Who's your daddy (and momma)?

[Maglubiyet]

It's a well-known trope that story heroes are often orphans. Has anyone ever incorporated a PC's parents into a game? Player or GM?

The idea is so weird for some reason, I just gotta try it.

[BWR]

Oh sure. Happens somewhat frequently. One on-and-off campaign had parents as important NPCs and the fifth generation of children of the first PCs is just now being born. Parents in these games are movers and shakers in the world and relationship to them has an enormous impact on any given PC.

If you play murderhobos in a vaguely defined setting where culture and setting is minimal and attachment to them even less, then yes, parents or parental figures aren't going to be that important. If you have a well-defined setting, especially one where family plays a big role (e.g. L5R) then parents will play a role.
Even in my murderhobo games I don't think I've ever played an orphan, though.

[Max_Killjoy]

Orphans have been rare.

However, it's not as if everyone's parents play more than a backstory role in the game.

Real life example... most of the people I've worked for or with have never met my parents.

[daniel_ream]

Has anyone ever incorporated a PC's parents into a game?

Ran Amber Diceless for five years in and after university.

So um, yeah.

[Lemmy]

I usually avoid having close relatives for the same reason most players do: To avoid the old "your parents/wife/children/whatever were kidnapped! Now follow the railroad to save them!" trap... It can be interesting once or twice, but it gets old really fast.

Unless I trust the GM not to pull that crap, my character's family will be non-existent or living on some far, far away land... Safe from the GM's memory.

(Also, it's easier to justify travelling all around for weeks/months/years when you don't have children to feed!)

[Tiri]

Would using a story about a character's mother to make friends with an NPC count as having incorporated the mother into the game?

[Quertus]

Imagine describing your IRL family & friends to a GM who hadn't met them. Now imagine the GM trying to use them as NPCs from your description. They would be a caricature, a mockery. There is no way those would be the people you care about, who shaped your life and made you into the person you are today. Depending on the setting, I'd be much more likely to kill them on the spot as obvious imposters / doppelgangers.

So, no thanks. Never had it done well, never expect it to be done well. I put too much thought and character into even my backstory characters to want the GM to ever touch them. I'll stick with "I'm not from around here".

[comicshorse]

Sure, my characters usually have parents even if they don't always play a major part in the game. One of the times I remember they did was in a 3rd Edition DnD game where my character was a small time thief supporting his mother after Dad had abandoned them both.
Turned out Dad had abandoned us to devote himself to the study of magic, had become a Liche and became the Big Bad of that game

[TheCountAlucard]

It's a well-known trope that story heroes are often orphans. Has anyone ever incorporated a PC's parents into a game? Player or GM?

The idea is so weird for some reason, I just gotta try it.As a matter of fact, six members of the PC roster in my seafaring game had the identity of one or more of their parents as a somewhat important factor to their story!

(Admittedly, some didn't know one or both of their parents, some had dead parents, and so on.)


Hectorae's father was a Dragon-Blooded, and hoping the Dragons' blood would eventually take root in Hectorae as well, he was insanely strict with him growing up, leading Hectorae to be wound more than a little too tightly, and eventually break down altogether.
Seamstress of Dissolution was born in the Skullstone Archipelago, a place where the living exalt the undying spirits of their ancestors. Her father was an unknown ghost of some renown, her mother a living woman, but she died giving birth to her daughter, and so the infant that would be Seamstress was raised as a ward of the state (and its ghostly ruler, the Silver Prince, whom Seamstress considers to be her father for all intents and purposes).
Hogane was a product of the demon-worshipping pirate clan known as the Lintha Family; to prevent "tainting" their blood any further, Lintha who leave their island home are supposed to, well, do things to make themselves unable to have children, and Hogane's parents broke that rule and tried to escape the Family. The enraged Lintha killed Hogane's parents but missed the child, who grew up unaware of his heritage, even as the Lintha began to hear word of this strange and enterprising pirate lord…
Barbus' father was the chief of his tribe of raiders; with his skill at war, he so impressed the thunderbirds worshipped by his tribe that one, a queen among their kind, allowed him to father a son on her. When Barbus was born (hatched?), though, she was disappointed in the child and foisted him off on the father and essentially turned her face from his whole tribe. Now, though, Barbus has begun to come into his own as a peerless warrior, and she begins to take interest in her son.
Hectare hails from a clan of explorers; his father was a wayfinder who was raised up by none other than the god of the sun for his survival skills. Hectare, in turn, inherited a touch of his father's greatness, and became a shipbuilder, only to one day find the sun-god was blessing him.
Misu is the product of two demigods - one the daughter of the western goddess of the hunt, the other the grandson of the god of the ocean. His older brother inherited a touch more divine power than Misu, and internalized it as sorcerous talent, where Misu became an influential pirate admiral.

[ExLibrisMortis]

One of my current characters has tax collectors for parents. They administer the shipping of ore in a major port.

[baticeer]

Player in Curse of Strahd wanted her elf ranger character to be raised by wolves (he was a beastmaster with his wolf companion being his "little brother"). While developing the backstory a little, I asked what happened to his parents that left him alone in the forest like that? She suggested that they had disappeared mysteriously and I decided they had ended up in Ravenloft. So after being drawn into Barovia there was a possibility that the character would be reunited with his long-lost father living among Barovia's dusk elves. The campaign ended prematurely and it never ended up happening, but it was there...

[Âmesang]

Closest I've come was having a FORGOTTEN REALMS® dark elf, Variolus, be the daughter of Zal'therra Baenre of Menzoberranzan, a relatively minor character from the novels (as far as I can tell), which I believe would make her the first cousin once removed to Matron Mother Quenthel—a member of an important family, but not necessarily an important member of the family. No named father yet (would it matter?), though I do wonder how Zal'therra herself connects to the family… such as perhaps being descended from Yvonnel's unnamed deceased twin?

I've also a WORLD OF GREYHAWK® human of pure-blooded Suel descent, Quintessa, who's parents are still unnamed, though I've considered naming her father some variant of Æther as another connection to alchemy (ether/quintessence). Though if I can find the time… and the necessary madness… I'd like to create a family tree for her that would stretch back through more than 6,000 years of Suel history (it helps tying her to the Neheli family and tracking down other Suel surnames/family names).

The thought occurred regarding these two since they both have "noble" backgrounds; otherwise I never really gave it much concern, not because other characters were orphans… but merely because it never came up (my groups have always been light on roleplaying :smallfrown:).

[Mechalich]

I usually avoid having close relatives for the same reason most players do: To avoid the old "your parents/wife/children/whatever were kidnapped! Now follow the railroad to save them!" trap... It can be interesting once or twice, but it gets old really fast.

Unless I trust the GM not to pull that crap, my character's family will be non-existent or living on some far, far away land... Safe from the GM's memory.


In fairness to GMs - the kidnap and hold hostage loved ones move is an extremely logical and often very effective move for the villains to pull. Why wouldn't you attack the soft target? Couple this to the fact that in most high fantasy games the combination of scry+teleport means that relatives are just as vulnerable to abduction as they are in the 21st century only you have even less support - if a random gang leader kidnaps Aunt May, Peter Parker can still call the police in addition to going in as Spider Man, if Strahd hauls your wife up to Castle Ravenloft you're stuck trying to storm it yourself - and it's often a struggle to provide a reason for the BBEG to not pull that stunt.

Consider how much time Rand spends in the WoT pretending not to care about everyone he loves as a means to protect them versus how much simpler it is to build a character who just doesn't have any loved ones.

[Max_Killjoy]

We had a GM try that once, with one of the PC's kids.

We all decided that we couldn't trust the NPC doing it, so we busted into the NPC's home at night and took his family hostage. After we got the PC's kids back, we broke our word and killed the NPC and all his henchmen and all his lackies, and we went through his records and tracked down everyone he'd compromised and killed those we didn't think we could intimidate. We also robbed and/or torched most of the business the NPC owned.

The GM never tried it again.


E: this may have sounded like an over-reaction and the sort of killing spree that entirely different sorts of characters get up to, but... the NPC in question had made it clear that none of us and none of our friends and none of our families would be safe if we crossed him, because he had "eyes and hands and daggers everywhere", and kept doubling-down. He put us in a situation where we felt nothing we cared about would be safe unless we went with the metaphorical nuclear option. And it fit the PCs... most of them were what the English would call "hard men" (even the woman), tempered only by their families and friends.

[ImNotTrevor]

That sounds like the kind of crap I live for, Max.

Then again I play Apocalypse World primarily, and so I fully expect for my players to leave nothing alive by the end. (Exaggeration, lads)

But yeah, I've had a player who offered up his character's mom as a primary antagonist.
It was amazing.

[Sajiri]

Family features quite heavily in a lot of the campaigns we have. In our longest running one, my character's mother has shown up a few times and has her own stuff going on, her father's meant to be dead but its been hinted he's still alive out there somewhere. My character is also a parent and there's the possibility a grandparent.

In another campaign we just started, again the mother is around and the father is unknown but its possible to find out who he is/was.

In one Im DMing the player's mother was going to be a side character who only showed up briefly but the player actually chose to bring her along, so the mother turned out to be a badass in her own right. The location and identity of the father is also a major part of the plot, as he went missing mysteriously many years ago, and part of the player's motivation is finding out who exactly he is and where he disappeared to.

[JAL_1138]

Usually I don't bring up family unless needed (mostly because I like to play the character a fee sessions and get a handle on their personality before I come up with much of a backstory). Often, the character's parents don't really come up, their adult lives being more relevant.

I do have one who actually is an orphan and spent a few years as a street-rat, but kinda bucks the "orphaned murderhobo" trend anyway. When he was young he was adopted by a priest who took him in off the street and gave him a place to live at the temple. They're still on good terms now that the character is in his thirties and has gone off adventuring. As far as the character cares, the priest is his "real" father in every respect except blood relation, and he writes home frequently, sending his letters via the temples to his deity scattered through the various cities and towns he visits on his travels.

[Lemmy]

In fairness to GMs - the kidnap and hold hostage loved ones move is an extremely logical and often very effective move for the villains to pull. Why wouldn't you attack the soft target? Couple this to the fact that in most high fantasy games the combination of scry+teleport means that relatives are just as vulnerable to abduction as they are in the 21st century only you have even less support - if a random gang leader kidnaps Aunt May, Peter Parker can still call the police in addition to going in as Spider Man, if Strahd hauls your wife up to Castle Ravenloft you're stuck trying to storm it yourself - and it's often a struggle to provide a reason for the BBEG to not pull that stunt.

Consider how much time Rand spends in the WoT pretending not to care about everyone he loves as a means to protect them versus how much simpler it is to build a character who just doesn't have any loved ones.
Sure... But making sense doesn't make it any more fun. Specially after you've seen the same plot over and over again. It's the same reason the main villain just doesn't send his most powerful warriors the 2nd time the PCs give him trouble. Having to drop whatever you're doing to follow a boring, overused plot line is extra annoying in tabletop RPGs, where the main draw (at least to me) and one and only advantage over electronic games is the freedom of action and character development you have.

[LibraryOgre]

It depends on the character, but, yes, I've included them not infrequently. I find that the more political a game is, the more the family of a character matters.

[ElChad]

Currently, one of my players has established his dad in the main town of the adventure. He always goes back to his house and tells his father about his adventures. I have him as an NPC right now, but my player informs me that he intends on switching to his father, should his main character ever die. Spoilers : I intend on using him as a plot hook for next session.

[JAL_1138]

Sure... But making sense doesn't make it any more fun. Specially after you've seen the same plot over and over again. It's the same reason the main villain just doesn't send his most powerful warriors the 2nd time the PCs give him trouble. Having to drop whatever you're doing to follow a boring, overused plot line is extra annoying in tabletop RPGs, where the main draw (at least to me) and one and only advantage over electronic games is the freedom of action and character development you have.

This. Very much this. It's a plotline that's horribly, painfully overdone in books, comics, movies, TV shows, videogames, and tabletop games. When it's so common as to be a running gag that characters are orphans so the DM won't use their family against them, it's been so overdone that it's lost all emotional and narrative impact and become an eye-roller or nuisance instead. However much "sense" it might make for a villain to do, the kidnapping plot is done to death.

[Segev]

In the most major campaign I ran (which took place in a homebrew setting), two of the PCs' families came up as NPCs. One player was literally playing "Mary Sue," who tried to live up to the name. Her mother, only known as "Mrs. Sue," was always heralded by my descriptions of the world turning into floridly purple prose, all warped to emphasize her beauty and glamour. This was largely an in-joke, but the implied potential for personal power was there.

The other major PCs' family that came up was the bard's. He was the oldest of a massive brood belonging to the baker and his wife, and they were powerful and influential members of the city's politics. Sufficiently personally powerful that going after them would not be wise without being a major power in one's own right...and would have potential political consequences.


In another game, a player was playing the youngest daughter of one of those Paladins who, in his youth, was a Knight in Shining Armor who wins the Fairy Princess's hand in marriage. Her oldest brother and she took after their father, and were fully human. Her two sisters (who came between her brother and she in birth order) were both half-fae. She was...jealous...of her sisters' beauty and, while she looked up to her brother, wanted a prince of her own to come whisk her off her feet.

She had orchestrated more than one "kidnapping" by a dragon or other monster, hoping a knight in shining armor would come for her.

She had done just that in telling her family she was off to help defeat some kobolds with this adventuring party. When she heard a knight in shining armor was looking for her, her eyes lit up...until the description of said knight made it clearer and clearer it was her brother. To the party's shock, given her earlier behavior, she went from eagerly leaving clues to trying to move the party along so the knight couldn't find them. (They didn't realize it was her brother.)

This is the same character who, when the party dithered for too long over three wishes, used up all three. The first two on useful things the party knew they needed to get, but were trying to whittle down to a single wish, and the last on, "I wish to be more beautiful than my sisters!"

I figured that counted as a wish for +1 Cha. (Her beauty did now exceed her sisters', even if she didn't have their full measure of personal magnetism, so their Cha might still be higher.)

[Max_Killjoy]

This. Very much this. It's a plotline that's horribly, painfully overdone in books, comics, movies, TV shows, videogames, and tabletop games. When it's so common as to be a running gag that characters are orphans so the DM won't use their family against them, it's been so overdone that it's lost all emotional and narrative impact and become an eye-roller or nuisance instead. However much "sense" it might make for a villain to do, the kidnapping plot is done to death.


Agreed.

And this is why I scratch my head when people talk about emulating genre and proceed to wax enthusiastic about kidnapped relatives and love interests.

[Winter_Wolf]

Isn't there some trope where the parents are alive and well, and constantly asking their adventurous offspring when they're going to settle down and "get a real job"?

"Logging/fishing/farming ain't glamorous, son, but you're a lot less likely to become a puddle of burning, melted metal in some underground hell-hole doin' it."

Wow I think I just channeled my dad.

[Segev]

Isn't there some trope where the parents are alive and well, and constantly asking their adventurous offspring when they're going to settle down and "get a real job"?

"Logging/fishing/farming ain't glamorous, son, but you're a lot less likely to become a puddle of burning, melted metal in some underground hell-hole doin' it."


Bonus points if the son did try it, and was either a) really bad at it, or b) unable to do it without finding out that the fish have been cursed to spread a terrible plague by the cult that has taken residence upstream, or that the farmland he's settled on is undermined by a sentient and growing dungeon, or that the forest he tries to log is inevitably a Mysterious Forest haunted by fae and worse things.

[Geddy2112]

It depends. Most of my characters have living parents somewhere, or if their parents are dead, it was natural causes or after my character had matured and is in the campaign. I would say the majority of my character's parentage is irrelevant, but if it is I usually just note it in the backstory.

The only times it really mattered:
-My first character's behavior was largely shaped by watching his mother be killed by pirates and losing his father in an accident.
-One of my favorite characters became a necromancer in an attempt to bring his mother back to life, and carried part of her remains in a doll.
-I had a daughter of nobles once, and she would periodically receive money from her parents(through a class mechanic) but they never showed up face to face.
-For a slight reversal of the trope,I once played a cleric who was married and had two daughters, but again, they never showed up in the campaign proper.

[daniel_ream]

This. Very much this. It's a plotline that's horribly, painfully overdone in books, comics, movies, TV shows, videogames, and tabletop games.

That's a bit like saying swords are a trope that's done to death in fantasy. Threatening the loved ones of people who are screwing around with your carefully laid plans for world domination is a standard BBEG tactic. If PCs can't be bothered to make sure that their loved ones have some protection before poking pointy sticks in the eyes of local powers, that's on them.


Isn't there some trope where the parents are alive and well, and constantly asking their adventurous offspring when they're going to settle down and "get a real job"?

The Marcus Didius Falco series. Both his parents are alive (albeit separated) and constantly nagging him to give up the disreputable career of being a private informer and settle down and be respectable.

[Knaight]

Sure. They're rarely all that relevant, but there have been a few games where families of the PCs made an appearance.

[Cluedrew]

I have had back stories that state who my characters are, but have never had them come up directly in game.

As for kidnapping, never had to deal with that myself. But in one game I was attacked by my characters (implied) ex, so there is that.

[Dr paradox]

I'm playing a character now who poses as the rough-and-tumble sellsword, when he's actually the second son of a powerful noble house who fled the military posting expected of him.

His father is something of a personal antagonist, who's always sending manhunters out to track him down and bring him home, which leads to awkward moments where my guy needs to get the help of the party to fend off the attackers while keeping up appearances that he's not a rich boy with a gift for lies.

[JAL_1138]

That's a bit like saying swords are a trope that's done to death in fantasy. Threatening the loved ones of people who are screwing around with your carefully laid plans for world domination is a standard BBEG tactic. If PCs can't be bothered to make sure that their loved ones have some protection before poking pointy sticks in the eyes of local powers, that's on them.


It's not the same thing, though. There's a big difference between an item of common technology of a given time period on the one hand and a specific plotline on the other.

[SilverLeaf167]

I actually can't remember when I last designed an orphan, and my players' characters usually have parents too, but I have little interest in derailing the plot to deal with them unless the player himself has some interesting ideas.

My current Elf Alchemist's very-much-living parents are a warrior and an alchemist from his home tribe, which is currently looking for a new place to settle. He hasn't seen them in 30 years, but since we're playing the Kingmaker module and trying to establish a fief of our own, he has some interest in inviting his tribe into the area at some point. I'm kinda worried it'd feel like I'm hogging the spotlight by bringing in a whole bunch of NPCs connected to my character personally, so I'll have to gauge the situation when it becomes relevant (assuming the tribe would accept his invitation to begin with).

His little brother is a potential backup character, too.

[Segev]

That's a bit like saying swords are a trope that's done to death in fantasy. Threatening the loved ones of people who are screwing around with your carefully laid plans for world domination is a standard BBEG tactic. If PCs can't be bothered to make sure that their loved ones have some protection before poking pointy sticks in the eyes of local powers, that's on them.

The trouble here is that, unless the living family also provides some commensurate benefit to the cost of protecting them, it still is more to the benefit of the player to have an orphan with no attachments, as he doesn't have to spend time and other resources protecting people he cares about (since he has none).

The player has to either WANT the personal extra motivation and plot relevance of "You took my family! I will get them back!" for it to be a positive. Otherwise, something positive must come from having the family safe (as opposed to non-existent) in order for the extra costs of protecting them (or being blackmailed/extorted via them) to be worth it.

A good GM will work this out with the player. He'll offer setting-based benefits of those connections which actually make the family feel real to the players (the target player and the rest of the party). Something that makes it so that "oh, great, my family has been taken hostage :smallannoyed::smallsigh:" is just as easily resolved by having the PC care as little as the player does. If a player is investing some emotional cachet into his NPC family, he should get some enjoyment out of it before it's yanked away, or it will feel hollow.

[Max_Killjoy]

The trouble here is that, unless the living family also provides some commensurate benefit to the cost of protecting them, it still is more to the benefit of the player to have an orphan with no attachments, as he doesn't have to spend time and other resources protecting people he cares about (since he has none).

The player has to either WANT the personal extra motivation and plot relevance of "You took my family! I will get them back!" for it to be a positive. Otherwise, something positive must come from having the family safe (as opposed to non-existent) in order for the extra costs of protecting them (or being blackmailed/extorted via them) to be worth it.

A good GM will work this out with the player. He'll offer setting-based benefits of those connections which actually make the family feel real to the players (the target player and the rest of the party). Something that makes it so that "oh, great, my family has been taken hostage :smallannoyed::smallsigh:" is just as easily resolved by having the PC care as little as the player does. If a player is investing some emotional cachet into his NPC family, he should get some enjoyment out of it before it's yanked away, or it will feel hollow.

(I'm sure this isn't a revelation.)

Some systems handle this by having the player "opt in". They can spend points to make their family useful in some way, or get points for saying "I give you, the GM, permission to use this part of my character's life as a story hook, in a way that involves putting the family under threat". This can apply to individual relatives, the whole family, whatever.

I know some object to the "points up front" model, but what I do like is that this is opt in, telling the GM where to focus their attention and which players are open to what sorts of story elements for their PCs.

[Segev]

(I'm sure this isn't a revelation.)

Some systems handle this by having the player "opt in". They can spend points to make their family useful in some way, or get points for saying "I give you, the GM, permission to use this part of my character's life as a story hook, in a way that involves putting the family under threat". This can apply to individual relatives, the whole family, whatever.

I know some object to the "points up front" model, but what I do like is that this is opt in, telling the GM where to focus their attention and which players are open to what sorts of story elements for their PCs.

That's definitely one way to handle it. Strange as it may sound coming from me, but you also needn't have concrete mechanical benefits, if the system isn't one built around the kinds of benefits the family can offer.

In a basic D&D game, for instance, family might provide you with contacts, information, or tips and even a place to stay that's more comfortable than hoboing it up on the street (but no more expensive). And then, when your family is threatened, you care about it as much as you like, just as you cared about whether or not you were comfortable when staying in town as much (or as little) as you like.

If the "intangible" (or at least, non-mechanical) benefits roughly equate to the consequences (and, if we're honest, "My family was kidnapped and held hostage by the BBEG" is not mechanical, since you could go cold-hearted and uncaring with no consequences if you don't feel it worthwhile to act like the BBEG has a hold over you), it's probably fine.

The trouble is when the GM has the family exist solely as a "plot hook" of the "you now care because they were kidnapped/killed" sort. If the PC didn't care before, and his player isn't motivated to care now, or the player doesn't WANT to be extorted into doing something that hurts his chances of "winning" against the BBEG...why should he care about this family that hasn't been of any use? GM-made orphans and player-made orphans are the same insofar as being PCs goes.

[Maglubiyet]

The trouble is when the GM has the family exist solely as a "plot hook" of the "you now care because they were kidnapped/killed" sort.

There's a mechanic in Deadlands that always bothered me - every character needs to have a Worst Nightmare written on their sheet.

There's no possible upside, from the PC's view, to include this. The only reason it's there is to be used against you.

If you're using family like that, then yeah, that's a major problem.

The equivalent of making your character an orphan in Deadlands would be to say "my guy is a battle-hardened stoic, he isn't afraid of anything".

[GungHo]

Yes. And they're invariably disappointed.

[Arkhios]

I prefer my characters to have intact families, for the most part, or at least have one parent alive.

My favorite characters have had either both parents or one parent alive at the time of their adventuring career took place.

In a Kingmaker Campaign (pathfinder) my character had both parents, although they were only his adopted parents, they were the only parents he'd ever known. His real parents were still alive, but due to political reasons they had had to give their child away or he would've been killed. (He was a bastard heir to the local ruling family).

In our current campaign (homebrew 5e D&D), my character is one of many children from a long line of land-dwelling "celtic-viking"-esque people, far descendant to a once famous adventurer and an archmage (my old character in our D&D Next playtest campaign).

In Pathfinder Society I kept my characters connected with their families as well, to bridge in a possibility for successor-characters should one decease. In multiple occasions I had several characters who were siblings to each other or father and son. It did add some sense of shared world when your other character was a famous person among their peers, and your more recent character was a sibling, or son (or even father) of the famous one.

[legomaster00156]

In my last completed campaign, my sorcerer had one major attachment, and that was to family. His parents were alive, albeit in a different city and unimportant to the overall plot. However, he found a few extended family members in the city the campaign was based out of, and they played major roles.
In a Hell's Rebels campaign I'm in, most of the party are siblings/half-siblings living in the house of our archbaroness aunt. Our mother is a Paladin of Arshea who is off doing who-knows-what.

[Cozzer]

In the games me and my friends play, it's way, way more likely that a character's family turns out to be evil than that they get kidnapped by evil people. I don't know what that says about us. :smalltongue:

Personally, I don't like my characters to have relevant parents or family. They're either dead, or simple farmers that go on with their simple life offscreen somewhere.

[Max_Killjoy]

There's a mechanic in Deadlands that always bothered me - every character needs to have a Worst Nightmare written on their sheet.

There's no possible upside, from the PC's view, to include this. The only reason it's there is to be used against you.

If you're using family like that, then yeah, that's a major problem.

The equivalent of making your character an orphan in Deadlands would be to say "my guy is a battle-hardened stoic, he isn't afraid of anything".


Yes. And they're invariably disappointed.

I might do something snarky like write in "Game designers who think they're being cute with this bull****".

[ImNotTrevor]

I might do something snarky like write in "Game designers who think they're being cute with this bull****".


I don't understand the purpose of this comment.

[Chijinda]

My Dark Heresy character's father abandoned him as soon as he began to show signs of being a Psyker, to pursue a life of piracy.

GM used that after my character got blown out an airlock into space when I burned a Fate Point to survive, and had my character get picked up by his father's crew and we got to rp out a rather tense family reunion.

[Lemmy]

At this point, I actually promise my players not to mess with their characters' family unless they get actively involved in the plot (through the players' action).

That is... If your character's family is just background and/or roleplaying fun, of no real consequence to the campaign, like visiting your parents once in a while, sending money to your sister or adopting a dog, they'll be left in peace. Hell! I'll even give small rewards for that to encourage roleplay, like getting an small discount in your family's shop or having an slightly easier time meeting the leaders of the community where you grew up, this kind of stuff...

However, if the player wants things like asking his military-career father for supplies and/or reinforcements, asking for favors from his politician brother or wanting an steady income from your noble family, he's allowed to, but these are major influences on the effectiveness of the party and how they influence the story, therefore, it's only fair that the PCs' antagonists will take notice of it. Of course, I'll give players a warning when I think they're starting to blur the lien between "having a full-fledged background" and "getting free benefits". Once the warning is given, players are given the choice between toning it down or having said background be fair game to be used against them by the antagonists (within the antagonist's abilities, of course. Just because the enemy would like to use your family against you, doesn't mean they'll be able to... Although it's quite difficult to prevent them from doing so in a world with high magic and/or advanced technology, like the usual D&D setting).

[Max_Killjoy]

At this point, I actually promise my players not to mess with their characters' family unless they get actively involved in the plot (through the players' action).

That is... If your character's family is just background and/or roleplaying fun, of no real consequence to the campaign, like visiting your parents once in a while, sending money to your sister or adopting a dog, they'll be left in peace. Hell! I'll even give small rewards for that to encourage roleplay, like getting an small discount in your family's shop or having an slightly easier time meeting the leaders of the community where you grew up, this kind of stuff...

However, if the player wants things like asking his military-career father for supplies and/or reinforcements, asking for favors from his politician brother or wanting an steady income from your noble family, he's allowed to, but these are major influences on the effectiveness of the party and how they influence the story, therefore, it's only fair that the PCs' antagonists will take notice of it. Of course, I'll give players a warning when I think they're starting to blur the lien between "having a full-fledged background" and "getting free benefits". Once the warning is given, players are given the choice between toning it down or having said background be fair game to be used against them by the antagonists (within the antagonist's abilities, of course. Just because the enemy would like to use your family against you, doesn't mean they'll be able to... Although it's quite difficult to prevent them from doing so in a world with high magic and/or advanced technology, like the usual D&D setting).


That sounds like an approach that threatens to be reasonable and fair. :smallwink:

[daniel_ream]

The trouble here is that, unless the living family also provides some commensurate benefit to the cost of protecting them, it still is more to the benefit of the player to have an orphan with no attachments, as he doesn't have to spend time and other resources protecting people he cares about (since he has none).

If your players see having family as a pure cost-benefit analysis, I question whether having plotlines is a worthwhile use of gaming time in the first place.

[JAL_1138]

If your players see having family as a pure cost-benefit analysis, I question whether having plotlines is a worthwhile use of gaming time in the first place.

Not really; it's the issue of being (quasi-) forced into a specific plot they don't want to play. If I want to save the world, or become king by my own hand, or recover the Lost Orb of Phantasticoria to power the weapons in my personal dreadnought *ahem* keep it out of the hands of the Evil Empire, rather than go rescue my kid sibling (and often give up something else to ensure the hostage's safety, like a powerful magic item or the resolution of a current quest) from the mustache-twirling BBEG, and I suspect the DM will try the kidnapping plot if I have a kid sibling, why would I write one into my backstory? It would only distract from the plotline I'd want to play with one I don't.

[Max_Killjoy]

Not really; it's the issue of being (quasi-) forced into a specific plot they don't want to play. If I want to save the world, or become king by my own hand, or recover the Lost Orb of Phantasticoria to power the weapons in my personal dreadnought *ahem* keep it out of the hands of the Evil Empire, rather than go rescue my kid sibling (and often give up something else to ensure the hostage's safety, like a powerful magic item or the resolution of a current quest) from the mustache-twirling BBEG, and I suspect the DM will try the kidnapping plot if I have a kid sibling, why would I write one into my backstory? It would only distract from the plotline I'd want to play with one I don't.


Indeed.

Which leads to much irony, as attempting to force players out of "murderhobo" mode by "involving their human connections"... can just as easily encourage entrenchment deeper into "murderhobo" mode.

As I've said elsewhere, if players want to play "kick down door, kill beings who live there, take their stuff, gain advancement to kill tougher beings and take even better stuff", that's what they're going to do, and they will recoil from any attempt to force them to do otherwise.

Meanwhile, those who are interested in something else will gravitate to it, without the system or the GM having to impose it on them.

[Segev]

Eh, it isn't system independent, and the GM can encourage or discourage it.

Encouragement involves rewarding behavior. Discouragement involves punishing behavior. Unfortunately, some GMs assume that punishing the behavior they want is being clever and that it will lead to the players trying harder to engage that behavior.

If the GM wants to run a game with some RP and NPCs that are important to the players, but the players perceive the game through a lens of getting loot to get stronger to better beat up foes (and get their loot), then he can get more of what he wants by offering NPCs with whom to interact which can, through that interaction, help get more loot or better quests. Or just more help in pursuing those quests.

If rescuing your kid brother nets you a cool sidekick or the like (perhaps because you 'failed' to rescue him, in that he was cursed into being a powerful intelligent item...but you did rescue him from the BBEG and now have him as your signature weapon while you look for a cure), suddenly your "all about the loot" motivation is rewarded for having cared about your brother.

Sure, you've got a potential "but I, the player, don't want to lose my awesome item by curing the kid" conflict with the theoretical "right" motive of wanting to get him restored, but it's again a matter of figuring out how to make the intended plot and rewards of interest to the player. (Heck, "I don't want my kid brother to get put on a bus, but I couldn't justify keeping him adventuring with me if he got cured" is also a valid concern. There are reasons curses like this that justify keeping a character in an "interesting" condition don't get cured over the course of most shows and other stories. Yes, Max, I know you dislike tropes. But I hope you can appreciate "I want to have this" as a reasonable thing.)

[daniel_ream]

If I want to save the world, or become king by my own hand, or recover the Lost Orb of Phantasticoria to power the weapons in my personal dreadnought *ahem* keep it out of the hands of the Evil Empire, rather than go rescue my kid sibling (and often give up something else to ensure the hostage's safety, like a powerful magic item or the resolution of a current quest) from the mustache-twirling BBEG, and I suspect the DM will try the kidnapping plot if I have a kid sibling, why would I write one into my backstory? It would only distract from the plotline I'd want to play with one I don't.

"Just as you reach out to seize the Orb, a fairy messenger appears and whispers in your ear - 'Come quickly, Hiero! Your brother has been kidnapped by the Wicked Wizard of Westphalia!'"

"Okay, time out. Seriously? I really don't want to do a stupid side quest when we've been at this for weeks and I've finally got to the magic McGuffin."

"Ah, okay. The fairy disappears, clearly a mere result of bad beef, or a spot of mustard from last night's dinner."

"Right, I grab the Orb."

I honestly don't understand why just telling these hypothetical DMs "No, I don't want to play that" is considered so difficult.

[Dr paradox]

Hah, I remember being disappointed when I made a character who lived with his father in the village. They'd been forced to flee their dwarf hold when my guy was very small for matters of a little treason, and they'd lived in this sleepy human settlement for decades. It was a super conscious choice on my part to avoid the "Dead parents" cliche, and I even made it so my father had just been a steward to one of the actors in the treason plot so that my character wouldn't be a noble scion or whatever with a manor to reclaim and a legacy to uphold, yada, yada. Just a grumbly dad in a sleepy village.

Of course, I didn't count of the campaign starting with "Your village burns down and everyone you know dies." That was sad.

[Cozzer]

Encouragement involves rewarding behavior. Discouragement involves punishing behavior. Unfortunately, some GMs assume that punishing the behavior they want is being clever and that it will lead to the players trying harder to engage that behavior.

I think this is an accurate summation of more than half of potential GM problems. In this particular case, the other half is GMs thinking that a "Mwahaha I've just killed/kidnapped/removed everybody your character cares about" twist makes the player more invested in the story and setting. Or that pointless unavoidable tragedies create a sense of grim determination rather than annoyed helplessness.

[Lemmy]

That sounds like an approach that threatens to be reasonable and fair. :smallwink:That can't be right... It's on the internet!

[Altair_the_Vexed]

I always at least consider who my character's family are to think about how they relate to the rest of the world - was mine a happy, pampered childhood? Deprived, poor and hard knocks? Bordering on abusive?
Do I like my parents? Are they living? Do I want to impress them? Do I resent their interference?
Have I any siblings? Older or younger? Are we rivals, or what?
Has anyone died? Recently, or in my childhood?

I'll jot all this stuff down, and pass it to the GM. If any of it becomes important, great - it was me who invented it, after all. Don't invent stuff you don't want to deal with.

[ImNotTrevor]

Now that I'm considering it, most storylines involving parents in my campaigns have been relatively odd.

The thing about it is, it always came from my players.

The first go around it was a character whose parents had been separated from him during the events that turned the entire world into a massive labyrinth. A good portion of the campaign was spent trying to find them (the rest of the group was ok with this because it invariably led to more adventures that the labyrinth was populated with, and it meant expanding the labyrinth map.)

The second was in Apocalypse World where a my player offered up his character's own mother as a major antagonist. And did so based on a joke. His character was old, but the character approaching them was downright ancient. One of my players joked that this was clearly his mom. And he replied with "Ya know what? Sure. It's my mom." And we established a beautifully tense relationship and it ended beautifully.

Most recently in another Apocalypse World game, I have a character whose mother is a semi-eldritch psychic entity within the Psychic Maelstrom, which is a realm of pain, torment, knowledge, and memory that touches all human minds.

So yeah. Parents don't come up often in my games, but the kidnapped parents thing is waaaay more boring than "You and your mom hate eachother and you want her dead" or "Your mom is an eldritch horror beyond mortal ken" or a whole bunch of way interesting parental situations.

[Max_Killjoy]

I think this is an accurate summation of more than half of potential GM problems. In this particular case, the other half is GMs thinking that a "Mwahaha I've just killed/kidnapped/removed everybody your character cares about" twist makes the player more invested in the story and setting. Or that pointless unavoidable tragedies create a sense of grim determination rather than annoyed helplessness.


I blame that at least in part on badly written / formulaic popular fiction. Those are long-standing cliches. Over and over, we see a character whose backstory or opening act includes those sorts of "motivating" tragedies, and it gets people thinking that's the sort of thing that pushes characters to be "determined" or "driven" or "have motivation".

And yet someone always gives me grief when I express my disdain for the assertion that RPGs should "emulate fiction" or "emulate genre".

[ZealousObject]

Okay, time to throw my two cents into the matter.

In my current (and first campaign) I created my character as an orphan (sue me, I have to start somewhere) and left it completely open to my DM as to what is the nature of my parents. They could be dead, alive, separated, whatever.

So my GM basically did was during our run through Curse of Strahd (He was already going to do Strahd stuff before it even came out) when we reached the Amber Temple and defeated the guardian there, we found the corpse of my dead Mother and found out two things as to why she was there:

First we found out she was actually going through Ravenloft and the Temple trying to find a way to find me for I was taken from her when I was a babe, and Second is that I was actually the Half-Brother to one of the PC's. But this wasn't our Mom, it was the Father we shared and from a note we found on her body is that he was actually going to leave his wife to be with his Elven mistress (My mom just for 100% clarification).

This is not even getting into the plot points of trying to kill my Half-Brother around 10-20 sessions ago (If anyone would like to know I would tell the tale), and the entire backstory sub-plot of him trying to overthrow his Father's holding for being a "tyrant" (Only from his perspective and he's LE, so *shrug*). And yes that means my character is a rich Bastard.

Overall I think how my DM has incorporated my mother and father into the campaign is quite good, even though I didn't come up with it I find it highly appreciated that even an orphan can find his family to be both *******s and heroes.

[Segev]

I blame that at least in part on badly written / formulaic popular fiction. Those are long-standing cliches. Over and over, we see a character whose backstory or opening act includes those sorts of "motivating" tragedies, and it gets people thinking that's the sort of thing that pushes characters to be "determined" or "driven" or "have motivation".

And yet someone always gives me grief when I express my disdain for the assertion that RPGs should "emulate fiction" or "emulate genre".

To be fair, if the player wants to play that, it works. It's only frustrating and disempowering when the GM takes your lovingly crafted backstory-related family/friends/loved-ones/hometown that you'd intended to have one kind of influence on your character or experience one kind of story-related interaction...and the GM takes that and throws it on a pyre of "and now they're dead; don't you feel mad at the bad guys?"

It works in fiction because the writer writes the character to care about it. It works in RPGs when the player wrote the character to care about it. It can ALSO work in RPGs when the player had other ideas...but only if you play into those other ideas first, and let him get the emotional investment he WANTED. Then you can start turning the screws, when it really is going to have impact and isn't just an eye-rolling "okay, okay, my character's mad at the bad guy, yay" experience.

Now that I'm considering it, most storylines involving parents in my campaigns have been relatively odd.

The thing about it is, it always came from my players.

(...)

So yeah. Parents don't come up often in my games, but the kidnapped parents thing is waaaay more boring than "You and your mom hate eachother and you want her dead" or "Your mom is an eldritch horror beyond mortal ken" or a whole bunch of way interesting parental situations.
In the one Cthulhutech game I played in, I played an elderly sorcerer (straight-up sorcerer) who had been a scientific researcher, along with his wife, at the forefront of dimensional technologies, back before they realized all the...bad stuff...associated with it.

His (ex-)wife and he separated after a tragic incident involving attempting to combine magic and D-tech that led to her being possessed by a terrible entity from beyond, and their then-infant child being rendered into a half-alive spirit that haunted him for the rest of his days. He loathed that entity, and wouldn't let it manipulate him even though it wore the face of his wife and fooled everybody else. Cursed thing twisted half his friends around, convincing them HE was the one possessed.

He was under so many layers of scrutiny and security because of his involvement with sorcery that he ironically could clear secure areas by simply walking in; they didn't need to spend time vetting him, since he was already so thoroughly vetted. This led to an odd sort of freedom, even if he had pretty much no secrets from the powers that be.


In truth, the accident destroyed their child. The entity that came through was what pretended to be the ghost of his child...and it was doing the same thing to her. Both were "clean," but were convinced the other was possessed and fooling everyone. Which led to a lot of drama and antagonism even when they were ostensibly on the same side. When on rival sides, it made my character absolutely convinced the foe weren't just rivals, but pawns of an evil demon. She felt likewise. (She was an NPC, in case that wasn't obvious.)

[Ignimortis]

I always at least consider who my character's family are to think about how they relate to the rest of the world - was mine a happy, pampered childhood? Deprived, poor and hard knocks? Bordering on abusive?
Do I like my parents? Are they living? Do I want to impress them? Do I resent their interference?
Have I any siblings? Older or younger? Are we rivals, or what?
Has anyone died? Recently, or in my childhood?

I'll jot all this stuff down, and pass it to the GM. If any of it becomes important, great - it was me who invented it, after all. Don't invent stuff you don't want to deal with.

I did this for many characters of importance in my campaign, and it does help to flesh them out, yeah. My players, though, are pretty good about roleplaying and their parents. So their parents - if at any point important - had already shown up or will do so quite soon. So far we've got:

Dwarf cleric - knows both of his parents, got trapped in a cave-in, got out by divine providence, told them he was alive...and now has to take a religious pilgrimage for his new god's relics. Nothing planned for them so far, and I don't think anything will be - they're just commoner dwarves.
Half-fae sorceror - frost fae noble mom, and a human sorcerer father whom he hasn't met. Sorcerer bloodline is plot-relevant at a larger scale, since a BBEG eight hundred years ago had the same one...
Half-dragon factotum - kinda-sorta-almost met her (black dragon) mother last session through some assistance from a kobold theurge. Her dad is a major merchant back in the northern kingdom.
Half-orc warblade knows both of his parents and they haven't been important that much so far. Maybe sometime...
Human duskblade recently lost his dad and his relatives had a brief war between themselves before trying a peaceful resolution...which was promptly sabotaged, and the duskblade was framed for it. There's a whole questline waiting for him, revolving around this.
Human druid was given to druids at seven or eight years old. While she remembers her parents, they're probably not really important to her anymore that much.
Vampire (formerly human) beguiler is, presumably, an orphan, since she's lived on the streets before actually becoming a vampire.

So, two out of seven actually have parents important to the plot, and the others either have parents who aren't, but can provide some roleplay opportunities...or don't. Really, I wouldn't have cared much if they were all orphans, but that's just me.

[lightningcat]

I've only had two character that had relevant family.
The first was a 2e Half-Elf Bard/Ranger, and his mother was a wood elf princess and his father a half-elf bard that was also the kingdom primary diplomat. He had 2 older elven half-sisters, and a younger "elven" sister. The entire family, and that kingdom as a whole was used in one adventure.
The second was a oWoD Vampire, who had custody of his niece after her parents were killed. I had no idea what happened to his parents, but that game didn't last very long.
Most of the rest of the time, I don't worry about family unless it seems like it could be interesting.

[Segev]

The second was a oWoD Vampire, who had custody of his niece after her parents were killed.

In a game that sadly never got off the ground, I built a caitiff vampire who was turned when he was 12 by a madwoman of a vampire who wanted to adopt him as her "son." His parents, with help from authorities, managed to rescue him, because this vampiress was not the most clever of supernatural beings. Fortunately, his new nature didn't come out until after his family got him home.

By game start, he was 21 years old, having been a vampire for 9 years, and his parents were his ghouls. They had just moved into town, and, having learned enough to know he hsould, my character was going to be introduced to the party at Elysium as he tried to present himself to the Prince as a newcomer to the city. His parents would have played a non-insignificant role, since they were his ticket to events in mortal society.

[Tiadoppler]

The last game I DMed had three PCs, and my intent was to have each of three PCs return to their homeland to have some backstory-relevant adventures before continuing on to a higher-level plot (which was integrated into the three adventures).

PC1, Half-elf: estranged daughter of an elderly elf mage-turned-politician. Raised by her mother. After her mother died, she began adventuring. Eventually she reunited with her father, and met her younger half-siblings. Many sessions, and much foreshadowing later, it was revealed that the father had been killed and replaced with a doppelganger several months before the time of the campaign.

PC2, Dragonborn: Orphaned by mysterious plague (anti-dragon bioweapon). Raised by his sister in slavery. Intended to return home to rescue her. Would have been able to succeed if the campaign hadn't collapsed.

PC3, Human: Parents were (and still are, I guess) enslaved in Thay. Swore oaths of revenge after his escape, but needed more power and allies in order to properly annihilate the government.



My current campaign:

PC1, Tiefling Bard/Paladin: Parents sent her off to learn in a religious school and serve Sehanine, because it was the only way to give her a better life. Still alive, working hard on a farm near Baldur's Gate

PC2, Goliath Warden: PC2 is a pure mercenary earning his living through violence. His mother does not approve, but his father went through a similar phase. Both of them still live in the Icewind Dale region.

PC3, Genasi Warlock: Orphaned as a teenager. His parents were collateral damage in a war between two other nations. He joined an evil cult to gain power to take revenge against the world, then changed his mind.

PC4, Hamadryad Cleric: I... don't know. How do Hamadryads even work? Internet: please don't answer that. She hugs trees sometimes. More than seventy years old.

PC5, Awakened-fox-turned-Hengeyokai-then-put-in-stasis-for-hundreds-of-years-to-fulfill-a-prophecy Monk: Her parents were natural, non-sentient foxes in Cormanthor who would have died of old age hundreds of years before the start of the campaign.

PC6, Human Mage: His parents were a successful ship captain on the Sword Coast and the daughter of one of the merchants in Neverwinter who regularly shipped cargo to Waterdeep. They are comfortably retired in Neverwinter.



I try to steer away from typical "we have your father/mother/child/significant other/little dog too" plots, with one exception. If the PCs are public figures such that their relatives would be well known as "PC's relative", and the BBEG wants something specific from the PCs, then I might use a ransom demand plot if it would further the story.



Sometimes, it's fun to shake things up a bit by NOT kidnapping the relative, just sending the ransom demand and counting on the players not actually checking to make sure that their relative is actually missing.


It's often more effective to kidnap an NPC the players are fond of, or the relatives of said NPC.

The former, because the players are often more fond of the NPCs they hang out with every session than the relatives written in their backstory.

The latter, because like Segev wrote in relation to written fiction, the DM gets to decide how heartbroken/worried/irrational the NPC acts when his daughter is missing.

[Millstone85]

Paternal grandparents: Scar pilgrims. Never came back from the Plaguewrought Lands.
Maternal grandparents: Druids of the Chondalwood. Died trying to cure the west border.
Father: Orphan of Ormpetarr. Paladin of the Ancients. Died trying to cure the west border.
Mother: Druid of the Chondalwood. Plaguechanged into a tree thing while trying to cure the west border.. Made a pact to save her baby.
Character: 4e starlock / 5e goolock, raised by pseudonatural wolves.

So yeah, no family, but plenty of ways to bring it into the story if the DM is so inclined.

[Zwums]

My first real campaign as a player had some awesome family connections. The homebrew world had an elf nation warring with a neighboring human nation, so I decided my military elf ranger would have the favored enemy of human. So to make sense of my human hatred I decided that my father was also military, and had been KIA by the same enemy nation in a previous war.

Then one of the other PC's wanted to play a human that was raised by elves in a very anti-human elvish nation. The DM asked if it was okay if he were adopted by my mother while my young elf was on his first tour. I agreed and we included it in our backgrounds. That led to a fun bit of RP, with my adopted little brother (and eventually best friend) being of the race that my character loathed. Lots of racism tempered by my elf essentially watching out for the pitiful, lesser human.

Then BAM! PLOT TWIST! Mid way through the campaign my dead dad shows up as one of the BBEG's top henchman. Turns out he was captured alive, and indoctrinated. After a few clashes, we have an epic 1v1 faceoff with my archer ranger battling my father, a dual wielding ranger. He was supposedly tied up in the DMs plot but I killed him with a few lucky crits, unfortunately. It was epic.

Oh and the DM had my mom work as a minor governmental official which gave us a wee bit off access to records if need be :)

Sorry for the long post!

[Rhyltran]

It's a well-known trope that story heroes are often orphans. Has anyone ever incorporated a PC's parents into a game? Player or GM?

The idea is so weird for some reason, I just gotta try it.

Every character in the game I am DMing have parents. Not only do they have parents but despite being different races have all visited their family during the course of the campaign save for the human scout who, due to pressing concerns, just didn't have the time but plans to make time at some point.

[Pictogram]

In a 5th edition game I'm playing in I've rolled up a Half-Elf warlock with a noble background. My characters family is House Dain of the Pass, upjumped bandit highwaymen that turned semi legitimate from investing enough gold in a merchant business/ buying the appropriate land and titles. I'm one of nine brothers, called the Princes of the Pass, and the only half-elf through an affair that my Human lord father had with a wandering Elf on religious pilgrimage. While my father is restrainedly proud of my characters negotiation abilities for the family I've been put at odds with the other brothers who are mostly either warriors or politicians. In fact, often we've come across these highwaymen making ongoing encounters, it's super fun.

[Anderlith]

Played an Exalted game as an Earth Dragonblooded Immaculate Monk with a Grandgoremaul who had a disapproving father & a lot of character motivation to get his approval. The GM **** on the roleplaying & didnt do much with it.

Also played a Knight of Brettonia in a WHFRPG (2nd) where my family's estate was a base of operations for a while, the GM of that game didnt do much with parent either though.

Id really like to have a characters parents mean something when i put effort into having them

[raspberrybadger]

One of my most liked character concepts (though the game didn't really last all that long) was a half-elf girl who was trying to hide her spellcasting abilities from her parents, who were very much still involved in her life. The parents were supportive in their way, but the character didn't want to have to explain how she got her casting.

[dadada]

In a 5th edition game I'm playing in I've rolled up a Half-Elf warlock with a noble background. My characters family is House Dain of the Pass, upjumped bandit highwaymen that turned semi legitimate from investing enough gold in a merchant business/ buying the appropriate land and titles. I'm one of nine brothers, called the Princes of the Pass, and the only half-elf through an affair that my Human lord father had with a wandering Elf on religious pilgrimage. While my father is restrainedly proud of my characters negotiation abilities for the family I've been put at odds with the other brothers who are mostly either warriors or politicians. In fact, often we've come across these highwaymen making ongoing encounters, it's super fun.
I think I to check my eyes since I read "House pain in the ass

[Efrate]

Hmm I've done a variety I think. Dnd 3.X

Half orc fighter. Left on temple of Pelor as a baby. Never went anywhere. Cared much for the gnome priest who raised him, was slightly plot relevant once.

Fire Genesai Wizard. Flames burned his home and parents when he was very young. Raised by dwarves. Connection to dwarves and forging was a huge plot point, since he was a member of the clan.

Dwarven Knight. Minor lord, related to the dwarven king. Lost a fight with a mirror entitiy, who masquerades as him for quite a while. Got found out, then had a high level cleric mind rape him into being and believing he was the dwarf for real. Went to dwarven lands because weirdness happens and wondered why all the bloodline specific stuff didn't work for me. Mirror entity was killed, original dwarf brought back, now about 6 levels lower than party. Campaign ended as I had to take up the dwarven throne since everyone else in line was dead.

Half elf uRogue. Minor noble, wrote an involved backstory about his family having beef with a rival vinyard, along with being of mixed race and tensions therof. Family played a role.

Thayan DFA. Left home because being not a wizard with wizard parents, but still magical, is a weird play to be in thay. Likely never see them again or have any relevance since we are in undermountain.

Strongheart halfling scout. He's a sailor. He's drunk. Parents don't factor into it much, but he is sure he is at least one half definitely ling. Not sure what the other half is. Probably not orc. Pass the rum.

L5R

Spider Clan Monk. Parents had a place in backstory, but forsworn family ties as Monk.
Utaku Battle Maiden: Subplot with an arranged marriage possibly down the line, but family working against it because unicorn are weird and mommy was very important. Not superrelevant.
Hare clan Bushi: Parents were there. Said good luck, send money we poor. Thats about it.

As for me when I DM, I tend to avoid families of PCs except maybe letter now and again, so its known they are a thing, but most my PCs are

[martixy]

As a PC, parents haven't really played a major role in it. Closest it came was using my PCs mother as a contact in a court intrigue arc in one campaign.

As DM however I have a certain important NPC(to the point of almost be a DMPC) whose parents are both alive and critically integral to the story. I just hope the PCs won't murder one of them right in front of said NPCs eyes when the inevitable confrontation occurs. It will certainly be suspenseful both for me and them.

[Kane0]

Parents used to be fairly common until the Cow & Chicken incident.
Now its mostly orphans and guardians.

[Seto]

Most memorable instance, I think, is a Half-Orc whose father was an Evil orc slaver (his mother was a human slave). Derided as his clan's impure weakling, he escaped, was raised by the church of Heironeous, and became a Paladin.

He was looking forward to meeting his father and confront him. As a GM, I planned it with the player.

[Grim Portent]

While I don't usually buck the trend of having dead parents, I do take the unusual angle on it that my characters usually murdered their family out of greed, spite, jealousy or similar. On the occasions my characters do have living family they usually don't care for them much, if at all.

A disowned Knight who had murdered his parents and two older brothers because he had been set to inherit nothing, as he perceived it anyway, and decided to take his vengeance for the slight before discarding his heraldry and heading off to find his fortune elsewhere, for example.

[The Vanishing Hitchhiker]

Both my PCs in the two games I'm currently in have living parents.

The dragonborn fighter is currently avoiding her homeland since she manifested the local equivalent of a dragonmark, which...doesn't happen to dragonborn. She sends money home to her clan once in a while, and I've named her parents but not a lot else. Since her homeland is starting to wage war on the surrounding kingdoms (where all the other PCs are from), if her heritage ever does come up things are going to be very messy.

The half-elf monk/cleric has two moms, an orc and an elf, retired adventurers. She also has a half-orc sister who currently works aboard a different airship, one belonging to their human "uncle". (The sister is around in case a certain member of the friends group decides to join the game after all.) Most of the other PCs' backstories don't place any emphasis on parents, so I doubt any will appear.

[russdm]

There's a mechanic in Deadlands that always bothered me - every character needs to have a Worst Nightmare written on their sheet.


Isn't this encouragement to get creative, and insane? Have some crazy statements here?

Worst Nightmares)

Being Kissed by (Put in whatever you want)

Listen to (Put something in)

Discover (Put something in)

Cats

Dogs

Cats that are Dogs

Dogs that are Cats

Math Tests

(Pretty much anything, the more zanier the better)


Parents used to be fairly common until the Cow & Chicken incident.
Now its mostly orphans and guardians.

Is this something from an adventure module? It sounds like that to me.

[marycrook]

Thats really great..

[NovenFromTheSun]

Parents used to be fairly common until the Cow & Chicken incident.
Now its mostly orphans and guardians.

Did someone make a character who's parents were talking pairs of legs!?

[Kane0]

Haha no, the original incident was an optimizer player stacking as many rules-legal yet highly improbable templates onto his build.
One of us made a Cow & Chicken joke in reference to it and it stuck, so even though the character was super effective nobody took him seriously and he eventually swapped out for something less incongruous.

[Samshiir]

My main character, a high elf Bard/Bladesinger named Atorian, is the son of my real life father's character, who was also a Bladesinger, and my real mother's character, who was a fighter/bard. As such, Atorian's backstory goes back into the 1980's when my parents played their characters in 2nd Edition.

Atorian's father accidently killed an innocent elf civilian during one of his games a few decades back, and had willingly given up his Moonblade because of it. Now, Atorian had made it his life goal to prove himself worthy and adopt his father's Moonblade to continue the legacy of his family.

Just as my parents taught me how to play and love D&D, Atorian was/is being taught by his parents how to be a Bard and Bladesinger. Everyone deserves parents like this. :smallbiggrin:

[Velaryon]

It's come up for a few characters in my current D&D game.

Our centaur PC's primary motivation for adventuring was to escape from the shadow of his father, a druid who leads their clan. On one occasion, the PCs have journeyed back to the clan's home and taken a mission from the father. They also had to rescue the PC's young cousin, who was kidnapped by a lamia.

Our warlock PC is an orphan, but is married to an NPC (who is very pregnant with their first child). The wife's family is also important because her father attempted to usurp the throne some years ago (she's disowned her family name).

Our necromancer is from a family of almost entirely spellcasters (except for an older brother who had no apparent magical talent). His parents are both wizards who retired and settled down (and are still alive and well as far as anyone knows). His sister is a mid-level Beguiler who is a spy for the king and also part-time tutor to the royal children. His girlfriend was missing (his backstory reason for adventuring), and it turned out she had been duped into participating in a ritual that caused a massive drought across the entire nation, and then memory wiped and hidden away. Only recently have the PC's found her and restored her memory.

On a lighter note, our half-orc druid's primary reason for adventuring was to find his father whom he had never met. This provided a convenient reason for him to leave the party when the player decided he would rather awaken his animal companion and play that character instead. :smallbiggrin:

[Mmagsgreen]

I've personally greatly enjoyed playing in campaigns where my character or others not only had family, but where that family was an intrinsic part of the plot. It's mostly come up in games dealing with nobles and royalty. They can provide both great resources and plot hooks, though of course one would want to consult with the other players and the GM to see how they might fit.

Seems like family would be a huge deal if anyone was playing a high-level Game of Thrones game. Someday I hope to get into one of those.

[eru001]

I played in a campaign where my character's step parent became an important NPC Briefly. As well as his half brother.

It was an interesting "We now take a break from our regularly schedualed warfare for a brief foray into medieval inheritance law" moment. Happens more than one would expect.

[daniel_ream]

"We now take a break from our regularly schedualed warfare for a brief foray into medieval inheritance law"

Usually that order is reversed.

[eru001]

Usually that order is reversed.

True, there is a long standing legal precident recognizing that the individual with the largest/most effective/victorious body of troops has the right to inherit. However in this case it was more a situation of, two individuals without access to large militaries had to convince the local Count, (who's available body of troops dwarfed both of theirs) which of the two of them should inherit the baronetcy.

[Delta]

The character my avatar is based on actually had to kill her father in-game. Her father had fought for a usurper in a civil war around the time of her birth, his side lost and he was sent into exile, her mother was spared because she was pregnant at the time so she grew up with a bad name due to her "traitors blood", it didn't get better when about two decades later the BBEG of the setting invaded and quite a few of those exiled after that civil war joined him, among them her father. After the BBEG's defeat, her father became one of the warlords of the remnants of the BBEG's army and years later, she actually faced him when he tried to sack a castle she was visiting, when she found out he had actually forged a pact with a demon for demonic powers and she killed him (with her family heirloom sword, no less) in a pretty epic duel with that left her almost burned to death by demonic hellfire.

Oh, and she watched her mother die on the other side of yet another civil war but that happened in her backstory. Yeah, that character had some family issues...