Player Character Types: AFGNCAAP; authored; rolled/co-created

[HanonO (Hanon Ondricek)]

@talsvals

I feel like I have zero interest in narrative branch-based IF, though I know this sounds like such a sweeping statement I remain open to having my mind changed. But when I try a game like that I just have zero interest in making those choices, I don’t get what kind of headspace I’m supposed to be in: do I pretend to be this character and then try and think what they would do in that situation? Do I think what would I do in that situation, even if it’s happening to a character in circumstances very different to my own?

There are different types of PC and it’s based on author and story intent with regard to characterization.

• AFGNCAAP (Ageless, Faceless, Gender Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person) - The PC is undefined and for all practical purposes is “you”. Your character traits have little to do with the story and you probably have no specific history nor backstory in the world. You might have a “job” or a “quest”, but the PC’s identity doesn’t matter while you solve puzzles or have an adventure.

Examples: Zork (many of Infocom’s games) Colossal Cave, and many classic parser games. You might be a “mysterious Chosen One” in the plot, but it’s you. Decisions and plot-branches you make later in the game might serve to narrow down or define the PC more and alter the plot, but this won’t be at the beginning usually.

• Inhabited PC/Fixed Roleplay - The character does have a role, perhaps a name and a backstory which is either outright explained, or you learn who they are by playing and how characters react to you and what you do (and are “allowed” to do). The character is kind of you but you are inhabiting a character the author has created whom might see the world through different eyes than yours and make decisions that make sense for the character moreso than what you might do in that situation. These stories can be “unreliable narrator” where certain plot details are withheld for a surprise reveal, or you may be told up front “You’re a rat-pirate captain on a sinking ship.” You may even have a “reluctant narrator/PC” who might refuse some commands you give it because they wouldn’t do that.

Examples: 9:05, Taco Fiction, Plundered Hearts, Violet, Lost Pig, Counterfeit Monkey, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rameses, Depression Quest, Coloratura, De Baron, Varicella.

• Co-Created PC/Rolled Character - Akin to an RPG, there may be a pre-game phase of "rolling’ you character, choosing a class, assigning stat points, specifying male or female and other personal traits. Or you may have a prologue scenario where your character and demeanor and stats are set by your initial choices (“It’s the schoolyard bully, do you A: Fight them B: Talk it out C: Pick up a rock D: Sneak away E: Run away”) The story will rearrange or swap elements such as histories and descriptions and puzzle solutions and other NPCs behavior to support the choices you make. Players can match themselves and feel immersed so the story caters to their preferences, or they can choose a completely different personality inside which to role-play.

Examples: Most Choice of Games titles capitalize on co-creation, and there are many RPG-leaning IFs with character creation. Any game with a “statistics” screen is usually allowing the player to have some kind of agency in character creation and customization.

As with everything, there are blends and hybrids of these types and each may not apply fully to every game or story.

[Dissolved]

How does this work with games like Fail-safe or Bellclap? I guess you could argue that Fail-safe has an inhabited PC, but conceptually the player is an undefined character who is ordering that character around.

I suppose you could say this has all been explored before (e.g. triangle of identities) but given this is (presumably) supposed to be an explainer for those unfamiliar with IF conventions re: protagonists, you might as well cover that too.

[HanonO (Hanon Ondricek)]

So this is probably a hybrid/variation but is a unique perspective:

Player as Controller - This can just be the player as “voice in the head” giving directions to a character where the story is told in first or third-person, but the protagonist(s) are most definitely separate from the player, or where the player is something magical like an advice-cricket on the shoulder, or giving commands to someone remotely via technology such as chat, phone, radio.
Examples: Suspended, Bellclap, Lifeline, Closure, parts of Cannery Vale

[Draconis (Daniel Stelzer)]

The Scott Adams games sort of implicitly assume this: the prompt is “tell me what to do”, all the messages describe things happening to “me”, and there are occasionally mentions that “you” are a separate person. For example, the victory message in The Count:

The townpeople come and carry me off cheering! (Don’t worry, I tell them I owe it all to you!!!!)

There’s one notable puzzle in Mystery Fun House, echoing the Loud Room in Zork, where you can’t do anything in a certain location unless you’ve disabled a loud steam calliope—because the “I” in the game can’t hear the commands from “you” the player!