Does your PC have a family, Veeky Forums?

Does your PC have a family, Veeky Forums?

How do they factor into your roleplaying?

No because the GM will just off them for cheap drama.

Yes.

So far the DM hasn't noticed so I'm not drawing attention to it.

I always find this kind of attitude depressing. It just shows how often bad GMs will completely squander plot hooks that players hand them and encourage them to make characters who don't have connections to the setting or people within it.

I love building characters with those kinds of connections, and as a GM I really enjoy it when players bring characters to me with that kind of background investment in the world and people in it, because it gives me lots of plot hooks to make use of.

But it's such a common story now. New players who are nervous about having their characters care about anything because their last x GMs were moronic fucks whose only idea for integrating PC backstories into the plot was 'they're all dead now, that means you care about beating the villain now, right?'

Drives me up the fucking wall.

Generally no because it never comes up. One of the best campaigns though I gradually built up a family background based on how my cleric's personality developed.

As a half-elf she was the daughter of a human mercenary and an elven cleric who fought on the same side in a small series of battles against orcs. She got her faith and zeal for punching people in the face from her mother and her practical dungeon delving knowledge from her father.

Her parents are still alive and on their own adventures in a distant land hence they don't show up in the campaign. But I thought it was a nice touch and sort of back-filled in why my character was the way she was.

This.

He became an adventurer to provide for his mother.

It was his motivation to gain gold and build a home, and is still someone he worries and cares for constantly.

Usually, and they are usually fairly distant (In a literal sense) or only threatened occasionally or if I leave myself wide open for it.

Varied. For a couple they aren't relevant, either distant or dead, but others are strongly linked to them.

One has two families, as it were. The two kind people who adopted them and who they think of as their real parents, and the evil mad scientist (currently in prison) who originally created them. The tension, between wanting to be a good, normal person and the echoes of her true Father create a lot of interesting tension for the character.

Another didn't remember who their parents were at first, as a side effect of not remembering much at all. Over time, they've found out more and more about their heritage, who they are and where they come from, but it's seeming more and more likely that the revelation of their true parentage is going to be a pretty major plot point in the near future, since they seem connected to a lot of ongoing stuff in the game.

Which, as an aside, is why I fucking love amnesia as a character background. It needs to be done right, with enough things defined to still make them make sense as a character, and it generally relies on having a GM you can trust. But when it works out, giving the GM a blank cheque to link you into the plot however they like can end up with some amazing, surprising and awesome stuff happening.

Source?

My gnome has a family, but she's estranged from them. They basically wanted her to make something of herself, and so bent her natural magical talents to sorcery instead of letting her be a bard like she wanted. Her family at first allowed her to live with them, but when she offended an important official with her bardic sorcery and storytelling she was cast out

Yes, they live on the other side of the planet, so really they might as well not exist.

>PC is the son of a noble.
>Family connects ancient artifacts with its money.
>Father got pride complex and bids against rival noble family wasting a lot of money.
>PC got a crush on rival family daughter.
>Gets into debt and one of those artifacts gets PC a contract with supernatural entity that likes to be smug all day and bully humans.
>Gotta go adventuring to make money for family and steal rich people artifacts to sell.

>How does it factor into rp?

Short story:
>Return home once with party with enough money to wipe away debts.
>Family throws a party.
>Rival family gets to attend and so does their daughter.
>Chat it up.
>Eldritch entity pops in as a woman attending the party.
>Spaghetti begins to spill as rival family daughter sense something off about entity in disguise of a woman.
>Try to shoo away entity, but she claims she knows my PC too closely for them be cruel.
>Spaghetti hits the floor as people join into the conversation.
>Entity decides to call itself PC fiancee and begins to shit talk and embarrasses PC. It also claims it is the reason why the family got to be out of debt.
>PC family finds out and is okay with the "union" since it saved them.
>PC had to sleep in their bedroom next to the entity.
>It just kept giving my PC this smug as smile all night.

extended family of brothers and sisters, presumably they have families. Elderly parents. Wife and two children, one toddler one infant.

Character is sort of transitioning into being a responsible parent and finding time for it in between his duties as a knight.

Mostly a few younger siblings left in charge of his estate who he has some affection towards.

He cares more about finding a source of immortality than anything really.

Yes, he does. Their folksy, rustic sensibilities have guided him all his life, even when he moved to the big city to become a Cleric of the goddess of Justice. He never forgot his roots, and it's the wisdom of the simple folk (tempered by vows of selflessness and courage) that guides him on his adventures, despite adversity and despite the corrupting influence of the wicked and the damned.

He hopes to visit them with his fiancée after this latest quest comes to a close.

My character is married with 16 kids. She's gone on an adventure now they all left the house.
Her husband is an NPC, occasionally played by my DM and/or me. He's a simple barman wed to a powerful mage. Their relationship is mostly comic relief (the character is very intellectual and composed, but she is disgustingly and annoyingly sweet with him).
I wish my DM used one of her kids as some surprise NPC or villain someday. Most of them left the house because of their parent's exasperatingly functional relationship, so not all of them keep touch.

This is how I built this family Originally my character was Joe McCleric, plain as fuck and no nuance to his history beyond "adopted by kind-hearted childless widower."
The adoptive family grew to include cousins, aunts, uncles, a stepmother, a beloved but deceased grandfather, and all sorts of little bits of fluff as we played the first year of sessions and grew into our characters. The other PCs have been the same way, from generic thugs to Backstory-endowed dynamos. It's quite pleasant. Even the inter-PC relationships are expanding, with multiple mentor relations, a superb friendship, petty rivalry, and awkward romantic tension.

It's a high power game so several of the characters are demigods or around that level.

My guy's dad is just some farmer, his mother is the goddess of hunting though and follows him around and is pretty protective. Their relationship is complicated.

>most people separate from their family because of how dysfunctional the family is.
>You're character's family members separated because of how functional the family is.

wut?

I'm the GM so I don't have any characters. :(

Well, as I said, the character's relationship with her husband is comic relief. We're playing them as the most sappy thing possible, lovey-dovey pet names in front of everyone, nose rubbings, etc. Their kids got sick of it. Family is supposed to be a source of drama in an adventure, dammit.

My rogue has a daughter figure in his hometown. He is a storyteller, so they always connect after a campaign and he goes back to tell her his latest exploits.

Why did he need to provide for her? What's the family's story?

Honestly, a good DM should make the PC's family members die or suffer eventually Or something needs to happen change or hurt the relationship. Otherwise what's the point? They just turn into some banal feelsgood interruption so the PC can go play house for half a session.

Characters need bad things to happen to the people they care about. This is how characters change. It shakes up their world view. They need someone they're willing to make mistakes or missteps for.

Killing a PC's family isn't a mistake. Killing that family too early and too cheaply certainly is.

My last PC only had a sister, but she died early in the campaign.

He later became a major ruler of his people, knocked up his waifu, then hopped in his planet-busting spaceship(that he obtained by calling dibs) and fucked off to parts unknown to do Evil Overlord things.

I should mention my PC was a Chaotic Evil Space Vampire Edgelord Murderhobo. His waifu was also a Space Vampire Edgelord Murderhobo, so they went well together. Presumably both their kids will also grow up to be edgy murderhobos.

What about the PC's cute fiancée back in Important City? What should a DM do with that subplot?

>Honestly, a good DM should make the PC's family members die or suffer eventually

If you think those are the only potential plot hooks a PCs family offers, you're a shitty and uncreative GM.

>Space Vampire qt waifu

This is my fetish

...

B-but the villain is a woman and/or a mummy...

Well, more horrific furry bat-people(not that they cared about looks, being mostly blind and all), but space vampire was a pretty good way of summing that up.

>What should a DM do with that subplot?

Simple.

Have the wedding

Did you not read
>Or something needs to happen change or hurt the relationship

>qt Space bat waifu

This really activates my almonds. How big was her wingspan?

Don't even joke like that, user. Cute waifus are for True Love, not for massacres.

If it's a mummy then holy fuck do you have a good hook.

The PCs make a name for themselves. The mummy's minions search their history for weaknesses. Find the cute fiancée. Turns out she's actually the perfect vessel for the mummy's reanimation, be it a genetic history or mystical blood. So the minions, when it comes time for the reanimation, take her and use her as the body for the Mummy's mind.

The PC could bring her back and banish the Mummy (while letting her run amok on the people of the world until they find the McGuffin to save them) or kill both her and the Mummy, saving the world from any harm. Or even find a third way, like incapacitating the Mummy and holding them captive until the McGuffin is theirs.

I read it. It still shows an extreme narrowness of thought.

Are threats and complications involving NPC relationships important? Sure! But they're just one small part of what you can do with things a PC cares about.

What about things to advance or progress the relationship? Someone calling in a favour, or a chance to help someone out? What about things tangentially relating them to the plot, like the story coming to focus on an organisation the friend or family might work for, or have a grudge against?

An NPC relationship like that isn't just some static thing on its own that only has significance in itself. It also represents a broader connection to the setting as a whole that you can make use of in all sorts of ways.

And if that NPC is dead, or the relationship permanently broken? Then you kiss all those other potential plot hooks goodbye. Which is why I call it wasteful that so many GMs seem to think it's literally the only thing they can do. They're denying themselves so many opportunities in exchange for a little bit of cheap drama.

Imhotep needs to leave

Our DM ran with the webbed underarms thing, since they didn't really fly. They were built mostly for keeping warm and being able to sustain themselves on mostly blood(they came from an ice planet in a decaying orbit that spent most of it's time in the dark, so their eyes were useless for anything outside of detecting changes in light level, and growing plants/meat was difficult, so they learned to make due with what they had, up to and including straight cannibalism).

My PC in particular went fully blind after his eyes exploded after going into space without a suit(fighting his Rival who could survive in deep space. Said Rival broke the giant window in his wing of the spaceship that existed just for that purpose, blowing us both out. I still managed to throw my Fullblade and hit him, scarring him horribly for our next fight).

...

Here's one I've used in my game:
>The PC meets their parents. They're not happy with how the PC has changed.

He has parents and siblings, and they're all alive and in relative safety. No wife or kids yet, and I doubt that's going to be introduced in the campaign, but I wouldn't be against it.
I could always just adopt that kid I kidnapped.

The family members have never appeared in a session, so they're more of a thematic thing for my character than characters in their own right.

That's never happened to me. The closest thing is that I've had family members put under reasonable threat, like a general threat against the town or city they live in, but they've never specifically been targeted.

>They were built mostly for keeping warm and being able to sustain themselves on mostly blood
>ywn snuggle with your Space bat waifu to keep warm
>ywn offer her your blood for sustenance

Why even adventure in space?

Because I have a planet-busting spaceship with more than enough room for both of us. I can cuddle WHILE adventuring in space, and throwing the still warm bodies of my defeated enemies, establishing my dominance AND giving us blood.

That...sounds pretty dope. The cute fiancée is metaphorically fucked.

>ancient mummy getting inside your woman before you
>beating you to the punch by abducting her on the wedding day and violating her body that night

BANDAGED

That doesn't look like a love knife to me!

I'm super jealous. Were any of the other races this cute?

Been a few years since I played this game, but I remember liking a lot of the races my DM made.

>Humans obviously
>Robotic shark people from an exploded planet, spend most of their time trying to find the pieces and fix it. One in our party, who was on the path to becoming Zordon.
>Space Valkyries, complete with a number of Norse mythology references
>A race of proud warrior people, which were basically a fusion of the best parts of Krogans and Elcor. Half their home planet is covered in Not!Necromorphs, and most of their time is spent fighting those. They're slowly pushing them back.
>A race of bug-people. Had a hivemind connection, but after a war, the hive queen was killed, and the hivemind connection suddenly shut off. About 80% of them have some sort of addiction to fill the void. One side-PC I made was addicted to gambling and every drug you can think of. Also blowing things up.
>A race of bee people I never actually encountered.
>A secretive race of shapeshifters, who basically functioned like organic Geth. They spend 90% of their time as various types of plants, like grass and trees, and find it very relaxing.

I can't remember what else he had off the top of my head, but he never had any shame in admitting he borrowed a lot from Mass Effect for some of these.

Sounds way cool. How crazy was the tech in the setting?

About as high as you'd expect from a pseudo-Mass Effect/Star Trek world. We had space-ships, FTL travel, ancient space artifacts from a long-lost race(including the planet-busting ship, and a sword that could control a cluster of stars. Also belonged to me.)

I think the most advanced thing we encountered outside of the one AI, in a setting where AI is supposed to be banned was a large spacecraft that could convert certain types of matter into anti-matter, then teleport a large chunk of anti-matter directly into a planet's core, causing a chain reaction that destroys it.

Our side-PCs ended up destroying that one, by flooding the matter chamber with their built up anti-matter with lots of bombs. Unfortunately, we ended up destroying the planet of shapeshifters by mistake as part of that(our side-PCs didn't know it was their planet due to the secrecy and never being there before, so the DM didn't tell us it was the planet, though we did know before-hand that destroying the anti-matter bomb teleporter would destroy the planet we were in orbit around from the blast).

What are some ways you've incorporated PC families without killing them?

When roleplaying, I find that having a consistent character background works wonders for how exactly that character acquired the notions that it acts out.

In one of the campaigns I am playing it, my character was fully grown in a test tube (say, like the clones in the SW prequels) and somehow managed to escape the facility he was made in, when it got destroyed. He then proceeded to join gang after gang without knowing why people hate the shit out of him or find themselves greatly disgusted by his presence. Turns out being a literally soulless murder machine with a frenzy trigger in his head doesn't do him any good, when talking with people.

He still has these memories of his not-real mother (his creator, perhaps), whom he may or may not have killed. My GM periodically throws the weight of this character plot at me. One example would be how his "mother" came by and made sure he'd be an obedient son... by activating his friend-or-foe protocols, promptly turn him off with the implants in his head and doing who-knows-what to him, while was out. When another PC came by, my character had to attack her 'cause she triggered his self-preservation protocols.

Oh yeah, and somehow he's started seeing her and hearing his "mother", when she isn't there at all. Just another day in the life of a soulless son of a heretek

It is all great fun, I'd say. I am glad my GM is willing to go that extra mile. He's had another PC's father demand that this PC return home to Calixis as the heir of the family. If your GM is good and you feed that GM something good, then it is all good.

Only tangentially related to your post, but one of my PCs is slated to get themselves into a political marriage, and now I think I'm going to make their fiance basically Nagatoro-san. Thank you for the inspiration on making my PC's suffer that much more.