About 'generic' stories

I have to agree with Zach on the issue of introducing generic stories - I think it's a bad idea. I believe that a 'story starter' where we have a couple of main characters introduced, together with a brief sketch of their personalities and and a set mean of transformation would be much better. It would give all the storylines some more detailed background where if we had many authors starting form a generic storyline not everyone can be bothered to come up with their own background (see the CYOTF interactive on cyoc.net)