CP has no protagonists
Except Hiro

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

It's also summed up in one of the quotes from CP2077, "You'll never save the world, but maybe you can save yourself."

Instead of being the one they talk about in,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjHR0oASSfU

Think about being the one they are addressing in,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bztxC9EFfCk

I would also say that it is the Solipsistic impulse to view oneself as the protagonist of their own story is not only natural, and (mostly failed) attempts to become protagonists of the larger metastory, can in fact engender the type of friction and drama that makes the thematic tapestry compelling, and the biggest threat to that type of storytelling is passivity.

Players should feel frustrated, and the best reaction from the perspective of great stories to that is not to think: "Well, I don't matter," but rather "Fuck you, let's tear down the sky."

I don't think that should discourage people who want to play it like it's Mirrors Edge or Snow Crash, where heroics can change the world, but it should be an uphill battle mired in violent futility. That's the fun.

Playing to lose really can be fun though. Or playing and not caring if you lose can be. Play for the narrative. Think about biblical Job for a minute. Actually being Job, not a great time. But roleplaying Job would probably be a RIOT.

If you're really really stuck....go be the Sindome equivalent of Job for a while. Be fucking miserable, your only goal is don't perm out. Don't be boring about it, don't be just a sad shit sack moping around or piss everyone off and die, be creative, try to have a rich story. But be a loser! Narrative is narrative, content for content's sake.

Knowing you're getting nowhere and haven't progressed for shit since you started gets tiring and just sad.

Sorry.

Regardless of whether you are playing a supporting role to someone else, or perhaps a leading position within a faction.

Your character should behave as if they are the core of their own story. With their own motivation. Their own ideals. Their own secrets. Their own plots. In that regard, they should behave as their own stories protagonist, even as they act as the antagonist or deuteragonist in someone elses. They -should- view themselves quite simply as the most important person in their -own-.... Personal story.

Regardless of all that, we as players however, should understand that the tenants of these stories being told, means that we are not likely to get our way often. We are no more important than the average momento, often times, less so. And though, we as characters may have plots and grand designs, we should measure their themeliness and monitor their scale in regards to the amount of time invested.

It has happened and it currently happens, as it will continue to happen.

What they can't change is the theme and the setting of the game, eg. you can't overthrow the corporations, you can't make the WJF stop existing, you can't make the Sinners make Wellington Avenue as their turf, you can't corpies live in Red safely.

The most prominent characters to have existed in our little slice of the Dome (the ones we hear about on SIC, the Wiki, the bars, the old legends and street sams, you know them) are objectively more narratively important in the virtue that they generate more RP and plots than the segment of other characters who only RP for themselves in a masturbatory bubble.

That doesn't mean these player are better or worse players than others. They just add more to the game than other characters do. And while they are insignificant in the whole grand scheme of the Sindome universe (e.g. there's probably ten more guys doing more important, relevant shit in West Red we never hear about), they're still leading characters for the stories we perceive.

Flashy characters who come in and make an immediate splash, roleplay elaborately and dramatically, cause a ton of trouble, then flare out spectacularly burning everyone around them in the process, are practically a cliche they're so thick on the ground. I'm not a huge fan of the 'play to lose' mentality that's so rampant because it creates an atmosphere of people that can't be relied upon not to molotov someone because they got bored from five minutes without stimulus, let alone be relied on to invest the time in building something that can take a long time to bear fruit. This idea of 'well I can't be the hero so I might as well just be a firecracker' I think misleads otherwise talented players away from things that they could be exceptional and memorable at in their own niche.

In my experience, such as it is, consistency and patience and industry trumps deliberately trying to make an huge impact from the get-go. That famous artist? You don't see the hundreds of hours they spend writing, re-writing, and re-writing over and over again (to practically no meaningful benefit to themselves). Legendary solo? The endless work that they put in would crush most players. Charismatic leader? They're not swaying people with fancy prose and poses, they're doing management, admin, tending to people, making stuff happen for all the people under them.

Sure maybe you can't do -anything-, but from the characters I've known, you can do extraordinary things, but it takes extraordinary effort and extraordinary ability. I think people tend to idolize the end results but gloss over the struggles behind them.

Your character is the main character of their story. So play them like it. Have them be proactive and driven and take risks - even if that results in a setback or loss. You don't have to be suicidal about it. Feel free to think things through or plan things out (to a degree that fits your character's stats) but DO something. Be an interesting character.