I've begun adding players. Some have a question or two before I can include them, but it seems like a good group.

Go ahead and introduce yourselves here - as they would have known you in high school. If you decide you've kept in touch after that, you can share more.

Back in her teens, Mel came across as someone more likely to mock and belittle geeks than be friends with them. She was a cheerleader with a bad reputation, who seemed to almost relish being put in detention for breaking school rules. But Mel wouldn't be pigeonholed into a clique. She struck up an odd friendship with Bernie after sneaking in to see Batman Returns despite being several years underage, and was a fan of series like Batman: The Animated Series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (she was teased for having a crush on Kevin Sorbo), Xena: Warrior Princess, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She didn't stay in touch with the others after leaving school, but some might have noticed her in minor film roles or as a minor model (mostly in magazine ads). After she married, she dropped out of sight.

[OOC: Happy to rework the last bit if someone wants to have kept in touch.]

Hi, everyone! My character's name is Caleb Rugger.

Caleb was one of those kids who always took his classes seriously. He was shy and awkward, quiet in class. Some people thought he was stuck up. People that knew Caleb better described him as kind and someone who cared about other people. Caleb often had his nose in a book, and Bernie introduced Caleb to Star Wars, Star Trek, and roleplaying games. Caleb's social life mainly extended to hanging out with Bernie and Bernie's friends, but outside of that, Caleb kept to himself most of the time.

You probably know that Caleb went off to college at the state university and moved away after graduation. You may even have him added as a friend on social media, though he mostly just posts quotations from books and almost never posts photos.

Jonathan first crossed path with Bernie in the local Blockbuster, where he told Jonathan that he should rent a japanese cartoon. The show amazed Jonathan, who started hounding Bernie once he found him at school, asking him for more shows like that. They spent a lot of time together after that, joining Bernie's circle of geek, and watching various shows both local and foreign, like Transformer, Ulysses 31, Grendizer, and Captain Harlock.

They stayed in contact when Jonathan went to college, but after moving away in hope of finding work in the video game industry, they quickly lost touch with one another.

Now, years later, Jonathan finds himself living in a cheap apartment, working nine to five entering data for some face-less corporation. His few social contacts are with a group of D&D players and game testers, and most of his evenings are filed with replays of old anime, thinking about what he dreamt of back in his youth.

David was a theater kid, one of the types who thought he was going to be a famous actor one day. He was a huge fan of 90s action stars like Schwarzenegger and Seagal, and thought he'd be the next big hero of the silver screen. He watched a lot of movies, of course, which is how he connected with Bernie, both of them being regular customers at the local Blockbuster. He also enjoyed himself the odd video game, with more than a few hours spent on Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Doom. After graduation, David moved out to LA to finally make it big like he'd promised.

The last time any of you might have heard of him was when he started looking for old friends on Facebook, his pursuit of action stardom clearly not having panned out.

Margarita Lowenstine was an ugly duckling in high school. She was short and dumpy with frizzy "Jew-fro" hair and a less-than-clear complexion. She was a theatre-geek, though relegated to chorus and crew. She was also an avid game player, board, MMORPG, and especially tabletop RPGs. Bernie Robinson was a year older than Rita and her first Dungeon Master; you never forget your first. She even asked him to go to prom her Junior Year, but he declined, nicely.

In college, Rita bloomed. She grew four inches in height and a bit more in the bust. Her skin cleared up and she managed to tame her hair and colored it in various shades of red. She actually got some speaking roles in the drama club plays.

After college, she managed to get work in regional theatre and worked her way into an Equity card. She changed her name to Rita Lyons and got representation. She got a couple of appearances on Dawson's Creek (as its popularity sagged) and a semiregular gig on Felicity late in its run. Then she hit a couple of less-popular reality shows.

By 2010, her parents were aging badly and she came home to help them. Her career diminished to dinner theater gigs every couple of years and a local commercial and industrial film every so often. She's working on voice acting now, sending out audition tapes through her agent.

Mommy died in 2015 and she finally had to sell their home and put Pops in a memory unit two years ago. Rita supports herself with her occasional acting gigs and working at Avalon, that New Age/FLGS/head shop downtown, the one in the old Blockbuster location.

Rita had a huge, unexpressed crush on David and would have given anything to be Melanie.

BTW she has changed so much--taller, shapelier, red hair, etc--that no one is likely to recognize her as someone they knew in high school. It's possible Melanie and her husband saw her in a dinner theater production (No Sex Please We're British?) but she'd be billed as Rita Lyons in the program, so not even name recognition.

I haven't strictly defined where you all went to school - I'll leave it as a vague midwestern American suburb of a major metropolitan city unless you guys want to agree on something more specific.

Where life took you after that is up to you. Scattered to the four winds, going to university, pursuing dreams and careers. You have a life. You have ties that bind you to this life, if not in your Aspects than as soft RP elements. No drifters, nobody with no obligations.

The game proper will start at the reading of Bernie's will in Taos, New Mexico. It's currently June 21st, 2021... sunny weather with a day's high of 95°F, an evening low in the 50s.

I'll get a play thread up over the weekend, hopefully ready to go Monday, but you guys should talk out what your relationships were like in high school.

In reply to Margarita Lowenstine (msg # 7):

I can work with this. I don't think David was strictly oblivious to it, but he was reasonably popular so he tended to stick with the cheerleaders and other similarly popular girls when he was looking for someone to date. And now that they're reuniting, things are probably gonna be a bit awkward, to say the least.

@Melanie: Speaking of, if you're okay with it, perhaps our characters dated for a time. Nothing particularly serious- David wasn't really into the whole "commitment" thing back then- but enough that there's a bit of history there.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:13, Fri 01 Oct 2021.

Heartbreak!

I love it!

It was such a long time ago and so much has happened to all of us since then.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Fri 01 Oct 2021.

In reply to David Richardson (msg # 9):

I like it! Mel also wasn't big on commitment back then.

Would anyone have been a fan of Twin Peaks? Part of Mel's backstory is that her parents didn't let her watch it, so she watched what episodes she could round a friend's house.

Bernie would have been a fan.

Jonathan would have spent a lot of time with you around the gaming table, and he would cross path with David at the Blockbuster. But he didn't really keep contact with anyone after leaving for another city, and has barely any presence on social media.

He would likely cross path with Rita before going to the opening of the will, simply because he'd go take a look at the old Blockbuster, and visit her store out of curiosity. I doubt he'd recognize her, but despite his early gray hair, she would easily recognize him.

Dibs on the DnD stuff, Caleb!

What? And give up Bernie’s copies of Tomb of Horrors and Blackmoor, signed by Gygax and Arneson? You wound me, Rita!