Having children in RPGs

[Sajiri]

In one of the single player RPs I'm in (which recently just passed 100 sessions, yay), the DM and I once had a joke 'It's amazing (character) hasn't got pregnant yet with how her and her lover carry on'. That came up again recently when the DM made a random comment (to do with plot reasons) 'maybe we should have made her pregnant,' long story short, we ended up rolling for it, and now my character is expecting. It's going to take the RP in some different directions, and adds a lot of twists now because of who the father is (heir to the throne of an undead nation. That's a thing apparently) but in the few sessions since then, it's become a pretty important focus in the plot so far. This character also already has 2 children (one was kidnapped prior to the beginning of the game and much of the early parts revolved around rescuing her, the other was adopted throughout the game so far)

So I'm curious, have you ever had a game where a player's character had children? Has it affected the plot or just been something off to the side? I'd like to hear some stories :)

[TheThan]

I played a character that had a whole family, wife, two children and even a dog. Robert MacBane was a professional adventurer, as in he adventured for the money; which he would use to support his family. Naturally he was away from home a lot. But during downtime or between adventures he would go home to his family.

But have I played a character that became pregnant during the adventure (or got someone pregnant during the adventure)? nope not really.

[The Fury]

I was in an RPG where one of the PCs adopted. A dwarf that took in a bugbear toddler, it was sweet. It did affect the plot somewhat, as we all grew to really like the little bugbear and left him in a sort of dwarvish daycare while we were off doing dangerous missions. He was always happy to see us when we came back and clearly loved his adopted dwarven dad. The same campaign my character had a son too, though he wasn't born until the campaign's epilogue so it didn't impact the plot much.

[Phoenixguard09]

One of my players' background involves a child as the product of rape.

Spoiler: Extra Info

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In my setting, Invarrian females are generally capable of having only one litter in their lifetime. There are exceptions, but these are rare.

As such, rape is beyond being a serious crime amongst the Invarrians. Nothing even comes close to it.

So naturally, I have one player who wants to push the envelope when it comes to tragic backstories, and she went full-bore on it. She has one surviving son, who has not featured in the story at all. The other characters are not aware of the son's existence, though the players do know.

Not quite what you were after, but it is all I have got.

[Sajiri]

bugbear toddler

Heh, in the campaign I mentioned, my character's kids kind of have a bugbear nanny

[The Fury]

I still like the bugbear kid. Gris was his name. I remember our characters would stop in town marketplaces to buy toys for him.

Seriously though, how did you get a bugbear nanny?

[goto124]

... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

[Sajiri]

I still like the bugbear kid. Gris was his name. I remember our characters would stop in town marketplaces to buy toys for him.

Seriously though, how did you get a bugbear nanny?

She was supposed to be the first boss encounter and have a very dark ending to the session, instead I recruited her through a combination of bluff, diplomacy and a healthy dose of female empowerment. She's evil, but now she hangs out in my character's house taking care of the kids and is happy so long as she has food and booze.

... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

No, its PCs having children

[HolyCouncilMagi]

Well... I play Ars Magica a lot, so it's not as inconvenient (or unlikely) as in other RPGs where a whole campaign is measured in months or years. Ars Magica measures individual sessions in seasons or years and you have several characters to play, so although there're some slow saga speeds where this isn't the case, most characters will begin and end their pregnancy off-screen over the course of a single session (or two if they happen to get pregnant near the end of one session). Nearly all of my Ars Magica characters who live to thirty will have had at least one child...

With the exception of the magi, for whom childbirth is rather rare. The Gift repels committed lovers and one-night stands alike, magi are usually antisocial and untrusting of the few who can overcome their Gift, their kids are highly unlikely to inherit the trait magi consider their most defining feature (the aforementioned Gift doesn't pass in the blood), and often the pregnancy and close relationship of a child would simply be considered a waste of time that could spent in the lab growing more powerful or knowledgeable.

These children often become PCs themselves, and as PCs they may or may not go on to do plot-relevant things, but whether you consider that to be plot relevance inherent in the having of children is up to you. There were two times that their births were relevant to other characters' goals and challenges, though...

One was a prophecied child whose father (a magus) engaged in many activities to get the correct woman to sleep with him in the correct spot on the correct day, and because he was desperate he didn't account for the long-term consequences of those actions, so the child both brought stories through its prophecy, and earned the magus a supernatural and noble enemy that would stay with him throughout the saga (specifically, said noble was using demons to earn an undefeated reputation in tournaments, and the magus bested him).

The other time was when an NPC troll kidnapped and did certain unsavory things to a married female PC (player agreed and it was fade-to-blacked) and she had an adventure two seasons after getting rescued, causing her problems as a priest sensed that her baby wasn't human and automatically assumed she had willingly committed adultery with demons. That was a fun session, but only for the players, not the characters.

[Yukitsu]

My current character in one game has a kid. The little blighter just stays at home with his mother during hunting season and with the both of his parents during the off season. How this influences the story has yet to be seen.

I had another character who was a dude. A celestial came along and said she'd help him if he'd let her have his children. My character being a Fey misunderstood the request, changed his gender, got knocked up (by his item familiar who had a female gender) and gave the celestial his kid. Since he was a diviner, he mostly just helped the party remotely while lying around his wizard tower. I'd say it's a long story, but for the key points, that's pretty much it.

Another character was a paladin on a god granted quest to help the elven population recover. Most of his contribution was finding items that help with fertility and such, but a lot of his work was also more manual, so he had a lot of children but they were all raised by the elven communities because that's apparently how they work.

Another another one got tied up by the party bard who was dominated at the time. A passing by harem decided to stop by and he ended up with 7 children and a broken pelvis. I wish I were making that one up.

[Sajiri]

It sounds like most kids in RPs are just kept out of the way :p which makes sense I suppose.

My character's adopted son has basically become the DMPC, and is active in each session, comes along and takes part in combat regularly (despite my character regularly tries to make him stay behind, but he either sneaks along or manipulates her into saying yes. Due to plot reasons, he's quite capable, although he did get mind controlled and try to murder her in the last session). Her daughter was only recently rescued, and not a whole lot has happened with her yet. She's only 7, but the DM keeps reminding me that people will get older, and supposedly she will grow up and be influenced by the NPCs she spends time with now (so she may end up like one of the mages, or the paladin, etc).

The unborn baby obviously has nothing yet, but it sounds like it will be interesting what happens, as the father had already returned to his own nation before she found out she was pregnant, and now she doesnt want that nation to know she's carrying his child because most likely scenario is that they'll show up and try to take it away from her. It's possible it could be twins though :p DM said he'd roll for that too later on

[Kiero]

... oh, this thread's not about children PCs, or children players?

Dear gods, spare us from both.

[Knaight]

Dear gods, spare us from both.

I've had some very good children players. Inventive, imaginative, actually capable of getting their heads into the game, somehow less distractable than the adult group tends to be. Obviously there are some limits to what you can bring in as a GM, but in my experience those have consistently been good games.

[goto124]

Where do you get those children from, Paradise?

[chainer1216]

I play a character who recently married the mother of his unborn child. Its due in a month or two. The pregnancy has been rough, this character is extremely protective of those he cares about and she is a fellow adventurer so the last few months have been frustrating for her.


Oh did I mention my character is the great grand son of Mephistopheles? And that at one point in the past I maaaaay have made a deal with him to get myself and a party amber resurrected? Its probably going to be an interesting childbirth...

[Knaight]

Where do you get those children from, Paradise?

Friend's younger siblings, mostly. One was a kid I babysat/nannied for. A few other places. Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe it's a side benefit of generally being good with kids.

[Mastikator]

Jordgrim, the barbarian mercenary adventurer from Junghart was married and had kids.

His backstory was simple, when he was young he was conscripted, after a few years he was free and had scraped together some money. He retired, got married, bought land and built a farm, had a few kids.
A few years down the line there was a bad harvest, he borrowed money to stay alive, next year bad harvest again and no money. His wife and kids are taken as collateral.
So he becomes an adventurer mercenary.
After his first successful month he gets handsomely paid, he celebrates, gets drunk, goes out to pee. Gets attacked by a werewolf, the next morning he wakes up covered in blood and the other PCs find him and reluctantly agree to help him.

The kids never entered actual play, but they were the main motivator for adventure. They justified the risks he took as an adventurer and actually were useful for the DM because as long as the plot hooks were baited with money he always took them.

Edit- the werewolfism was rolled on at character creation, I didn't decide that and it wasn't really a good idea in hindsight.

[Sith_Happens]

I had another character who was a dude. A celestial came along and said she'd help him if he'd let her have his children. My character being a Fey misunderstood the request, changed his gender, got knocked up (by his item familiar who had a female gender) and gave the celestial his kid. Since he was a diviner, he mostly just helped the party remotely while lying around his wizard tower. I'd say it's a long story, but for the key points, that's pretty much it.

Fey, you're playing them right.

[comicshorse]

In a Warhammer game my Elf minstrel passed himself of as a Elven Noble so well he actually married into a human noble family. Had a son and heir, however at the time of the child's conception he was under the effects of an infusion of blood from a Lord of Change (Greater Demon of Tszeentch, long story).
For about a year everything was good then he started having disturbing dreams where his son transformed into a horrific monster.
Sadly the GM got married and moved away before we could get to grips with this plot

I could mention several Pendragon characters but in Pendragon propagating your family line and gaining Glory for the family name are an integral part of the game

[Worgwood]

I have a Star Wars character who's a smuggler; he's a mid-30s guy with kids and a wife, and he's smuggling so he can support his family during a period where the Empire are cracking down on pretty much everyone.

A friend of mine has actually roleplayed a character raising children to adulthood; he's played the same character, on and off, for 10 years, who has progressed from a 20-year-old mercenary to a 50-year-old warlord, with three of his own adult-age children plus one he's adopted. Those children now sometimes become major NPCs in plots that character is involved in.

[Amphetryon]

Two of the PCs in the game I'm currently DMing have conceived children together, while one of those has also conceived children with several NPCs. It's become a surprisingly large focus of the game.

[BWR]

Children play a greater part in some games than others - by design and by chance. Something like Pendragon is designed to be generational, and Ars Magica quickly develops a bunch of children simply because everyone is stationary and there are tons of people around and time flies. In AM children have appeared and been mostly ignored by the magi (except where one got pregnant despite her longevity ritual). In L5R kids show up regularly because you're expected to marry and carry on the family name and gove more good little samurai to your lord and clan. In our games PCs may very well be children of previous PCs.
Heck, one OA game has something like 4 generations of descendants of my first PC and every kid to come along is an celebratory event at the table; stats are rolled, proper Ancestors are assigned and politics about where the kid will train and who they will marry starts then. There have been plenty of adventures for kids - as scions of ruling families they are prime targets for politics and evil BBEGs. Kidnappings, assassination attempts (successful and not), getting lost, intrigue, seduction and more.

In more traditional D&D games we've also had pregnancies and children. Children and the life of a murderhobo don't mix well, so the PCs in my Mystara game decided to mostly settle down and take things easy while the kid grows up. A few adventures to distract from motherhood still occur but any hardcore questing (for Immortality, in this case) will wait until the kid is grown up. Another PC has stared a dynasty and must designate an heir, which is a bit harder to do than it could be considering she's sworn to chastity for 100 years. Yet another married and got a litter in what amounted to a footnote. So yeah, being a parent tends to cut drastically back on adventuring life. Some people don't want to play that. For some games and characters it's a natural progression.

[LibraryOgre]

Did have a group of players adopt a group of abandoned goblin cubs. However, they foisted them on the local cleric of the Caregiver, gave him a chunk of silver, and let him deal with them.

[SimonMoon6]

In one multiversal campaign that I ran, a PC married a princess. Then, he went away on other adventures, and due to time working differently in different places, when he got back, he found out that his wife had had a son that she raised by herself, and now that son was a grown adult.

This lead to various moments, such as the son being fairly combative against his father until they finally had a serious talk, with the PC discussing how he understood how the son felt as his own father had abandoned him.

I think that's the only situation involving children of PC's I've encountered except for special cases: someone's "daughter from the future" came back in time for reasons... and when a player left the group, his character had a daughter who... again due to time being different in different places... encountered the PCs as an adult.

[TheThan]

It sounds like most kids in RPs are just kept out of the way :p which makes sense I suppose.

Well yeah, sensible people don’t take children into dangerous situations intentionally such as taking them into dungeons where they’re sure to encounter dangerous monsters that like to eat people. Fighting bandits, goblinoid hoards, dragons you name it, bad idea to bring a kid along.

Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

[Yukitsu]

Well yeah, sensible people don’t take children into dangerous situations intentionally such as taking them into dungeons where they’re sure to encounter dangerous monsters that like to eat people. Fighting bandits, goblinoid hoards, dragons you name it, bad idea to bring a kid along.

Can you imagine a badass knight decked out in plate armor, sword and shield in hand and baby strapped to his chest in one of those baby carriers.

I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

[LibraryOgre]

I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

...I want to say Suburban Commando.

[Malimar]

Well, my character in Rise of the Runelords crowned himself King of the Goblins and started making the goblins breed him an army, does that count?

Also, I'm currently playing a dwarf whose backstory is he's got lots of adult children and some grandchildren and went adventuring because he's basically an empty-nester, but none of his children or grandchildren have featured in the game yet.

[TheThan]

I can imagine that as being the premise behind some super corny 90s action flick. I think I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie actually.

You’re totally thinking of the scorcher movies from tropic thunder.

[Kiero]

I've had some very good children players. Inventive, imaginative, actually capable of getting their heads into the game, somehow less distractable than the adult group tends to be. Obviously there are some limits to what you can bring in as a GM, but in my experience those have consistently been good games.

Don't get me wrong, I have two children and a third on the way. I love playing with them, and my eldest has an incredible imagination.

I wouldn't want any of them at the roleplaying table before they were teenagers at least.