It seems that the characters that I’ve come accross throughout my years of playing D&D have existed for simply one purpose: defeat the evil forces at work. That’s it. Sure, my dwarf was always “So and so… son of XXXX…”, but who was XXXX? Most of my DM’s through the years never ran campaigns that were so deeply immersed in each character’s background that we knew our entire family’s history.
So I guess my question here is, how prevalent out there in the gaming world are the types of games where there are characters that actually have lives? I’ve never had a character with a family. A wife, kids, a dog. It has never come up. And I guess another question is, how fun can that be? I play D&D as an escape, if I wanted to recreate reality I’d just avoid those 4 hours on a Sunday night altogether and walk the dog with my wife.
But I am willing to bet there are gamers out there, looking for simulations in their RPG’s, that prefer playing the types of games where their characters fall in love, have children (are there npc stats for a d&d midwife?), run a farm or a tannery. There must be gamers out there that like to know their characters are having sex every now and then, make a point to take their characters to the bathroom while at the inn, and visit their house while in town to make sure everything is alright.
Have any of you guys ever played such a deep, immersive game? Do you have in-game wives (or husbands) that the DM runs? Children? Does it add to your character?
And more importantly is it as fun to play as a kill-loot-kill campaign, or do PC life events get in the way? DM’s, is it worth introducing this type of stuff into the game?
www. Newbie DM .com 
jonathan
February 5, 2009
I’ve played in two campaigns like this — it takes a special group makeup that has played together before – and everyone has to be on board with the idea. I would also add that if some players are not “into it”, then all the backstory elements could easily become tedious to them – especially if it is all focused on one or two characters in the group.
One campaign that it worked very well with though: all the characters were siblings – searching for a cure for their mother’s terminal disease.
mthomas768
February 5, 2009
I’ve run a ‘family matters’ campaign. It definitely takes the right group of players. In the game one character’s wife left him when he became involved in matters that resulted in dangerous threats against the family, leading the character to eventually sacrifice himself to insure the safety of his family. Another discovered she was adopted and pursuing her family history became a central element of the campaign.
I think a lot of players resist this kind of involvement because they view family as levers that can be used against their characters.
Ravyn
February 5, 2009
The games I play in tend along those lines. In one, if a character’s parents were living, they showed up at one point (along with one aunt, a few siblings, and various extended family), all but one of the PCs had a spouse and/or at least one child at the end of the first timejump–and I think it’s been a benefit to all concerned. Gives connections to the world, among other things–makes them more grounded.
Bart
February 5, 2009
I’m running a game and I’m also playing in one that involves deep character backgrounds. Having also played in more standard “kill-em-all” campaigns, I’d have to say that I enjoy the character ones better.
I heavily encourage my players to give me family/friend NPCs, and I pepper my game with them. Sometimes they do fulfill a Wonder-Twin role and the PCs will have to rescue them. But more often they provide adventure hooks, role-playing opportunities, and even research aids.
This use of character backgrounds and family NPCs is not something you can just throw into the game. Well, I guess you could, and it would be okay, but there is a better way. I design my campaign from the ground-up by using the character backgrounds (and the family NPCs) as core parts of the overall plot.
For example, I have a player who’s character believes her mother and brother are dead and is estranged from her father. So when I needed a Big Bad Guy, I decided to choose her mother (who was not as dead as previously believed). Her brother returned as a Death Knight and her father’s past treatment of her was a way to hide the character from her mother. My player loved that I used the character background she game me as part of the campaign.
Anyway, this post is longer than I’d planned. To sum up…try family NPCs as parts of your campaign’s plot.
hikari
December 10, 2009
I generally always have something like that in the game when I DM. That’s mainly due to a bad habit I have of putting far too much detail into characters that should only have appeared once, and trying to make everything as realistic as possible, but it works.
It actually is a lot of fun. It doesnt get in the way of the main adventure at all.