Thoughts on preset protagonists in character creation?

[HarrisPS]

My first thought is that it’s setting yourself up for a lot of work, but if it’s something you feel really good about exploring, then go for it.

Definitions vary a lot from different people about what “preset” means so it would be good to think about what that means to you for this game.

This post has a great set of links to lots of discussions around the subject:

Advice about player character

Hi, there! I think a good place to start would be the COG design guidelines. They don’t go into detail about how you should write your MC, but you should get a feel about the main features players expect from a COG title from those. Then, I would advise you to search the forum — the issue of the type of MC players prefer has been brought up many times before, so if you want to look into that subject more in depth you can probably find a ton of existing topics about it. Here’s some I found in a…

More recently this thread may be of interest:

How Much Protagonist Background?

Hi Folks The newbie’s unavoidable trap beckons like the soft slither of Medusa’s serpents and the rustling of her elegant gown. How do I avoid her death gaze! How much backstory do I give the protagonist? Gods that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson are, I’ve never been that fond of Fighting Fantasy’s ultra blank slate approach to the player’s character. As a player I like to step into some sort of avatar that has formed a place in the world, but I don’t want to end up with a story that feels l…

And more broadly, this discussion about play styles and how people feel about their play experience is worth looking at:

Playstyles: Director vs Actor; a valuable distinction?

In many of the discussions about playstyles, particular COGs and HGs and about COGs and HGs in general, the difference between people who tend to self-insert and those who get into and stay in character, are often brough up. While I understand that it can also be considered as a continuum or spectrum where it’s possible you might not be fully one of the types, but tend more towards one than the other, I’ve always find it hard to relate to either of those “types” for most of the COGs and HGs I’v…