Thoughts on a New Character

Meh. I need something immediate too.
I had the idea of him crashing his car. Which appeals to me. Possibly banging it into a tree outside the tavern.
But who is this guy? Is it just some guy? He can't be just some guy. Or why not? We're just some guy to someone.
So I ask again. Who is this guy?
He's a guy that would own an El Camino, or similar looking car.
  - Is he a car enthusiast, or is just his first car.
I kinda imagine him as having been given it as a hand-me-down. A used car, that he does his best to take care of, and is proud of. Given it to him for his eighteenth birthday.
   -It's a 1968 El Camino. It needs to be getting close to a decade and a half old. So, he's from 1981 or so. His Dad's driven it as long as he can remember.
   - His Dad's in the trades. Not a mechanic, not a plumber or a contractor. My gut says something towards linework, but perhaps a millwright.
   - Yes. A millwright, working for General Motors in Flint Michigan. Layoffs are a-coming, but he's got seniority, so it'll be some time before his job is gone.
   - His mom? His mom's a teacher. A high school chemistry teacher. His parents went to high school together.
Okay, so what's the kid do?
 - First of all, his dad would like him to follow in the trades, but there's been a lot of talk lately about how there might be layoffs a coming, and his older brother's already apprenticing, so he's going to univer... No.
  - You are falling into the same trap as always. Kids who aren't confident. What does the town /need/ that it does not currently have? Make him be that. So first thing's first. He's not eighteen. He's twenty three.
 - THe car's old by now. Nearly twenty years. But the old man knows a thing or two about how to take care of a car, and he's taught you a few things, and between the two of you, you've kept it running way longer than should have been reasonable. The year is 1985. You were born in 1962, making you twenty-three. Dad bought that car back in '68, and kept it in damned fine shape all these years. You've had it since 1980, since you turned 18, since you announced you were going off.
- You went to the University of Michigan. You got decent grades, which helped, and you were captain of the high school lacrosse team, which also helped, what with the scholarship you got. Then you went and got a job, and took on student debt, which helped the rest of the way. You got a job.
My god, he's not gonna be a dentist. What a boring son of a bitch that would be. You want something /interesting/. Something engaging.
My god, this guy is stepping out of his car after hitting a tree, and thinking what the hell is going on? He's not gonna be a fucking dentist, get real.
I mean, this guy's not a fighter, but he's no wuss. He plays lacrosse in an adult league. He was on the university team. He was captain of the high school lacrosse team. Guy's not a wimp. He's built well.
His older brother's a millwright. He'd bought his first car, something of a beater.
First up. He's a she. This is a woman we're making
Second up? Not lacrosse. Either field hockey or cross country. Something of a marathonner. That appeals to me. A lot.
  -Okay, no. Field hockey. She was a field hockey player, and gave it up after university, and keeps active by running. She's done a marathon since university, and still keeps in good shape.
She was something of a tomboy growing up. Took an interest in cars, which her dad was glad to oblige. He'd initially worried that she wasn't quite right, but her mom assuaged his fears, and she ended up dating a few guys in high school and university. She's lost her virginity, to a guy in one of her classes.

Thoughts on Creating a Mage

I'm making a new character!
He is not from the past.
  Though, he may be from the future. Or a future. Or from a past with magic. Or from something similar to a fantasy realm.
He is not a pacifist.
   Labels are stupid. Avoid them. Drew was a pacifist, and you felt constrained by it.
He knows how to speak English completely. He can speak it clearly.
   Number 1 reason Drew failed. Felt constrained by the damnable speaking.
   Maybe he has an accent. Accents are cool.
I want a mage. I really do.
   I want a mage that's... kinda sorta not from Earth. I don't want to create a new society completely, but yeah.
   Something like Fiskworld. Or RantEarth. But keep in mind that you have to consider how magic is going to have changed the development of things.
   If you want a modern mage, there are several routes to go with it.
1) Magic is a secret.
- Go the Callie/Tunc route. Have it be something you channel and learn to work with. That can either be through the idea that anyone can do it if they worked with it long enough, like it seems Callie/Tunc did, or there can be a veil in play, and some people are just inherently more gifted with it than others, a la Dresden.
   - If you go the Dresden route, two rules. One. Molly is a better choice than Harry. Work the technical side rather than the brute force side. Better to work with mental magic, and help folks down that route, and working veils, and working with fiddly technical aspects and be empathetic, than try to make a combat mage. Specialize. Because Niixa will always be the battle mage.
   - Similarly, Callie is the abjurer.
      - The goal is extended character longevity. They can't just be a mage.
           - By that token, they can't just be learning to be a mage, either. Everyone continues to develop and intermix their skills throughout life, but Alban was a bad way to go with it. Despite being a teacher, he was /just/ a mage. I liked his system. Maybe revisit it, with someone who uses their skills for something apart from just magery. Because it can't just be a mage. Or a teacher of magic.
I mean, I'm not just a retail drone. I'm into D&D, and I want to be an engineer, and I'm good at math, and I read a tonne, fantasy and sci-fi. And I'm into trivia. And, I board game. Which all somewhat lends itself well to character longevity. They're non-active things that can be portrayed easily in the textual setting of RP without too much trouble.
  -Advance things a century or two. Throw in a reference to Alban somewhere. Perhaps in a method used or something. That'd be neat.


Obviously, this is something of a mess. I'm just trying to get into a writing mood at the moment, and this is what I got on the subject of mages.