it's real stupid to play from something and want to avoid the main character though

disagree if the main character is an OC and the other characters are fully fleshed-out and interesting in their own right. there's tons of rp stuff you can do with the many MP-containing games that have nothing to do with that MP. it's weird as well that you assume they don't like the canons because they don't want to rp with malleable protags, a relatively small part of some games (baldur's gate is a good example, where the MP literally does not have to exist at all)