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Most of the previous "weekly noun" articles at Gamegrene have focused on things that your characters might have but which players and GMs don't always include for whatever reason. Mine, however, is a little different. It looks at a background element that every character, by definition, must have, but that for whatever reason gets forgotten more than one would think. It's family.

Every character has parents. There's really no getting around it. Because of that fact, when coming up with a character background it's very important to consider the nature and extent of their impact on your character's life, because there is absolutely no question there will be one. Whether she hated her father, considered her mother to be her best friend, or (as is most likely) had a relatively loving if somewhat dysfunctional relationship with one or both, the person her parents brought her up to be will continue to be a part of her whether she likes it or not.

It's true you can do the typical gamer cop-out thing and say your character never knew them because they died when he was still a baby - but if that's the case, shouldn't you think about how their absence influenced your character nearly as much as their presence might have? What did he think of the adoptive parents who raised him? How did he feel about being probably the only kid in his neighborhood without a normal and supportive family unit? Hell, even if you're playing some sort of sci-fi game in which your character is the result of cloning or budding or asexual reproduction or whatever, his thoughts on not having parents would probably figure in somehow. You need to consider how where your character came from affected him and continues to affect him.

Having said all this, writing a character's thoughts on his parents into his background is a relatively easy thing to do. Take a few moments to think about your own parents and to consider the ways in which they've influenced your life, and you'll have a perfectly good idea of the sort of things you might want to include. Most gamers are more than able and willing to do this. However, if you'd like to take the inclusion of this particular noun one step farther, here's something to mull over: What about a character who's reached a slightly different stage in life and has started her own family? How would she feel about going out adventuring knowing her absence or her actions might put her family in danger? Is it still the exhilarating thrill it once was, or has it become a necessary chore to be survived until she becomes financially secure enough to settle down for good? And what about the spouse or children inevitably waiting for his or her return? What do they think about their wayward parent's dangerous line of work?

I've been mulling this idea over ever since I began playing Hunter: The Reckoning (a game I hated at first, but which is now strongly clamoring for the title of Best Game Ever in my opinion), and it came to the forefront of my attentions when I committed to run a Hunter campaign. The point of Hunter is making a character who's just an average Joe or Jane - you, me, your drinking buddy, the guy down the street - but who just happens to be able to see the monsters hiding in plain sight among us, and who just happens to be one of the only people capable of doing anything about it. I told my players to make characters who were human beings first and vampire slayers second, and was rewarded with some of the best character concepts I've ever received. As I went through them afterwards, wondering what had provoked this sudden rush of incredible creativity in my players, I realized most of them had one thing in common: a well-developed family background. The Defender was fleeing an abusive home life. The Avenger killed her mother's vampire boyfriend, then watched in horror as her (now-vampiric) mother died a rather messy death at the next sunrise. The Judge's wife divorced him and took their two daughters along after they started taking a backseat to the hunt. A number of the other characters were married with children and tormented by their inability to explain what they'd become to those nearest and dearest to them without being seen as insane. I don't think this is a coincidence.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, for players, thinking about a character's family can be one of the best - and easiest - ways to give that character more depth. It may be stating the obvios to say this, but let's not forget that for a GM's more nefarious purposes there is nothing better than a character with a family. Just don't put them in jeopardy too often, though. It's also my opinion for players who go to the trouble of developing this part of their character's personality, the best reward you can give them is something to go home to once all their adventuring is done.