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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7079568" data-attributes="member: 29398">We've got tables for that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Seriously.If a player wants to figure out a PCs' family and background (which not all do; some just can't be bothered) we'll sit down and roll some dice to see what they've got:- parents - alive? dead? profession(s)?  adventurers?- siblings - ditto for each- children - for long-lived races such as Elves this one can go on for a while!- hometown- how much prior travelling has the PC done?- significant events in character's past, if any- significant people the character has met, if anyThis comes up extremely rarely, to the point where both player and DM just wing it at the time; unless the "friend" is intended to be someone significant.  "Hey, I grew up here <pre-determined by background as above>.  If Brienne's still got that farm just out of town she'll put us up for the night I'm sure!" - this is always cool even if it comes out of nowhere.  "Hey, this guy I grew up with - he was the Duke's son.  Bet he's Duke by now!  He'll get us out of this jam!" out of the blue is not cool.This would be cool. (I'd then very quickly determine for myself what if anything makes Doug tick and whether there's anything you might not know about him in-character - highly likely he's just simply a blacksmith's apprentice but maybe he's got married and had a kid since you last saw him, or maybe he's all along been a secret member of some cult or other, or maybe he lost that job and has since gone into baking...)Simple answer: if what the players dream up stands to give the PC or the party any undue advantage or influence (e.g. the Duke example above) I'm quite likely going to veto it.  Ditto for undue disadvantage; sometimes my players would be quite happy to invent trouble for other PCs: "Hey, I wonder if any of those 'wanted dead or alive: Jocasta Nightshade' posters are still up?". <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  But something like Doug the apprentice blacksmith?  No problem!Lanefan</blockquote>

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