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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7279541" data-attributes="member: 29398">My characters aren't all orphans...by random chance they can't all be in our system as family background/status is yet another thing we (usually) randomly roll (e.g. is your mother still alive - yes; what does she do - merchant; is your father still alive - yes; what does he do - retired pirate; are they still together - yes; how many siblings do you have - 2 older sisters; ... etc.) as it's quite true that you can't choose your family.  All that stuff is just pure background; a foundation for why I'm out adventuring but not ever intended to be or become a part of that adventuring.  It's also part of the foundation for why I am who-what I am.Different from that, in my view, are things my character has done on its own.  If either I or the dice have determined that my character spent some time in the Roman Legions then having some game story grow out of that at some point is just fine...even better if one or more other party members have also done Legion time.   But the DM still needs to find ways to include the whole party - if there's a Legion storyline, for example, ideally my main contribution would be inside information on how things work and maybe on a few key people; but the story itself wouldn't centre on me. (side note: I've learned long ago not to centre a story on any one character as inevitably that character will die at the next possible opportunity...)And if, say, my (randomly-rolled) secondary profession is 'spy' there's an instant gold mine for the DM, should she choose to use it.Lan-"I have one active character whose secondary profession is 'actor' who goes around playing the role of a spy whether there's a stage nearby or not, confusing everyone including, sometimes, herself"-efan</blockquote>

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