Comments on: PC Parents: Most Often Absent, Dead or Gone

By: Telas

Telas — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:25:48 +0000

Then what else is there? This is (generally) fantastic roleplay after all. Harold Pinter’s long, uncomfortable silences, and Dr. Phil’s tear-filled family bonding moments really aren’t the right, um…

“Idiom, sir?”

Idiom, yes; thank you, Patsy.

OK, seriously. I think that GMs shouldn’t fall into the “Robin, the Boy Hostage” routine, and that there is something to be said for putting the PCs family at risk without targeting them personally. (Expample: Invading Horde threatens the home town, instead of BBEG kidnapping PCs entire families.)

By: tsuyoshikentsu

tsuyoshikentsu — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:37:52 +0000

Well, the easiest way would be to use them as NPCs in a manner that doesn’t involve them getting killed, robbed, raped, kidnapped, knocked-out-and-doppelgangered, held hostage, trapped behind enemy lines, or sucked into a planar void never to be seen again.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:10:59 +0000

From the sound of it, then, this issue comes down to a generalization that family = liability. I actually see a parallel to video games here (it was clem’s comment about GURPS that made me think of this): in 99% of games that feature NPC escort missions, I hate them. And most of my friends hate them, too — those NPCs are always insufferable, their AI tends to be shitty and they drag you down.

How could we, as GMs, go about rehabilitating the image of PC families?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:47:15 +0000

It’s very true. That or they are mega-powerful or influential. I think the fear or having family used against PCs is realistic. I often attempt to have family provide support and care whenever possible as long as the PCs take reasonable steps to secure their anonymity and safety.

By: tsuyoshikentsu

tsuyoshikentsu — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:41:29 +0000

There’s a joke on the Character Optimization boards over at the Wizards.COMmunity. It goes something like this:

“There IS an optimized background: the character is an amnesiac orphan whose birth parents are dead. He grew up on the streets of a town that was burned long after he left due to a baking accident. The fire also killed everyone who ever knew he existed.”

GMs never just seem to play nice with people’s family.

By: Orcrist

Orcrist — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:53:33 +0000

The campaign I’m currently in has a bit of both. My character’s entire village was wiped out by a cult of sorts trying to end the world. (Cliche, yes indeed.) But our summoner has a noble family we use for information and resources.

I find that having a family adds an interesting element, resources, and provides the bad guys with a handy target for when we’re off adventuring. (We came back to find that their entire mansion had been sucked into hell. Next mission: kill Hell.

By: Dave T. Game

Dave T. Game — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:42:33 +0000

I’ve thought about turning this around and making a D&D game where everyone had to define their family, and then I kill off all their families in the 2nd adventure so that they swear revenge.

By: Jeb

Jeb — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:53:13 +0000

I think that, to a large part, the loner stereotype comes from our inspirational sources:

- Conan. Lone wanderer. Parents dead. Later, wife imperiled.
- Aragorn. Lone wanderer. Parents dead. Prospective father-in-law doesn’t approve of him.
- Bilbo. Loner, estranged from the rest of his family.
- The dwarves. Generally exiled wanderers and orphans.
- Frodo. Introvert.
- Fafred. Lone wanderer who takes up with the Mouser. Later has wife.
- Mouser. Loner rogue who takes up with Fafred.
- Lancelot. Loner knight errant
- etc.

By: Dale

Dale — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 02:05:14 +0000

If a player says in one of my games that his parents are siblings are dead then I create aunts, uncles, and cousins. Family is too useful as a plot element to let players wave it away. (If someone really wants to play someone who has nobody then that’s another issue, but if they just don’t want to bother then I don’t stand for it.)

Players quickly learned not to let me make their families (which I always offer to do), since invariably they’re always full of screw-balls. What can I say? I like to run a realistic campaign!

By: Christianmichael

Christianmichael — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:51:36 +0000

I play in the RPGA so I have a character who is married, has kids, and even grandkids. That way I have a background that won’t be used against me by killer GM’s.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:58:09 +0000

The last game in which I was a player was a Torg campaign. The character was from Los Angeles, Los Angeles was destroyed, QED.

Back in college in a Greyhawk campaign, I played a cavalier who came in as an existing paladin PC’s brother, who the DM decided was the youngest brother and sort of the whipping boy of the family — the oldest NPC brother was a paladin in Furyondy fighting the big bad guys, the middle PC brother was also a paladin beyond reproach, and my cavalier was expected to take over the family’s fief and carry on the family line (with all the compromises those two goals entailed) but simultaneously expected to live up to his brothers’ reputations.

And then he ended up going on errand after errand to rescue his headstrong younger sister. Oh, and saddled with the youngest son of the Duke of Urnst as a squire. Sigh. It was infuriating, but made for a good campaign.

By: drow

drow — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:53:12 +0000

in my current campaign, none of the PCs have any surviving family that they know of. of course, its eberron, and they’re all cyran veterans who were operating in brelish territory on the day of mourning, so…

past campaigns have included some family, the players have been pretty open to that. i try to go easy on them, since the PC bringing her strange new friends home to meet family is usually more stressful than an army of orcs.