Select character at start (by using vaiable)

Yes! 

1. Create a variable to store the student's choice (Ex: Avatar)
2. Create a selection screen with the student's options.  When the student selects a character and clicks submit, adjust the variable to be the character they chose.  (Ex: Male1)
3. On any screen with a character, create a state for each of the possible characters (Ex: Male 1, Female 2, etc.).
4. On the slide, add a series of action triggers to change the state of the character based on the variable, when the timeline starts.  (Ex: change state of image 1 to the state Male 1 if  the variable Avatar is equal to Male1)

I hope that makes sense.