Parent

Basic Information

A parent is a father or mother; one who sires or gives birth to and/or nurtures and raises an offspring.

See Also

• Family Tropes

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• Too many players make their characters into orphans to avoid having to deal with parental figures in their lives. Try to discourage that, as parents are ready-made NPCs who can be a great source of drama for a campaign.
  • But don't arbitrarily kill them off or be needlessly cruel to them, or else it will only discourage players from bothering with them in the future.
• In futuristic settings where reproduction is no longer restricted to the traditional ways, parental relationships can become much more complicated. Multiple gene donors, same-sex reproduction, AI guardians, and so forth - exploit these for all they are worth.
  • Similar issues might arise in fantasy games with an especially mythical flavor.
• NPC parents can be good sources of legacies; whether genetic, (inherited powers), heirlooms, (Inigo Montoya's sword), or simply passed-on wisdom, ("Like my ol' Pappy used to say…")