Leftovers

There were a handful of character portraits that I had intended to post for Acts Three and Four of Virginia by Night that I never got around to. So, given that I've started writing (and posting) Philadelphia by Night 1999, I suppose it's now or never.

Guy du Savoy

The treacherous Prince of Richmond is first up on the list. He's based on a PC from our college-era VtM campaign, but I've done a lot more with him. Guy's a pretty complex character, and unfortunately the story line did not give me the room to fully flesh out his motivations and passions. Guy is my first attempt at writing a genuine real homosexual character, not merely someone who lives that lifestyle for the kicks (like Deborah, for example). His grief and rage at the death of his lover, Raoul, is his primary motivator. While that makes him a villain in the context of Michael's story, I wanted his pain to feel real and his anger genuine, even if misplaced. As I said, he's complicated enough that I'd like to flesh him out some more and maybe I'll do that at some point in the future.

In terms of his portrait, I'm exceedingly pleased with how he turned out. This an almost fully self-created Sim, using many of the tools and DLC I've gained from downloading all the other Sims that you've seen here.

Raoul

The ill-fated Raoul unfortunately learned the hard way the dangers of the Dragonbreath shotgun round, making his appearance in Act Three brief, but important. His destruction drives Guy to hatch his grand revenge scheme in Act Four which leads to nearly all the events that transpire in Tidewater in 1996.

Again, this is another portrait I'm very happy with. Like Guy, I've cobbled him together myself with all the various components that I've downloaded over the past few months.

Cranston

Guy's go-to-guy in Act Four, Cranston is another PC from our VtM campaign. Originally conceived as a Caitiff with some Lasombra blood (who was also semi-insane. More on that in a few sentences), I had to modify him for his conversion into VtR. Using the wonderful conversion book Onyx Path put out for that purpose, he's now Mekhet of the Lasombra bloodline.

As I mentioned, Cranston was originally created as being slightly off-his-rocker. That's because he has the delusion of being an old 1930s-era super hero, which is where his name comes from, as well as his description as being an "Alec Baldwin" type.

His character contains yet another homage to pop culture in his weapons. The Shadow carries two M1911 pistols in the above linked film, and I further had them modified to fire .454 Casull rounds (This was also a piece of the original VtM character). That brought to mind the guns used by this famous anime vampire.

Lara

Normally, I wouldn't bother with creating a portrait for a throw-away minor character like Lara, but I did this one anyway. Partly on whimsy, partly because of the origin of the character. Lara comes from a dream I had that played out very much like Michael's encounter with her in Act Four (I meet her in a bar, followed her home. We had sex, etc. Hey, I'm a red-blooded American male and my subconscious doesn't always cooperate with my marriage vows.)

It wasn't until I started scouring the Sims websites and found a Sim that looked like the girl in my head that I realized what my subconscious was doing: She looks a whole lot like a certain crush I had in high school that I honestly hadn't thought about much in 20 years. Alright, I figured, my brain decided to fulfill a fantasy of mine 20 years too late. But it did give me her name and a place in the Virginia by Night storyline.

Virgil

Michael's loyal manager at the Fox Club and Nightstyles, Virgil's pic is a bit more generic than I normally like. I'll probably do a revision of him in the near future to update his look, seeing as he does have a role to play in the early parts of Philadelphia by Night.