History Main / SchrodingersPlayerCharacter

* In the ''VisualNovel/MagicalDiary'' series, the games take place during the same time period, with the same [=NPCs=] and roughly similar event progression until the chosen protagonist's presence causes storylines to change. In the first game, the female protagonist is the roommate of Ellen and Virginia. In the second game (featuring a male protagonist) Ellen and Virginia do not have a third roommate, although one scene mentions their room looking like it was set up for a third person who never arrived. It's also clear that no such character as the male protagonist existed in the background of the first game, because his presence would have disrupted other events (especially involving William).

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': Averted, unlike in the original trilogy. The male and female versions of [[PlayerCharacter Pathfinder Ryder]] are a brother and sister pair. Whichever one the player does not choose remains in a coma due to a damaged cryo pod, putting them out of commission for the early parts of the game (and, by the time they wake up, the player character Ryder is the Pathfinder by virtue of being the one that was awake at the time a Pathfinder was needed).

* Averted in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory''. You start the game given the choice between two player characters, Claude and Rena, and whichever character you don't choose ends up in your party from the outset of the game, still has a chunk of the plot dedicated to them, and can even become the main love interest of the character you ''did'' choose if you steer their relationship in that way.

** With the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/Persona3'', ''Persona 3 Portable'', if you choose the male protagonist, the female never appears, and vice-versa. This makes some sense, as it was originally written with the male PC in mind. ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'' included both the Male and Female Protagonists from P3, but reveals that the Female Protagonist is from an alternate reality. The [[Theater/Persona3TheWeirdMasquerade stage play]] does a variant where their versions of the protagonists are brother and sister, but one sibling's absence in the showing that features the other is explained by them dying in the same accident that orphaned the protagonist.

* Partially averted in ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' - You can run into (and recruit) the other playable characters, but their stats don't carry over when you play as them. Justified in that WordOfGod states that all seven quests are occurring simultaneously, meaning that each storyline crosses over with the others.

** With the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/Persona3'', ''Persona 3 Portable'', if you choose the male protagonist, the female never appears, and vice-versa. This makes some sense, as it was originally written with the male PC in mind. ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'' included both the Male and Female Protagonists from P3, but reveals that the Female Protagonist is from an alternate reality.

* On the character creation screen in ''Videogame/AgeofConan'', it is possible to see the two versions of your future character: male and female. When you finally finish customizing your character, do you know what will happen to your opposite sex character? The character you didn't edit will die in the shipwreck. Each of your character's archetypes has a unique backstory, but what happened to the other archetypes are never mentioned.

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is implied to avert this in much the same way ''Origins'' does. The description of [[PlayerCharacter the Inquisitor's]] background at character creation gives every race a completely different background and reason for being at the Conclave. With the precedent set by ''Origins'', it's implied that all four were there, and the player just chooses which one survived the Breach. [[spoiler: The real variable that the player determines, revealed later in the game, is which one of the four overheard Justinia being attacked by Corypheus and his agents.]]

** Averted in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''. While the game starts off with the characters in a rocket that crash-lands on Helios, the fact that the game is an {{Interquel}} and that the Vault Hunters would go on to be either bosses or [=NPCs=] in ''Borderlands 2'' (one of which is even the narrator of the story) means that all characters are canon, with the Jack Body Double being the only character whose fate after the events of the game isn't certain. The Holodome DLC makes mention of DLC character Aurelia still being an active Vault Hunter.

* Some of the ''VideoGame/{{Super Mario|Bros}}'' games are like this. The manual will usually say that Mario and Luigi are working together to save the princess, but this is never the case if you are playing in single player mode. Same with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', where the story implies Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess are working together to save the worlds of Subcon and Sprixie Kingdom respectively, yet you can only play one character at a time per level (unless you're playing with friends in the latter game's case).

** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'', you have a choice to play as John Morris, the archetypal Belmont, or Eric Lecarde, his [[BladeOnAStick polearm]]-wielding best friend. Once you choose your character, you never hear from the other again, not even in the ending.

** Averted in most post-Gen II games, when you can chose a PlayerCharacter of either sex. The opposite-gender player character becomes a NonPlayerCharacter, generally as an ally and/or TheRival to the player. Played straight in ''Crystal'', ''[=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]'', ''Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon'', ''Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee'' and ''Sword and Shield'', though.

** In both ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', when the PlayerCharacter gets married, he or she will have a child named Morgan (''Awakening'') or Kana (''Fates''). In both games, Male Avatar will have a daughter while a Female Avatar will have a son.[[note]]A Female Awakening!Avatar and a Male Fates!Avatar can only have another child with a specific other character, while the opposite gender has more liberty in that regard.[[/note]] ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' averts this by portraying both children as existing, albeit as alternate universe counterparts.

* Averted by ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. You have eight options for your class (four on each side) and even though you won't necessarily run into any of the characters you didn't pick, all the story-lines still happened. References are occasionally made linking them together. One of the Sith Warrior's companions, for example, briefly goes off to work with the Republic Trooper's FinalBoss; The Jedi Consular's first companion asks the Bounty Hunter's first companion to help him find an enemy, and so on.

** Played straight in the spin-off [[VideoGame/PokemonRanger Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia]] where if you choose the male character the female doesn't appear (and vice-versa).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' zig zags with the trope. You fight several bosses in the main quests that require the aid of other players. However, the cut scenes never show the other players except for yourself and the characters never address them. Towards the final dungeon, you're told to find other adventurers to help you take down the BigBad and the other players are actually seen in the cut scenes. However, the other players are still not addressed by the other characters and when you beat the FinalBoss, the other players are mysteriously gone.

* The Konami arcade game ''Devil World'' changes the ending depending on whether the player completes as Condor, Labryna or both. The game's U.S. release, ''VideoGame/DardAdventure'', adds a third player character named Zorlock, but only has one ending which shows all three characters (regardless of the number of people playing).

*** A similar situation happens with the DLC; even if the player doesn't download and play the DLC missions, the events they depict still happen, just without Shepard's involvement. Other characters will refer to them and explain what happened if Shepard asks. They don't go as well if Shepard wasn't there, however. [[spoiler:For instance, Liara's assault on the Shadow Broker's lair still happens, but she needs to hire "dozens of mercenaries" and one of her allies dies in the effort. Taken UpToEleven with regards to the ''Arrival'' DLC, which if not played results in an ''entire Alliance marine battalion'' carrying out the destruction of the Alpha Relay and being wiped out in so doing.]]

** Played straight in the spin-off ''VideoGame/PokemonRangerShadowsOfAlmia'' where if you choose the male character the female doesn't appear (and vice-versa).

* The only concrete timeline hints for ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' are that the original gang coming together in 2011 and that Hoxton got busted in 2012; other references to time assume that the heists take place when they were released (e.g. "Art Gallery" came out a year after the map was used for the first day of "Framing Frame", and Bain will mention having hit it a year ago for The Elephant). There's no timeline-based restrictions about who plays as what heister, only than that two players cannot be the same character - running through the port of the original's First World Bank with a team made up of people who weren't around for that is fair game, as is rescuing Hoxton from custody and then infiltrating the FBI headquarters with him [[MesACrowd while your regular team includes a second Hoxton]].

* The title screen of ''{{VideoGame/Gauntlet}}'' shows four heroes - the Warrior, Valkyrie, Elf and Wizard - charging monsters. You select one. This is the only hero that enters the dungeon. The only way to have all the heroes in play is if four players join up. ''Legends'', ''Dark Legacy'' and ''Seven Sorrows'' have even more heroes and fewer possible players.

* Some of the ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' games are like this. The manual will usually say that Mario and Luigi are working together to save the princess, but this is never the case if you are playing in single player mode. Same with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', where the story implies Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess are working together to save the worlds of Subcon and Sprixie Kingdom respectively, yet you can only play one character at a time per level (unless you're playing with friends in the latter game's case).

* Partially averted in ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'' - You can run into (and recruit) the other playable characters, but their stats don't carry over when you play as them. Justified in that WordOfGod states that all seven quests are occurring simultaneously, meaning that each storyline crosses over with the others.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. It establishes that all other player origins actually happened (presumably including the potential player characters) but without Duncan in the right place at the right time, it's almost certain that most, if not all, ended up dead. Entirely certain, for some origins. Players familiar with alternate origins who are willing to poke around a bit can generally find a nod to the other origins somewhere -- usually where a character of that origin would get extra dialogue. Such moments include:
** If you're not a Dwarven Commoner, you'll run into the Commoner's friend in a gang jail cell, with a rotted skeleton in the next cell over. Sorry, alterna-me. Additionally, the circumstances for the Dwarven Noble origin form the basis of the Dwarven Commoner Origin plot, and the Dwarven Nobles (whose plot takes place one week later) can learn most of the Dwarven Commoner origin story by talking to the Proving Trainers.
** [[spoiler:Jowan]] escapes in the Magi origin and subsequently becomes partially responsible for the problems in Redcliffe. He could only do that with the PC's Help. Their fate after that is unknown, but even if they weren't sent to Aeonar or executed they would eventually be [[spoiler:slain when the Circle was overrun.]] At the same time, this is the only origin that likely plays it straight. The mage can be either a human or an elf, with significantly different backgrounds to match, but the only change is flavor dialogue with Duncan and a minor NPC. If the player plays a human mage, there is no indication that the elven mage exists, and vice versa.
** City Elf: [[spoiler: A riot is invoked in the City Elf origin that leads the Denerim Alienage to be purged (and used as a slave-trading center) later. So the PC was executed for the attempted murder of Vaughan, or escaped the city, or was later sold as a slave.]]
** Dwarf Noble PC: The succession crisis that occurs in the wake of the death of Endrin happens whether or not Duncan is present to rescue the exile. Bhelen kills or has Trian killed, and the second offspring of Endrin is convicted by the Assembly and exiled. The Dwarf Noble was probably killed in the Deep Roads by darkspawn, as making it to the outposts of the Legion of the Dead would have required incredible skill or luck. Endrin's "middle child" is mentioned in passing at least once.
** The Dalish Elf PC [[spoiler: died from contact with the tainted mirror, as explained in Witch Hunt, if the PC isn't the Dalish Elf themself.]]
** There is no mention of the Human Noble specifically if you use any other origin, and it's the one time Duncan's presence wouldn't be ''required'' to see the character's survival. However, it is Duncan who convinces the Human Noble player character to escape rather than go down in a blaze of glory. Given this fact and an overheard conversation in Denerim that suggests the entire Cousland family was slain, the most likely fate of an NPC Human Noble seems to be dying alongside Eleanor Cousland.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is implied to avert this in much the same way ''Origins'' does. The description of [[PlayerCharacter the Inquisitor's]] background at character creation gives every race a completely different background and reason for being at the Conclave. With the precedent set by ''Origins'', it's implied that all four were there, and the player just chooses which one survived the Breach. [[spoiler: The real variable that the player determines, revealed later in the game, is which one of the four overheard Justinia being attacked by Corypheus and his agents.]]
* Happens in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Was there a sole survivor of Akuze if Shepard is a hero of the Skyllian Blitz? The answer is 'no'. The other characters simply did not exist. The game does however indicate that various backstory events happened regardless of where you were. For instance, while going through the Spacer background quest, your mother will refer to the attack on Mindoir ("You were in high school") which was the basis for the Colonist background. There's a subquest where you run into a survivor of Akuze who was held prisoner by Cerberus scientists - if you play a 'Survivor' yourself, he'll say some clever lines about how "The holovids say you're the sole survivor of Akuze. Who am I to argue?" before committing suicide. If you're using one of the other origins, someone will comment that there were supposedly ''no'' survivors of the disaster on Akuze.
** In fact, the Skyllian Blitz is a heroic battle in which War Hero Shepard fought. In response, there was the Battle of Torfan, where Ruthless Shepard made their name by continuing the fight until 3/4s of their unit was killed, and butchered the surrendering slavers. The background events all happened from the attack on Mindoir to the Thresher Maw on Akuze.
** Interestingly, dialogue with Joker in the third game indicates that Shepard fought in the Skyllian Blitz regardless of background. It's just that if you didn't choose the War Hero background, Shepard didn't perform a legendary holding action, and was presumably just one of the many soldiers in it.
** A similar situation happens with the DLC; even if the player doesn't download and play the DLC missions, the events they depict still happen, just without Shepard's involvement. Other characters will refer to them and explain what happened if Shepard asks. They don't go as well if Shepard wasn't there, however. [[spoiler:For instance, Liara's assault on the Shadow Broker's lair still happens, but she needs to hire "dozens of mercenaries" and one of her allies dies in the effort. Taken UpToEleven with regards to the ''Arrival'' DLC, which if not played results in an ''entire Alliance marine battalion'' carrying out the destruction of the Alpha Relay and being wiped out in so doing.]]
* Averted in ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''. The male and female versions of [[PlayerCharacter Pathfinder Ryder]] are a brother and sister pair. Whichever one the player chooses, the other remains in a coma due to a damaged cryo pod, putting them out of commission for the early parts of the game (and by the time they wake up, the player character Ryder is the Pathfinder by virtue of being the one that was awake at the time a Pathfinder was needed).

** Played straight in the spin-off ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Shadows Of Almia'' where if you choose the male character the female doesn't appear (and vice-versa).

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the ''Cafe of Broken Dreams'' special encounter in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', where you can meet all the other player characters who were pre-generated for ''VideoGame/Fallout1'', but not "chosen" by the player or even included into the final game.
** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' the [[PlayerCharacter Sole Survivor]] is whichever of a married man and woman you wish to play as; the other is your spouse [[spoiler:who dies in the opening]]. The appearances of both are still player-generated.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/LandsOfLore: The Throne of Chaos''. The player has a choice of four champions, each of whom has a little blurb about why he's the best choice and how the others will fail. It seems as though they are in competition. However, once the choice is made, the other three are never mentioned again. One wonders why, if the kingdom was in such great peril, they didn't just team-up. In the sequel, it is stated that the character Kieran has been "credited" with defeating Scotia, lending itself to the interpretation that the other three champions were also questing.

* Some of the 2D ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' games are like this. The manual will usually say that Mario and Luigi are working together to save the princess, but this is never the case if you are playing in single player mode. Likewise with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' (DolledUpInstallment of ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'') where the story implies Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess are working together to save the world of Subcon, but yet, you can only play one character at a time per level.

** Averted in ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''. While the game starts off with the characters in a rocket that crash-lands on Helios, the fact that the game is an {{Interquel}} and that the Vault Hunters would go on to be either bosses or [=NPCs=] in Borderlands 2 (one of which is even the narrator of the story) means that all characters are canon, with the Jack Body Double being the only character whose fate after the events of the game isn't certain. The Holodome DLC makes mention of DLC character Aurelia still being an active Vault Hunter.

* Similar to ''Borderlands'', ''Videogame/DeadIsland'' seems to assume that canonically all four characters are working together even if only one is chosen. All the characters are shown together in cutscenes and in ''Videogame/DeadIslandRiptide'' they show up as quest-giving [=NPCs=].

* Averted in the ''Kingdom Under Fire'' games. The character you choose inevitably interacts with one or all of the alternative characters in the battles (and storylines) that ensue.

* The Konami arcade game ''Devil World'' changes the ending depending on whether the player completes as Condor, Labryna or both. The game's U.S. release, ''Dark Adventure'', adds a third player character named Zorlock, but only has one ending which shows all three characters (regardless of the number of people playing).

* Averted by ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. You have eight options for your class (four on each side) and even though you won't necessarily run into any of the characters you didn't pick, all the story-lines still happened. References are occasionally made linking them together. One of the Sith Warrior's companions, for example, briefly goes off to work with the Republic Trooper's FinalBoss; The Jedi Consular's first companion asks the Bounty Hunter's first companion to help him find an enemy, and so on.

* Variation: in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona 1}}'', there are five possible party members - Brown, Ayase, Yukino, Elly, and, [[GuideDangIt if you jump through the right hoops,]] Reiji. You get to recruit one of them (possibly two if you take the Snow Queen path, if you replace Ayase with Nanjo, the latter of which is a prerequisite for the SEBEC story). The rest? Well, who knows what happens to them? It's worth noting that ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' clarifies that everyone did everything together, more or less.
** With the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''Persona 3 Portable'', if you choose the male protagonist, the female never appears, and vice-versa. This makes some sense, as it was originally written with the male PC in mind. ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'' included both the Male and Female Protagonists from P3, but reveals that the Female Protagonist is from an alternate reality.

* This trope is normally in effect for games in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series: the characters the player didn't select presumably still exist somewhere, they're just nowhere to be found in the story.
** Subverted in both ''Lotus Land Story'' though, when the character you didn't select shows up as one of the bosses. ''Imperishable Night'' does something similar, but it has four storylines and only one fight with another character, so there's still several characters unaccounted for.
** Aversions: Everyone has a canonical story in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', ''Hopeless Masquerade'', and probably ''Hisoutensoku''[[note]]the outcome of a certain fight changes depending on the character played. This can probably be chalked up to BroadStrokes[[/note]].

* Averted in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon Island of Happiness''. You choose to play as either male (Mark) or female (Chelsea), and the other one appears later in the game as one of your love interests.

** In the second part of the fourth game, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', the player takes control of either the children of characters from the first part, or, if a character never got married, a set of [[ExPy expies]] that bear no blood relation to anyone from part one (aside from Linda and Amid, who are [[spoiler: the niece and nephew of Tailto, born to her and Bloom's youngest sister Ethnia]]). While it's obvious why offspring don't appear if their potential parents never got hitched, it's unclear where the replacements are (or if they even existed at all) if they did actually marry. [[note]](Scrapped ideas for ''Genealogy's'' companion game, ''Thracia 776'', implied that at least some of them could have existed in the same world and be recruitable.)[[/note]]

* VisualNovel/SevenKingdomsThePrincessProblem lets you choose between 6 origins who are all one of 7 delegates from 7 kingdoms. Not all 49 delegates are named, so one would think there would be room for your unplayed origins in the background, right? Wrong; observing the Arland delegation while not playing as the Arland Princess has your PlayerCharacter note the Arland hasn't sent a princess this year.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'': You begin the game with the choice of 14 playable characters (a male and female alternative for each of the seven playable vampire clans). The 13 you don't pick effectively don't exist in your play-through.

* ''VisualNovel/MonsterProm'' and its sequel ''Monster Camp'' give you a choice of four protagonists (increased to nine with [=DLC=] in the second game). The differences are mainly cosmetic and you can change the name, pronouns, and (with the first game's mod tool) even the appearance of your character. Those you don't pick are never mentioned during the course of the current run. However, it's clear from the ending [=CGs=] and supplementary material that at least the four original [=PCs=] exist together in-universe with the other characters, and indeed are all close friends with each other.

* While both "Jacket and Biker" exist in ''Videogame/HotlineMiami'' no matter which one you play, eventually the two of them have a fight to the death before continuing on with the story, with the winner being whoever the player is controlling. The sequel reveals that [[spoiler:the two managed to survive their encounter with one another and both of their stories are canon to an extent]].

* While both [[FanNickname Jacket and Biker]] exist in ''Videogame/HotlineMiami'' no matter which one you play, eventually the two of them have a fight to the death before continuing on with the story, with the winner being whoever the player is controlling. The sequel reveals that [[spoiler:the two managed to survive their encounter with one another and both of their stories are canon to an extent]].

So you decide to pick Bob. And as you play the game, you begin wondering... What happened to Alice and Charles? You keep playing the game, reaching HundredPercentCompletion, and you never see either. Looks like Alice, Bob and Charles are Schrödinger's Player Characters. In more generalized explanation: You are given a choice of characters, and once chosen, the game seems to go based on the assumption the selected character is the only one who exists. This trope is VERY common in games that give you a choice of pre-generated Player Characters, so much that it may come as a surprise when it is averted and the [=PCs=] you did not choose turn up as {{NPC}}s. This can also be confusing when each character is given a different backstory. Did those events even occur?