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Welthammer

Not that anyone in AVATAR could act, which is one reason we rejected this pic for James Welthammer.

An Actor Avatar is a real-world actor, model, or other personality used on the TwikI as a visual representation of a character in the TI universe. Of course, since this is a game and not a movie or TV series, no one is actually playing our characters except our storyteller/editor and writer/players, but having a "actor who would play them in the movie version" greatly helps the reader (and authors) visualize a scene, hear the characters speak in our heads, and so forth.

It also makes watching movies and TV series a lot more fun when we can get giggles over seeing our beloved TI characters in bizarre situations.

Note that there is no restrictions on budget, or date of filming, so there is no problem having, say, Christopher Plummer circa 1965 playing Karl Von Shrakenberg in a scene in Season 4.2 opposite Jurgen Prochnow circa 1999 playing his nephew Erich. However, once an actor is used for one character, they really shouldn't be used for another, regardless of any difference in ages or film roles. Which is why we went back to Patrick Stewart for Samuel Wall instead of having an older version of Bruce Willis, who plays his son, Andrea Treschi. When possible, Actor Avatars should be just that: actors or other celebrities. However, if you find a really good picture, that really fits the character, go ahead and use someone from a generic stock photo, an historical figure, the real-world person you named the character after or based the character partially upon, or just some goofy image macro you found online somewhere. Pictures should, if possible, be in color, and show the person in appropriately sci-fi-ish settings, clothing, and makeup. That helps greatly with setting the mood. But, again, if you find a really good pic, go ahead and use it.

If you're really artistic, feel free to draw your character as well. That's even better, but most of us can't draw a face to save our lives.

Assigned Celebrity Actor Avatars

Non-Celebrity Actor Avatars

Unknown Actor Avatars

These are character illustrations added by people who did not add the name of the source to this list, and whom the rest of us can't immediately recognize.

Behind the Scenes

Starting in Season 4.3, we passed around via email an ever-expanding list of members of the TI "Dream Cast". Some, but not all of the choices from that list, were used in Frank's epically hilarious "Behind the Roleplaying" parody script. Another, much smaller Dream Cast list was circulated for Season Eight. But way back in Season One, Martin and Marcus picked actors to use as the mind's-eye appearance of their characters.

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