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Sajiri
2015-07-22, 10:42 PM
In one of the single player RPs I'm in (which recently just passed 100 sessions, yay), the DM and I once had a joke 'It's amazing (character) hasn't got pregnant yet with how her and her lover carry on'. That came up again recently when the DM made a random comment (to do with plot reasons) 'maybe we should have made her pregnant,' long story short, we ended up rolling for it, and now my character is expecting. It's going to take the RP in some different directions, and adds a lot of twists now because of who the father is (heir to the throne of an undead nation. That's a thing apparently) but in the few sessions since then, it's become a pretty important focus in the plot so far. This character also already has 2 children (one was kidnapped prior to the beginning of the game and much of the early parts revolved around rescuing her, the other was adopted throughout the game so far)

So I'm curious, have you ever had a game where a player's character had children? Has it affected the plot or just been something off to the side? I'd like to hear some stories :)

TheThan
2015-07-22, 11:01 PM
I played a character that had a whole family, wife, two children and even a dog. Robert MacBane was a professional adventurer, as in he adventured for the money; which he would use to support his family. Naturally he was away from home a lot. But during downtime or between adventures he would go home to his family.

But have I played a character that became pregnant during the adventure (or got someone pregnant during the adventure)? nope not really.

The Fury
2015-07-22, 11:04 PM
I was in an RPG where one of the PCs adopted. A dwarf that took in a bugbear toddler, it was sweet. It did affect the plot somewhat, as we all grew to really like the little bugbear and left him in a sort of dwarvish daycare while we were off doing dangerous missions. He was always happy to see us when we came back and clearly loved his adopted dwarven dad. The same campaign my character had a son too, though he wasn't born until the campaign's epilogue so it didn't impact the plot much.

Phoenixguard09
2015-07-22, 11:07 PM
One of my players' background involves a child as the product of rape.

In my setting, Invarrian females are generally capable of having only one litter in their lifetime. There are exceptions, but these are rare.

As such, rape is beyond being a serious crime amongst the Invarrians. Nothing even comes close to it.

So naturally, I have one player who wants to push the envelope when it comes to tragic backstories, and she went full-bore on it. She has one surviving son, who has not featured in the story at all. The other characters are not aware of the son's existence, though the players do know.

Not quite what you were after, but it is all I have got.

Sajiri
2015-07-22, 11:07 PM
bugbear toddler

Heh, in the campaign I mentioned, my character's kids kind of have a bugbear nanny

The Fury
2015-07-22, 11:13 PM
I still like the bugbear kid. Gris was his name. I remember our characters would stop in town marketplaces to buy toys for him.

Seriously though, how did you get a bugbear nanny?

goto124
2015-07-22, 11:22 PM
... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

Sajiri
2015-07-22, 11:40 PM
I still like the bugbear kid. Gris was his name. I remember our characters would stop in town marketplaces to buy toys for him.

Seriously though, how did you get a bugbear nanny?

She was supposed to be the first boss encounter and have a very dark ending to the session, instead I recruited her through a combination of bluff, diplomacy and a healthy dose of female empowerment. She's evil, but now she hangs out in my character's house taking care of the kids and is happy so long as she has food and booze.


... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

No, its PCs having children

HolyCouncilMagi
2015-07-22, 11:44 PM
Well... I play Ars Magica a lot, so it's not as inconvenient (or unlikely) as in other RPGs where a whole campaign is measured in months or years. Ars Magica measures individual sessions in seasons or years and you have several characters to play, so although there're some slow saga speeds where this isn't the case, most characters will begin and end their pregnancy off-screen over the course of a single session (or two if they happen to get pregnant near the end of one session). Nearly all of my Ars Magica characters who live to thirty will have had at least one child...

With the exception of the magi, for whom childbirth is rather rare. The Gift repels committed lovers and one-night stands alike, magi are usually antisocial and untrusting of the few who can overcome their Gift, their kids are highly unlikely to inherit the trait magi consider their most defining feature (the aforementioned Gift doesn't pass in the blood), and often the pregnancy and close relationship of a child would simply be considered a waste of time that could spent in the lab growing more powerful or knowledgeable.

These children often become PCs themselves, and as PCs they may or may not go on to do plot-relevant things, but whether you consider that to be plot relevance inherent in the having of children is up to you. There were two times that their births were relevant to other characters' goals and challenges, though...

One was a prophecied child whose father (a magus) engaged in many activities to get the correct woman to sleep with him in the correct spot on the correct day, and because he was desperate he didn't account for the long-term consequences of those actions, so the child both brought stories through its prophecy, and earned the magus a supernatural and noble enemy that would stay with him throughout the saga (specifically, said noble was using demons to earn an undefeated reputation in tournaments, and the magus bested him).

The other time was when an NPC troll kidnapped and did certain unsavory things to a married female PC (player agreed and it was fade-to-blacked) and she had an adventure two seasons after getting rescued, causing her problems as a priest sensed that her baby wasn't human and automatically assumed she had willingly committed adultery with demons. That was a fun session, but only for the players, not the characters.

Yukitsu
2015-07-22, 11:49 PM
My current character in one game has a kid. The little blighter just stays at home with his mother during hunting season and with the both of his parents during the off season. How this influences the story has yet to be seen.

I had another character who was a dude. A celestial came along and said she'd help him if he'd let her have his children. My character being a Fey misunderstood the request, changed his gender, got knocked up (by his item familiar who had a female gender) and gave the celestial his kid. Since he was a diviner, he mostly just helped the party remotely while lying around his wizard tower. I'd say it's a long story, but for the key points, that's pretty much it.

Another character was a paladin on a god granted quest to help the elven population recover. Most of his contribution was finding items that help with fertility and such, but a lot of his work was also more manual, so he had a lot of children but they were all raised by the elven communities because that's apparently how they work.

Another another one got tied up by the party bard who was dominated at the time. A passing by harem decided to stop by and he ended up with 7 children and a broken pelvis. I wish I were making that one up.

Sajiri
2015-07-22, 11:56 PM
It sounds like most kids in RPs are just kept out of the way :p which makes sense I suppose.

My character's adopted son has basically become the DMPC, and is active in each session, comes along and takes part in combat regularly (despite my character regularly tries to make him stay behind, but he either sneaks along or manipulates her into saying yes. Due to plot reasons, he's quite capable, although he did get mind controlled and try to murder her in the last session). Her daughter was only recently rescued, and not a whole lot has happened with her yet. She's only 7, but the DM keeps reminding me that people will get older, and supposedly she will grow up and be influenced by the NPCs she spends time with now (so she may end up like one of the mages, or the paladin, etc).

The unborn baby obviously has nothing yet, but it sounds like it will be interesting what happens, as the father had already returned to his own nation before she found out she was pregnant, and now she doesnt want that nation to know she's carrying his child because most likely scenario is that they'll show up and try to take it away from her. It's possible it could be twins though :p DM said he'd roll for that too later on

Kiero
2015-07-23, 12:03 AM
... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

Dear gods, spare us from both.

Knaight
2015-07-23, 01:55 AM
Dear gods, spare us from both.

I've had some very good children players. Inventive, imaginative, actually capable of getting their heads into the game, somehow less distractable than the adult group tends to be. Obviously there are some limits to what you can bring in as a GM, but in my experience those have consistently been good games.

goto124
2015-07-23, 01:57 AM
Where do you get those children from, Paradise?

chainer1216
2015-07-23, 01:58 AM
I play a character who recently married the mother of his unborn child. Its due in a month or two. The pregnancy has been rough, this character is extremely protective of those he cares about and she is a fellow adventurer so the last few months have been frustrating for her.


Oh did I mention my character is the great grand son of Mephistopheles? And that at one point in the past I maaaaay have made a deal with him to get myself and a party amber resurrected? Its probably going to be an interesting childbirth...

Knaight
2015-07-23, 02:09 AM
Where do you get those children from, Paradise?

Friend's younger siblings, mostly. One was a kid I babysat/nannied for. A few other places. Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe it's a side benefit of generally being good with kids.

Mastikator
2015-07-23, 06:07 AM
Jordgrim, the barbarian mercenary adventurer from Junghart was married and had kids.

His backstory was simple, when he was young he was conscripted, after a few years he was free and had scraped together some money. He retired, got married, bought land and built a farm, had a few kids.
A few years down the line there was a bad harvest, he borrowed money to stay alive, next year bad harvest again and no money. His wife and kids are taken as collateral.
So he becomes an adventurer mercenary.
After his first successful month he gets handsomely paid, he celebrates, gets drunk, goes out to pee. Gets attacked by a werewolf, the next morning he wakes up covered in blood and the other PCs find him and reluctantly agree to help him.

The kids never entered actual play, but they were the main motivator for adventure. They justified the risks he took as an adventurer and actually were useful for the DM because as long as the plot hooks were baited with money he always took them.

Edit- the werewolfism was rolled on at character creation, I didn't decide that and it wasn't really a good idea in hindsight.

Sith_Happens
2015-07-23, 08:17 AM
I had another character who was a dude. A celestial came along and said she'd help him if he'd let her have his children. My character being a Fey misunderstood the request, changed his gender, got knocked up (by his item familiar who had a female gender) and gave the celestial his kid. Since he was a diviner, he mostly just helped the party remotely while lying around his wizard tower. I'd say it's a long story, but for the key points, that's pretty much it.

Fey, you're playing them right.:smallwink:

comicshorse
2015-07-23, 08:23 AM
In a Warhammer game my Elf minstrel passed himself of as a Elven Noble so well he actually married into a human noble family. Had a son and heir, however at the time of the child's conception he was under the effects of an infusion of blood from a Lord of Change (Greater Demon of Tszeentch, long story).
For about a year everything was good then he started having disturbing dreams where his son transformed into a horrific monster.
Sadly the GM got married and moved away before we could get to grips with this plot

I could mention several Pendragon characters but in Pendragon propagating your family line and gaining Glory for the family name are an integral part of the game

Worgwood
2015-07-23, 08:30 AM
I have a Star Wars character who's a smuggler; he's a mid-30s guy with kids and a wife, and he's smuggling so he can support his family during a period where the Empire are cracking down on pretty much everyone.

A friend of mine has actually roleplayed a character raising children to adulthood; he's played the same character, on and off, for 10 years, who has progressed from a 20-year-old mercenary to a 50-year-old warlord, with three of his own adult-age children plus one he's adopted. Those children now sometimes become major NPCs in plots that character is involved in.

Amphetryon
2015-07-23, 08:40 AM
Two of the PCs in the game I'm currently DMing have conceived children together, while one of those has also conceived children with several NPCs. It's become a surprisingly large focus of the game.

BWR
2015-07-23, 09:09 AM
Children play a greater part in some games than others - by design and by chance. Something like Pendragon is designed to be generational, and Ars Magica quickly develops a bunch of children simply because everyone is stationary and there are tons of people around and time flies. In AM children have appeared and been mostly ignored by the magi (except where one got pregnant despite her longevity ritual). In L5R kids show up regularly because you're expected to marry and carry on the family name and gove more good little samurai to your lord and clan. In our games PCs may very well be children of previous PCs.
Heck, one OA game has something like 4 generations of descendants of my first PC and every kid to come along is an celebratory event at the table; stats are rolled, proper Ancestors are assigned and politics about where the kid will train and who they will marry starts then. There have been plenty of adventures for kids - as scions of ruling families they are prime targets for politics and evil BBEGs. Kidnappings, assassination attempts (successful and not), getting lost, intrigue, seduction and more.

In more traditional D&D games we've also had pregnancies and children. Children and the life of a murderhobo don't mix well, so the PCs in my Mystara game decided to mostly settle down and take things easy while the kid grows up. A few adventures to distract from motherhood still occur but any hardcore questing (for Immortality, in this case) will wait until the kid is grown up. Another PC has stared a dynasty and must designate an heir, which is a bit harder to do than it could be considering she's sworn to chastity for 100 years. Yet another married and got a litter in what amounted to a footnote. So yeah, being a parent tends to cut drastically back on adventuring life. Some people don't want to play that. For some games and characters it's a natural progression.

LibraryOgre
2015-07-23, 09:11 AM
Did have a group of players adopt a group of abandoned goblin cubs. However, they foisted them on the local cleric of the Caregiver, gave him a chunk of silver, and let him deal with them.

SimonMoon6
2015-07-23, 11:26 AM
In one multiversal campaign that I ran, a PC married a princess. Then, he went away on other adventures, and due to time working differently in different places, when he got back, he found out that his wife had had a son that she raised by herself, and now that son was a grown adult.

This lead to various moments, such as the son being fairly combative against his father until they finally had a serious talk, with the PC discussing how he understood how the son felt as his own father had abandoned him.

I think that's the only situation involving children of PC's I've encountered except for special cases: someone's "daughter from the future" came back in time for reasons... and when a player left the group, his character had a daughter who... again due to time being different in different places... encountered the PCs as an adult.

TheThan
2015-07-23, 01:53 PM
It sounds like most kids in RPs are just kept out of the way :p which makes sense I suppose.

Well yeah, sensible people don’t take children into dangerous situations intentionally such as taking them into dungeons where they’re sure to encounter dangerous monsters that like to eat people. Fighting bandits, goblinoid hoards, dragons you name it, bad idea to bring a kid along.

Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

Yukitsu
2015-07-23, 03:02 PM
Well yeah, sensible people don’t take children into dangerous situations intentionally such as taking them into dungeons where they’re sure to encounter dangerous monsters that like to eat people. Fighting bandits, goblinoid hoards, dragons you name it, bad idea to bring a kid along.

Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

LibraryOgre
2015-07-23, 03:15 PM
I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

...I want to say Suburban Commando.

Malimar
2015-07-23, 04:05 PM
Well, my character in Rise of the Runelords crowned himself King of the Goblins and started making the goblins breed him an army, does that count?

Also, I'm currently playing a dwarf whose backstory is he's got lots of adult children and some grandchildren and went adventuring because he's basically an empty-nester, but none of his children or grandchildren have featured in the game yet.

TheThan
2015-07-23, 04:36 PM
I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

You’re totally thinking of the scorcher movies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZocvme6cYc) from tropic thunder.

Kiero
2015-07-23, 04:53 PM
I've had some very good children players. Inventive, imaginative, actually capable of getting their heads into the game, somehow less distractable than the adult group tends to be. Obviously there are some limits to what you can bring in as a GM, but in my experience those have consistently been good games.

Don't get me wrong, I have two children and a third on the way. I love playing with them, and my eldest has an incredible imagination.

I wouldn't want any of them at the roleplaying table before they were teenagers at least.

Sajiri
2015-07-23, 05:03 PM
Well yeah, sensible people don’t take children into dangerous situations intentionally such as taking them into dungeons where they’re sure to encounter dangerous monsters that like to eat people. Fighting bandits, goblinoid hoards, dragons you name it, bad idea to bring a kid along.

Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

Well, there are stories/legends of some badass women going to war/fighting with a baby strapped to their back. How true these stories are is questionable of course, but there's precedence for it :p Although I was meaning it less of a child taking part in combat in some way, and more of 'is it important to the plot and shows up beyond just being mentioned in someone's backstory'

comicshorse
2015-07-23, 06:01 PM
And of course there's always the classic

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068815/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

ArcanaFire
2015-07-23, 06:09 PM
Most of the time if someone has a kid in the middle of the campaign it's a male PC just because no one wants to have to retire their character for 9 in character months in order to fool with it.

Exceptions include it happening in the epilogue or over a timeskip.

Once, we played a very low level campaign that was all set in the same town. The PCs were all primarily their jobs (one was the town smith, another the tavernkeeper, and another still the local physician and apothecary) and it was all slice of life. Things like "there is a drought, how do we deal with it". The most violent things ever got was a raid on the town being planned by goblins and we never got around to actually playing that.

No one /had/ kids in that campaign, but they easily could have and it would have, rather than detracting from the verisimilitude of the game, added to it.

I personally very much enjoy playing second and third gen characters so usually my PCs do end up having kids...so I can play them later.

goto124
2015-07-23, 10:04 PM
Not that many people sying that they usually avoid children and reproduction and stuff? It creeps me out somehow. I'm alright with crossbow bolts going through someone's eye, and with talks of sexuality, but when family/baby-making/etc comes up, that's when I say no and refuse to let my characters go anywhere near that. I don't even know why I'm so scared.

Compared to the thread on sexuality, which has many people saying 'I usually avoid romance and/or sexual things'?

Kiero
2015-07-24, 05:34 AM
Not that many people sying that they usually avoid children and reproduction and stuff? It creeps me out somehow. I'm alright with crossbow bolts going through someone's eye, and with talks of sexuality, but when family/baby-making/etc comes up, that's when I say no and refuse to let my characters go anywhere near that. I don't even know why I'm so scared.

Compared to the thread on sexuality, which has many people saying 'I usually avoid romance and/or sexual things'?

My group tends to de-emphasise romance for the most part, but family is an integral part of most games. That includes children - though they're usually a pre-existing thing when the game starts, rather than a new arrival somewhere in play.

One of my PCs in our last D&D4e game had children. In the first mini-campaign he was just married, in the second he had one child, and in the third two children. They were mostly a background element, but they brought to the fore his motivation for protecting their region and community.

goto124
2015-07-24, 06:34 AM
Come to think of it, I don't really RP romance, as I find it lame. It's more of 'close friends who happen to have sex'.

Maybe adult responsibilites creep me out. New creature: Tax forms!

HolyCouncilMagi
2015-07-24, 06:43 AM
Come to think of it, I don't really RP romance, as I find it lame. It's more of 'close friends who happen to have sex'.

Maybe adult responsibilites creep me out. New creature: Tax forms!

Why would you want that? The CR would be ridiculously high and all its treasure would be "gotcha!"s. :smalltongue:

mephnick
2015-07-24, 07:00 AM
I have my own kids. I do not play RPGs to think about relationships and family obligations.

LibraryOgre
2015-07-24, 09:33 AM
Don't get me wrong, I have two children and a third on the way. I love playing with them, and my eldest has an incredible imagination.

I wouldn't want any of them at the roleplaying table before they were teenagers at least.

I'll introduce mine to gaming sooner... but not likely with adults.

Mystral
2015-07-24, 09:56 AM
In one of the single player RPs I'm in (which recently just passed 100 sessions, yay), the DM and I once had a joke 'It's amazing (character) hasn't got pregnant yet with how her and her lover carry on'. That came up again recently when the DM made a random comment (to do with plot reasons) 'maybe we should have made her pregnant,' long story short, we ended up rolling for it, and now my character is expecting. It's going to take the RP in some different directions, and adds a lot of twists now because of who the father is (heir to the throne of an undead nation. That's a thing apparently) but in the few sessions since then, it's become a pretty important focus in the plot so far. This character also already has 2 children (one was kidnapped prior to the beginning of the game and much of the early parts revolved around rescuing her, the other was adopted throughout the game so far)

So I'm curious, have you ever had a game where a player's character had children? Has it affected the plot or just been something off to the side? I'd like to hear some stories :)

It's a good reason to stop playing a character and start a new one. Other than that, no.

LibraryOgre
2015-07-24, 12:59 PM
Some games are designed to be player more generationally, however.

Ars Magica, for example, progresses in seasons. In any given season, you can participate in a story or train; so pregnancy, which would take about 3 seasons, doesn't remove you from the game or prevent you from getting XP. Also, since the game moves relatively quickly through regular time, a child born in the game could well grow up and become a character themselves, capable of going on their own adventures.

Knaight
2015-07-24, 03:52 PM
I'll introduce mine to gaming sooner... but not likely with adults.

True, introducing one kid to a largely older adult group is a questionable idea. A mixed group, or a group of kids with an adult GM? That works fine in my experience.

Sith_Happens
2015-07-24, 10:50 PM
Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

Depends, is this in D&D 3.0 or later, and if so does the baby count as a creature or an attended object?:smallwink:


Maybe adult responsibilites creep me out. New creature: Tax forms!

If you think that's bad, wait until you meet the mortgage golem.:smalltongue:

danzibr
2015-07-25, 02:06 PM
Don't get me wrong, I have two children and a third on the way. I love playing with them, and my eldest has an incredible imagination.

I wouldn't want any of them at the roleplaying table before they were teenagers at least.
I have two, no third on the way yet. I tell my wife we need two more so I can DM a party of 5.

Talyn
2015-07-25, 08:59 PM
My daughter is still at the "sit in her high chair and try to eat the dice" stage of her life, but I have every intention of introducing her to gaming as soon as she is old enough to enjoy it. (I started at about 11, but with the right tutoring I don't see any reason you couldn't start as young as eight or so.)

As I get older, and the group of people I game with gets older, get married, get adult responsibilities, etc., I have noticed that there has been a significant increase in the number of characters with families. I haven't played a character who became a parent over the course of a campaign yet, but it is only a matter of time at this point.

Jay R
2015-07-26, 04:49 PM
In the game Pendragon, you are expected to start a family, and eventually play your original character's descendants. A full campaign is expected to be five generations.

goto124
2015-07-26, 09:34 PM
My daughter is still at the "sit in her high chair and try to eat the dice" stage of her life

Better than the little girl who eats character sheets IRL...

No, really. It's in one of those Campaign Quotes threads.

Baeraad
2015-07-27, 07:18 AM
Hmm, no, I don't think I have ever done that. It might be interesting, but, hmm, how do I put this...

I think that in order for me to be okay with one of my characters becoming a parent, I would need to 1) play that character in a mostly asexual fashion for long enough to become comfortable with the idea of them having a sex life, and then 2) play that character as sexually active for long enough to become comfortable with the idea of them becoming a parent. I can't exactly explain why I need it to be that way, it just feels like rushing the process would feel like getting ambushed by deeper character issues than I was ready for.

Sadly, I have yet to be in a campaign that lasted long enough for me to even get started on the second part, though some of the longer ones to make it feel close (it appears to take me about six months or so for the idea of my character having sex to stop squicking me out).

Illithid
2015-07-27, 05:52 PM
My son debuted as the "10,000,000 ton mech" as he crawled across the Battletech map in diapers. He was playing with his mom and I in a simplified dnd game at 8. He's been playing 3.x and various strategy games with my friends and I since age 10 (and when he plays Risk or chess with his age group, he _destroys_ them). We have been increasing the age rating of the games steadily, with no problems. We don't generally get R-rated, though.

I've had a character (male elf) who got married, and his wife was pregnant when the game died... pity, I was looking forward to it. Family life for adventurers is easy once you know Teleport. His adopted goblin son got launched successfully.

My wife's character in the solo campaign I've run for years has great - grandchildren by now. Lots of good adventure hooks... not just "the kid's been kidnapped again", I've actually avoided that one to date.

So it can be complicated, but it can work well.

GungHo
2015-07-28, 02:29 PM
I've done generational campaigns, so this stuff is par for the course. The next set of PCs may be related to or have been students of the previous PCs. Generally, the details of the previous PCs' adventures have suffered quite greatly through the telephone game. That villain they greased is now an undead monstrosity. Yes, you just recovered that sword your great grandpa lost gambling. Yes, your master's master's master also went through this dungeon, though it was known by a different name and has been through some renovations.

Those last two make new sessions quite fun actually. The players' get to figure out what they've seen before and I don't have to re-invent a bunch of stuff. Creative laziness isn't a sin.