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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Relevant comic.

    So how about it? Is it on the GM to look at the orphan backstory as an opportunity for big reveals later in the campaign? Is this always a sign of a lazy player? Any hints or tips for making the orphan trope interesting?

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    OK, so you're an orphan. What kind of orphan? How long have you been an orphan? What caused you to become an orphan? Did you ever know your parents? Does anyone else know who your parents are? Do you have any surviving family? Who took care of you when your parents were gone, and how do you feel about them? And most importantly:

    How does being an orphan affect what your character wants out of life?

    There are all kinds of orphans. Some grow up hating everyone because of their loss (I lost my family, so everyone else should too!). Some build families wherever they go to make up for the one they lost. Some grow up thinking everyone they care about will leave them given any excuse (abandonment issues).

    Backstory doesn't have to be interesting. Backstory is only important for the way it influences your character's actions and desires.

    The DM may or may not do something interesting with the fact that you're an orphan. Being an orphan may give some adventure hooks to the DM, and suggest possible adventures, but ultimately it's up to you to make your backstory matter to your character.

    If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy. If it gives your character reasons to interact with the DM's world (in a non-disruptive manner), then you're doing it right.
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    ElfRangerGuy

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
    If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy. If it gives your character reasons to interact with the DM's world (in a non-disruptive manner), then you're doing it right.
    I agree with this.

    I just recently made a character for a game who is an orphan. It wasn't just so I wouldn't have to have a family, but as a massive foundational element of her backstory. It not only ties into one of the plot hooks for the campaign, but also drastically shaped how I envisioned the character's appearance and personality traits. I used it to set up pretty much all of the most important experiences of her early life, and I expect it to continue to have a strong effect on her needs and goals and the way she deals with the inevitable acquisition of wealth after becoming an adventurer (especially since it's a character that doesn't need a lot of gear).

    I don't necessarily expect my DM to make use of that aspect of my character's backstory as some kind of big plot twist or anything, but I decided that I wouldn't have any knowledge of my family in case he does want to do anything along those lines (because I know he's the kind of DM that might want to pull something like that). If he does, I'll totally roll with it, and if not then I still have a strong structure to base my character on.
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    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Particularly in D&D, I bypass this by doing two things.

    First, I try to downplay the idea of adventurers as a special class of citizen. Sure, you may get the occasional idle rich who does this stuff for the thrill. For the most part, though, I like to give downtime and assume that the PCs would rather have normal, stable lives. But sometimes trouble brews, and that's when certain people realize that someone has to do something, and they have to be those someones. Because frankly, if you're going to be a professional adventurer who starts your career meeting other professional adventurers in a tavern, any effort you spend on backstory is probably wasted.

    Second, due to aforementioned downtime, I like to give players narrative control over some of their background elements. Sometimes it's family. (Be it parents, siblings, spouse, or children.) Sometimes it's a legacy. But let them feel ownsership of something bigger than their character sheet. Make sure to encourage this by not attacking whatever bonds they focus on. But once the player feels a sense of ownership of something bigger in the campaign world, they're more likely to want ties.

    (And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Another thought is that historically, one only had to lose one parent to be considered an orphan, since it was so difficult for one person to support a kid. Maybe your character has one loving parent who can't/couldn't support them. How does that affect your character's current actions?

    It would be a complex set of emotions to know you are probably loved and yet still given away for your own good.

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    'I'm an orphan' can be extremely lazy, but so can the GM 'You hate this guy because he kidnapped/murdered your family/significant other/entire village'. I'd shoot for a kind of mutual detente on the matter- if your GM wants you to expend effort to give your character a family, they can't use said family to avoid effort on their part.

    That being said, I've done both as a player- one character was an orphan (well, technically a foundling, as I actually had plans to return at least one parent later as a plot point, circumstances allowing), mostly because I envisioned said character in the classic 'left on a doorstep of a monastery and raised by monks' mold- it was weirdly entertaining to play a terrifyingly strong and combat-ready (Trollish Physad), but almost totally unworldly character in Shadowrun. On the other hand, my longest-running D&D character (10+ years at this stage) had his family alive and well at the start of the campaign, even if he was estranged from them to the point that his response to the BBEG threatening them if said character interefered was to (frustratingly unsuccesfully) fireball the guy >.>

    That being said, the character who had a family had much of his character and behaviour formed out of that estranged relationship, and eventually, through the course of his actions, completely altered the traditions and prejudices of his home country, something that probably wouldn't have happened without the bitter, stubborn drive that his early life had provided him. He's eventually evolved into someone who's alignment I'd label as 'Cranky Good'- he genuinely wants what's best for everyone, but he really can't stand people

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Ask yourself, what does being an orphan add to the character? I think the traditional complaint of orphans is that they tend to either be Murder Hobos Supreme with no personal connections, or grimdark hooded loners who don't really interact with the party. Here, being an orphan is impeding role play and not really adding to a character.

    Your orphan might try to run around saving the poor and downtrodden, because they remember living like that. They could bond with the party, because they don't have a family. They might be greedy and hoard money not to be a jerk, but because they want to be prepared for the future. Or they want revenge on a plot important NPC and know they need to get along with the party to do so. Bascially, think of what this type of backstory has on the character and how it shapes their interactions with the other party members and characters.

    Personally, I don't mind orphans, because I assume in a world with dragons and mind flayers there's going to be a high chance of them being made. Throw in the fact that one would assume most people would probably stay at home if they had some family and a good job prospect rather than trying to see if they'll live to see level 2. Like how the Pony Express kept hiring orphans, maybe some adventurers just get recruited from those who don't have a family.
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    I'm fond of the "technically an orphan because reasons but this led them to the experiences that led to them being a PC" angle. My latest example was "taken in by a noble family his mother worked as a maid for, and developed a natural talent for deception and stealth into being a capable spy for the house, who he serves out of loyalty and gratitude." But it could just as easily be "grew up scrapping in the streets," or "eked out a living on the fringes of civilization by foraging," or "taken in by a monastic order..."

    That is, I agree with the above posters of the importance of "what kind of orphan" rather than leaving "orphan" as the sole word of summary.
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    "You're all orphans? Great. That's how you know each other: you all grew up in the same orphanage. Let's call it St. Cuthbert's Asylum. Who was the older kid who always watched out for you? Cool. What's the caretaker's name? It's a woman? Neat, let's make her a hulking half-orc with red hair. She was a war orphan, so she's pretty nice to you. What sets her off in spite of this? Ooo, interesting. Which one of you found that out, and how? Nice. There's a business next door, what do they sell? Who helped out at that store? (etc.)"

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    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
    If you're an orphan because you don't want to have family members for the DM to take captive, or because you don't want to care if your hometown gets razed, then yes, it's being lazy.
    Quote Originally Posted by Anymage View Post
    (And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)
    I think the problem here is that too many GMs see friends/family/relations as nothing more than variants on the Robin the Boy Hostage trope. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "muh ajunsee" complaints from players with GM PTSD, but GMs who never do anything with the extended family but get them murdered or kidnapped are yes, just being lazy. It's boring and uncreative.

    The thing about family, blood or otherwise, is those bonds run both ways. If they don't, it's not family. The TV show Burn Notice is an excellent example of this - Michael Weston's mother and brother drag him into all manner of "adventures", but they themselves are rarely in stereotypical durance vile. A GM doesn't have to have a cackling Republic serial villain kidnap and torture Mom and Pop to start an adventure; something as simple as "Pa, why's the fencing on the north pasture down? And where's the herd?" "Never you mind about that. Not your business since you left to join that mercenary company. Farm wasn't good enough for you then, t'isn't your concern now." "Now you hush, Bill Notting. John's home for once and you'll not sour the milk with that tongue. Your father's in it with that Graham Tolliver up Dunhollow. Tolly sends his boys to knock down the fences and spook the cows of an evening, we've had to move them to the poor pasture down east way."

    That said, one other thing to remember is that unless you're going for an apple-cheeked fairy tale peasant sort of fantasy setting, life expectancy in the Middle Ages wasn't great. The odds a character of 25-30 in such a setting having both parents still alive would be pretty low.
    Most of the problems in this hobby derive from insecurity and immaturity.

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    I have a similar running gag in games I've run over year, stemming back to my earliest DM days. We always had one player who wanted to roll a Barbarian and hit stuff for damage and his backstory was always "ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD!" I've since carried this to my new groups as a way to NOT do backstory (as I mine the player's characters for story ideas, from their skill choices to their weapon preferences to their age and race).

    In D&D 5e, for example, choosing Urchin or Hermit is KIND OF lazy in that it doesn't REQUIRE much thought into a backstory but still gives you some very important/useful skills. Not everyone is great at backstory and, ultimately, it's just backstory - it's not relevant to the game in front of you unless you or your GM MAKES it relevant somehow.

    The easiest answer to this is the same as the answer for most creative processes - keep asking "Why?" until you don't have an answer.

    ALL MY FAMILY IS DEAD.
    "Why?"
    ORCS KILLED THEM.
    "Why?"
    ORCS ARE EVIL.

    This (ORCS ARE EVIL) becomes a defining point in the character - they see orcs as evil because a tribe/hunting party killed their family. The DM now has some meat to work with: what tribe, are there/what are the other tribes, where are these tribes located, where are they right now? Who leads them? Who/why did the Orcs actually attack?

    Then the DM can ask the player some questions (what did they look like, did they kill everyone or just your family, where were you when this happened, how old were you) and voila, character enrichment.
    Last edited by Herobizkit; 2017-08-16 at 04:35 AM.

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Unless you're using it as an excuse to be video game-esque murder automaton, I don't see why being an orphan should really matter.

    Sure, real life, it's not a small deal exactly, but from a fictional character position it only really matters if you're using it to justify the subsequent adventure. The "you're actually heir to an important such-and-such due to this hitherto unimaginable parentage you've suddenly discovered"-approach, "You killed my parents and I swear vengeance"-deal, "I was taken in by unconventional parental figure(s) and now I'm involved in the exciting things that their lives entail", or lastly and most common I think "I have to abandon my childhood and take steps into the adult world to survive, entailing a life of greater risk and expediting my life greatly as a result".

    However, if you don't want to, simply invent a parental figure(s) and it becomes a non-issue. One of things I found kind of baffling about Spider-Man was his parents never mattered, his orphan status was just sort of this thing to describe his character without actually defining it any significant way. I suppose it justifies his aunt and uncle's advanced age relative to Peter for whatever reason that exists... but overall they fulfill the same role and significance in his life, and that's not really a problem. Peter has had an unconventional living arrangement, that's certainly part of his biography but it doesn't redefine him around it.

    Saying "you're an orphan and thus lose any reason to have significant emotional ties to anyone" is - not implausible if you want to push your character into that direction - but it doesn't have to touch any real aspect of a character either and they can have all the healthy emotional bonds that you want. Likewise, having two living parents can be equally as calamitous for a person's narrative if you want them to, depending on who they are.

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    DrowGuy

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    first campaign i ever dm'd had two orphans, one estranged from his family, and one with two big brothers (but dead parents due to a mob hit that was part of why the 3 kids were running a very successful garage). the first player orphaned the character creation went like this:

    me: what's your character's name?
    kaht: kaht.
    me: just kaht? no last name?
    kaht: kaht.
    me: want some family? wanna roll?
    kaht: *rolls, no parents, no siblings*
    me: welp, guess you're an orphan. what's your character flavor?
    kaht: street urchin with a silver tongue? no family because the town's my home and the people my family?
    me: i can roll with that.
    kaht: feel free to add that as a plot hook midway through the game. i can't think up a good backstory on the fly.

    in the end i christened her "néesousix", a pun on "néé sous x", which means "born under x", so the mother or father could abandon the kid at birth. midway through the game, i checked the physical description, age, and background of the bbeg, and except for the fact that the bbeg was a guy and kaht was a girl, everything matched. i decided that basically, kaht's mother was the victim of a sexual assault and near murder of the bbeg's father, effectively making kaht the bbeg's half-sister. a simple lack of inspiration made a memorable twist of fate for the final battle and the aftermath, since kaht inherited all of the bbeg's possessions. kaht's reaction?

    kaht: duuuuuuude.
    me: *shows notes and reasoning, dating back 8 months*
    kaht: duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. i love it!
    team: damn, the dice spoke really early for that one.

    the other one?

    farren: i want to play a nomadic hermit who grew up in the hills with his dad, his mom left at an early age, and his dad got killed by a stray looter a few years back. my character avenged his dad with his dad's rifle, and that's all he's got to remember his dad by.

    the italicized part became a trademark of his people. nomads, hermits, only meeting up and living together for 2 years until one left with a baby. a culture of loners, nomads, and hermits. he rp'd his character as a quiet guy (he was a very shy player), one who was savvy to the world, but scared of people, and shunning company. a very memorable character, and his rifle named betty is a legend unto its own. another thing about farren? he's the only one ever to roll purple eyes. i rolled 3 desert nomads, all had bloody purple eyes. ok, then. campaign after, another player rolled up a nomad. purple eyes and a crack-shot to boot. my turn came up to play one: purple eyes, and the second most lethal dude with a rifle ever after old farren. guess genetics do work even in pen and paper.

    playing orphans as pragmatic meta-game? hell no! playing orphans to have some reveals later on or because it moulded your character's way of thinking? hell yes!
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Kitten Champion View Post
    Unless you're using it as an excuse to be video game-esque murder automaton, I don't see why being an orphan should really matter.
    It actually wouldn't matter directly at all, except insofar as being raised by different people puts you in contact with either different peers or a different culture. That said, if some particular outside agent or institution or tradition was responsible for killing said parents, rather than a random accident or due to commonly-acknowledged causes, then the orphan might be motivated to fight or overturn that agent or institution or tradition. Then again, they might blame the parents themselves for being dumb enough to get killed that way. Or it might be far enough in the past that it doesn't bother them either way.
    Give directly to the extreme poor.

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    DrowGuy

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anymage View Post
    Particularly in D&D, I bypass this by doing two things.

    First, I try to downplay the idea of adventurers as a special class of citizen. Sure, you may get the occasional idle rich who does this stuff for the thrill. For the most part, though, I like to give downtime and assume that the PCs would rather have normal, stable lives. But sometimes trouble brews, and that's when certain people realize that someone has to do something, and they have to be those someones. Because frankly, if you're going to be a professional adventurer who starts your career meeting other professional adventurers in a tavern, any effort you spend on backstory is probably wasted.

    Second, due to aforementioned downtime, I like to give players narrative control over some of their background elements. Sometimes it's family. (Be it parents, siblings, spouse, or children.) Sometimes it's a legacy. But let them feel ownsership of something bigger than their character sheet. Make sure to encourage this by not attacking whatever bonds they focus on. But once the player feels a sense of ownership of something bigger in the campaign world, they're more likely to want ties.

    (And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)
    my old cleric spent half his downtime healing the poor and the sick, and the other half writing to his family. a dwarven wandering medic has strong ties to his clan, especially when far from home. it annoyed my dm profoundly that there was very little tragedy in my family history and that i never cut links to them, instead sending and receiving monthly mail in the nearest pelorite temple. it also annoyed him profoundly how i unerringly managed to name all of the clan up to the great-aunt from memory, but that was more of a running gag for me than any plot-important detail. ultimately he sent a goblin excursion to their city, and it failed spectacularly because in his words:" your sister is a rune-priest, your dad is an architect specialized in siege fortifications, and your cousin is a dwarven defender. if your clan is a micro-cosm of your city, they eat goblin hordes for breakfast. the contents of your letter make you feel like they had an uneventful tuesday." i think the dm just wanted some action in my otherwise vanilla-plain family backstory.
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anymage View Post

    (And to repeat on point two. If you punish PCs for having ties, don't be surprised if the players learn from that.)
    This right here, is why I refuse to play any character with living family without a promise in writing from the GM to not go around taking cheap shots at them. Because I've had way too many GMs who went looking for ways they could take cheap shots at PCs.

    It'd be nice to roleplay someone who had a decent home life for once, but I can't do that unless I can trust the GM not to treat said life as a dartboard.

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Guizonde View Post
    Ultimately he sent a goblin excursion to their city, and it failed spectacularly because in his words:" your sister is a rune-priest, your dad is an architect specialized in siege fortifications, and your cousin is a dwarven defender. if your clan is a micro-cosm of your city, they eat goblin hordes for breakfast. the contents of your letter make you feel like they had an uneventful tuesday." i think the dm just wanted some action in my otherwise vanilla-plain family backstory.
    That is hilarious and perfect.
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lacuna Caster View Post
    It actually wouldn't matter directly at all, except insofar as being raised by different people puts you in contact with either different peers or a different culture. That said, if some particular outside agent or institution or tradition was responsible for killing said parents, rather than a random accident or due to commonly-acknowledged causes, then the orphan might be motivated to fight or overturn that agent or institution or tradition. Then again, they might blame the parents themselves for being dumb enough to get killed that way. Or it might be far enough in the past that it doesn't bother them either way.
    Not really what I meant. I'm referring to the MMO-character who's spawned fully formed in adulthood and has no roots or significance in the world - whose backstory is just a thin basis for statistical advantages and nothing more - and not someone trying to present a character with a worldview and life history that could impact its personality and decisions.

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    From what I've seen from many players, the 'correct' way to do it is have your family murdered by some horrible and cliche evil. Orcs, werewolves, vampires, and evil cults being the favored choices. Because now you've got a dark edgy revenge motive.

    I try not to show my reaction when a player their edgelord (or any other walking talking cliche) to the table. They clearly think it's cool and I don't like to be a party pooper. But I'm thinking 'for real?' really loud.

    (If the campaign theme is about brutal invaders / raiders or set in ravenloft or something, it doesn't make me flinch quite as much.)

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Now I need to go track down my Darke "Steve" Edgelord character concept. I really need to make that guy (Or his sister Sharpe "Sally" Edgelord). Happy, cheerful, great team player, and loves his parents (except when they call him by his first name) who are minor nobility with a tiny holding at the edge of the country.
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    It's almost always a yawnfest. Best avoid it altogether.

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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    By getting past the mere fact of being an orphan to the interesting parts. Did it make him a loner? Does he feel out of place everywhere? Is he looking for a family equivalent? Will he react badly to parents who aren't focused on their kids?

    Personality and choice of action are what's interesting.

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Planetar

    Join Date
    Jun 2016

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    My personal favourite character was an orphan and it definitely helped shape her backstory (She was "raised" by the BBEG at first, then by living on the outskirts of an orcish community after she escaped). The real problem isn't orphans, it's "My character has no ties to anyone in the world". Orphans tend to have families, just not biological ones. Maybe it's a gang, maybe it's the orphanage (Blues Brothers may be one of my favourite movies), maybe it's their dog. If your character can't come up with a thing in the world that they care about aside from getting stronger then yeah, that's lazy.

    Don't hate the orphan, hate the apathy.

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    Dwarf in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2016

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Yes making the orphan a "loner orphan (preferably from the wrong side of the tracks but with a heart of gold, drow and duel wielding scimitars)" will certainly make the character more flavorful

  26. - Top - End - #26
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    The Fury's Avatar

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    Feb 2013

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    I did play a character that was sort of an orphan. Her birth parents weren't dead though, they just abandoned her. They also turned out to be alive later on. My character was adopted as well, so she did have a family, she just had a... weird relationship with them.

    So, maybe if you do have a character that's an orphan, consider making them adopted-- there's some interesting possible character dynamics that you can have.
    Last edited by The Fury; 2017-08-16 at 02:52 PM.

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    Halfling in the Playground
     
    ElfRogueGirl

    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    over the rainbow
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    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Being an orphan is a start to your backstory, but it can't be the entire thing. Maybe you were orphaned at a young age and joined a gang or thieves guild to survive. Maybe some bad guy/evil organization was rounding up orphans for nefarious purposes, and you barely escaped with your life. Maybe you were taken in by a church or good secret organization and they raised and trained you to be a force for good. Something like that.
    Go not to the Dragons for counsel, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

  28. - Top - End - #28
    Troll in the Playground
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    Jul 2012
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    Male

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Someday I hope to see someone bring a PC with a Sun Wukong-type-abiogenesis-therefore-no-parents type deal to a game. I want to see PCs who hatched out of rocks, fell from the sky or spontaneously generated in a cookie jar in the orphanage.
    Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

  29. - Top - End - #29
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Planetar

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    Nov 2007
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    Male

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    Quote Originally Posted by LadyFoxfire View Post
    Being an orphan is a start to your backstory, but it can't be the entire thing. Maybe you were orphaned at a young age and joined a gang or thieves guild to survive. Maybe some bad guy/evil organization was rounding up orphans for nefarious purposes, and you barely escaped with your life. Maybe you were taken in by a church or good secret organization and they raised and trained you to be a force for good. Something like that.
    This.

    I'll admit I've created more than a few orphaned characters, but backstory always included who raised them.

    One was a Goblinblood wars orphan raised in a monastic order dedicated to Asmodeus to be a champion of hell's law.

    One was a fey foundling raised by a dwarf/elf mixed race couple.

    One was a halfling of unknown father whose mother didn't survive the birth. She was raised by a gay Ulfen couple who'd been friends of her mother and trained in their axe and shield techniques.

    Being orphaned is the start of a backstory, not all of it.

  30. - Top - End - #30
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: How do you make the "I'm an orphan" backstory interesting?

    If being an orphan was a backstory, then Batman, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter would all be the same character.

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