>the GM asks you to provide at least two NPCs your character

>>44770899
When you know the GM is good, it's not a bad sign.

>>44770899
>not having family members and friends in mind for your PC when you create them

Everybody get a load of this mouse

>>44770899
Why would this be a bad sign? Sounds good to make sure your character is actually connected with the setting and stuff.

>I don't want to create backstory mreehh

>>44770899
>Is this ever not a bad sign?
It's not like every npc involvement ever ends up badly ya know. It's just an easy plot hook and quest giver for your dm.
My usual guy always asks us to provide some family and connections during build up, and none of those have died in a game yet. Well aside from rival-type connections, those usually get rekt by the party because our dm looves rivalries.

Mouse Guard requires you to describe your family and mentor and nemesis.

I've only had a GM kill off a family member once, and it was suitably fitting for my character's arc. Stop paying with shitty GMs.

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>be a loner faggot with no family or friends
>get nothing

>think up friendly NPCs you might know alongisde your GM
>usually get cool shit as extra starting gears without breaking the rules before they get killed off for drama or whatever

are you for real, anon? i was able to make a bomb out of crystals, a scroll and a bag that took down 35 bandits with my wizard because my blacksmith NPC friend gave me a bag of scrap metal (reasons that made sense with my backstory and my friendship with the NPC in question)

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You don't have to make NPCs your character loves dearly.
>Before they left their home to go adventuring the character stole a family heirloom or something and now their siblings all want them dead.
>Character used to be an apprentice to a skilled craftsman, but you bailed after they made a move on you. Assuming you wouldn't be into it.
>Your character was subject to an arranged marriage but they dipped before the ceremony and hasn't visited their home country in many years. They fear the day that they might have to return. Hopefully he never runs into anyone that's looking for him either, especially his fiance.
>Character's child ran away years ago when the other parent died. They've been looking for them ever since.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0uCWjQ6Og

>>44770899
Sign of a bad DM or a sign that bad things are going to happen to those people?

>>44770899
>Ask player to provide at least two NPC family or close friends
>Player hesitates
>Asks not to
>Sure, no problem
>Later on
>All the players are lords
>Their family members are part of their dynasty
>They have ministers and sheriffs they can rely on
>The player who didn't name any NPCs has to hire random dudes
>They betray him

>>44770991
>parents are dead

>character is a orphan

>they got killed by X race this is why i hate them!

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>>44772450
>parents are dead
>character is an orphan
>killed his parents because they wouldn't accept him for being gay

Eh, nothing special, really. Made my GM cry once, thanks to it.

Never had an issue. If anything, most GM:s have just ignored contacts and family members that were part of backgrounds.

If your GM is the kind to be like "Your wife and child are dead and raped by demons while you were out" then yea fuckem.

>>44770899
Nope. If the people are killed, it's usually good for development of plot and/or characters. My GM has actually just asked so he could use them as contacts/potential contacts. If your party runs into a random person and it turns out a character already has history with them, it gives your characters and the world as a whole more depth.

>>44772467
What a faggot.

>>44770899
Nope, especially when they're on the other side of the galaxy.

>>44772604
You're on my list

>my character is an undead, he hasnt been for too long, but in death he forgot most of his past, he knows what knd of person he used to be, but that isnt him anymore and the people he could maybe recognise would not recognise him as he's a skeleton

>>44770899
You can generally avoid the relative fridging routine by taking cue from real life loved ones. Preferably, the GM's mother. Be sure to point this out to him if he does do it, too.

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>>44770899

75-90% of the time, though it depends on the setting, only good things come to the player's connected NPCs as a result of their noble and prudent actions. You want a waifu? I'll give you your fucking waifu, you just have to earn that shit. Of course, if you're a fucktard and do bad shit, bad shit will come to your connected NPCs if not yourself. That is my mentality as a GM.

>>44772764
never heard of "No good deed goes unpunished"?

>>44770899
It's actually something I use to weed out shitty characters.
If you can't consider anyone outside yourself or give a rationalization to why you can't love/have nobody beyond "They're all dead."
then you're out. Bye bye.

I only use it against them when they actually fuck with a people.
Example: Find Big Bad, they don't know it's not the last encounter
>They are overleveled and make fun of him
>The caster is literally summoning kittens and flinging them at him
>He can't hit them because party warrior is a walking brick wall with regneration
>He gets mad and teleports out
>Next time they find him, he's holding some of their loved ones captive, he did his research on them because he's a vengeful dickhead.
>One of the captives is the Grizzled Ranger's dog that went missing 2 sessions prior
>He tears their skeletons out and animates them to fight for him.

>>44770899
It's not a bad sign if your GM is not a dick. But then again if he IS a dick he will find other ways to aggravate you, like mind control sex goblins, dark temple of the vore and unbirthing goddess, semen elementals, traps inspired by /tg/ threads or gazebo-infested forests.

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>>44772786

I've fuckin' heard it. But still, 75-90%. That's still only a limited chance of karma rising up like some sort of vile cunt-snake and lashing back at you for no god damn reason. You work to tell the best story, create the most glorious legend, and bring the most enjoyment to the players, to watch them struggle and sacrifice for their ambitions and what believe in, not to mindlessly buttfuck their dreams and disappoint them.

Not inherently, but if the GM looks annoyed when you name a powerful/important or dead NPC, even if that power doesn't translate into anything meaningful for the character, it probably is.

>>44772833
>Party is wrecking some dude hard
>He has enough time to teleport

>>44770899
It's a litmus test for DMing, that's all I'll say.
I do like the idea of having a listed mentor, friend, rival, and your parents. I think Mouse Guard does it.

So my last character has a huge family, each of them getting a two sentence blurb + class.

>Andes Harparr, Father
>Brione Harparr, Mother
>Gyles Harparr, Older Brother
>Thurey Harparr, Older Brother
>Elell Harparr, Older Sister
>Rarder Harparr, Younger Brother
>Sane Harparr, Younger Sister
>Abet Harparr, Grandmother
>Joycie Payne, Grandmother
>Nieles Payne Sr, Great Grandfather
>Nieles Payne Jr, Grandfather
>Nieles Payne II, Uncle
>Alel Payne, Cousin
>Annel Payne, Aunt
>Joane Payne, Cousin
>Mera Payne, Cousin
>Rewilh Harparr, Uncle
>Hony Harparr, Uncle
>Yellis Harparr, Aunt
>Mickel Harparr, Cousin
>Alice Belmont, Great Aunt
>Rickard Belmont, Great Uncle
>Hepmon Belmont, First Cousin Once Removed
>Ullis Belmont, First Cousin Once Removed
>Ivar Belmont, Second Cousin
>Eilen Belmont, Second Cousin
>Mickey Belmont, Second Cousin Once Removed
>Tyran Belmont, Second Cousin
>Fillman Belmont, Second Cousin
>Helga Milleen, First Cousin Once Removed
>Omar Milleen, First Cousin Once Removed

He never messed with them, I don't think he knew where to start.

>>44772908
They weren't fighting him. They were laughing at how he couldn't do shit to them. When I say the caster was wasting spells chucking kittens at him, I wasn't kidding. They knew how powerful they had become and considered a lesser Necromancer so beneath them they could just make fun of him.

>>44773013
>Lesser
>Can cast teleport

It does piss me off that so many people have been trained to see this as a threat. Shitty GMs killing off NPCs or people associated with characters for cheap drama needs to fucking stop. It's not clever or interesting, it's a waste of potential plot hooks in one of the dullest, most trite ways possible.

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>>44773001
>"That guy you killed? My second cousin."
>"Gods, where do you all come from?"
>"Healthy sex drive. Hereditary."

>>44773046
It was a scroll he got from his master for "emergencies"

>>44773001
How were they incorporated into the campaign?

I love how /tg/ will absolutely look for any excuse they can to never invest themselves in the game.

>BWahh! I dun wanna write NPCs so my character has believable connections and relations within the setting cuz da DM iz just gonna kill dem off!

Nigga, in my games everyone needs to write AT LEAST three NPCs they have some sort of relation with, so they can actually have someone to go to and ask questions about things, since when you're in a giant fucking city, there's no way you're going to have the bearings to just point at the map and say "Yeah, we go there"

For a party of 4, that's 12 NPCs of different backgrounds, attitudes, and skills sets that can help you accomplish things, and you'll fucking need them.

And when shit goes down and everything gets crazy? Congrats, now you have friends and family who might be in danger, and hopefully you care enough about them to remember that instead of just "Where da next dungeon at?!"

>>44773141
Some of them were. Grandpa Payne was a fairly powerful wizard.

Uncle Hony and Rewilh are both mercenaries and have been for a long time.

Cousin Belmont has a seat on the merchant's council in an important port city.

Great Uncle Rickard was honored by the King himself like 30 years ago for bravery during the war!

Cousin Mera is a ranking member of the clergy.

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>>44773001

>>44772308
Perfect.
>>44772467
This isn't a bad character idea actually. Paladin kills his own parents because they're actively being dickish.

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>>44773001
>>44773192

You are a good player. I would GM for you.

>>44772308
This is odd, why couldn't family members betray him too? Also, didn't the person make any friends he could trust?

Also, how did they have enough family for all the positions a lord has to fill, there are a lot.

This just seems to be punishing someone because they don't want a family. I'll admit some people play it for extra edge, but sometimes not having a family is just part of a character.

I've never played with a GM who thought killing my NPC friends/family was a good idea.

Come to think of it, since I only game with my friends who are decent human beings, I don't really have any of the problems that /tg/ makes threads about.

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>>44773713
>Paladin
>killing someone over a difference in opinion
>Paladin

>>44770991
DM'd for a group once. one player refused to give a backstory for his character.
>party interrupts some cult summoning a demon
>Demon turns out to be a demon of vice or some shit like that.
>That guy goes, "I want to have a backstory now!"
>shrug and say fine, let's just do this
> "I'm a recovering alcoholic, I still have my vices, but I'm learning to control them, so I'm stronger than a demon of vice.
>fuck it, whatever

>>44772234
SHAUN!

>>44770899
I always like to give GMs the benefit of the doubt. After the first time they pull the "lol your family got raped to death and turned into undead monsters" bullshit, I go murderhobo.

>>44770899
>my old boss
I'm heavily familiar with him since i worked with the ass for a decade in the underground market. Utter ass owes me a few grand but i'd pay to seem him get what he deserves.
>my old partner
Much as i hate my old boss this guy takes the cake. Completely and utterly debased from reality. He only takes pleasure in dirty deeds and pain or if you ask him "the finer things life." That 2 grand i mentioned earlier? Thats a refund on a failed contract on this guys head.

>>44770899
>character
>NPC that is serial killer relation
>NPC that is war criminal
Easy stuff. Good luck forcing a moral dilemma

>>44770991
>why wont these bloody players give me meaningless NPCs to kill for cheap drama?

>>44770899

Maybe they're just going to throw you a birthday party.

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>>44770899
>Asked my players to do this for me
>for a World of Darkness game
>Have a bad feeling none of them are going to
Feels bad man

>>44770899
>NPC 1: Bounty Hunter who trained my PC for some years. Grouchy and grizzled dickweed who hates pretty much everyone and everything (with the exception of coins and a good meal), having only trained the PC because of a debt he owes his (now deceased) father.
>NPC 2: Leader of a band of bandits who don't see anything wrong with killing people. Quite polite and enjoys good songs, but still hateable for what he does. My PC was taken prisoner once, but managed to buy freedom by entertaining the bandit leader with his Bard skills (purely non-sexual, mind you). Today, Bandit leader is blissfully unaware that the PC was trying to get the bounty on his head.

Not only can the GM use them for plot hooks if desired, but he'd need to be a truly good GM to upset the PC by killing them off.

>>44778250
Family makes sense in a WoD Game, a lot of supernatural shit is/can be passed on via family ties.

Ward is a 3p flaw that basically comes out as "I'm Bob, and this is my brother Steve. Steve likes to fuck up my Christmas, and I've saved him half-a-dozen times from barebacking a Kindred in the alley behind a bar in Soho."