Player 5: My parents were adventurers and pressured me into this life. Every summer it was adventure camp. Battle training for three hours a day on top of lessons in navigation, foraging, survival, and lute lessons. I’m only doing this because I have no other skills. Thanks mom & dad…
This is exactly what I would do if I rolled god like stats
All they ever wanted was to sit in a library and copy texts.
I imagine every now and again an ancient tome speaks to them only for them to roll their eyes and put it in a special chest their parents gave them.
My current campaign has a character whose parents still live in the town where the adventure is largely based. A lot of effort is spent convincing other townsfolk not to tell his mother what he’s been up to. It’s fantastic.
Player 1’s father is obviously the Warlord.
Player 2’s father is also the Warlord. He killed the father in the same way Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker.
Player 3’s mother sold their soul for the Warlord to fall in love with her.
Player 4’s Father is the Warlord and Player 3’s Mother. Except after they got together they settled down for a happily ever after.
I love the “happy backstory” characters and love GMing for them. Having an auntie the next village over is just wonderfully quaint. A couple of siblings whose mess has to be cleaned up. Cousins that have to be bailed out of trouble. That is just the low stakes. Turn up the heat a little and put some conflicting interests in the mix and you have a recipe for character drama.
And then there are all the larger and societal issues that become personal. Those affected by the situation are those that matter for the pc. While out killing goblins the bank took the farm. Auntie with an anarcho-syndicalist streak is accused of witchcraft.
Or mr edgy edgelord number fifteen who cares about nothing and none. My taste is clear - homebaked apple pie and an afternoon in the hammock.
Guess who the DMs gonna kill first
That’s novice stuff. It’s a cheap emotional gut-punch that weakens that character’s ties to the world and story. You can do so much more if you keep them alive:
- They can hand out quests, as they think their child could handle it.
- They can help out with certain tasks, like watching a tavern or storing stolen goods.
- They can be a good twist villain later in the game, because they’re tied to the heroes.
- They can be a good fake-out villain, because it’s suspicious you haven’t killed them yet.
- Another PC can literally bang this PC’s mum.
- They’re not angry, just disappointed in you when you fail a quest
You know when your parents ask you to fix the printer because you’re the IT person in the house? That, but it’s goblins. You’re the goblin-fighter person in the house. And you’re getting paid in a dessert your mum was making anyway.
“The Hansen boy killed three dragons this year, that must be so nice, they must be proud.”
I meant kill the nice PC not the character’s parents but I meant it as a joke I know it’s weak storytelling
if you’re actually trying to make a good story your ideas are good lol
Oh, yeah, that’s totally a good thing to do with living parents too. Someone has to inform them what happened to their child, after all.
After one of my PCs died, my planned backup was going to be of the same class and race, but a few years younger and motivated by a desire to travel with her brother. The brother who had just died, and she didn’t know. I am so sad schedule issues got in the way of that…
The reanimated corpses of orphan boy’s parents
That or the loving player’s familiar
We had a campaign start at level 1 with the undead led by a lich killing the ranger’s parents. At lvl 18 the wizard raised them with wish for resurrection.
He probably should have asked first.
Those are the best characters though. They learn and change so much.
My sister is currently playing as a sentient plate of nachos.
I don’t even know what fucking books she found the rules for that in, and I don’t know if I want to know.
she found a tome of eldritch lore
I always make my characters have both parents alive and well, and generally from a good home, if not an entire good region as well. Both my current Lancer and Fabula Ultima characters get into issues due to generally being who they are, and not necessarily from being raised in dire circumstances or having a tragic background.
Heck, one fun contrast to me is that my Lancer character is a young-ish noble who had everything she could want, and decided to venture out in the stars half for the thrill and half to spread her family’s reputation, while the rest of the party are more mature and jaded adults who don’t know any other type of life. The fact that she could stop at any point and go back to a comfy life isn’t a drawback to the roleplaying, its a plus and adds more good conflict between them.
I can confirm, having placed as such a character for three years, this is actually just kind of boring. It turns out that it doesn’t really make you more relatable, it just makes you never able to get any scenes or storylines that involve your backstory.