How do you construct your protagonist?

I've always been amazed by the fact that so many people actually create their videogame characters as representations of themselves, in some cases even going so far as to visually represent their own appearance my means of the character creation tool.

They play through the game in a mindset of 'me', 'what choices am I making', and see their characters as a kind of extension of their real selves placed into the game world.

I have always taken the polar opposite approach, as when entering a fantasy world the first thing I want to do is escape from myself entirely and be someone completely different!

Therefore I always roleplay the game with a character who is someone other than myself. The choices made are the choices the character makes - what the real me things about it is largely irrelevant, this isn't me - it's more like an actor playing a role. It doesn't matter what appearance, gender, ethnicity, race, religious faith or moral values the character has - they are just that, a character and thus I will act as they might act, rather than how I might act in real life.

In short, it's more fun being someone else.

DAI I wanted my character look like Annie Lennox. The voice didnt fit so well but made a good impression. Then I tried male character and cancelled the PT when I grew tired of the eyeliner and haircut. It looked shite.

I often play female dudes so they cant possibly be me. And self-insertion sounds a lot like non-consensual. I don't do that to my characters, I'm a compassionate player.

My first playthrough is usually done with a protagonist that is a rough interpretation of my real self, of what I'd probably be if I existed in that universe, skills, traits, class etc.. Its very little roleplaying, I choose what *I* feel is right, I don't try to be ''good'' or ''evil''. In games, books etc. I'm a sucker for immersion, and it helps a lot if the protagonist is very relatable - and what could be more relatable and immersive for me than, well, being myself! It becomes MY journey. 

Second play through is whatever I feel like is most fun & cool (because I'm not fun and cool, lol), I try to fill the gaps that were left open in my first play through, I go different routes, make different choices and if possible I choose a female character and a different race (except elves) to mix things up even more. But I don't go completely opposite directions since some choices in games are so dumb I refuse to pick them.

I enjoy both playthroughs equally, even though they are very different. First immersion, second fun. 

I can toy about with the looks or aesthetic of a character but I've never been able to play the jerk role in rpg's. I just can't even when the "evil" option is there. I am just too sensitive to even hurt the feelings of digital characters who don't really exist. I can play characters that are gay (I'm straight) or I can adopt the opposite gender from myself in real life but I can't do evil.

Will be purrrfect for the Stray game coming soon.

My first character is always a self-insert Human Mage. My follow-ups are character ideas that then coalesce into my 'canon'.

At that point I build the character to fit into my notion of what the main character in this particular story should be and do.

I suppose it depends on what I am given to work with. I usually play elves because I find playing human boring; in the DA universe they have always been from the noble class and for some reason I always like being the underdog who kicks back against the ruling elite. I also usually play mages or some form of magic user (I quite enjoy playing bards in D&D). Alternatively, I play someone from the rogue class because of their useful skills with lock picking, trap spotting and stealth. I don't self insert but my characters do tend to reflect my own morality, at least on my first play through. The important thing for me is to be able to justify their decision making on the basis of the character I have established for them. I also like to play characters with a common sense approach rather than always opting for the paragon option even if that does seem the most morally acceptable to me, because my character is not existing in my world but the brutal and cruel DA universe. However, it is clear now that the writers tend to class practical, common sense choices as ruthless and have people react and the game penalise you accordingly. So I may opt for what I know will turn out best rather than accurately role-playing my character the first time through, just to see the outcome. For this reason, my first run may not actually turn out to be my canon character for the game, as subsequent runs I may actually fully role play the character regardless of the consequences and thus they are true to themselves.

With DAO I had the 3 different origin stories to choose from. Initially I went with the Dalish simply because I was curious to find out what the ancient artifact would be, even though it meant I would have to play a rogue rather than a mage. Subsequently, I played an elf mage and then the city elf. I then moved on and played through as a human noble pragmatist who married Anora and then the dwarf origins. I found the city elf background the most interesting and allowed me more scope to develop their character. My female city elf rogue is my favourite.

With DA2 we didn't really have much choice but initially I went with a female mage Hawke, although eventually I played through as all the classes, mostly kicking back against the system, although played one Hawke who was pro-Circle and Templar, just for the experience. My Hawke was usually jokey but I tend to choose the dialogue option that seems most appropriate rather than always going for the same one just because I feel taking the snarky option every time makes for a rather shallow character. My female mage romancing Fenris did actually turn out to be my canon initially, although I recently played DA2 again with a male mage romancing Anders and in view of what they did with Fenris in the comics, this may actually become my canon run going forward.

With DAI on the face of it you have more scope to develop your character because of the sketchy background. However, with so many of the dialogue options being pretty generic, I didn't really feel there was much difference between classes and races, so the only real difference between my characters initially was their sexuality and who they romanced. I found playing the Dalish frustrating because of the number of times they were being dumped on by other characters and I wasn't allowed a proper defense of my people and culture. I still don't understand what a Dalish from the Freemarches was doing attending the Conclave, even as a spy. It would have made far more sense for the elf character to have been a city elf servant. I tried playing around with characters who were atypical for what I would usually play but I didn't really enjoy the experience and haven't finished a play through with them. My first run was romancing Solas but that left me on such a downer at the end of the main game that my preferred romance was Dorian. However, Trespasser sort of ruined the warm glow that romance left me with at the end of the main game. I was really ticked off that the writers invested more effort in the romance between Dorian and Iron Bull than they did the one with my PC. Why does Dorian suffer from allergies when he is in a romance with Iron Bull but not with anyone else? Still, I'm still likely to go with my elf hunter romancing Dorian for my canon run. (I've written an entire post Trespasser story for them).

When it comes to DA4, I wouldn't mind having background origin stories again but I doubt we'll get them. I'm hoping for a slave origin in view of the comments about starting with no power, which wouldn't apply to a noble background without a serious fall from grace. Although I suppose you could be left with nothing through the Qunari invasion. I'll probably play an elf again first run, if we have different races, but I might play a human provided there is the possibility for a non-noble background.

I never self-insert in the sense of "this is me but in a fantasy setting". I must say though that doesn't mean there aren't aspects of me in the MC's, for example I've never played someone who sides with the Templars. Whether this is because that's a degree of self-insertion or whether I wouldn't enjoy playing someone who did I dunno. Usually my first playthroughs are pretty labile but once I know the story I'll tend to build characters around big story beats, like 'oh they'd change their mind about X there' or 'Y was so traumatizing they made a bad call at Z' or 'this is the exact moment she decided she'd crack open Solas's head and eat his brains'.