A downloadable custom character

The day before we were to host one of our favourite games, Nemesis, my son asked me to create a young character for him. Inspired by Bruno Fevereiro's The Forgotten Ones, a small fan-made set of characters I'd found online, I set to work developing a truly different player character, including a mechanic inspired by the Fellowship Track in War of the Ring (which I love and also create custom upgrades for).

We printed the character board on a shipping label, cut it out, then affixed it to a panel of a Rice Krispies box which we then also cut out. My son thinks that's what the Stowaway liked to eat every morning on the ship...

The 5-player game we took part in the next day was, as usual, an almost uncannily epic experience—the Soldier making a noble last stand, facing the final onslaught alone, the rest of the crew sealing themselves into cryo for the long sleep home. For the Stowaway, we ended up with a whole backstory in which the dead crew member (found in the Hibernatorium at game start) was his parent. As such, little Mikey's personal objective was to send a signal relating the sad news to the rest of the family. Here are the messages my boy (then 9 y.o.) typed out the next morning as a school writing assignment:

Dear dad, I have good and bad news, mom died but I did the mission you sent mom on. I also fixed the boomerang. Now can you tell sister that I will come back soon. During my mission I worked with some guys a soldier, a scientist, a mechanic, and a captain.<br>Love, Mikey

Dear Dad, bad news I landed on Mars not earth we made a mistake so I will not be coming back in till Me and my team fix it to earth sorry for the delay we will be back in some days so don't worry now stay safe until then ok dad.<br>Love, Mikey

More information