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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 5639310" data-attributes="member: 54707">I do this and have done it since my earliest  playing/DMing days. If my player characters or my player's characters lived long  enough often they got married and/or had children. Possessions, heirlooms,  birthrights, legacies, and inheritances went to their offspring, brothers, or  sometimes to their friends, fellow party members, or more distant relatives.    Lands, estates, livestock, valuables, etc. were  handled in the same way. Written wills were rarely used because usually everyone  knew who the inheritor would be. Blood relatives or someone the dying party  member had already publicly announced as his heir.  A couple of things to keep in mind about this from  my point of view. As DM how the players handle these issues is their affair, as  has already been mentioned. Unless the law gets involved and I have to arbitrate  or play judge. Magical items and devices in my setting are rare, so no new  character is likely to inherit a balance tipping cache of magical goods. They  are simply too rare and powerful. Each magical item in my setting is unique  (there are no generic +1 longswords) and so how each magical device or item  functions also tends to be unique. Meaning that just because it is inherited  doesn't mean the new player knows how to use it, that it can be used or  activated in the same way as the former owner used it, or that the device will  even have the same powers or capabilities it previously displayed. Each item  acts and reacts to each owner uniquely and individually.   This makes for great new adventures as new  characters try to understand what exactly it is they have inherited and how it  works. New PCs have also inherited famous items only to discover that the  magical items are apparently no longer magical or have transformed themselves  into something else entirely than was previously expected or suspected. And some  new PCs are able to awaken wholly new capabilities from a magical item than was  previously the case. And finally some characters have inherited family heirlooms  and such thinking they were not magical (for previously they showed no magical  dweomer of any kind) only to discover that for the new owner the item is  apparently magical.  And of course claims can always be contested, both  legally and covertly. Ambushes occur over valuable items, keeps are assaulted,  estates attacked and burned, caravans raided. Just because you inherit something  doesn't mean it happens securely. And this also makes for good  adventures.  Then finally, some legacies are passed down but  not given directly. The opportunity exists to recover a legacy but not the  guarantee. The inheritor has to discover the location of a hidden treasure  hoard, or must complete a quest to recover his inheritance. Worthiness to  inherit must sometimes be proven. And of course there are also secret caches and  secret inheritances that are not immediately obvious. Again a good genesis for  an adventure, or a Quest.  I've often used heirlooms, legacies, birthrights,  blessings, and inheritances to good effect in-game. Sometimes it even leads to  absolutely great adventures.P.S: I also forgot to mention, you can associate inheritances, legacies, heirlooms, birthrights, and items to be inherited with riddles, puzzles, and prophecies, as easily as with Quests. And those makes great adventures too.</blockquote>

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