Players are encouraged to select PBs ("played bys") for their characters — just like TV shows and movies cast actors.
Please note that we accept actors, musicians, models, or basically any real life person who is actively in the public sphere as a media personality. We do not accept images of those who are not — for example, images of your friends, family members or yourself are not acceptable as PBs and you will be asked to find a more appropriate PB. This is to ensure we do not invade anyone's privacy and is a rule implemented in the interests of Internet safety.
While a character is active, their PB may not be recycled. This also encompasses characters who have had a good run of story and have formally retired, or were killed.
There is some exception for PB recycling, particularly if the character has been long idle with few to no scenes. If you would like a PB currently reserved by a character who is no longer active, you may +request for us to review this along with your character concept. We reserve the right to deny you, as we will review these on a case-by-case basis. If there is an available alternate, we recommend you consider them first before submitting such a request.
You can check what actors are taken with the command +actor/check <name>, or viewing the Taken Actors page (which is not always completely updated — you could also try using the Search field to make sure).