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View Full Version : Roleplaying How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?



DRD1812
2017-08-15, 11:50 AM
Relevant comic.
(http://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/the-handbook-of-heroes-13)
So how about it? Is it on the GM to look at the orphan backstory as an opportunity for big reveals later in the campaign? Is this always a sign of a lazy player? Any hints or tips for making the orphan trope interesting?

Lord Torath
2017-08-15, 12:29 PM
OK, so you're an orphan. What kind of orphan? How long have you been an orphan? What caused you to become an orphan? Did you ever know your parents? Does anyone else know who your parents are? Do you have any surviving family? Who took care of you when your parents were gone, and how do you feel about them? And most importantly:

How does being an orphan affect what your character wants out of life?

There are all kinds of orphans. Some grow up hating everyone because of their loss (I lost my family, so everyone else should too!). Some build families wherever they go to make up for the one they lost. Some grow up thinking everyone they care about will leave them given any excuse (abandonment issues).

Backstory doesn't have to be interesting. Backstory is only important for the way it influences your character's actions and desires.

The DM may or may not do something interesting with the fact that you're an orphan. Being an orphan may give some adventure hooks to the DM, and suggest possible adventures, but ultimately it's up to you to make your backstory matter to your character.

If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy. If it gives your character reasons to interact with the DM's world (in a non-disruptive manner), then you're doing it right.

KillianHawkeye
2017-08-15, 06:32 PM
If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy. If it gives your character reasons to interact with the DM's world (in a non-disruptive manner), then you're doing it right.

I agree with this.

I just recently made a character for a game who is an orphan. It wasn't just so I wouldn't have to have a family, but as a massive foundational element of her backstory. It not only ties into one of the plot hooks for the campaign, but also drastically shaped how I envisioned the character's appearance and personality traits. I used it to set up pretty much all of the most important experiences of her early life, and I expect it to continue to have a strong effect on her needs and goals and the way she deals with the inevitable acquisition of wealth after becoming an adventurer (especially since it's a character that doesn't need a lot of gear).

I don't necessarily expect my DM to make use of that aspect of my character's backstory as some kind of big plot twist or anything, but I decided that I wouldn't have any knowledge of my family in case he does want to do anything along those lines (because I know he's the kind of DM that might want to pull something like that). If he does, I'll totally roll with it, and if not then I still have a strong structure to base my character on.

Anymage
2017-08-15, 06:57 PM
Particularly in D&D, I bypass this by doing two things.

First, I try to downplay the idea of adventurers as a special class of citizen. Sure, you may get the occasional idle rich who does this stuff for the thrill. For the most part, though, I like to give downtime and assume that the PCs would rather have normal, stable lives. But sometimes trouble brews, and that's when certain people realize that someone has to do something, and they have to be those someones. Because frankly, if you're going to be a professional adventurer who starts your career meeting other professional adventurers in a tavern, any effort you spend on backstory is probably wasted.

Second, due to aforementioned downtime, I like to give players narrative control over some of their background elements. Sometimes it's family. (Be it parents, siblings, spouse, or children.) Sometimes it's a legacy. But let them feel ownsership of something bigger than their character sheet. Make sure to encourage this by not attacking whatever bonds they focus on. But once the player feels a sense of ownership of something bigger in the campaign world, they're more likely to want ties.

(And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)

Varon
2017-08-15, 09:30 PM
Another thought is that historically, one only had to lose one parent to be considered an orphan, since it was so difficult for one person to support a kid. Maybe your character has one loving parent who can't/couldn't support them. How does that affect your character's current actions?

It would be a complex set of emotions to know you are probably loved and yet still given away for your own good.

TeChameleon
2017-08-15, 09:50 PM
'I'm an orphan' can be extremely lazy, but so can the GM 'You hate this guy because he kidnapped/murdered your family/significant other/entire village'. I'd shoot for a kind of mutual detente on the matter- if your GM wants you to expend effort to give your character a family, they can't use said family to avoid effort on their part.

That being said, I've done both as a player- one character was an orphan (well, technically a foundling, as I actually had plans to return at least one parent later as a plot point, circumstances allowing), mostly because I envisioned said character in the classic 'left on a doorstep of a monastery and raised by monks' mold- it was weirdly entertaining to play a terrifyingly strong and combat-ready (Trollish Physad), but almost totally unworldly character in Shadowrun. On the other hand, my longest-running D&D character (10+ years at this stage) had his family alive and well at the start of the campaign, even if he was estranged from them to the point that his response to the BBEG threatening them if said character interefered was to (frustratingly unsuccesfully) fireball the guy >.>

That being said, the character who had a family had much of his character and behaviour formed out of that estranged relationship, and eventually, through the course of his actions, completely altered the traditions and prejudices of his home country, something that probably wouldn't have happened without the bitter, stubborn drive that his early life had provided him. He's eventually evolved into someone who's alignment I'd label as 'Cranky Good'- he genuinely wants what's best for everyone, but he really can't stand people :smalltongue:

Honest Tiefling
2017-08-15, 10:01 PM
Ask yourself, what does being an orphan add to the character? I think the traditional complaint of orphans is that they tend to either be Murder Hobos Supreme with no personal connections, or grimdark hooded loners who don't really interact with the party. Here, being an orphan is impeding role play and not really adding to a character.

Your orphan might try to run around saving the poor and downtrodden, because they remember living like that. They could bond with the party, because they don't have a family. They might be greedy and hoard money not to be a jerk, but because they want to be prepared for the future. Or they want revenge on a plot important NPC and know they need to get along with the party to do so. Bascially, think of what this type of backstory has on the character and how it shapes their interactions with the other party members and characters.

Personally, I don't mind orphans, because I assume in a world with dragons and mind flayers there's going to be a high chance of them being made. Throw in the fact that one would assume most people would probably stay at home if they had some family and a good job prospect rather than trying to see if they'll live to see level 2. Like how the Pony Express kept hiring orphans, maybe some adventurers just get recruited from those who don't have a family.

georgie_leech
2017-08-15, 10:09 PM
I'm fond of the "technically an orphan because reasons but this led them to the experiences that led to them being a PC" angle. My latest example was "taken in by a noble family his mother worked as a maid for, and developed a natural talent for deception and stealth into being a capable spy for the house, who he serves out of loyalty and gratitude." But it could just as easily be "grew up scrapping in the streets," or "eked out a living on the fringes of civilization by foraging," or "taken in by a monastic order..."

That is, I agree with the above posters of the importance of "what kind of orphan" rather than leaving "orphan" as the sole word of summary.

daniel_ream
2017-08-16, 12:43 AM
How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/trG9tXAntys/hqdefault.jpg

Nifft
2017-08-16, 12:52 AM
"You're all orphans? Great. That's how you know each other: you all grew up in the same orphanage. Let's call it St. Cuthbert's Asylum. Who was the older kid who always watched out for you? Cool. What's the caretaker's name? It's a woman? Neat, let's make her a hulking half-orc with red hair. She was a war orphan, so she's pretty nice to you. What sets her off in spite of this? Ooo, interesting. Which one of you found that out, and how? Nice. There's a business next door, what do they sell? Who helped out at that store? (etc.)"

daniel_ream
2017-08-16, 03:20 AM
If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy.


(And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)

I think the problem here is that too many GMs see friends/family/relations as nothing more than variants on the Robin the Boy Hostage trope. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "muh ajunsee" complaints from players with GM PTSD, but GMs who never do anything with the extended family but get them murdered or kidnapped are yes, just being lazy. It's boring and uncreative.

The thing about family, blood or otherwise, is those bonds run both ways. If they don't, it's not family. The TV show Burn Notice is an excellent example of this - Michael Weston's mother and brother drag him into all manner of "adventures", but they themselves are rarely in stereotypical durance vile. A GM doesn't have to have a cackling Republic serial villain kidnap and torture Mom and Pop to start an adventure; something as simple as "Pa, why's the fencing on the north pasture down? And where's the herd?" "Never you mind about that. Not your business since you left to join that mercenary company. Farm wasn't good enough for you then, t'isn't your concern now." "Now you hush, Bill Notting. John's home for once and you'll not sour the milk with that tongue. Your father's in it with that Graham Tolliver up Dunhollow. Tolly sends his boys to knock down the fences and spook the cows of an evening, we've had to move them to the poor pasture down east way."

That said, one other thing to remember is that unless you're going for an apple-cheeked fairy tale peasant sort of fantasy setting, life expectancy in the Middle Ages wasn't great. The odds a character of 25-30 in such a setting having both parents still alive would be pretty low.

Herobizkit
2017-08-16, 04:34 AM
I have a similar running gag in games I've run over year, stemming back to my earliest DM days. We always had one player who wanted to roll a Barbarian and hit stuff for damage and his backstory was always "ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD!" I've since carried this to my new groups as a way to NOT do backstory (as I mine the player's characters for story ideas, from their skill choices to their weapon preferences to their age and race).

In D&D 5e, for example, choosing Urchin or Hermit is KIND OF lazy in that it doesn't REQUIRE much thought into a backstory but still gives you some very important/useful skills. Not everyone is great at backstory and, ultimately, it's just backstory - it's not relevant to the game in front of you unless you or your GM MAKES it relevant somehow.

The easiest answer to this is the same as the answer for most creative processes - keep asking "Why?" until you don't have an answer.

ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD.
"Why?"
ORCS KILLED THEM.
"Why?"
ORCS ARE EVIL.

This (ORCS ARE EVIL) becomes a defining point in the character - they see orcs as evil because a tribe/hunting party killed their family. The DM now has some meat to work with: what tribe, are there/what are the other tribes, where are these tribes located, where are they right now? Who leads them? Who/why did the Orcs actually attack?

Then the DM can ask the player some questions (what did they look like, did they kill everyone or just your family, where were you when this happened, how old were you) and voila, character enrichment.

Kitten Champion
2017-08-16, 05:07 AM
Unless you're using it as an excuse to be video game-esque murder automaton, I don't see why being an orphan should really matter.

Sure, real life, it's not a small deal exactly, but from a fictional character position it only really matters if you're using it to justify the subsequent adventure. The "you're actually heir to an important such-and-such due to this hitherto unimaginable parentage you've suddenly discovered"-approach, "You killed my parents and I swear vengeance"-deal, "I was taken in by unconventional parental figure(s) and now I'm involved in the exciting things that their lives entail", or lastly and most common I think "I have to abandon my childhood and take steps into the adult world to survive, entailing a life of greater risk and expediting my life greatly as a result".

However, if you don't want to, simply invent a parental figure(s) and it becomes a non-issue. One of things I found kind of baffling about Spider-Man was his parents never mattered, his orphan status was just sort of this thing to describe his character without actually defining it any significant way. I suppose it justifies his aunt and uncle's advanced age relative to Peter for whatever reason that exists... but overall they fulfill the same role and significance in his life, and that's not really a problem. Peter has had an unconventional living arrangement, that's certainly part of his biography but it doesn't redefine him around it.

Saying "you're an orphan and thus lose any reason to have significant emotional ties to anyone" is - not implausible if you want to push your character into that direction - but it doesn't have to touch any real aspect of a character either and they can have all the healthy emotional bonds that you want. Likewise, having two living parents can be equally as calamitous for a person's narrative if you want them to, depending on who they are.

Guizonde
2017-08-16, 05:40 AM
first campaign i ever dm'd had two orphans, one estranged from his family, and one with two big brothers (but dead parents due to a mob hit that was part of why the 3 kids were running a very successful garage). the first player orphaned the character creation went like this:

me: what's your character's name?
kaht: kaht.
me: just kaht? no last name?
kaht: kaht.
me: want some family? wanna roll?
kaht: *rolls, no parents, no siblings*
me: welp, guess you're an orphan. what's your character flavor?
kaht: street urchin with a silver tongue? no family because the town's my home and the people my family?
me: i can roll with that.
kaht: feel free to add that as a plot hook midway through the game. i can't think up a good backstory on the fly.

in the end i christened her "néesousix", a pun on "néé sous x", which means "born under x", so the mother or father could abandon the kid at birth. midway through the game, i checked the physical description, age, and background of the bbeg, and except for the fact that the bbeg was a guy and kaht was a girl, everything matched. i decided that basically, kaht's mother was the victim of a sexual assault and near murder of the bbeg's father, effectively making kaht the bbeg's half-sister. a simple lack of inspiration made a memorable twist of fate for the final battle and the aftermath, since kaht inherited all of the bbeg's possessions. kaht's reaction?

kaht: duuuuuuude.
me: *shows notes and reasoning, dating back 8 months*
kaht: duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. i love it!
team: damn, the dice spoke really early for that one.

the other one?

farren: i want to play a nomadic hermit who grew up in the hills with his dad, his mom left at an early age, and his dad got killed by a stray looter a few years back. my character avenged his dad with his dad's rifle, and that's all he's got to remember his dad by.

the italicized part became a trademark of his people. nomads, hermits, only meeting up and living together for 2 years until one left with a baby. a culture of loners, nomads, and hermits. he rp'd his character as a quiet guy (he was a very shy player), one who was savvy to the world, but scared of people, and shunning company. a very memorable character, and his rifle named betty is a legend unto its own. another thing about farren? he's the only one ever to roll purple eyes. i rolled 3 desert nomads, all had bloody purple eyes. ok, then. campaign after, another player rolled up a nomad. purple eyes and a crack-shot to boot. my turn came up to play one: purple eyes, and the second most lethal dude with a rifle ever after old farren. guess genetics do work even in pen and paper.

playing orphans as pragmatic meta-game? hell no! playing orphans to have some reveals later on or because it moulded your character's way of thinking? hell yes!

Lacuna Caster
2017-08-16, 05:44 AM
Unless you're using it as an excuse to be video game-esque murder automaton, I don't see why being an orphan should really matter.
It actually wouldn't matter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nurture_Assumption) directly at all, except insofar as being raised by different people puts you in contact with either different peers or a different culture. That said, if some particular outside agent or institution or tradition was responsible for killing said parents, rather than a random accident or due to commonly-acknowledged causes, then the orphan might be motivated to fight or overturn that agent or institution or tradition. Then again, they might blame the parents themselves for being dumb enough to get killed that way. Or it might be far enough in the past that it doesn't bother them either way.

Guizonde
2017-08-16, 06:19 AM
Particularly in D&D, I bypass this by doing two things.

First, I try to downplay the idea of adventurers as a special class of citizen. Sure, you may get the occasional idle rich who does this stuff for the thrill. For the most part, though, I like to give downtime and assume that the PCs would rather have normal, stable lives. But sometimes trouble brews, and that's when certain people realize that someone has to do something, and they have to be those someones. Because frankly, if you're going to be a professional adventurer who starts your career meeting other professional adventurers in a tavern, any effort you spend on backstory is probably wasted.

Second, due to aforementioned downtime, I like to give players narrative control over some of their background elements. Sometimes it's family. (Be it parents, siblings, spouse, or children.) Sometimes it's a legacy. But let them feel ownsership of something bigger than their character sheet. Make sure to encourage this by not attacking whatever bonds they focus on. But once the player feels a sense of ownership of something bigger in the campaign world, they're more likely to want ties.

(And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)

my old cleric spent half his downtime healing the poor and the sick, and the other half writing to his family. a dwarven wandering medic has strong ties to his clan, especially when far from home. it annoyed my dm profoundly that there was very little tragedy in my family history and that i never cut links to them, instead sending and receiving monthly mail in the nearest pelorite temple. it also annoyed him profoundly how i unerringly managed to name all of the clan up to the great-aunt from memory, but that was more of a running gag for me than any plot-important detail. ultimately he sent a goblin excursion to their city, and it failed spectacularly because in his words:" your sister is a rune-priest, your dad is an architect specialized in siege fortifications, and your cousin is a dwarven defender. if your clan is a micro-cosm of your city, they eat goblin hordes for breakfast. the contents of your letter make you feel like they had an uneventful tuesday." i think the dm just wanted some action in my otherwise vanilla-plain family backstory.

Random Sanity
2017-08-16, 06:37 AM
(And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)

This right here, is why I refuse to play any character with living family without a promise in writing from the GM to not go around taking cheap shots at them. Because I've had way too many GMs who went looking for ways they could take cheap shots at PCs.

It'd be nice to roleplay someone who had a decent home life for once, but I can't do that unless I can trust the GM not to treat said life as a dartboard.

Lacuna Caster
2017-08-16, 06:46 AM
Ultimately he sent a goblin excursion to their city, and it failed spectacularly because in his words:" your sister is a rune-priest, your dad is an architect specialized in siege fortifications, and your cousin is a dwarven defender. if your clan is a micro-cosm of your city, they eat goblin hordes for breakfast. the contents of your letter make you feel like they had an uneventful tuesday." i think the dm just wanted some action in my otherwise vanilla-plain family backstory.
That is hilarious and perfect.

Kitten Champion
2017-08-16, 07:10 AM
It actually wouldn't matter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nurture_Assumption) directly at all, except insofar as being raised by different people puts you in contact with either different peers or a different culture. That said, if some particular outside agent or institution or tradition was responsible for killing said parents, rather than a random accident or due to commonly-acknowledged causes, then the orphan might be motivated to fight or overturn that agent or institution or tradition. Then again, they might blame the parents themselves for being dumb enough to get killed that way. Or it might be far enough in the past that it doesn't bother them either way.

Not really what I meant. I'm referring to the MMO-character who's spawned fully formed in adulthood and has no roots or significance in the world - whose backstory is just a thin basis for statistical advantages and nothing more - and not someone trying to present a character with a worldview and life history that could impact its personality and decisions.

Tanarii
2017-08-16, 09:07 AM
From what I've seen from many players, the 'correct' way to do it is have your family murdered by some horrible and cliche evil. Orcs, werewolves, vampires, and evil cults being the favored choices. Because now you've got a dark edgy revenge motive.

I try not to show my reaction when a player their edgelord (or any other walking talking cliche) to the table. They clearly think it's cool and I don't like to be a party pooper. But I'm thinking 'for real?' really loud. :smallamused:

(If the campaign theme is about brutal invaders / raiders or set in ravenloft or something, it doesn't make me flinch quite as much.)

Lord Torath
2017-08-16, 09:32 AM
Now I need to go track down my Darke "Steve" Edgelord character concept. I really need to make that guy (Or his sister Sharpe "Sally" Edgelord). Happy, cheerful, great team player, and loves his parents (except when they call him by his first name) who are minor nobility with a tiny holding at the edge of the country.

Hooligan
2017-08-16, 10:38 AM
It's almost always a yawnfest. Best avoid it altogether.

Jay R
2017-08-16, 01:24 PM
By getting past the mere fact of being an orphan to the interesting parts. Did it make him a loner? Does he feel out of place everywhere? Is he looking for a family equivalent? Will he react badly to parents who aren't focused on their kids?

Personality and choice of action are what's interesting.

Tinkerer
2017-08-16, 01:43 PM
My personal favourite character was an orphan and it definitely helped shape her backstory (She was "raised" by the BBEG at first, then by living on the outskirts of an orcish community after she escaped). The real problem isn't orphans, it's "My character has no ties to anyone in the world". Orphans tend to have families, just not biological ones. Maybe it's a gang, maybe it's the orphanage (Blues Brothers may be one of my favourite movies), maybe it's their dog. If your character can't come up with a thing in the world that they care about aside from getting stronger then yeah, that's lazy.

Don't hate the orphan, hate the apathy.

Hooligan
2017-08-16, 01:43 PM
Yes making the orphan a "loner orphan (preferably from the wrong side of the tracks but with a heart of gold, drow and duel wielding scimitars)" will certainly make the character more flavorful

The Fury
2017-08-16, 02:37 PM
I did play a character that was sort of an orphan. Her birth parents weren't dead though, they just abandoned her. They also turned out to be alive later on. My character was adopted as well, so she did have a family, she just had a... weird relationship with them.

So, maybe if you do have a character that's an orphan, consider making them adopted-- there's some interesting possible character dynamics that you can have.

LadyFoxfire
2017-08-16, 05:42 PM
Being an orphan is a start to your backstory, but it can't be the entire thing. Maybe you were orphaned at a young age and joined a gang or thieves guild to survive. Maybe some bad guy/evil organization was rounding up orphans for nefarious purposes, and you barely escaped with your life. Maybe you were taken in by a church or good secret organization and they raised and trained you to be a force for good. Something like that.

Grim Portent
2017-08-16, 05:51 PM
Someday I hope to see someone bring a PC with a Sun Wukong-type-abiogenesis-therefore-no-parents type deal to a game. I want to see PCs who hatched out of rocks, fell from the sky or spontaneously generated in a cookie jar in the orphanage.

Arutema
2017-08-16, 06:08 PM
Being an orphan is a start to your backstory, but it can't be the entire thing. Maybe you were orphaned at a young age and joined a gang or thieves guild to survive. Maybe some bad guy/evil organization was rounding up orphans for nefarious purposes, and you barely escaped with your life. Maybe you were taken in by a church or good secret organization and they raised and trained you to be a force for good. Something like that.

This.

I'll admit I've created more than a few orphaned characters, but backstory always included who raised them.

One was a Goblinblood wars orphan raised in a monastic order dedicated to Asmodeus to be a champion of hell's law.

One was a fey foundling raised by a dwarf/elf mixed race couple.

One was a halfling of unknown father whose mother didn't survive the birth. She was raised by a gay Ulfen couple who'd been friends of her mother and trained in their axe and shield techniques.

Being orphaned is the start of a backstory, not all of it.

Jay R
2017-08-16, 06:40 PM
If being an orphan was a backstory, then Batman, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter would all be the same character.

Lord Raziere
2017-08-16, 07:14 PM
simple:
What kind of orphan are they?

Are they the "my village is dead" orphan who vows vengeance against whoever killed their parents?

or are they an abandoned orphan who never knew their parents?

did they get adopted? by whom?

circumstances of orphaning are just important as the orphaning itself. what we reversed the usual formula, and the orphan knew their parents but they were complete jerks who just abandoned the child and told the child to never look for them while calling the child useless, leaving them for dead in the wild?

Sariel Vailo
2017-08-17, 02:33 AM
Well im very against orphan but i made my first and i had them watch as their parents were killed by hobgoblins after their village was overun for maglublat.religous leaders of the town this little aasimar became a paladin of vengence and hates all goblins and will kill them on sight.

Lord Torath
2017-08-17, 07:48 AM
Someday I hope to see someone bring a PC with a Sun Wukong-type-abiogenesis-therefore-no-parents type deal to a game. I want to see PCs who hatched out of rocks, fell from the sky or spontaneously generated in a cookie jar in the orphanage."Neither of my parents showed up for my birth! I... I was raised by South American ocelots!"

JAL_1138
2017-08-17, 09:28 AM
"Neither of my parents showed up for my birth! I... I was raised by South American ocelots!"

Reminds me of Rincewind's mother running away before he was born.

Joe the Rat
2017-08-17, 10:03 AM
It's an element of backstory, and one that should shape the rest.

My wife and I played halfling siblings, orphaned and separated due to the caravan being at the wrong place during a turf-war between 9th+ level Fighters with competing holdings.

My character was very young, and was discovered in the wagon-wreckage by a troop of mercenaries. They raised me - my "family" was a bunch of professional soldiers/killers/problem-solvers, and I had to throw my (meager) weight around to thrive. He tended to see violence as the best solution, and was very touchy about his height.

His older sister, however, was full-on teenager, and was sick of her family and their poor standing (due to being far too fair and honest with outsiders), and took the wreck - and her entire family being (as far as she knew) dead as an opportunity to strike off on her own... only to get hoodwinked into serving a wizard, because she really wasn't that savvy. She solves problems through cunning and trickery (and magic), and thinks everyone is an idiot.


If all of the PCs are orphans, go thick and heavy with the Oliver Twist and Pirates of Penzance references.

DRD1812
2017-08-17, 11:40 AM
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/trG9tXAntys/hqdefault.jpg

You. I like you.

Lacuna Caster
2017-08-17, 11:59 AM
Not really what I meant. I'm referring to the MMO-character who's spawned fully formed in adulthood and has no roots or significance in the world - whose backstory is just a thin basis for statistical advantages and nothing more - and not someone trying to present a character with a worldview and life history that could impact its personality and decisions.
No, I see what you mean. I'm not sure why orphanhood would be a particular advantage from that perspective, though- presumably being the natural son of a pampered aristocrat would give you more material benefits in life?

georgie_leech
2017-08-17, 02:40 PM
No, I see what you mean. I'm not sure why orphanhood would be a particular advantage from that perspective, though- presumably being the natural son of a pampered aristocrat would give you more material benefits in life?

And also duties and obligations and expected behaviors and all sorts of things that may or may not be worth caring about. It's not so much about material advantage as not having anything tying you down.

FreddyNoNose
2017-08-17, 03:17 PM
I have a similar running gag in games I've run over year, stemming back to my earliest DM days. We always had one player who wanted to roll a Barbarian and hit stuff for damage and his backstory was always "ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD!" I've since carried this to my new groups as a way to NOT do backstory (as I mine the player's characters for story ideas, from their skill choices to their weapon preferences to their age and race).

In D&D 5e, for example, choosing Urchin or Hermit is KIND OF lazy in that it doesn't REQUIRE much thought into a backstory but still gives you some very important/useful skills. Not everyone is great at backstory and, ultimately, it's just backstory - it's not relevant to the game in front of you unless you or your GM MAKES it relevant somehow.

The easiest answer to this is the same as the answer for most creative processes - keep asking "Why?" until you don't have an answer.

ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD.
"Why?"
ORCS KILLED THEM.
"Why?"
ORCS ARE EVIL.

This (ORCS ARE EVIL) becomes a defining point in the character - they see orcs as evil because a tribe/hunting party killed their family. The DM now has some meat to work with: what tribe, are there/what are the other tribes, where are these tribes located, where are they right now? Who leads them? Who/why did the Orcs actually attack?

Then the DM can ask the player some questions (what did they look like, did they kill everyone or just your family, where were you when this happened, how old were you) and voila, character enrichment.

Maybe a parent killed an Orc's pet doggie and wanted to do something to return the favorite. Perhaps an irate member of the Orcmane Society Against Cruelty to Animals.

kyoryu
2017-08-17, 03:20 PM
As others have pointed out, being an orphan isn't your backstory. It's part of your backstory.

Apart from that, it's not really backstory that makes characters interesting - it's what they want, what drives them, that makes them interesting.

KillianHawkeye
2017-08-17, 09:37 PM
Apart from that, it's not really backstory that makes characters interesting - it's what they want, what drives them, that makes them interesting.

You're not entirely wrong, but I find that a good backstory normally informs a character's drives and wants. The childhood and early adult years are normally where most people form their basic personalities; once you reach maturity, new experiences have less an effect on who you are inside. People certainly can continue learning and expanding themselves, but at a certain point we usually view things from the lens of what we know and where we've been.

daniel_ream
2017-08-17, 10:38 PM
You. I like you.

Some times it's best not to overcomplicate things.

Orphan or not, I could suffer a terrible industrial accident and still count on one hand the number of times a character's family history has ever come up in a D&D game.

kyoryu
2017-08-18, 01:20 AM
You're not entirely wrong, but I find that a good backstory normally informs a character's drives and wants. The childhood and early adult years are normally where most people form their basic personalities; once you reach maturity, new experiences have less an effect on who you are inside. People certainly can continue learning and expanding themselves, but at a certain point we usually view things from the lens of what we know and where we've been.

Oh, absolutely! And understanding the backstory is super useful for figuring out those drives and wants.

daniel_ream
2017-08-18, 02:04 AM
If all of the PCs are orphans, go thick and heavy with the Oliver Twist and Pirates of Penzance references.

The last three orcish hordes we encountered turned out to be entirely composed of orphans, and so we had to let them go.

PersonMan
2017-08-18, 02:21 AM
For me, I use death of parents (or just leaving the family) as an excuse, more or less, to get the interesting part of the backstory started.

Right now I'm playing a character who, after displaying some magical talent in a battle that got her separated from (it's ambiguous whether or not her parents actually died) her family, was picked up by an elf who brought her to be trained in her estate.

The orphanhood is just a starter, there. The interesting bits are how, due to an utter lack of real parental figures, she's somewhat desperate for affection, seeks to replicate the social dynamic she grew up in (following the orders of an older woman mentor figure instead of having to make her own decisions) and has very clearly delineated comfort zones - everything she did a lot of, or was trained to do, she's confident in, but everything else she has trouble dealing with.

Describing this quickly, I'd say "make the short description 'I'm an orphan, so...' and not 'I'm an orphan.'". Going backwards or forwards with traits and quirks, that is, either making them and then 'justifying' them in the backstory, or looking at the backstory to see what kind of person it would spit out, can work well to flesh things out in this way.

MintyNinja
2017-08-18, 03:40 PM
It seems the OP got a solid answer to the question they intended, but I'll add my example to the pile:

While playing Murder in Baldur's Gate, I used the setting's history and context to inform decisions about my character's orphanhood. Asheem Kahliel arrived in the city during the great Calimshan Refugee Crisis with his parents. In the shuffle, hustle, and bustle of the time, he lost both of them to starvation and sickness. He took to the city streets where he could and scraped out a living until his Sorcerous powers manifested. He spent his teen years growing in power and stealing enough to get by. All the while he's harboured a deep resentment for the Patriars (nobles and ruling class) of the city while also trying to appear as one of them. He donates regularly to an orphanage that helped him when he was young, and he's stayed on the right side of the Thieve's Guild. By the time the game starts (at about level 7 because of reasons), he has a comfortable living stealing and conning marks with his subtle magics. But he wants more from this city, and so he's hell bent on creating a revolution to topple the upper classes and put the people in power.

So what I have is not only a fully realized NPC should I choose not to play him, but also a character that has wants and goals based on his life thus far. He's not just out for himself, like is so easy with orphans, nor is he out for personal revenge. He's out to overthrow the government and try and make things right for the disenfranchised in the city. He's just a little... volatile, in his methods.

Our group is a bit wishy-washy and I change characters like shirts. This is the one I eventually settled on after a break for our GM. So while our group technically worked for Silvershield, I convinced them to murder Ravenguard and start working for Rilsa. It's been tough, and I'm still getting the hang of Sorcerers, and actually roleplaying Charisma, but it's felt pretty rewarding thus far.

Hooligan
2017-08-18, 03:56 PM
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.

Lord Raziere
2017-08-18, 04:25 PM
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.

Well one of the good things about it is that it makes a good "zero to hero" story- orphans generally start in a position near the bottom, so the only place they have to go is up, and when you finally get there you can wonder at the awesome: "this person went from being an orphan to being so powerful and awesome. so cool." and the great part is that you can do this without needing any stupid family reveals- just leave family an eternal mystery and focus on the fact that the character is a self-made person.

as long as you avoid the trite "VENGEANCE!" and "Suddenly it turns out your the prince!" tropes, it can be good. Its not about avoiding it entirely, its about taking it in a direction thats not so paint-by-numbers or formulaic.

Tinkerer
2017-08-18, 05:22 PM
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.

As it's often said, cliches are cliches for a reason. Orphans generally lived a hard knock life. Orphans don't have familial ties weighing them down. Orphans are fairly common in a world where life can be brutal and short. You only have a half an hour to come up with a backstory and you want to focus on his time training with his mentor rather than his family. If your character is older than a pup there's the chance that your parents could've died of natural causes (still... technically an orphan?). There are a ton of reasons to play an orphan.

Any decent character can get away with a cliche in their background. Nearly every single comic character is an orphan. Being an orphan isn't a problem. Being an orphan combined with a half a dozen other cliches, or having "orphan" as your one word character description is.

PersonMan
2017-08-18, 11:13 PM
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.

Anything's boring if executed poorly. "My parents died, and I grew up alone" isn't inspiring, but neither is "I lived happily at home until I left".

I think that making a backstory complex enough to be about more than just "I'm an orphan" or "An event happened" will keep you from having something uninteresting solely because of a single element you use. After all, in a well-rounded history, would you say it's all boring and pointless because they share one background detail with poorly written characters?

Jay R
2017-08-20, 05:38 PM
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

"Embrace" is a misleading word here. Some of my characters have been orphans because that's a common trope in adventure stories, because it fits the specific idea of the character, and/or because that is a character who can easily leave his former life behind, and go off adventuring. Many of my characters are not orphans, because it didn't fit the character idea.

"Archetype" is also misleading. I don't think of it as an archetype, or at least, no more than any common background element. I use it when it's appropriate. Of my last five fantasy PCs, Gwystyl left his clan on a quest, Pteppic works for his father, and Gustav's parents are alive, but a thousand miles from the DM's plot. Ornrandir grew up in an orphanage, but it was carefully written so that the DM could choose to introduce his unknown parents if desired. Only Gwydion was a true orphan. That was in part so that this bard would have no last name, and therefore a deep interest in epithets. He would always introduce himself with a new epithet based on the last adventure. "Gwydion Cluefinder", "Gwydion Chimera's Bane", "Gwydion Dragon-slayer", etc.


It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.

Like any other real-world aspect of life, the character of an orphan can be written poorly or well.

I doubt that there is any single literary judgment that applies equally to the characters of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Billy Batson, Hit Girl**, Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Oedipus*, Frodo Baggins, Arya Stark**, Daenerys Stormborn, Taran of Caer Dallben, Eilonwy, Mowgli, King Arthur, Will Turner*, Inigo Montoya**, Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Aladdin*, Cinderella, Snow White, Tarzan, James Bond, and Richard Sharpe.

It is certainly not true that the world in general has judged them all to be trite, lazy flimflam. Some of the greatest literature in the world, and some of the most popular stories, have been about orphans.

You cannot judge the depth, interest or value of some of my characters based on a single fact. You certainly can't claim that a five-page character description is lazy based only on part of one sentence in it. Dismissing all such stories or characters, or even all such PCs, as trite, lazy flimflam, is, well, trite, lazy flimflam.

*These grew up believing that they were orphans, only to meet a parent later in a plot-crucial way.
**These became orphans in childhood, in plot-critical ways.

Âmesang
2017-08-20, 07:13 PM
For my current 5e character I decided to make her an orphaned half moon-elf/half Tytherian-human who was found in the springtime by the Harpers of Waterdeep and raised by them, even resulting in her having the surname "d'Arilean" — "Spring's Child." She grew up amidst Tytherian culture, including learning an up-ported Verraketh's shadow crown, but has a wanderlust to learn all she can about her moon elf heritage. What she doesn't know is that her father is still alive…

…however we're playing through a by-the-book version of Tales of the Yawning Portal, so her backstory means jack all. :smallannoyed: Still, I wanted to try something new that would give her a simple reason to go adventuring while still giving her ties to her hometown and faction and open up some roleplaying opportunities amongst the group, such as asking them about their parents …but it just didn't pan out.

Honest Tiefling
2017-08-25, 04:09 PM
While I agree that being orphaned doesn't mean you can't have personal connections, I'd argue that personal connections from a backstory aren't all that necessary for a good DnD character. Firstly, there are some characters someone could forge strong emotional ties with, called 'The rest of the party'. Someone bereft of family or home deciding to become attached to their comrades in arms is probably a cliche, but not one I would say is inherently bad, especially not for tabletop games in general.

Failing that, from my own experience, its easier for a DM to RP a relationship of any kind if the relationship is both new and with an NPC they control. So a PC who wants to impress a guard captain because they feel a mentor-like relationship with that NPC is probably going to be easier for the DM in general. Very often, I've seen DMs ignore backstory NPCs like family because they are worried about doing it wrong. And making up years, if not decades of backstory and getting formative personalities exactly correct. But the DM is already running the NPC, so it could be easier for many DMs to work with that. Also, I would say that it is easier for other PCs to be integrated into this relationship, as they could be more critical of the guard captain, have a clash of personalities or even be in competition for the same relationship.

Also, for certain games, the personal connections aren't viable. If the DM starts off with a game focused on exploration, isolation or being flung into the far reaches of the planar cosmos...Those personal connections aren't becoming plot central any time soon. Given that most games have a timespan of at least a few months, if not years, it could be a while before the character can return home. Pining to return home could be done, but can also come across as mopey or rather inconsistent unless the player is good at it. It also may not be the tone the player wants, especially if the game is meant as a fun game exploring ruins, not a sad tale of people separated by circumstances.

I'm not saying the character should be a murder-hobo, but I think that personal connections in the backstory isn't a clear indicator of what will be interesting in the game.

Anonymouswizard
2017-08-26, 07:13 AM
I've never had characters who were explicitly orphans. My current character isn't, his parents are alive and well, but I'm probably going to add something to the backstory about being estranged because he was sent away to study under a loremaster because he fell for the wrong boy. His reason for adventuring is because I wanted to riff on the 'mentor archetype', his master died in his sleep and now he's seeking out their other students to inform them.

The only orphan I came up with was a doctor who was serving on the interplanetary warship Thunderchild II, but it was a footnote (I think he was adopted? Can't remember) in his backstory which was more concerned with him becoming a pacifist (of the 'will not harm myself' variety). Sadly that game never got off the ground, because it was actually interesting. I'm much more likely to have an orphan in a science fiction setting (which I sadly almost never get to play in) and make them a child soldier or corporation kid. They have a family, but because of that they're already connected with an organisation.

I've also had characters who had recently solved their 'backstory problem', whether that was finding their parents or helping wipe out the goblins who had burnt down their village. Lets you have a bit of 'what do I do know' for a couple of sessions as you work out their personality. I personally just enjoy taking fantasy backstory clichés and playing around with them, it makes me chuckle. If I make a D&D character an orphan they'll be someone who pretends to have no connections, while simultaneously being able to find an old friend from the town they grew up in no matter what city they're in (by accident, normally in the market).