Working Stiff and Special Snowflake

Making it all work together
Literature plays a significant role in influencing the type of story we are interested in telling at the game table. If our literary tastes run to superheroes saving the world from an evil plot or to the charming noble winning the hand of a true-love, we all tend to at least start out the hobby making characters who resemble our imaginary idols. To be sure, these "idols" take many forms and represent a multitude of "power levels", everything from the common peasant/working stiff to off-planet alien superheroes able to fly between planets.
In many ways it is difficult for a campaign to accommodate both superhero and working stiff. Perhaps less troublesome is the unique "special snowflake" PC, which may fit in power-wise with the rest of the campaign, but is so unique and unusual in other ways as to be problematic. I am talking about characters that run counter to type, the ONLY good example of an evil race, the LAST member of a race thought extinct for centuries. It is perhaps human nature to wish to stand out in a crowd, it can be more of an issue to draw a crowd where-ever one goes.
The art of crafting a unique and interesting PC that fills a niche in the party and is both interesting to play and to witness being played, is probably developed only over time. Modeling a PC on a character drawn from popular media is much easier. I prefer to run low-powered games and that seems the default of White Box and many other systems. As PCs gain levels and power the game changes, but most PCs start more in line with common people regarding power. Obviously a little above "normal", but not "super". Like-wise, I tend to prefer working stiff type PCs which blend into the milieu nicely over the special snowflakes that require extensive explanation and backstory, which frequently requires repeating every time the PCs encounter a new NPC. Yes, I play this out. It seems a necessary part of maintaining verisimilitude in the campaign.
The role-playing game is an implied social contract, to borrow a phrase, and as such each player is both entitled to play the game they want while also expected to fit into and be an active part of the collective endeavor. If it sounds like a balancing act, I think that is exactly what it amounts to. Balancing everyone's fun against the fun of everyone else.
The same can be said for a referee's setting or world. Some settings are definitely "working class", some more "special snowflake". One of the most important aspects of setting to me is that players be able to make meaningful choices and alter the world, if even in modest ways. As early designers noted it is also desirable for the PCs to fit into the setting and be a part of the make-believe society. Setting a destructive fire or taking out the head of the local thieve's guild should be within the realm of possibilities. The world should be changing and PCs should be able to be a part of that change.