Limited choice of Characters?!?

[NobleFox]

So I am a huge CK fan but imagine my surprise when I purchased CK3, load the game and see that you are limited to a handful of characters to choose from. Mostly Duke's and Kings... WFT.
Part of the beauty of CK was being able to choose from an almost endless list of characters, my favourite being starting as a lowly Count and building up from there. Have I missed something or is this really the case with CK3. I can't see this having much replayability if this is the case. Paradox fix it!

[Dotz]

Play as any character lower left of the screen. You can be anyone.

[Parkera]

You can! If you look at the lower left side of the map there in black is a button to push that says something like "Play as any character..." Select that!

[morph113]

Yes you must have overlooked the "play as any character" button on the bottom left. That lets you pick literally any character from count to emperor anywhere in the world just like in CK2.

[titanopteryx]

There's a button at the bottom when selecting a character that takes you to a map and you can pick any land holder, excluding cities and papal realms. From the King of the Byzantine Empire, to a single province vassal in the Holy Roman Empire, to Iceland where you can litterally just chill because no one goes there to bother you.

[Dougtrio]

When you start a new game at the bottom left of the screen you'll see a button that says "Play as any Ruler in 'whatever start date'"

[UnCivilServant]

On the lower left of either starting date's screen is a button to "play as any character" button where you can get counts who are vassals of other rulers if you zoom in the map first.

Almost* anyone with land is playable

*you can't be the pope, or a republic, etc.

[NobleFox]

Ok thanks everyone, I found the button and now see it is possible. I also realise that during the game if you hit the Esc key you also have an option to 'Switch characters'.

I took the 'Play as any character' to mean it would randomnly choose one of the characters on screen.

[Mancuso]

to the op point though, It is a lot harder to find the counts. Even with the map features in the bottom left, The map doesn't do a good job really highlighting where the counts are for you to start your game with.

[NobleFox]

Originally posted by Mancuso:

to the op point though, It is a lot harder to find the counts. Even with the map features in the bottom left, The map doesn't do a good job really highlighting where the counts are for you to start your game with.

Yeah I totally agree. The UI needs improving.

[Crimson Bolt]

The already stated that the first patch will have UI improvements based on feedback..so it will get fixed...wither with the first patch or after I am sure

[Azoniar]

Also, you can use ctrl-click to see all de dukes and counts within realms. I had a hard time finding characters before I used this.