On the other hand, one thing that might be considerable is the presence of a large planet in the system. Why? It can and often does redirect the comets and asteroids that can harm the biosphere of the world we are building.
However, as much as I like running calculations and imagining different kinds of scenarios, I would say that we shouldn’t deviate too much from Earth in this little project because that makes most of the non-specialized knowledge on biospheres and such obsolete or lacking. On the other hand, there is the possibility of having more than one planet in our system that is described deeply enough to have tectonic plates and such. To this we must also remember that stars create a habitable zone around them, which can include several planets and their orbits.
If someone really wants to go with something like ammonia or methane-based life, I’d say that it would be better to have it in a separate planet than on this particular world.
Now, back to the system in question, I would argue for a small star at it centre even though the giants might seem more tempting. Why? Because giant stars use their lighter elements for fusion faster in proportion to a smaller star and while I would like to discuss stellar physics, I don’t feel this is the place for that. Just know that stars behave like onions in their fusion of elements, with each deeper layer (closer to their core) fusing heavier elements until they reach iron (Fe)… Then iron fusion requires energy instead of freeing it as result of the nuclear reaction. The point in which a star starts fusing iron is their death sentence and most of the smaller stars aren’t able to fusion iron until very late in their lives or at all.
Now, if you want a compromise, I would argue for a multiple star system with a yellow or red dwarf and a white dwarf at its centre. A white dwarf is a completely different type of star that is born out of the death of a much larger one and basically is almost incomprehensibly dense but very small. All in all, this means a lot of gravity that can behave like a larger star (for example, planets with larger orbits and extremely long years) but the luminosity of the prevailing star would be the one creating the habitability zone.
Now, if we wish to get more special with the system, we could add another small star in a far transneptunian orbit. Now, if you wish to get more special with the shape of the system, there are things like Nu Scorpii:
Yep, those are seven stars and it looks like a museum piece, but even then, some of those stars can harbour life on their planets. There are so many stars out there that whatever we make within reason likely has happened several times.
Back to the planet itself: if we want to create something slightly different from Earth, there are always consequences. For example, a planet with a more tilted axis would need to have oceans and continents distributed more evenly even if their proportion is similar to Earth, so as not to have such an extreme climate. A lack of large oceans means less thermal regulation and the presence of very large ones creates super-storms. This is obviously between certain parameters. No amount of ocean and continent displacement can make a planet tilted like Uranus have a climate like Earth though.
On my ideas, I would say that the map posted previously about the tectonics of the planet can be useful, but we need to improve it since it lacks the smaller plates that are present on many places on Earth and create some of the most important geographical accidents. Plus, more plates means more islands and I like the worlds I design or help on creating having a large number archipelagos.
Finally, please don’t start to work on the finer details of the coastlines right away, that will be losing time since that work will likely have to be retconned many times before the final product is ready. There are many things that define the shape of a coastline and they simply cannot be created and justified straightaway. Just go from the broader details to the smaller ones. I know it is a costly process in terms of time, but I assure you that many of the people would prefer to have their work be useful even if partially than having on something worked for nothing. And before you all say it, yes, this is the reason most of the projects of this kind get abandoned together with the creation of the preclassic period of civilization. I know, I have started several of these projects.