Your Protagonist in Another Story

[RootBeerBert]

How would your protagonist fare in a different novel, particularly in the place of one of your other protagonists? Are they any differences in the characters they interact with and how they progress the plot (if at all)? Compared to the original, how well would they do?

For reference, they don’t have any of their original abilities. Their circumstances are identical to the protagonist they’ve swapped with.

 

[MasterY001]

Some time ago, I worked on this series called Guardians of the Past which was basically an alt-Earth conspiracy novel. Most of the characters there were a group of relatively ordinary adventurers (plus a clan of Werewolves) who joined together to fight a terrorist group who wants to take over the world. I might post it here if anyone wants to see it.

While most Humans in Executive Order (at least the Confederates) are experienced soldiers used to fighting this type of enemy, they're also eccentric, paranoid, and selfish. Not to mention they'd rather kill Werewolves and make them into blankets instead of collaborating with them. They may be stronger as individuals, but their chances would be much lower since they can't get over themselves.

 

[AncestorDuck]

With plot armour?

 

[RootBeerBert]

With plot armour?

None of their original plot armor.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Depends - they'd all be very different if they woke up in Sparrow's body than Kelly was.
Jack would be pretty typical "guy in girl's body" but not talk about how he explored it... and would probably go get himself killed against Lady Ebon because he wouldn't have his weapons and would not trust Equinox.
David would probably be pretty much the same as Kelly - except he would probably try to hook up with Kim. And Mike. And maybe even Rodney. Unless I'm thinking of Malcolm ... no, Malcolm would DEFINITELY try to hook up with all three (especially given how similar Kim and Adrey look). Maybe at the same time. Would DEFINITELY change the tone of the story! Carol would probably be about the same as David. Liz would probably play it surprisingly close to how Kelly did - except she'd probably win fights a bit faster. Audrey would ... play detective and probably make the story run completely differently... Not sure how that would work
Thellissandra in Sparrow's body would rule the world in a few weeks. There'd be a LOT of dead supervillains out there...

Reversing this, if Kelly wound up in Jack's life ... he'd update his wardrobe, stop smoking and probably have some better jokes, but otherwise be pretty much the same.
David would try to "play" as Jack and probably do a good job at it. Malcolm would follow the script for the first book, but then run off with Jessica somewhere in the second. Probably would go the same for Carol or Liz. Audrey would be almost exactly the same, except with better clothes and less smoking. Thellissandra would kill all the cultists and probably (accidentally, while trying to free her) their victim and spend the rest of her life in jail.

 

[AncestorDuck]

None of their original plot armor.

Dead

 

[RiceballWasTaken]

How would your protagonist fare in a different novel, particularly in the place of one of your other protagonists? Are they any differences in the characters they interact with and how they progress the plot (if at all)? Compared to the original, how well would they do?

For reference, they don’t have any of their original abilities. Their circumstances are identical to the protagonist they’ve swapped with.

they'd blitz through the plot

 

[ElijahRyne]

How would your protagonist fare in a different novel, particularly in the place of one of your other protagonists? Are they any differences in the characters they interact with and how they progress the plot (if at all)? Compared to the original, how well would they do?

For reference, they don’t have any of their original abilities. Their circumstances are identical to the protagonist they’ve swapped with.

He dies in the first chapter. He will die the second he puts his head where it doesn’t belong.

 

[Rezcore]

I'm working on 3 as of yet unpublished novels. 1. A high-school student with a violent training, would survive one. And be garotted by a maid in another. The second would survive both. The 3rd would thrive in the other worlds.

 

[StoneInky]

I'm surprised so many authors think their protagonists will end up dead. The swapped protagonist's circumstances will be identical to the original protagonist. That means they'll get all the powers and abilities of the swapped protagonist, no?

I can totally imagine my evil Rowan experimenting in my survival fantasy novel with his cool new powers, and asexual Erin wouldn't mind being rich in my dark psychological Boys Love novel.

I guess I'm the only one whose characters both end up better off thanks to the swap.

 

[expentio]

I actually would love to see that, and it would be even lore-accurate.
You see, my protagonist, Iori Nomia, is a pretty average 14-year-old girl who through circumstances, involuntarily got herself transformed into an Eldritch goddess. She can grow all kinds of fleshcrafts and even has her own dream dimension, which she can shape at will. Her big weakness is that she's a heavy introvert and usually afraid of imposing on other people (Especially, if it's about the fact that she accidentally may eat their world and make it part of her dimension). Nonetheless, she has a sense of righteousness, based on how she believes things should be solved, as a citizen of modern Japan. Stuff like, you don't just hit someone because you don't like them, you should avoid killing and leave things to the local orders (if they are any good), she even firmly believes that just because she is a being that can swallow galaxies she should never treat others as insignificant (that's a firm rule she abides to).

Now what I ever again think about is how, maybe even a slightly older, not anymore as squeamish Iori would make use of her dimension-hopping (she is a dreamer and can basically project her own avatar wherever she wants, if she got the dimensional address) powers and insert herself in various stories. I often times use her as a coping mechanism if I find that a story ended in a poor way, to rectify certain developments. Yet I'm pretty sure it could be incredible fun to make her just have an entrance in any other story. She can even shapeshift to not stand out too much with the locals.
As I said, she is at heart a bit of an introvert and tries merely to apply her common sense as a visitor, yet if things get too out of hand, she'd probably act.
Also, there's her far future self, who while ultimately sharing the same moral viewpoint, grew a lot more unhinged. Maybe having gone from lawful good to chaotic good. That one may just do what has to be done in her opinion and does a lot merely to keep herself occupied through eternity while having a rather vast pool of eldritch knowledge.

So if anyone is interested in having Iori around, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

Given that I have a thing for wide scale support/creation type unique skills, they'd change an awful lot of things if I went and switched characters around.

 

[soupsabaw]

Depends who is getting thrown into which world... my book I'm currently posting has a few mcs really. They're all human and beast hybrids, like for example, one of the characters is a human but she has phoenix blood running through her. Beast-humans have this powerful energy that surrounds them that puts pressure on full-blooded humans. Makes them nauseous, nervous, scared, ill, suffocated, etc. Some people can withstand it if they get used to it, but most humans can't. So, while she would be okay, I couldn't say the other characters in the universe she's thrown into would be.

My next book I'm working on isn't in this "beast-human" world either. Completely human with no magical aspects to the book. So, he probably wouldn't do very hot in the beast city, but he could survive in the human city.

Funnily enough... he is there. It's not really a "side story" because it's an entirely different universe, but he makes an appearance. Same occupation, same personality, same attitude--same dude. Just his own story. I started writing the second book before I got to the ending where I ended up needing him in the first book. I needed a doctor character and thought it would be fun to throw a common face from one story to another. A second character who has an unfortunate end is also in it as well. I think it's fun to cross universes.

 

[John_Owl]

well, I've got 2 current stories i'm working on. if we take Arland (my mysthavia books), he'd likely do alright in Fractured Bonds but he'd definitely die in the upcoming sci-fi story, since he was born and raised in a might-and-magic world. he wouldn't fare well in a sci-fi world.

But if we look at Xenon from Fractured Bonds, he'd likely do fine in the Sci-Fi world. He was isekai'd to the fantasy world in Fractured Bonds. Going to the Sci-Fi world would basically just be another Isekai for him. Though he likely wouldn't want to stay, considering he wouldn't be bringing Elena with.

 

[Nolff]

How would your protagonist fare in a different novel, particularly in the place of one of your other protagonists? Are they any differences in the characters they interact with and how they progress the plot (if at all)? Compared to the original, how well would they do?

For reference, they don’t have any of their original abilities. Their circumstances are identical to the protagonist they’ve swapped with.

Well, if you say they switched from a fan-fic to another...

It's basically the same f*cking thing.

Even worse, they're just switching bodies. And most of my novels are multi-protag, so naturally I made them have at least the same level of power as the others.

Oh god... One of them is going to hunt the lolis and shotas now that he's of legal age to interact with kids. I can already see it.

 

[StoneInky]

Given that I have a thing for wide scale support/creation type unique skills, they'd change an awful lot of things if I went and switched characters around.

What do you mean by that?

 

[Zagaroth]

There's 2 things that kind of screw with the limited power set idea of the swap in the case of Mordecai.

A) He has a ton of knowledge and experience. If the story has learnable power, his growth would be unparalleled. If swapped with a protag in the same setting, the 'does not have his powers' is partially nullified just because being himself in that world means he has access to specific forms of magic immediately, including divine prayers. Removing the requisite knowledge would mean it's not really the same character, as that knowledge is part of a long history and who he is. At a minimum, in a completely mundane world, he would be a martial artist without equal, because no martial artist in a mundane world can have hundreds of years of experience.

B) Even skipping the magical aspects, Mordecai's current avatar is biologically super-human. You can't turn off that particular level of enhancement other than arbitrarily deciding that he's going to have a body of specific statistics. There is no 'normal' level to his body, the 'depowered' version is incredibly sturdy, strong, fast, has extraordinary biological senses, etc. He doesn't even have blind spots in his eyes: the light sensing cells are flipped the sensible direction, so there is no need to have a hole where the nerves pass through. It's basically an Nth iteration of genetic engineering.

I am assuming he's crammed into his avatar; a crystal core without any powers of any sort is just an inert hunk of rock, and as a magical life form would probably instantly die.

---

Running with that idea and dropping him in any cultivator world would see him puzzling out what the hell is going on, then noticing that chi flows differently in this world than in his own (as he knows how to channel chi already, power reset would be because of world differences). Learns the very basics of cultivation to make sure he's on the right path, and then speed runs the cultivation process until he can transcend realities.

I think a LitRPG system would have conniption fits. A new entry/level 0 with his physical stats, skills, and knowledge does not compute! Exact results vary with the system. Dumb systems are going to assign him level 1 and then rapidly give him "defeat X over your level" type feats because it has failed to recognize his actual skills and physical prowess. Smarter systems will be able to adjust and work out his correct level and powerset.

A world with different magical rules than his own is mostly a matter of learning the new rules, so long as magic is learnable. He has skills like visualization, conceptualization, memorization, and mathematics already covered.

Anyway you look at it, his primary goal will be getting back home. He might solve local problems along the way, he has too much empathy not to, but his free time will be about learning enough of the local power system to get back to his home world. Even a supposedly mundane world clearly has *some* magical influence, or the swap couldn't have happened.

 

[StoneInky]

There's 2 things that kind of screw with the limited power set idea of the swap in the case of Mordecai.

A) He has a ton of knowledge and experience. If the story has learnable power, his growth would be unparalleled. If swapped with a protag in the same setting, the 'does not have his powers' is partially nullified just because being himself in that world means he has access to specific forms of magic immediately, including divine prayers. Removing the requisite knowledge would mean it's not really the same character, as that knowledge is part of a long history and who he is. At a minimum, in a completely mundane world, he would be a martial artist without equal, because no martial artist in a mundane world can have hundreds of years of experience.

B) Even skipping the magical aspects, Mordecai's current avatar is biologically super-human. You can't turn off that particular level of enhancement other than arbitrarily deciding that he's going to have a body of specific statistics. There is no 'normal' level to his body, the 'depowered' version is incredibly sturdy, strong, fast, has extraordinary biological senses, etc. He doesn't even have blind spots in his eyes: the light sensing cells are flipped the sensible direction, so there is no need to have a hole where the nerves pass through. It's basically an Nth iteration of genetic engineering.

I am assuming he's crammed into his avatar; a crystal core without any powers of any sort is just an inert hunk of rock, and as a magical life form would probably instantly die.

---

Running with that idea and dropping him in any cultivator world would see him puzzling out what the hell is going on, then noticing that chi flows differently in this world than in his own (as he knows how to channel chi already, power reset would be because of world differences). Learns the very basics of cultivation to make sure he's on the right path, and then speed runs the cultivation process until he can transcend realities.

I think a LitRPG system would have conniption fits. A new entry/level 0 with his physical stats, skills, and knowledge does not compute! Exact results vary with the system. Dumb systems are going to assign him level 1 and then rapidly give him "defeat X over your level" type feats because it has failed to recognize his actual skills and physical prowess. Smarter systems will be able to adjust and work out his correct level and powerset.

A world with different magical rules than his own is mostly a matter of learning the new rules, so long as magic is learnable. He has skills like visualization, conceptualization, memorization, and mathematics already covered.

Anyway you look at it, his primary goal will be getting back home. He might solve local problems along the way, he has too much empathy not to, but his free time will be about learning enough of the local power system to get back to his home world. Even a supposedly mundane world clearly has *some* magical influence, or the swap couldn't have happened.

1. Maybe it's soft magic, with zero rules. Everything happens only with talent and imagination, and everything is chaos wacko. The more you try to find logic in said magic, the weaker the magic becomes. There's no reason for a magic system to have rules, it's magic.

2. And we can skip the magical aspects. By magical life form, if you mean even his consciousness and soul are magic to some extent, and that's why it won't work, then I've got an idea. He's transferred to this nonmagical world, from a magical entity, into a physical brain and whatever that entails, just like how you'd convert a document file into a printed piece of paper. As for why he was able to swap into another world with no magical influence? Because of the author. You're the one who forced him there, and he won't ever realize it cuz you exist outside his dimension. And you're not a fantasy or magical being, so yes, the world doesn't need to have magic cuz of that. Or you can skip it all and go the sci fi route with dimension crossing. Maybe he just got really, really lucky when he was sucked into a black hole.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

What do you mean by that?

One character, Anima of An Automated Tale, has Automaton Artificer, allowing them to build other automatons. Another character, Aradain of The Ocean of Chaos, has Monster Conversion, that allows her to absorb the remains of slain monsters to turn into items. If they swapped places, Aradain would not be building an army of robots. For example.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

If Henry were to swap places with Fey, the Skinwalkers series just...wouldn't have happened. The wendigos would put up more of a fight than the average maiam for no other reason than because they're still sentient while maiams are mindless animals, but Henry is an A-tier fighter with the potential to become S-tier, so they wouldn't be that far out of her wheelhouse. Skinwalker's main villain (who I'm keeping nameless because of spoilers) might be a halfway serious threat since he has other powers besides inhuman strength and speed, but she's still killed things stronger than him multiple times.

If Fey took Henry's place, the Henry Rider series also wouldn't have happened because it involves so much dimensional hopping. Even if someone were to clue Fey in to the multiverse's existence, she doesn't have an inherent connection to it like Henry (who is part emotion and so exists on two planes at once) does, so she wouldn't be able to travel through it without either a guide or an Escher Cube, which she also wouldn't know how to use.

If we ignored the multiverse aspect and just had Fey go up against the enemies Henry's faced, she would probably do okay against some of the early maiams. But as they grow stronger and get more elaborate powers, she would be all but helpless since they require magic to defeat, and Fey doesn't know how to use magic. Someone could teach her, and with the right guidance she might eventually get to Henry's level, but that would take years and years of intense training.

If she were to face Legion as she is now, there wouldn't even be a fight. He would take her down in seconds, and then probably add her body to his collective while absorbing her memories. Great, now he knows everything about skinwalkers and probably doesn't like them any more than he does klaons.

And if she tried to fight Cousin Gumdrop...no. Just no. To say Cousin Gumdrop would turn her into a smear on the wall is inaccurate because there wouldn't be enough to left of her to smear on the wall.