Kids on Bikes

Just a bunch of meddling teenagers.

(Hey, before I get into this post, I just wanted to mention again that I'm still feeling a little sick. If I don't have the best commentary this week, it's partially the stress of the world and the stress of being sick coming down at the same time. Sorry bout that. Anyway, back to the drawings.)

So these are the player characters of a Tabletop RPG I'm playing with a few friends. The system is called "Kids on Bikes," a rules-lite TTRPG game system that focuses on storytelling, and the players are often vastly underpowered characters. They're underpowered characters like, say... normal American teenagers would be if they had to deal with monsters, magic, aliens, government conspiracies, and worse, coming to their small town. The game is meant to evoke a sort of "Stranger Things" or "IT" or even a "Stand By Me" vibe. It's been a pretty cool game, and it's designed so that you can take advantage of your group's shared experiences as young people in a small community.

The sketches here are some of the characters from our group. Starting with my character, Elena, and her (npc) kid sister, Iris. Elena's an extremely protective older sister. The two had arrived in the US effectively as undocumented orphans when Elena was 7, and Iris was one, they only have each other. Their parents were supposed to come for them, but they never did, and Elena had been taking care of Iris at their apathetic auntie's home in Massachusetts. Elena developed a tough skin, a short temper, and the scrappiness to pick a fight and win.

The other characters are played by the other players, so I can't quite describe them in perfect detail, but here are the short versions. The good-natured girl in the second image is Cookie, an older girl scout and sort of mentor/friend to Iris that Elena tolerates despite thinking she's extremely naive. The third pic features Wolfgang, a somewhat weird outcast kid with a creative and surprisingly bright mind. He is a bit of a cinephile and amateur photographer, and it's almost unsurprising that his main friends are a bit weird, too. The last sketch is of Robin, who is technically NOT a teen but an adult who works at the video store. Formerly, well in her mind still is the coolest girl in school. She's never lost her anti-authoritarian side, and it's made her as many enemies as admirers. She can also drive a car, so we definitely need her for this adventure.

We've played a couple of sessions already; I'll let you know if everyone survives the next one!