Why can't I simply change my portrait in each game?

I've seen a large number of forum posts about this.  I want to have a unique portrait linked to each game I play in.  I run multiple games as the DM -> I have a DM portrait I use as my profile portrait.  I also play in 2 games.  I simply want my portrait/avatar to be different when I'm a player to reflect the character I'm playing.  Right now I physically go into my profile and change the pic before each game.  This seems absurd, we can upload all these images into the game as a DM, but there's no drop down to chose different portraits? The solution that I have found in this forum is that somehow if you load a character in using some kind of character generator it creates a portrait.  Is there a tutorial on how to create a placeholder character, so I can load in the portrait?  I play in a lot of games that use house rules making it hard to use standard character generators, so I don't use them.  Or... can roll20 simply implement a portrait drop-down so we can choose different portraits for different games?  I've seen requests for this going back 6 years, just implement it.  It's probably like <100 lines of code. Thanks!

Hi MrGreY! Choose "Speaking As" in your chat tab. Make sure you choose your character name instead of your player name. It will display the avatar of that character.

It sounds like the games that Mr Grey is in don't use character sheets that incorporate a player portrait, so the "Speaking As" dropdown wouldn't work. The function that he's asking for would be handy; you wouldn't need to create a character sheet for every NPC. Not every shop keeper and bartender needs one.

Hmm. Avatars and tokens don't require a character sheet, only a character journal. These exist in all games by default. The method I outlined will work, though admittedly it would require creating a journal for each portrait. These journals would be quite small in data size, especially if there is no sheet. Question: If another solution is sought, what would be the source for the images? I.e. who would the chat "know" which list of images to choose from? I could imagine a Mod Script solution could be engineered without too much trouble. The Faces script and TokenMod can already swap token images; making an interface to swap avatars should be a small matter to accomplish. It's not likely that Roll20 would re-engineer the existing feature-- too many people depend on it working the way it does. But a script solution might work. Note that this would require a Pro subscription and the writing of said script. Or you could create journals for the portraits.

Folks, Thank you for all the discussion and suggests.  I'm going to attempt the journal solution you describe, this seems the most straight forward.  Thank you, I hadn't thought of that.  I am not super experienced in using roll20, though I have been using it to run my games as a supplement to zoom/teams (battle map but without much of the character input).  I recently got a Plus account because I've now used it enough I think the platform is worth investing in, but yeah I don't have pro for the scripting.

keithcurtis: "If another solution is sought, what would be the source for the images?" I don't think I'm roll20-savvy enough to get what you are asking?  I understand the following: (1) When I log onto a game, a bunch of portraits appear in a row in the lower left, which are overlaid over the map.  In the drop-down on the left in chat I have the choice to use my own name as loaded into the game under that portrait (and set by the GM? I forget but it is my character name in the game I played recently), or to use my map token .  The portrait that gets loaded into the lower left is the portrait I have in my overarching account (which you also see in this forum).  (2) Some of my friends are loading characters from D&D Beyond, and I believe this loads a character portrait, though I haven't used it so I'm not sure. What I'm asking for is to allow the portrait that is loading into the lower left to be customizable, using some kind of drop-down menu.  I don't see why you couldn't have this simple solution (yes it must be coded into the platform, but it seems obvious to me that this would be doable?). However, perhaps another possibility is to have tokens off in a dark area that are simply portraits you've given to your GM, and then he sets those portraits to tokens controlled by you which you would then use in the chat drop-down.  But it still shows your main portrait from your profile in the lower left row, and that's confusing if you are using different characters in different games. Thanks!

Unless... there is a way for the GM to set that image?  ... it's a solved problem if the GM can set up multiple tokens as I suggested that are controlled by you, I think?  [Edit: right, that's exactly what the journal suggestion does]

Ok - I tested it and you can't chat as a random separate token, but you can chat as a token created from the journal. The player can't create it, but the GM can create it for them. So I think that solves it, good enough! For example, you can have an OOC journal token, and your character journal token, and then you can swap between these so it's clear what you are saying in character. Thank you again!