To my own thoughts on the topic: As Celebrim says below, this is the sort of thing that has potential for abuse by players. Still, if the GM manages it carefully, it could add a lot. In general, I would say that players should be allowed to give themselves legacies fairly freely, and heirlooms within reason (which is to say, you can declare that your PC has a family sword, you can even declare that it's magical, but you can't declare that it's a +5 holy avenger). Inheritances should be mostly for the GM to hand out.
This is something Ed brought up earlier and I forgot to mention. Cause I was pressed for time. Still am cause I'm going up to the planetarium tonight to do some star and planet watching.
Yes, when it comes to heirlooms and inheritances, I (being the DM or GM) generally tend to hand out that kinda thing, but with player input. Though I don't usually give out information with those heirlooms and inheritances. Unless it is a special situation.
As for legacies, and by this I mean family legacies, I usually either let the players develop those ideas themselves, or let that kind of thing be let out piece by piece. That is a player may know he has a legacy, but he might not discover all of the details up front.
I don't though tell players what to do with or about their heirlooms, inheritances, or legacies. That's up to them. If they want to blow them drinking them away then that's up to them. But as with myth and fiction then such objects or legacies often just move on to another person who is willing to make better use of them.
What I'm not for and greatly dislike is a player who invents a background expecting to cash in on that background for some free loot, extra skill points or other advantages. "It says in my background X, so you should let me do Y.", is a statement I consider to be very hostile and adversarial. If you can do Y, it should be reflected on your character sheet. Your character sheet is who you are; your background is only how you got to where you are. You can come up with any background you want to explain your character sheet, but you can't come up with any character sheet you want by explaining your background.
I personally don't think heirlooms, legacies, and inheritances should transfer advantages without costs. I think people benefit from such things all of the time, but as with myths and fairy tales and so forth (and even with history) advantages usually imply costs and responsibilities. To that extent I completely agree.
Heirlooms, inheritances, and legacies should not give automatic advantages without corrpeosnsidng duties and responsibilities and costs. (In that way they are sorta like magical items. You could sell or squander the advantages that magical items give you, but it is foolish to do so in most cases.) They shouldn't be an excuse just to party, buy prostitutes, and live it up, or they become in effect all reduced simply to selfish money advantages. (Of course you've always got the story of the Prodigal Son, or Henry the Vth. The guy who squanders his wealth or seems to disregard his legacy, only to later reform. Wu Lee in my Hoshi group started out as a character like that and later became reformed. It depends on how you let the characters be handled.)
But if used in other ways than just as a source of ready cash then they are good and important adventure and role play tools.
Nod. Kinda thinking the same thing. Maybe one at a time?
I think anything can be abused. Or can become so convoluted that it fails to work properly. So I agree, if every character is simultaneously working on their own Quest, let's say, then it's hard to maintain group cohesion or even have a real game. Everyone is off adventuring in a different direction.
However, that being said, sometimes when more than one party member is pursuing some aspect of a legacy, heirloom, or inheritance simultaneously, or at about the same time, it can makes for some very, very interesting role play, adventuring, and conflict situations. As the players try to sort out what is most important to pursue at any given time, and why. Conflicting interests can be interesting role play and adventuring situations.
Well, it's dark now. Time to hit the observatory.