on, every player will have  the opportunity to play from the perspective of at least one important NPC (the Magus). The game mechanics have a specific NPC that is shared between the players and allows other-npc-sharing.

If anyone is interested in the physical game I'm attempting to emulate, here it is:  http://heartofthedeernicorn.co...agic-scroll-edition/

In my game, the players were a group of mercenaries. The action was going to get hot so I wanted to sprinkle a few redshirts into the mix, firstly to save PC lives, and secondly to even out a few skills.

Yes, I could have issued each Player with two PCs, but Players tend to get a bit 'clingy' with PCs and they cry when they die. With each Player able to operate any of the redshirts, they didn't identify with the redshirts so much and didn't pout when I killed them off.

Player 1 sees an opportunity to take out a guard, he can send in the 'knife man' himself, without having to PM the knife man's player and ask him to operate his secondary character to do the deed. So it speeded up the game, too.

It would be nice if people could be permitted posting privileges for NPCs much like they are groups. Or maybe moderators could be permitted to post for all NPCs. Not sure how Jase and the gang would code that, though.

One problem is that it would need to be set as an option for every player, and every character (even GMs who would allow players to post for NPCs might not want to allow all players to post for every NPC).  It would be a nightmare to code, and to display who could post for which characters.

Have the RPOL character name represent the player name, and have the first line of the Biography be the character name, the second can be used for a brief description.  Build a table of links in the character sheet to switch the bio lines and portrait by only two clicks.  If doe consists fly it should look natural.

It looks like there's a level that's between Player and GM called "editor."

Here's what I'd propose:

A.  you can add characters to "the game" instead of a specific player
B.  "Editors" can post for any character that belongs to the game (instead of the GM)

So if the GM wants to stop editors from posting as a character, they can assign that character to themselves (or perhaps a trusted Editor).

Is this a coding nightmare?  It would add an additional element to the "list of things possible character owners" (the game)  and elevate permissions of editors.

I agree that this might be a problem for backwards compatibility, but since there's no "game" Owner in previous games, current characters will only retain their current 'owner' flag.

It seems like this can be accomplished by then assigning <NPC1> to Player D for the duration of the scene.

I've done this with ***place holder posts*** in multi GM games.

Basically you post for the character ***place holder*** to let everyone know your posting and to avoid over lap.  Then move on to editing that into the actual post.

General rule is have the finished post up within a hour of place holding.

Same thing could be done for a group of writers with editor powers.

I just thought some more about this.

An easy fix (non-scripter’s POV) would be to leave shared characters as NPCs under the GM’s control as usual, but allow Editors to post as ‘Other Name’, the same as GMs do. That way, they can just insert the name of whichever shared character they need to post as. Sure, you wouldn’t have a picture and bio-line in your post, but at least you’d be able to post efficiently.

If your shared characters are important enough to have a picture, the GM can insert one for the NPC in the Cast List for the benefit of anyone interested enough to look.

This would certainly have worked for the redshirts in my game.