I don't know if it's on topic, but just since the romance thirst was brought up hehe. One thing that's sort of curious about every D&D computer game ever made, is how the Protagonist is always assumed to be single, with like no family, and already at the point where they have nothing left to lose when the game begins. I mean virtually every plot opener is orphan/amnesia driven, where the PC is already totally unencumbered, with no obligations, but also no real reason to care. Like beyond some vague self preservation concept or even vaguer altruistic one.
Sure they give you some background options to be a street urchin or whatever, but none of those ever include the old ball and chain, or like a kid in tow, or something with some real impact like that. Something that could potentially light a fire under the PCs ass, give them a purpose or a personal goal that makes sense as a character driver. Or which could make the animus the character feels towards the game's primary antagonist into something much more personal.
For a game system that traffics so readily in well worn cliches, and where players are obviously pretty keen on romance, they never really use the idea to help establish the PC, or to set up some relatable motivations there. Like why the PC is so dead set on campaigning in the first place. Instead of always expecting the player to instantly give a shit about regional political intrigues or the impersonal machinations of some random Dragon or Demon. How about something that hits closer to home? You know, like they just killed your dad ala BG1? Or kidnapped your sister ala BG2? Or you wake up, and suddenly remember you have a wife who you need to get back to, like Odysseus at Calypso's place. Oh fuck! lol
There just seems like a lot of places they could go with it, and hundreds of movie/character intros they could just rip off, if they're really struggling that hard to get creative. It doesn't need to be insanely complex, there are a lot of stock backstory tropes one could choose to play off of, that would still make the protagonist more interesting than an amnesiac who can remember everything in their spellbook, but like nothing notable from their previous life beyond that. When I first launched BG3, I got kind of excited, because I thought the whole "who do you dream of" follow on to Char creation, might actually try to set something up along those lines. I also got excited by the word Origins, until I realized that what they meant by it had nothing to do with the custom PC.
But honestly, even if it was totally cliche... Say the PC creates a dream lover who then gets immediately fridged in the opener, slayed by Gobbos or whatever, they could still use the inputs there to determine what the PC is after in a generalized sort of way. Then feed it back to them later on, with a companion down the line who sort of fits the bill. I think Niara mentioned a similar idea in one of the other threads, but basically giving the player a way into the plot that also provides a template for what sort of romances or subplots and such might get thrown their way over the course of the campaign.
NPC companions are often compelling in these games, precisely because they can have those sort of familial ties, or obligations, or relatable backstory motivations pulling them around, that the PC typically doesn't get to have. Not in a crpg anyway. Creating a simple system for the PCs to design an origin and then have that actually feed into the main plot drivers would be pretty cool. Sure they couldn't really do it justice in the 80s or 90s, but we've come a long way. I mean it would certainly be a lot cooler than just filling in the blanks for the player, or making their character for them, which is what the BG3 Origins strike me as right now. Rather than writing a mini bio, which is the method in PnP, perhaps the game gives you a series of prompts when the Illithids are mind probing you, helping to craft a character Origin that you can actually care about and get into?
I'm sure the standard retort would be that there are just too many permutations to account for, but I'm not really sure that's the case. I bet they could distil it down to like a dozen openers that would cover most of the bases. Or even if they didn't want to go that far, they could at least go there with the dream lover bit to give us a bit more than the daisy doll.
