Seems like a cool idea. Suggestion: make this character a non-human. If we’re willing an IF mascot into being, then lean into the mascot angle! Make it something that would be appealing to draw, if any artists might be inspired to take a stab at illustration down the line – even years down the line. This would also force authors out of the traditional AFGNCAAP box. Human PCs apparently stick out less, according to comments in this thread, because the “you” POV blends into the player’s own identity too well. So make this character unique enough that you can’t blend into “you” easily.
My mind goes to a character like Spyro the Dragon, but I’m biased because I love dragons. Still, Spyro is both cute and tough. He can be a prankster or he can be serious. Beastly or sophisticated. A character like that can wear any number of hats. And he’s marketable.
He can be a prankster or he can be serious. Beastly or sophisticated. A character like that can wear any number of hats. And he’s marketable.
Versatility is a good starting point.
Flipping it around, I think a stuffed animal that comes to life, in the vein of Winnie the Pooh or Hobbes, would work well. That way, authors would be able to project their own personality and tone onto the character without worrying about what the character is ‘really’ like.
My stance on OS PC/NPC is known, and 100,000% concur and agree on the idea of a “shared PC/NPC”; I’m curious on the post-2027 development on this idea (and no, the “advance” part of my unusual OS licence, don’t imply that I’ll ßtest )
(spoiler of sort: I will consider a complete and decisive success if in the AIF section will be opened an “xRailei” section )
This might run the risk of falling into the AFGNCAAP box. If the personality is totally open, then we’re back at you = “you” again, and my suspicion is that the character won’t stand out from the crowd.
Stiffy Makane appears in many different roles. Sometimes he’s heroic and sometimes he’s downright evil scum. But there’s a core to his character that persists across every incarnation. I think we’ll need a similar core.
A wayfarer? Potentially promising! If you’re hopping dimensions, you could get tangled up in a lot of stories. Could be done via magic, or sci-fi tech, or something weirder like the talent to enter and/or manifest dreams, with each dimension being another dream.
Maybe, but this way it would at least be informed by what the thing is on the surface.
If you gave someone any teddy bear, they wouldn’t just act out their own personality — they’d act out a teddy bear-ish version of their own personality. Plodding and cautious but reliable and deliberate … maybe bumbling or foolish at times. Only the smallest and cutest teddy bears would be portrayed as excitable or manic.
By contrast, I think people would just portray Sherlock Holmes as themselves if you told them to do the same thing (either writing him, or, for an equal playing field, acting him out). Maybe miming certain detective stereotypes, but not much more.
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