Character Creation

[Hayabusa]

Damn that's the same link... can the GM create a link when in the game for invites?

[ManWithDoor]

https://app.roll20.net/join/1578132/9bjthA

[Muskrat]

Okay, I've joined.

[ManWithDoor]

Permissions given!

Also, wouldn't hurt for Hermit & Muskrat to upload Portraits for their characters.

[Muskrat]

Where should I do that? I really have no familiarity with Roll20 and I don't see an obvious place for character portraits.

[Hermit]

I'd like to provide a portrait for Dexter, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a picture of a half-Romani with bleach blonde hair.

[Hayabusa]

Where should I do that? I really have no familiarity with Roll20 and I don't see an obvious place for character portraits.

When you're in the game on Roll20, there should be a couple buttons on the top right. Our characters are in the journal there and you can edit the character there.

[Muskrat]

I'd like to provide a portrait for Dexter, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a picture of a half-Romani with bleach blonde hair.

You'll notice that in the player character thread, I actually have two portraits for my character, since what I have in my head looks like a combination of the two.

[Muskrat]

Where should I do that? I really have no familiarity with Roll20 and I don't see an obvious place for character portraits.

When you're in the game on Roll20, there should be a couple buttons on the top right. Our characters are in the journal there and you can edit the character there.

Okay, I found it and uploaded the picture.

[JohnnyWeird]

Not sure how I got to this spot in my mind, but I started to gravitate towards the idea of someone who's never been the protagonist in their own story. What happens when a person used to fading into the background is able to rearrange the set?

Let's say a stay-at-home dad, shotgun wedding in the last days of high school. Wife is smart, scary smart, but being able to calculate Pythagorean triples in your head doesn't make you better at safe sex. She's on the fast track to Genius School, so he takes on the responsibilities of parenting.

The gamble pays off, as Mrs. PC graduates college summa cum laude and gets a job at one of the tech giants in the Bay Area. The twins (every teen parent's nightmare) and this guy follow. Money is tight, but child care is expensive enough that he keeps at it, with much tightening of belts.

But around the time that the kids are 10, things change. The wife develops new system architecture for, I don't know, large-scale irrigation systems. Turns this into a startup, Wellsprng, and she starts bringing home what economists refer to as f*** you money. It's a good life, and it gives him the opportunity to keep a better house and to give his children more of the best things in life.

This advantage lets the twins come into their own. Rich and supporting parents help nurture hidden talents. Those talents advance at leaps and bounds, and he cheers them on every step of the way. It isn't long before they're ready to strike out on their own adventures.

So, by the age of 35, let's say, our guy's family is flourishing. Rebecca, the daughter, is apprenticed to a blacksmith in LA who makes swords for high fantasy movies. Isaac, the son, has a free ride at Oberlin for the violin. Anna, the wife, is putting in 18-hour days expanding Wellsprng to provide software solutions to water scarcity.

Empty nest hits pretty hard. For the first time since his teens, he's got free time. There's only so many hot yoga classes, so many PTA meetings, so many kitchen remodelings you can do before you have to start dealing with the Lurker.

Maybe it's always been there, but he never really had time - or desire? - to think about it. Or maybe that first perfectly quiet night lets something step in to fill the vacuum. Either way, he confronts what he comes to understand is an Avatar of his magic - yeah, apparently, magic.

Thoughts? If it sucks I can do something else.