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characters whose parents are still alive and well


One ten years ago I used to play on a pbf set in the world of Naruto, and I remember that I specifically made my character to still have both parents alive and well, and having a happy relationship with them. The evening before his first lesson he had them over for dinner, and he often went to their house to see them. It was so funny to see my character surrounded by all those edgy, dark kids and he being all sunny and optimistic xD

#GplusRPG

in reply to Patrick Marchiodi

Does it count if one parent is dead (from natural causes/old age) but the rest of the family (including a grandmother) is alive and well?
in reply to Arlene M

For me personally, it depends if the death is an important, tragic moment for the character's BG or not. I'm interested in characters who do NOT have that element in their background 😀
in reply to Patrick Marchiodi

I played plenty of characters whose parents weren't even remotely mentioned.
I guess that counts?
But I admit that in my AD&D times I usually wrote my characters "around" some huge life-forming (or shattering) event.
in reply to Patrick Marchiodi

@Patrick Marchiodi Oh no, it wasn't tragic. It was sad, but not tragic. Even the death of her wife wasn't tragic. It was a sad event, as well, but it was an unfortunate accident without any healers close enough to help. It was 'important' in that with her kids grown as well, there was nothing to keep her home or from fulfilling her girlhood dream of becoming an adventurer.

I had another who had a 'meh' relationship with her parents but was very close to her grandfather. She was his heir and he practically raised her. (Teramina)

Does a missing mother, but loving father and stepmother count? Again, not tragic, just mysterious. (Nadia)

(unmentioned) Loving family, sent out to adventure to get some self-confidence and assertiveness so she can come back and be a tribal leader (Reed). And she went with her cousins, and returned home frequently.

Very few of my characters have grimdark or tragic pasts.
in reply to Patrick Marchiodi

Varies and depends on the game. I've had characters with living parents, missing parents (a great plot point), murdered parents (the Batman motivation), estranged parents (they do not approve of your life), destructive parents (abusive, or outright damaging such as having criminal records that reflect on the character and their ambitions in society), Useless parents (stuck in a nursing home); Useful parents (father who's an ex-cop and great for using the contacts of)..... lots of possibilities (and of course theres always the supernatural parent, such as the divine/magic parent or the meddling ghost etc).
in reply to Patrick Marchiodi

Yeah, my current character has two living parents. She's got what amounts to a TBI and has been out of contact with them for a decade due to the personality changes that come from having her brain half-replaced by a swarm of nanobots, but she's scheduled a visit and hopefully we'll get there within a few sessions.