the Silva family
At the start of my just completed campaign Fronteira, one of the players drew up a family tree for the family to which all of the player characters belonged. As the campaign progressed, a lot of the non-player character family members took on characterization, often starting from a random dice roll or two, or from bits of family history.
Estevão is the patriarch of the family, a widower now in his nineties. When he was a much younger man, he went from construction work to contracting, in the course of which he became acquainted with the daughter of a wealthy family that had hired him, which led to their marrying. When construction of Mars's orbital elevator began, the couple moved to Pavonis Mons and began building in the city at the elevator's base, Pavonis Portal; that led to the family owning hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Estevão is still vigorous and approves of risk-taking; as of the campaign's end he's suffering delayed effects of exposure to Martian dust and has turned the family properties over to his son
GUILHERME, who as a young man spent time among actors, musicians, and especially dancers, and learned to operate stage lighting systems. He's religiously observant, feeling that it's prudent, but as he's grown older he's had a succession of young mistresses. By one of the earlier ones he had a son, Rodrigo, whom he learned of for the first time during the campaign when the young man showed up with the news of his mother's death. Guilherme revealed this to his wife Olivia, whose stringent sense of honor led her to insist on inviting Rodrigo to stay with the family, even while she herself moved out of the bedroom she shared with Guilherme and stayed out through Lent.
Their one son, Duarte, is their oldest child and lives with them. He's a brilliant analytical thinker and manages both the family's financial accounts and its commercial intelligence operations, but he's socially awkward and was slow to marry. Eventually his parents set him up with a contract wife, SAKURA, an emigrant from the Japanese imperial colony of Aotearoa (New Zealand). She's also religiously observant but has little in the way of spiritual impulses; she's motivated more by a sense of duty to her husband and their twin children. Before she left Earth, she was trained in police work and has found employment with one of the city's three Imperial magistrates as an investigator.
The oldest daughter, Constancia, is similarly religious, and feels a desire for respectability that led her to marry a man from a family of government administrators. There are strains in their marriage, both because the Silvas are richer than her husband's family and because her husband disapproves of several of her younger sisters, including
TONI (Antonia), a young woman who was slow to marry, preferring to have an active social life and write reviews and opinion pieces for the online community. One such opinion piece led to her visiting the military base outside Pavonis Portal and meeting its officers, one of whom, Tenente Lourenço Gomes, remarked on finding her attractive and, challenged by another officer, made a bet that she would see him socially-which he confessed after she won the bet for him by accepting his invitation to dine with him; that led to a courtship and in the final session to their marrying. The wedding led to the married sisters coming on stage, including Leticia, a financially minded young woman married to a wealthy investor of predominantly black ancestry (which Constancia's husband really disapproves of), and Teresa, who got involved in the theatrical community her father was active in and married a successful young musician (which Constancia's husband finds embarrassing). Leticia and Teresa are not embarrassed by each other.
There are two other children, both daughters: Gloria IRIS is not only formally religious but spiritual, and also has strong artistic inclinations, aspiring to create virtual realities, particularly on the theme of terraforming as a human mission, which led eventually to her hiring a tutor in planetary sciences. Iris has lately begun looking for a possible suitor of her own by attending other women's salons and has met a young man who looks promising. The youngest daughter, Bela (Isabela), is much more outgoing and musically talented, and has developed a romantic friendship with Cyra Attari, the daughter of her lute teacher, Soltan Attari, which led to her liking Muslim styles in textiles, clothing, and dance. Most recently the two young women came up with the idea that both of them could marry the young man who had asked Cyra's father about arranging a marriage with her, which would entail Bela's changing her religion (as a Catholic, she would be considered not a second wife but a concubine); Guilherme and Olivia would prefer that she not do so, but also are concerned that she should have a genuine desire for a different faith rather than simply having a passion for her friend or an aesthetic taste for Muslim styles.
I worked all of this out originally to give the four player characters someone to play off of, but I think it came out well. We all ended the last session by talking about what the storylines would be for a notional Season 2 of the Fronteira show . . .
Estevão is the patriarch of the family, a widower now in his nineties. When he was a much younger man, he went from construction work to contracting, in the course of which he became acquainted with the daughter of a wealthy family that had hired him, which led to their marrying. When construction of Mars's orbital elevator began, the couple moved to Pavonis Mons and began building in the city at the elevator's base, Pavonis Portal; that led to the family owning hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Estevão is still vigorous and approves of risk-taking; as of the campaign's end he's suffering delayed effects of exposure to Martian dust and has turned the family properties over to his son
GUILHERME, who as a young man spent time among actors, musicians, and especially dancers, and learned to operate stage lighting systems. He's religiously observant, feeling that it's prudent, but as he's grown older he's had a succession of young mistresses. By one of the earlier ones he had a son, Rodrigo, whom he learned of for the first time during the campaign when the young man showed up with the news of his mother's death. Guilherme revealed this to his wife Olivia, whose stringent sense of honor led her to insist on inviting Rodrigo to stay with the family, even while she herself moved out of the bedroom she shared with Guilherme and stayed out through Lent.
Their one son, Duarte, is their oldest child and lives with them. He's a brilliant analytical thinker and manages both the family's financial accounts and its commercial intelligence operations, but he's socially awkward and was slow to marry. Eventually his parents set him up with a contract wife, SAKURA, an emigrant from the Japanese imperial colony of Aotearoa (New Zealand). She's also religiously observant but has little in the way of spiritual impulses; she's motivated more by a sense of duty to her husband and their twin children. Before she left Earth, she was trained in police work and has found employment with one of the city's three Imperial magistrates as an investigator.
The oldest daughter, Constancia, is similarly religious, and feels a desire for respectability that led her to marry a man from a family of government administrators. There are strains in their marriage, both because the Silvas are richer than her husband's family and because her husband disapproves of several of her younger sisters, including
TONI (Antonia), a young woman who was slow to marry, preferring to have an active social life and write reviews and opinion pieces for the online community. One such opinion piece led to her visiting the military base outside Pavonis Portal and meeting its officers, one of whom, Tenente Lourenço Gomes, remarked on finding her attractive and, challenged by another officer, made a bet that she would see him socially-which he confessed after she won the bet for him by accepting his invitation to dine with him; that led to a courtship and in the final session to their marrying. The wedding led to the married sisters coming on stage, including Leticia, a financially minded young woman married to a wealthy investor of predominantly black ancestry (which Constancia's husband really disapproves of), and Teresa, who got involved in the theatrical community her father was active in and married a successful young musician (which Constancia's husband finds embarrassing). Leticia and Teresa are not embarrassed by each other.
There are two other children, both daughters: Gloria IRIS is not only formally religious but spiritual, and also has strong artistic inclinations, aspiring to create virtual realities, particularly on the theme of terraforming as a human mission, which led eventually to her hiring a tutor in planetary sciences. Iris has lately begun looking for a possible suitor of her own by attending other women's salons and has met a young man who looks promising. The youngest daughter, Bela (Isabela), is much more outgoing and musically talented, and has developed a romantic friendship with Cyra Attari, the daughter of her lute teacher, Soltan Attari, which led to her liking Muslim styles in textiles, clothing, and dance. Most recently the two young women came up with the idea that both of them could marry the young man who had asked Cyra's father about arranging a marriage with her, which would entail Bela's changing her religion (as a Catholic, she would be considered not a second wife but a concubine); Guilherme and Olivia would prefer that she not do so, but also are concerned that she should have a genuine desire for a different faith rather than simply having a passion for her friend or an aesthetic taste for Muslim styles.
I worked all of this out originally to give the four player characters someone to play off of, but I think it came out well. We all ended the last session by talking about what the storylines would be for a notional Season 2 of the Fronteira show . . .