Could use help with selecting starting player character.

I am rather new to Inform 7 but enjoying what I have been learning and doing so far. I have hit a bit of a bump however. I want to randomly select from the NPC’s currently in my test game to become the player’s character at the start of the game. Or to be able to select which one to play. I was semi successful with the random selection but it would have ‘You see your former self here’, or it would have me as the default and bland starting character. Any help would be appreciated.

The default player character is called “yourself” by default, or “your former self” if the player is changed to someone else.

If you don’t want it to be created at all, you need to set the player character to someone else at compile-time.

The Parlor is a room. Alice, Bob, Claire, Dave, and Eve are people in the parlor. The player is Alice. When play begins: let the subject be a random person in the parlor; now the player is the subject.

Inform checks at compile-time if you’ve set the player to someone else, and if so, doesn’t create “your former self”. This is before the “when play begins” rules have a chance to run. So you need to set the player to someone, even if you’re just about to change it again.

Ah, thanks. That’s two things I didn’t do. Set a player before hand and place it before when play begins. I appreciate the help.