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<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 4955146" data-attributes="member: 1165">I think a lot of it stems from the Law of Conservation of Detail. Many players don't want to &quot;make NPCs&quot; (which is what family members usually are, if they're not PCs) or want to only make &quot;useful NPCs&quot; (like Shadowrun contacts). I find in the former case it's just a lot of wasted time and effort turning to random name and career generators, and most fantasy characters I read about don't ever mention their parents. Not even Aragorn that I recall, and we have his full family tree available! Why bother when that stuff won't come up in campaign?And then a lot of DMs want a lot of detail. I know it won't come up in campaign (as I don't ever see that stuff used against me) so why make me waste time on all this detail?And if it does, well, family is an obligation. They won't necessarily be kidnapped or something, but I don't want to take time off adventuring to help them fight off the tax collectors/loan sharks/rival businessmen/whatever. Selfish? Sure, plenty of adventurers are.Recently I saw this turned on its ear once. A PC had three sisters who had been kidnapped before the campaign started, and he tried to convince the other PCs to help free them. The first ended in disaster, the second time, at campaign end, my PC went with him to free his family. (He had good reason to get out of town at that point anyway, and the PC with siblings had leadership qualities...) Of course, said player explicitly made this a part of his character (it was not imposed by DM) and I don't think he even bothered to give his sisters names, occupations, or ages.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 4955146, member: 1165"] I think a lot of it stems from the Law of Conservation of Detail. Many players don't want to "make NPCs" (which is what family members usually are, if they're not PCs) or want to only make "useful NPCs" (like Shadowrun contacts). I find in the former case it's just a lot of wasted time and effort turning to random name and career generators, and most fantasy characters I read about don't ever mention their parents. Not even Aragorn that I recall, and we have his full family tree available! Why bother when that stuff won't come up in campaign? And then a lot of DMs want a [i]lot[/i] of detail. I know it won't come up in campaign (as I don't ever see that stuff used against me) so [i]why[/i] make me waste time on all this detail? And if it does, well, family is an obligation. They won't necessarily be kidnapped or something, but I don't want to take time off adventuring to help them fight off the tax collectors/loan sharks/rival businessmen/whatever. Selfish? Sure, plenty of adventurers are. Recently I saw this turned on its ear once. A PC had three sisters who had been kidnapped before the campaign started, and he tried to convince the other PCs to help free them. The first ended in disaster, the second time, at campaign end, my PC went with him to free his family. (He had good reason to get out of town at that point anyway, and the PC with siblings had leadership qualities...) Of course, said player explicitly made this a part of his character (it was not imposed by DM) and I don't think he even bothered to give his sisters names, occupations, or ages. [/QUOTE]

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