(RP) Your 'family' of characters

[Dag Nabbit]

While at work today,my mind was wandering and I started to think about how some RP players roleplay their 'family' of characters. My main crafter,Dag,had a couple of brothers with him named Billy Bob and Darn Tootin and they all stayed on the farm and knew who each other were. On the other hand,none of them knew,in game fiction,who my bard,Jon Marcus,was.

My question to the roleplayers here is does your family of characters know each other and have they mentioned them to others? I have done so a couple of times in the past,but it can be pretty limiting because,outside of a glitch in the game,you can't have two of your characters in the game at the same time.

 

[Aedon Durreah]

I have an interesting family I suppose. Because I have my account, my sons and the wife's. Aedon shares his home estate not only with his wife Janissan Venroe and their daughter Kylee, but also with Aedon's oldest son Aramis and Aedon's brother Llyrwech, (pronounced about the way it looks) Working for them are a blacksmith named John and Shauna, (played by my RL wife) who happens to be Aedon's first wife. Most of my characters as well as those of the one and wife all know one another. The one odd ball among the characters is my son's mage Figol, who is a mage of odd talents, and in some ways Aedon's father.

 

[MalagAste]

Well... This is an interesting subject. Not that I play much on Catskills...

But I can say this... Two of my characters are "Twins". Willa and Trilla... Willa is the "head" of the House of the Yew-wood Elves. They are woodland elves and RP wise twins among woodland elves are extremely rare and uncommon. The first born.... Willa is tied to the land and her "tree"... She cares for things that live and grow... trees, plants and people... she is very caring and loving ..... as well she is a healer. Trilla on the other hand being a "Twin" and the second born... is not "tied" to anything. She cares for things that breathe... She likes animals... cares for them not people. So she avoids people for the most part so would never go about with folk like Willa does. They have a younger sister Valeria who's married to a human she met while learning crafting.

The story goes that Willa's family was instrumental in helping Humans settle in the Yew-wood. Helping them build the Abbey and such... Teaching them Justice and respect for the Tree's and the life of the forest... But soon after humans came the city was invaded by things like Liches, Orc and all manner of other creatures... The elven Elders were NOT happy and Willa's family was BANISHED from Heartwood and Heartwood was sealed. Fearing for the safety of their children when the Juka invaded Willa's family sent the children to various "human" families they knew to hide them from danger. Willa was sent to Britain and raised there, Trilla sent to Trinsic and raised there..... and Valeria sent to Minoc, where she met her husband Krom. He was a Blacksmith there and she was learning tailoring and cooking and required tools and such ..... which he happily made for her. Willa learned all about Politics in the Capital..... and later became the Mayor of Yew now a Governor. Trilla learned to speak to the animals and was fond of running away and spending her time with the animals and away from humans. She was often in trouble for running away and frequently was mistreated by the humans she was with.... which later led to her dislike of people especially humans. She also found their treatment of animals appalling... And since it was usually her "step-father" who beat her or punished her she has a deep seated hatred of males. Willa being a caretaker found a fisherman from Skara Brae washed up on the shores by Yew and brought him home and took care of him.... Vincent the fisherman was ever so greatful he opted to reside in Yew and help the Yew-wood elves. Often taking them across the seas whenever they needed or bringing in treasures from the sea for them. That would be my "original" family. All living in one house near Yew for a great long while. The sisters of course were all called back to Yew when the plague struck.... their parents died in the Plague as their trees were destroyed and the sisters had to grow up quickly. They spent many, many years trying to find a "cure" for the plague and end it... trying to restore Yew. The "plague" awoke one of their very old ancestors.... Skylar... She was a very distant relative who'd returned to her tree to live out her life but was awakened by the plague... and helped to defend the city for quite a long while before eventually returning to her tree after the plague was cured. The sisters have a brother but he spends all his time in the wilds with the animals. He rarely is seen and often doesn't associate with the girls.

When Willa married her husband had to actually sit and be interviewed by each of the members of Willa's family so they could "approve" the union. Given that Willa married a human Trilla was never really that happy with it.... but because Willa is the head of the household she gave her consent. Later when Willa and her husband divorced..... Trilla felt somewhat vindicated in her hatred of humans and males. Telling her sister that she "knew" that would happen as humans have no concept of loyalty etc...

 

[Pandora_CoD]

OOC:

So in my family, because of the vampiric element, all characters have a father, a mother, and a sire (which in many ways becomes a father or mother, at least for us). And if the sire has a spouse or spouses they become their protectorate of sorts; a step-parent.

So for example Marius (who I play and was once played by my late husband) is Pandora's sire just as Marius is Armand's sire. But because Marius is married to Pandora... she is Armand's sire-sister and sire-mother. Although she's far more the mom than anything else. In character, Armand (played by Adam C.) is known as Marius' eldest son prior to marrying Pandora. Bianca (played by Sue P.) is his eldest daughter, also prior to marrying Pandora. Marius kinda got around before he settled down... And that's the story we stick to IC.

In our family, everyone is connected to each other in some way, thus we all know each other.

 

[Flutter]

I have a long story of my family of characters. Flutter, being a Highlander Immortal, was adopted into a coven of witches. They consider themselves sisters although they all come from very wide backgrounds. Flutter being pure of heart has a certain amount of rivalry with her polar opposite, one of the women named Honey who is a murderous bloodthirsty personality with no respect for anyone. Even with this opposition they love each other and would die for the other.
The coven is full of other personalities ranging from Honey's evil hearted ways to Flutters pure of heart self sacrifice. Flutter knows she will eventually outlive these women and can't help but keep some walls up, never letting anyone truly into her world. The girls are all oblivious of this but the eldest, known simply as "Sea" (the girls believe she simply emerged from the sea one day) is the Matriarch of the "family" knows there is more to Flutter than she lets on.

The most recent addition to the family, Endymion, a gargoyle, is a mystery to all of the girls. Lady Sea insists that Endymion belongs and has begun teaching her the ancient ways. Endymion has a gift to make enemies or monsters, or anyone really, feel as though they must sleep. She has had this power since birth and is used to getting what she wants when she wants it simply by making everyone around fall into a deep sleep until she is gone. Sea has immunity to this and can easily see how Endymion could be an asset to the house.

Rowan Windsong is a member of the coven but does not live in the house. Secretly a pixie she hides her wings under her cloaks and robes. Shy and quiet she keeps to herself but is quick to anger if provoked. The only two she keeps in contact with are Flutter and Sea. Most of the other sisters sometimes seem to forget she even exists.

Ouija is the strongest witch in the coven. Her mental strength combined with her talent in music makes her a force. Most of the house is jealous of Ouija, but Ouija being as spiritual as she is, ignores their jealousy and assists almost every one of the girls in one way or another, not the least of which being Lunara. Lunara, who gained Legendary swordsmanship very early in her life has learned to fight and defend in ways few people understand. With Ouija at her side the two are a force to be reckoned with.

Pride (not her birth name), on the other hand, can fire an arrow through a needle if she had to, never flinching and willing to train anyone who will listen, she is the pride of the family and so named after her biggest vice. Once she tried to learn humility, but found a bow that she just couldn't bring herself to return. Most have accepted her prideful attitude and just ignore it. Pride's best friend is sister Haily, house crafter she can sew the most beautiful dress and work metals some of the girls have never seen before.

There are 15 others living in the house, sharing secrets and belonging to a sisterhood unlike anything anywhere else, although they hear somewhere outside of Umbra there is a family of vampires who live their lives similarly. Honey had spent some time in her teens with a vampire who occasionally comes to whisper in her ear and do unspeakable thing outside the coven's view.

So many stories. Yes, I roleplay. As shocking as that may seem to some. All of my characters have a story and a reason for being, and a connection to the others.

 

[Farsight]

Back when I played, I mostly ignored the relationships between my characters.

Except when I could have fun with it. I once had a character who was near-impossibly good and another character who was... a pirate. For both, I used origin stories which were close enough that they could be related, but I never explored the possibility of relationships closely. However, since one was good and the other not-so-much, they would never realistically have a chance to interact. The fun part of their "relationship" was that I actively used one of those characters as a foil for the plans of the other one. So if the evil one planned a raid on the good settlement, I could call up the guards via the good character to make the conflict more interesting.

Later, I did have two characters who were supposed to be related (Aneirin and Dedigan, who were also meant to be a yin/yang combination), but few people picked up on the clues (I can name two, and they both knew me very well) and the idea was dropped and Dedigan turned to piracy.

 

[Judas D'arc]

This is a great question, and I've been meaning to get around to it.

For me, I've had characters linked and some not at all. Back in the day it was easier to have characters in different guilds and barely ever encountering each others' friends, family, or associates. Back in the early 2000s on Catskills, I had a Kingdom of Winterfell [KOW] side-character that was completely separate from the rest of my guild, and he had a completely different set of relationships and there was very little crossover. I find this to be a lot harder these days, due to the smaller player-base, as my different characters always seem to interact with the same people. Which is why I tend to play fewer alts these days.

When I do link characters, I try to make sure that each one is as distinct as possible. If they're part of the same narrative, I want them to have different perspectives, sometimes even actively acting against each others' interests. That way I feel like I'm separating them, rather than just using multiple characters to promote one viewpoint. During my time on Atlantic, for example, I had a handful of characters involved in the same story-line, and there was even an uncle and a nephew among them, and all of them had different objectives and interacted differently with my guildmates in order to accomplish their goals.

These days, I have some subtle links that may or may not be apparent, but I'm mostly just playing Corinna and Tobias in the Rangers of Spiritwood. Because they're in the same guild, I try to give them really distinct and separate roles, with Corinna being an older veteran leader, while Tobias is more part of the rank and file. It isn't always easy, since they interact with all of the same people and both are rangers who follow the virtues, but I want them to at least have very different relationships with the people around them. So I'll do little things like try not to play them on the same night, unless it's a meeting that requires me to dual-client, and I've tried to sprinkle little hints of antagonism between them, just so things don't get repetitive for me or the people I play with. I think it works out okay, but who knows.