Create character with wife and son

Yup

I want to fuck that frog.

Just don't include a family in your backstory, pretend they never existed.

Or play someone who doesn't give a fuck about their family either way.

This desu.

The thing is, running the same cliches every time robs the story of its interest. It's worse than not having a motivation at all.

When Joss Sheldon and George RR Martin started killing major characters, it was a big deal because it was unexpected. Big story payoff.

Then in the 2000s, everyone started doing it. No longer fresh and new, but totally a cliche. Doing it wouldn't really hurt or help, because the surprise factor was gone.

For GRRM and Joss, it happened earlier, but for the rest of the industry, it was the 2000s where main character death was kind of expected. So at best it was a cliche, and at worst it was a dick move. Either way, the old shock, surprise, and sense that anything might ahead gone.

GMs often don't seem to understand that every storytelling technique has a sell-by date, and you need to make an effort to keep even good ideas novel and fresh.

>get a better backstory, scrub
>no matter what backstory OP comes up with GM finds a way to shoehorn in cliche drama in the form of dead family

ugh, try and find an original bone in your body and don't revel in your hackery

>Create character with wife and family
>DM has them raped by the BBEG
>thinks that he's being hardcore and giving me motivation
>I see right through him to the edgy manchild that he is

>Create character with wife and son
>Character does a shit and family gets estranged
>Make character's personal goal to get reunited with his family
>GM kills me, teleports the body in another continent and ressurects me
>Starting money let me get a ship and go back home
>Literaly no reason to not do it
>Leave

>New character is the same but in the current continent
>Same story, down to the full stops
>"There was a housefire at their house and they are dead now"

You're a shit GM because you're arbitrarily ending obvious repeatable plot hooks, even shit as simple as "your son wants (thing) for (not-Christmas), go get one faggot"

See, as a DM, if I kill a family, the player will always have a chance to defend them. But legitimate threats against them can happen.

I've done it to a character's entire extended family

I just really didn't want to deal with the stuff the player wrote for them such as half of them being nymphomaniacs or lecherous old men or some shit.

A better option is to ingore them then.

Then don't bring them into the story period. That's no excuse to just start hacking and slashing at them. In fact, you're still giving your player the opportunity to bring up what his fucked family was like, so you're actually masking the situation worse.

>GM attempts to reveal who your parents are.

Or have your character shrug and say "ok but i dont give a shit"

Of course, imperiling them is perfectly acceptable at least once. Alternatively if your characters grow to high-level you can kill family members and create a subsequent "Raise my Family" sidequest.

Family is a great GM tool to minipulate PCs. When your party returns to Adventuretown, have one PC's mother chastise him about how he's always out their fighting monsters and never at home. Even better, if the PCs neglect their family you can have members berate them for spending all their money on their equipment. "You got enough money in your coin purse to buy us a home in the Noble District! Why are you holding onto it?

If your going to kill a family member, the way to create drama is to make that death a direct result of the party's actions. Don't say "The evil theif slits your son's throat in the night." say "Your great rival who you've known since childhood jumps out the window and escapes, vowing to hunt down your entire family and slit their throats!" and then have a time constraint because another villain is about to destroy the world or something.

If the GM says "Your family is dead", that's cheap. If you do something or deliberatley abandon your family and they die, THEN it's drama. Because now you at least thought you had an option to save them. Suddenly its your fault, not the GM's.

>Not making your family antagonists.

>make character with wife and son or fuck it, ANY sort of potential plot hook my character could have
>GM doesn't even acknowledge their existence and makes no attempt to do anything with them

I wish I had the middle ground, fucking holy shit.

I absolutely loathe this.
This is the reason so many players roll up "Lonewolf McMurderhobo" rather than trying to make a well rounded character with social connections and a life beyond stabbing goblins for gold.

I remember I rolled up a catfolk rouge in pathfinder Kingmaker, part of a tribe of jungle warriors who had to adapt as civilization moved in.
In his case the same sneaking, climbing and silent takedowns of a hunter makes a damn good criminal, plus no one can pat you down for claws.
His one real limit was he loved his mother dearly, taking care of her was why he turned to crime, would go from zero to bar brawl if someone insulted her and so on, his manta was "would this make mama proud?".
As a player i made sure to put aside treasure so once we had a real town going he sent money home to pay for her to come live there, show her he was this important guy, head of the police of all things, respected, with a big house for them to live in, even set up a shine to their tribal deity much to the annoyance of the local church of Erastil. Fuck i even had it in the background she was a potion maker so she'd have some sort of role if he wanted to work her into the story proper,
Next time we get back to town "Oh yeah user, your characters mom's waggon was attcked on the road and she was killed by bandits. lol"
It really pissed me off because not only was it sorta a "fuck you" to me as a player, i had to think of any reason my character wouldn't drop everything and go after every highwayman, brigand, and mildly suspicious fuck until he found the right ones like some fantasy version of the Punisher.

so much win

>make a character with lots of background and supporting info
>make sure it all fits in the campaign and setting
>get it approved and change anything they want
>game ends 4 sessions in, with two being mostly combat

I played a Tiefling Paladin of Vengeance in a 5e game a while back. His backstory was that he was the adopted child of a few farmers. Farmers where all murdered by bandits. So the characters is hunting them down as a way of getting into GM's plot. 1st session, "Oh hey user your families killers are on the otherside of the continent and everyone else is going in the opposite direction, lol." So my character said thanks for the help to the NPC got up and walked out and started to cross the continent to get some vengence.

It was meant to be an edgy character

>tfw you disarm the GM's big plot to have you realize your parents were hardcore rebels against the empire
>you and the party could care less and the ruling caste never bothered you much

had a Gm wh thought killing or dragging a PC's family was the way to drama. Often killed off family members for cheap edge. Pissed him off something furious
>make a half elf with extended family but give no details
>BBEG kills my elvish step brother
>"always hated that guy"
>GM drags little half sister into it
>"That bitch who my mother focused al ltheir attention on?"
>Drags father into
> "the man who raped my elvish mother leading to my misbegotten existence?"
>brings mother into it
>"That bitch who always hated me because of my human blood"
>Gm gets pissy and says my character isn't realistic
>"Not realistic like that immortal, all knowing DMPC you use to ruin any interest in this horrible fucking game?"
>get kicked out

I honestly don't know where villains find the time to do that shit. Don't they have master plans to be attending to instead of tracking down annoying farmboy's family in bumfuckistan and raping them to death to set an example for someone he isn't afraid of in the first place? Or if he is afraid of the heroes, why is he trying to do stuff that might just enrage them and make them more dangerous? I don't get it.

So anyone have examples of killing off family members/friends in the right way? As in, it actually motivates the player(s) to do something, or had some sort of emotional response?

>GAH, what's in that box anyhow?
>My parents.

>Creates character who has reasonable opinions of hating family
>Not realistic

>make character with wife and child
>never brought up again because they're on the other side of the country and I'm too busy crusading

You owned that douchenozzle: well done

I copied that one episode of Scrubs once for my Fighter.

>Fighter McManly has a lover in a faraway land.
>Sorcerer asks me about her.
>Fighter McManly gets a little flustered talking about his "cherished darling" but doesn't give too much details.
>At one point we end up in that faraway land, specifically in Fighter McManly's home town.
>Town got its ass kicked, town square is loaded up with the bodies of slain women -- women -- only.
>DM begins to recite this pompous narrative about my character finding the body of his loved one, this beautiful redhead woman.
>Allow him to finish his speech and I have Fighter McManly display outrage at these senseless deaths but sigh a breath of relief that his cherished darling is not amomg them.
>DM audibly "wuts".
>The big reveal -- Fighter McManly is gay and his cherished darling with the gender neutral name is a dude.
>No hints of homosexuality -- Fighter McManly was just a run-of-the-mill Fighter who enjoyed cooking. Since we never ran into openly gay couples, I assumed homosexuality was a taboo. Also characters aren't defined by their sexual preferences so there wasn't a need to bring it up.
>Other players think it's cool of me to play a non-stereotypical gay character.
>DM loses his FUCKING MIND and accuses me of meta-gaming and trolling him.
>Heated back and forth follows that results in the game dissolving.

I guess in the history of him DMing, I'm the first that's ever thrown such a spanner in the works and he couldn't deal with it.

Fucking beautiful mate.

That was kind of a shitlord thing for you to do.

>Oh I just so happen to be gay and have a lover, but I'll never ever explain who that lover is and treat them like you would a woman!

Literally the only good thing in that shitty story is subverting the DM's forced tragedy.

DM was an idiot, he should have all gays hanged on the town hall after gay reveal, that would show you

Eventually everyone the pc could potentially romance will be hanging. He could fall in love with a noose and it'll be found hanging from another, smaller noose next time the party rolls through.

what you've got to understand is that any villain trying to go against society itself probably isn't trying to win against society, which is nigh impossible unless you stage a revolution and have that objective in the first place, but rather dick around and have fun until they die.

>DM asks for Chaotic Evil character's backstory
>Grew up in a convent
>Then burned it down and laughed like a madman, because Chaotic Evil
>GM tries to threaten a friend from growing up there
>Chaotic Evil asks the wizard how many fireballs it will take to kill the "Friend"

>That was kind of a shitlord thing for you to do.

How?

>about her
You gave the game away, user.

any actual motivation for burning down the church beyond lolsorandom?

I just gave you a reason in that post, darling.

Don't darling me, liebling.

An invading horde was coming and he thought they'd invite him in if he did some of their work for them.

They didn't, so he swore revenge on the invading horde.

Too late, dear! Nobody's going to marry you now!

fair enough. i'd take it the convent didn't treat you so well.

Then I'll just have to marry you! Who's gonna be laughing at the hanging corpse of their lover now, Schnuckums?

Not him, but That wasn't even a reason. Even with the mocking way you explained his actions, you still didn't explain what he did wrong there. Are you referring to the whole, "treating them like he would a woman" thing? Because that's not even actually unbelievable, sissies, bishies, tomgirls, and traps are things that exist and that some people find attractive.
Or are you referring to the whole, "tricking the whole party thing"? If you are then that's even more of a bullshit excuse. Why would he give the DM every little detail of his character's backstory if he knew he was just gonna destroy it for shitty half-assed attempt at drama.

You sound like an autist who gets butt hurt if the DM isn't in control of everything.

Aha, that was my plan all along! We're gonna wear adorkable matching sweaters at Christmas and hold hands in public and maybe even share a toothbrush holder!

You're mine, honeybuns!

If they had, he wouldn't have ended up Chaotic Evil.

Or as chaotic evil, at least.

That wasn't a reason, that was just snark delivered in a way that made it sound as if you had an actual point to make.

I planned that this was your plan all along, so I planned to take it slow to build a happy loving relationship before marriage! Suck on those apples, Shmuckers!

>shitlord

tumblr, pls

>Make my character an orphan
>DM tricks me into getting into a relationship with my character's mom

Bastard.

Your GM is shit. This kind of thing ought to be discussed with the players beforehand.

Eh, as long as he didn't have you unknowingly kill your dad first.

Surprisingly no, and I would have expected that too.

Was your character's mom hot?

Besides, as long as you didn't get her pregnant it's alright.

Fairly attractive as was described.

Forget pregnant though, they had a kid before she realized, and chose not to tell him and continue the relationship, to the extent of having more kids.

>Create a PC with a family.
>Mention them on page 3 of my 4-page background.
GM didn't make it past the opening paragraph. Admittedly, his background was a trolling attempt inspired entirely by Henderson, it had so many random pieces of crap in it that I could have justified a claim to orcish nobility (human character), having served with Ollanus Pious, and a few other things besides.

Am I the only one that loves baiting DMs with this kind of shit? Every character I've ever made has a family, or a lover, or someone very dear to them. I've always made characters that have someone they'd call "important", and beyond the obvious plot significance it's always to see just what the DM will try to do with them.

>Play a paladin
>Backstory has him being betrayed by his captain and him and his friends being sold out.
>The paladin adventures to find his old captain and avenge his friends
>He writes wrongs on the way, because paladin, but his motivation for wandering the world is hunting her down.
>First goddamn line out of the GM's mouth
>"So yeah, you found her and killed her. Then it starts to rain, so you enter the dungeon to get some shelter."

So yeah, not quite the same as ded parents, but I was salty as fuck my characters entire motivation was wrapped up off-screen, before the game even started, and with no input on my part. And yes, he did refer to the dungeon as "the dungeon."

Her father and the village mob chase you wherever you go for a shotgun wedding.
The fact that he has the only shotgun in your typical fantasy d&d setting makes everything even more strange.

Why the duck do DMs do this? I have a hard enough time dragging motives out of my players that aren't just 'money and power'.

I would love that backstory. Perfect chance to have them face off against that fallen paladin lady as a recurring villain. Even if you were lazy about it, how hard is it to just have her be one of the BBEG's leuitenents?

>tfw I wrote my character as a single father trying to rescue his daughter and the DM turned her and the mother into plot-critical characters

>Why the duck do DMs do this?

Because it's easier to fiat your characters from fight scene to fight scene than it is to build up 3-6+ different individual backstories into one narrative.

I was considering bringing back one PC's dead brother as a plot hook, but I wonder if that would invalidate his character, as he set out because his family died.
Maybe the BBEG magics him back to life after doing his research on the PCs, then screws with his head as a Hawaiian good luck sign to the character in question?

What is easier is not always what is right, and you should have weeks to write the backstories into the narrative regardless.

Only thing I've ever had like that was during a M&M villain game.

My character's sole motivation was his powers being dangerous to himself, so his goal was two-fold.
1. Figure out a way to make them not self-destructive.
2. Figure out how to replicate it and sell the resulting super soldiers to the highest bidder.

Both required me to get money, hence turning to a life of crime.

GM homebrewed the wealth stat a bit so that the 3 points I put into it functionally made me a multi-billionaire, which kinda sucked when my character's main motivation was a lack of funds.

He let me shift those points around so I had actual motivation, and then the first session of the game I get power cancelling handcuffs that negate the entire downside with my powers. Granted I still would have to find a way to make them not block my powers completely, but still.

>tomgirls
Are female and thus wouldn't have fit here.

Aren't tomgirls the male equivalent of tomboys?

Shit i fucked up in reading that.

Make it his brother but not really. Just a clone/ someone trying to impersonate him

>The BBEG is an adept actor and disguise artist
Oh God, should I?
It seems so horribly petty, but he's imitated dead people to fool the party before.

So that's where that joke about the Castellean came from!

>play druid
>GM tries to start some plotline about how there is some old god fuckery and they're trying to make me think the earth has turned against me
>i don't believe them and ignore their whispers every time

>Create an old wizard
>No living family
>Never married
>Never loved
>Just liked to study magic
>Ask GM if he can have a small hovel on the outskirts of the town where the group was assembling
>He says sure
>Everyone else goes with orphans with nothing to their name
>The group meets in town to rid it of a goblin problem
>We find the goblins and beat them up
>Their treasure room has a tiny dragon guarding it
>We beat it up
>It flies away
>Go back to town and rest in the inn
>We all agree to head off towards the nation's capital to spend our fortunes in the morning
>Tell the group they can crash at my place on the way there then we could set up camps for the rest of the way
>We go back to my hovel
>It's burned down
>The tiny dragon is sitting there gloating about it
>Except he's not tiny anymore
>He's a full size adult dragon
>Everyone is confused
>GM looks smug as shit
>Ask how it's an adult literally one day after encountering it
>No answer
>Ask how it knew that was my hovel
>No answer
>He has an NPC kill it in one hit off screen a session later

Some GMs just love taking anything you have away. Had a few do it when you buy a horse or wagon too.

Well we had a game where the CG 16 year old farmer boy barbarian's sweetheart was kidnapped by orcs. Much more effective than killing, because it made us go from our usual "let's spend weeks planning this out and reconnoitering the situation" to "let's pool all our money and hire as many mercantilism as possible to march in there and burn them all". It was good.

meanwhile my character is trying to get home to his wife, and runs into his parents in a tavern. they've stopped aging. and then in the middle of the night, they just up and leave an infant girl in my room. shes got some curse mark on her too.

so on the bright side, you've not got my shit to deal with.

There is being a dick, and there is being a monster. He just crossed the fucking line.

>Not creating a character who willed themselves out of the aether of the cosmos

Pleb tier, deserved everything you got.

>To the extent of having more kids

>playing as a half-orc who left her brutal society behind and learned a better way
>DM reveals in a PM that not one but two orcish rivals are coming to fight me
>get excited because my backstory is coming into play

choose the better way, user.

Hot.

DO IT

>play a paladin
>fluff out his relationship with his parents - they had settled for each other after the wife had a failed courtship with an elf, and the blacksmith husband had left after an affair was revealed (the paladin's half-sister being fluffed out as a backup character in case mine died)
>paladin cared a lot about his mom, even would write to her and send some money along home
>GM never did anything bad with it and just let me have this bit of character
>never shoved the (presumed, but not confirmed) dead dad in my face
>never forced the half-sister out early as an NPC

>That was kind of a shitlord thing for you to do.

Holy fuck we have actual tumblrfags on this board, please kill yourself for the sake of everyone else

Can't a guy be flustered about bringing up his female lover as much as a male lover?

Also GRRM at least makes sure you get a bit of an emotional attachment to the characters he kills off. I really thought Ned wouldn't die.

Why not simply require players to design back stories with pre-intertwined narratives?

>you've been close friends for years
>each of you: design one backstory event that made you closer to each of the other players.
>then each of you design one backstory event that brought the whole group closer together.
>then fill in the rest of your backstory.

Now they players are invested in each others characters

I actually had a SR campaign where me and two other members of the party had shared backstories.

It was actually a hell of a lot of fun, I just wished we didn't have to deal with a special snowflake and a lump at the same time.

I've had fun doing similar things with other characters occasion, but I don't like the idea of forcing it for the whole group. A much simpler process could be 'your group has been working together for a while now.' You don't have to outright say they're friends or family, and it gives them a good reason to stick together and form their own friendships and rivalries through interaction.

It's easy to forget that he does that because the show tossed it out the window after a couple of seasons. The show writers just axe random characters for shock value now. And to feed the demand for higher pay among the remaining actors.