Well, I"m not talking in a warmup sense.  I'm talking in a don't-lose-lives-and-have-to-drop-out sense.  I mean, I didn't even come across TTL until something like six or eight labors in, and while I have a vested interest in participation, the fact that my chars can only die twice is a severe limitation, as it would be for anyone who did not have the chance to participate.  I realize this is part of the point.  That doesn't mean I"m not going to try to maximize potential for myself and others.

...Or, perhaps, we could request you run one of these with slightly more generous terms -- a "repeat until someone wins" would be good.  No trophies, but the idea is the same.  ^.^

...Is there a limit to characters?  As I have no idea what they'll be facing, I don't know who would work well, nor who would fit the setting properly.  A fantasy character in a hard scifi setting, for example, tends to be an issue.  ...And the reverse can also be an issue, and result in a mental breakdown, if one remains true to the character.

As for characters given to me...the way I view characters is...a bit fuzzy.  So I have multiples of the same character, and those /are/ the same character.  And then I have /my/ version of a character someone else created, which I was given permission to adopt, and if I made any changes of significance I would credit the original's person, but I would not consider it to be the same character in the way that I would call two manifestations of my little Seer girl the same character.  In a sense, every time a base is used, it's a new character.  In others, one may gather the various manifestations of every character I've ever played and group them into sets that are more or less the same character, even if they're not truly identical.  Given that with characters that hold their origins with the ideas of others I generally start using them to support characters who originate with me, or have been turned into my characters, and that means that even when I change them they generally maintain a number of the same relationships.  Where I would rename a character originating with me because of significant divergence from the previous concept, I don't do that as often when the original idea obtained for the supporting/adopted character once they take on a life of their own.  After that, divergences gain new names as most of my characters do, but the first change does not usually do so.  There is a clear line dividing the instances of a character made by someone else that they use, and any instance where I use them, and that line is actually a bigger division than exists between many of my own characters that I consider separate.

...So the short answer to this is that I don't think my idea of which characters are completely mine is the same as which ones are the same as a character someone else uses.  This is probably not relevant in the end, but I do enjoy discussing the concept.  ^.^;;