Quote Originally Posted by Hooligan View Post
Help me to understand why so many of you embrace this background archetype?

It is trite, lazy flimflam. Even worse it is dull....the epitome of boring, like shredded roleplaying iceberg lettuce. Many of the above examples bear out those points.
Well one of the good things about it is that it makes a good "zero to hero" story- orphans generally start in a position near the bottom, so the only place they have to go is up, and when you finally get there you can wonder at the awesome: "this person went from being an orphan to being so powerful and awesome. so cool." and the great part is that you can do this without needing any stupid family reveals- just leave family an eternal mystery and focus on the fact that the character is a self-made person.

as long as you avoid the trite "VENGEANCE!" and "Suddenly it turns out your the prince!" tropes, it can be good. Its not about avoiding it entirely, its about taking it in a direction thats not so paint-by-numbers or formulaic.