Active vs Inactive Characters



Active Characters is one that is "out of the box" and being consistently played. They have in-game name recognition; other characters know who they are and talk about them positively or negatively even in scenes they aren't being played in. Active characters can be exclusively of just one five PC Roles when they are played or they can have different roles in different scenes or story archs. One way or another, they are being consistently played in scenes and therefore initiate events and influence other characters.

Inactive characters have sheets and are listed on the roster but their player hasn't written them into a scene for a while (at least a month or two). What they are doing might be off-paneled and mentioned either OOC or by another PC talking about the. By and large though, the current story archs don't have much to do with them.

There's nothing wrong with troupe members having a couple of inactive characters at any given time. However, having a character go inactive in the middle of an important story arch centering on them or worse, to stop posting for them in the middle of the scene is bad player etiquette.