One Character, Two Campaigns

Hi all, 

I'm somewhat of a newer DM and i had to take a leave from my Campaign for about a year. during that year one of the PC used the same character information in a different campaign.  We are just getting my campaign going again and one of the other PCs has a bit of an issue with him playing the "same character" in 2 campaigns.  In the other campaign during drawing from the deck of many things that character got sent to an unknown location.  The PC with the issue is now telling me he sees the character as "soulless" cause he is not really here. 

 Different worlds, different universes, the character had different equipment and leveled up in the other campaign but is coming back to my campaign as he was the last day we played.  

What would you do? 

Thank you for your input 

Personally I wouldn’t allow it, as a DM I want each campaign to have unique characters that fit that story so transferring a character from another campaign is not allowed. Added to that using the same character in two campaigns that are both running just sounds like a nightmare for the player as much as anyone, tracking them at two different levels, with two different lots of experiences and what they know just doesn’t sound practical, at that point are they even the same character? 

I’d just say they had to create a new character for your campaign and then figure out a way to introduce them while the original character leaves 

Quote from CunningSmile >>

Personally I wouldn’t allow it, as a DM I want each campaign to have unique characters that fit that story so transferring a character from another campaign is not allowed. Added to that using the same character in two campaigns that are both running just sounds like a nightmare for the player as much as anyone, tracking them at two different levels, with two different lots of experiences and what they know just doesn’t sound practical, at that point are they even the same character? 

I’d just say they had to create a new character for your campaign and then figure out a way to introduce them while the original character leaves 

 

 I don’t think that is the issue here.  The OPs campaign was on hiatus, the player ran his character in another campaign but is willing to “reset” the character to the last time it was played in the OPs campaign.  No equipment, experience or anything else will cross over.  Essentially the character belongs in the OPs campaign, another DM was cool with letting him bring the character into the second campaign where he developed differently.  One has nothing to do with the other at this point.  If the player can keep them straight, no harm, no foul.

Oh, and I’d tell the other player that he is off-base.  That character never left as far as the campaign is concerned, this is a player issue not a character issue from my point of view.

I don't personally see what the issue is as long as they are playing the character fully separately between the 2 campaigns. Any campaign crossover feels like a hard no to me. It sounds like the whole reason this happened in the first place is your campaign was interrupted.

Lots of players love experimenting with various character concepts but others have 1 or 2 archetypes they usually default to. I might nudge for a name change between the 2 campaigns if someone really has an issue with it and those 2 players are in both campaigns. Beyond that as long as the player who has a specific character type they want to play isn't in any way trying to mix the 2 campaigns I don't see why 1 player should be telling another how to have fun.