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View Full Version : What kind of childhood would make a future playboy out of a boy?



Darius Kane
2012-12-07, 08:08 PM
In what circumstances/conditions/environment/family/place would a boy have to grow up to turn into a (competent) playboy? I'm talking about a fantasy, D&D-like setting.
And, for that matter, what makes a good playboy?

North_Ranger
2012-12-07, 08:53 PM
Casanova, Don Juan, Caligula or Hugh Hefner? Or in other words... the lover, the a**hole, the pervert or the connoisseur? What flavor of playboy are we talking about here?

The Dark Fiddler
2012-12-07, 09:32 PM
That really depends on where you fall on the "Nature vs. Nurture" debate.

snoopy13a
2012-12-07, 09:38 PM
Playboys are usually rich, handsome, and charismatic. A stereotypical background would be the son of a noble, a gentlemen, or a wealthy merchant. Personality types would be charming, friendly, outgoing, confident men with excellent manners.

The character doesn't have to be wealthy. But if he isn't, he should be in a sort of dashing, gentlemenly type profession--your choice between army officer or navy officer as the other gentlemenly professions (church and law) aren't too dashing. For example, Wickham in Pride and Prejudice wasn't rich (he was the son of a steward) but he was a militia officer. These sort of playboys are looking to marry rich women. A wealthy playboy may have a profession (again, think army or navy officer), but is just as likely to be a gentlemen of lesiure.

Fantasy-type playboy will engage in hobbies such as gambling and hunting when not flirting with women. Their friends are not necessarily playboys but will certainly be gentlemanly.

navar100
2012-12-07, 10:07 PM
Could also be the ignored or possibly bullied boy who somehow gained Charisma and now craves the attention he didn't have.

How he got the Charisma:

1) Wish
2) Illusion in appearance
3) Level up ability score and magic tome
4) Always had it but just needed to learn self-confidence, i.e. putting ranks into social skills
5) Deal with the devil

Darius Kane
2012-12-07, 10:32 PM
Casanova, Don Juan, Caligula or Hugh Hefner? Or in other words... the lover, the a**hole, the pervert or the connoisseur? What flavor of playboy are we talking about here?
Lover, I guess.

Just so you guys know, the first part of the OP is what I'm interested more. The second is just a "BTW" type of question.

vertebrae8
2012-12-07, 11:46 PM
In what circumstances/conditions/environment/family/place would a boy have to grow up to turn into a (competent) playboy? I'm talking about a fantasy, D&D-like setting.
And, for that matter, what makes a good playboy?

Here is a good place where real life playboys come together to talk about how to improve their "games":

http://heartiste.wordpress.com/

More research can be done searching for "PUA" or "game"

Acanous
2012-12-08, 12:14 AM
^That site was blocked by my firewall. Might be malicious.

Anyhow, for background, he probably had at least one (But probably more) sister, older than him. She would have been outgoing and instructive on what women find attractive. That way, when he came of age, he'd have a significant advantage, and immediate success would improve his confidance, which most women ALSO find attractive. Cue Charisma Bonus spiral.

Fibinachi
2012-12-08, 07:55 AM
No, no, the site is real enough.
But you don't want to go there. It's... It's bad.
The kind of bad that will corrode your mind. And I don't mean in some sense that allows you to magically improve your "game" to get "chicks" because you're now a "Pua".
I mean in the racist, homophobic, white nationalist, morally myopic science abusing sort of way bad.
---

As for the actual question in the OP: It depends.
Or, "Any given context".
Or, "... Pretty much whatever".

It all depends on what kind of playboy character you want. If you want someone on a revenge bender going "Hah! Everyone ignored me when I was younger but now I've asked questions and read tomes and talked to people in bars for years and now no one shall escape me and give me all the attention I CRAVE", then that's what happened (People ignored him, he wanted metaphysical revenge, practiced practiced practiced. Maybe he took a few levels in a bard pc class?).

Alternatively, you can have someone who grows into it viz a viz they come of age and then they're just handsome as all wonder and then it's more of a "This person is so pleasant and beautiful and such good company, who could say no? Why yes, I do want to come back to this dark alley with you!" sort of situation.

You can also have the wish variant, "Hah! A genie... what's the one thing I want?"

Could be the son of a noble, or a barkeep's son who has seen so many people come by and talked to so many folks that he's good at the talking by now.
Flip a coin.

Captain Avynn
2012-12-09, 07:57 PM
You could even go with a down on his luck sort of playboy, similar to the movie Ladies Man (with the SNL cast).

Young boy left on doorstep of a rich playboy, young boy raised as rich Heffnor-esque's son. Young boy did the bad thing and touched his adopted father's favorite woman, and young boy is kicked out to fend for himself.

You could also change the Heffner-esque playboy father figure with more of a Little Finger figure from Game of Throwns. A brothel/bordello owner who has problems because such a child is distracting his 'workers' or touching goods he had been saving for wealthy merchants for a much higher profit.

Hope this helps with adding some diversity to the other ideas provided.

Lord Vukodlak
2012-12-18, 10:46 AM
In some playboy origin's stories, the future player was once devouted to one woman but after she betrayed or rejected him they then turned down the road to the playboy.

Examples: Barney Stinson and Rayne Summers.

Solophoenix
2012-12-18, 11:33 AM
the other gentlemenly professions (church and law) aren't too dashing.

Check out Garrow's Law. Lawyer protagonists can be super dashing!

Dazdya
2012-12-18, 12:34 PM
In the movie What women want, the character of Mel Gibson apparently grew up surrounded by strippers, I think his mother was one too. For some reason, that's the first thing that came to mind.

Sipex
2012-12-18, 01:50 PM
I was thinking along the similar lines of Dazdya above me. Maybe the boy grew up in a burlesque house or similar accommodations? Growing up, surrounded by women who are likely downplaying sex (as it will have lost some of it's appeal to them) would set him right up for the perfect combination of
- Confidence in speaking with women
- Knowing a lot about the common ideas about what some women want than other boys his age would.
- Knowing a lot about what types of men and personalities would be considered 'crude', 'filthy', etc, as the house would likely have many patrons of this sort and it could easily be reasoned that the women working there would point this out to the young boy. (IE: Don't be like Mr Grey, Mr Grey is a pervert)
- Having a keen natural insight on a women's body language (gained through years of being around women and communicating with them)
- Not being put off or flustered just because a woman says or does something suggestive.

GolemsVoice
2012-12-19, 01:40 PM
Maybe a member of a rich family, maybe even a noble. Since he was the third son, he had little actual duties, because his older siblings were meant to take over the family estates and business. So he had a lot of free time, was of high social standing, had money enough to pursue his interests at leisure and maybe a father who didn't care too much what he did as long ashe stayed out of too much trouble.

Also, he was charismatic, and quickly found that the ladies liked him, because he was the ideal lover. Good looking, wealthy, lot's of free time. However, he was still the son of a noble, so actual marriage was out of the question, instead, he focused on conquests that rarely lasted more than a night or two.

A jerk would have used his noble birth, money and relative freedom of consequences to take whatever he wanted, but he chose to conquer through skill and wits.

Traab
2012-12-19, 11:33 PM
Don Julio, son of Don Juan. No seriously, there are a few ways to make it seem likely, most have been mentioned.

Grow up in an environment where your role models are playboys themselves. When your dad is a high rolling playboy, it makes it easy to pick up on the mannerisms.

Grow up in a highly sexualized world so there are no mysteries to you. you know what women are like, you know what they want, you know how to give it to them, because you grew up around very candid women who had no problem sharing all this with a kid.

The used becomes the user. Basically, he started off as a one woman man, but got his heart broken so has decided to hell with women, im in it for me. He gets his game together probably over time as noone starts out as a sex jedi able to make women hot at 50 paces. This is closer to that Ladies Man character. "Yeah, that was great, you need to go now." Read the early issues of Least I Could Do for good examples.

An agent with seduction training. "My name is Bond. James Bond."

Those last two arent really the childhood setups you are looking for though. Hmmm, what else?

The natural empath. I read an interesting story once. Its about this guy who is basically a professional seducer of married women. The thing is, he never hurts them. He sees the lonely bored housewife, he lends her a sympathetic ear, he makes her feel good, feel happy, feel beautiful, feel WANTED, then when they are both satisfied, he leaves her with a smile and a fond memory to make them smile when he is gone. It later on turns out that he is a mind healer. He is drawn to these women living lives of quiet desperation and gives them pleasure and happiness to help heal their minds and hearts.

The_Shaman
2012-12-21, 05:25 AM
I'd agree with most other people said, but considering that many fantasy settings have deities dedicated to love and/or passion and/or sex, that offers some more avenues. For example, a FR character who is the son, nephew etc of a cleric or other devotee of Sune, Sharess or the like, chances are he might pick up some cues growing up.

So what else can they be? Well, it helps to be naturally charismatic, the kid who always had confidence and came up with strange schemes (likely the son of a local notable who has seen dad or mom act confident around others). It might help to travel a lot and not settle down much, i.e. having your parents be merchants, bards or the like - by the time the boy grows up, he may actually have a problem settling down with one girl when he's had crushes in most every town. It is important to have been around at least some women who aren't very narrow-minded. Being well-off isn't necessary, but helps.

Generally, I'd imagine a confident, reasonably attractive man with experience around women and not too many moral barriers will likely be a capable playboy. So I'd narrow it down to parents and environment:
- The boy should have the right genes and schooling to be attractive;
- The parents shouldn't be too hard or controlling on the child and should help him build confidence;
- He grows up in an environment where he could interact somewhat freely around girls his age and higher - ideally many and different ones - and where he can develop both an interest and some knowledge;
- Local culture or counterculture (that most appeals to the boy) is at least somewhat permissive of casual or secretive relationships for men;
- The boy has some success in his early escapades and builds enough confidence in the matter.

Chances are, boys like that can make a lot of hearts go a-flutter when they start growing up, and know what to do with those hearts.