Stop Killing Your Family

You sit down to Session Zero for your new RPG campaign, excited to see what interesting characters or awesome adventures will spawn from this collaborative group of story-tellers. As you go around the table introducing your characters, a disturbing theme starts to appear-

Every last adventurer had their parents murdered by Orks, their village destroyed by raiders, and everything they knew gone with no hope of ever returning.

Boring!

Why is it so common for PCs to have backstories with some degree of extreme loss?

It’s easy.

While most of us who play RPGs really enjoy character creation, many players struggle with the more nebulous, free form, no-holds-barred activity of creating a backstory. With little to no guidance, one can become overwhelmed with where to start the backstory.

I think many of my fellow bloggers and writers will understand this feeling, as well.

One question a good backstory needs to answer is “why is the character adventuring?” However, this often gets interpreted into “why is the character leaving behind everything they know to embark on an otherwise foolish errand?” Is this because, in our modern, highly structured lifestyle, the concept of adventuring belongs only to the kids between high school or college, retirees, or people having a mid-life crisis? Why would someone leave a loving family, a successful job, a comfortable home, to sleep in a tent and fight monsters?

Because they want to.

Maybe this is a consequence of the D&D/Lord of the Rings-style of adventuring that most of us grew up on. Adventuring- the activity one embarks on while playing RPGs- is to discover lost lands, find wealth beyond imagination, and kill things (and get away with it). It isn’t a job. It isn’t what the character would do because what else would they do. It’s an adventure, a once-in-a-lifetime event. It’s a chance to fight for something larger than oneself. It’s a chance to right wrongs.

Consider this: by killing off your family and your home, you rob yourself and your GM the opportunity to create inspiring stories and interesting hooks to keep your character engaged.

Sure, you could go on a vendetta to destroy the orks who killed your family. Then what? Good job, you killed them. Is your character going to hang up their sword now? Are they going to lay their blaster down and retire to some backwater planet where they can grow crops and raise animals? No, you (the player) probably want to keep playing. So now why are they still adventuring? Because they have nowhere else to go? Snooze.

Having a family gives your GM the opportunity to introduce them into the campaign. Maybe they are your nemesis. Maybe they are a distraction. Maybe they aid you in your time of need.

Maybe you just talk to them, you know, like we do in real life?

Having a home town where you grew up gives the opportunity for fun and bizarre new characters to interact with. It fleshes out your character. We get to meet childhood friends, old love interests, quirky relatives that totally explain why we are the way we are even when we don’t want to admit it. You can take part in a party or celebration without simply crashing someone else’s.

It makes your workload of developing your character easier because you aren’t doing it alone.

I am a player in a Star Wars: Age of Rebellion campaign. My character is a human sniper for the Rebellion. But my family still lives on our farm in the Mid Rim. My brother and sister are still alive and roaming about the galaxy. In fact, they all may be Imperial sympathizers. What will happen if I run across them during a mission? Think about the crazy, difficult, interesting story beats that can occur because of my decision to keep the family alive.

And I sure hope my GM includes them.

So here’s my challenge to all you players and GMs out there: have a home, have a family, have someplace your character feels safe outside of the party. Then make sure those details are important to your story.

You can always destroy them all with an Ork raid later.