If the player has taken Indiana Jones as a character, places to explore that they don't know about are necessary components of their dramatic needs, no?
If someone asked me what Indiana Jones dramatic needs are, these would include:
* To repair his relationship with Marion;
* To prove himself as an archaeologist by outwitting his rivals in his quests for treasure;
* (At least in the last movie) to prove himself to his father as an appropriate heir to the family tradition.
This brings with it a number of components of the fiction: Marion; a father; treasures to be recovered; rivals to be outwitted.
There's a bazillion dramatic needs I, the player, could set my character up for that would be enjoyable for me. If it is six of one, half a dozen of the other to me, why not choose the ones that will be less work for the GM? Do I, the player, have to be willfully difficult for it to be protagonism?
What are you even talking about? Being willfully difficult? This is only a concept if the game is about what the GM says it's about, and you the player have to adapt to it.
I 100% agree with Ovinomancer here: the idea that choosing a dramatic need for a PC could be difficult - moreover
wilfully so - is strange to me. The last time I GMed a RPG session in which I, as GM, already had situation and broad parameters of resolution sketched out as a one-session run through Castle Amber (we did PC generation and then a modest number of rooms). But precisely because the parameters were already established I didn't bother asking the players to decide on dramatic needs for their PCs!
But in other games, where I generally do have some interest in dramatic need, I don't establish the situation or any broad parameters of resolution until after the players have said what their dramatic needs are.
I think Imaro's post gives a clear outline of what seems to me a fairly typical way of using GM notes:
My prep notes usually involve the following (Note this is for D&D play)...
1. General facts about people places and things the players may or may not encounter.
2. Suggestions for what the result may be for certain decisions or actions the players/PC's may or may not make during gameplay.
3. Includes maps for geography and/or structures I expect the players/PC's to encounter and interact with.
4. Contains stats for monsters & NPC's I expect the players/PC's to encounter and/or initiate combat with.
5. Generic stats based around level for improvising unexpected combat encounters.
6. Various tables for random generation of things such as neighborhoods in a city, weather during travel, random encounters, etc. Depending on what direction I expect the game session to go in.
7. Names for people & places for use on the fly.
I tend to run a game that is a mix between GM driven and player driven. If there is something the players wish to explore, attain or some aspect of their character they wish to delve into then that is what will drive the session. However if the players just want to explore and adventure amongst my creations they can also do that within the agreed upon paradigms of the campaign.
We can see here that the role of notes (beyond serving as memory aids for mechanics - 4, 5) is to support framing (1, 2 3, 6) and to help determine consequences of action declarations (maybe 1, definitely 2, and also 3 and perhaps 6).
In protgaonistic play the notes that the GM makes at 1, 2 and 3 would all be done
after learning of the dramatic needs established for the players.
If you assume that your PCs are proactive competent & dramatic individuals living a life or engaging in an exploration of something* with those elements it's easy even. It helps if your players also view their characters that way as they are more likely to charge in dramatically when your are describing some dramatic person place thing or event even though Ackbar is screaming about traps in the background. IME you can encourage them to engage in the dramatic rather than tomb of horrors style poke every square first by rewarding it with meaningful results.
I am big fan of non-turtling play, for much the same reason that I prefer backgammon to chess as a boardgame and five hundred to bridge as a card game. But this really doesn't have much connection to the idea of protagonistic RPGing. And it doesn't really shed light on the role of GM notes.