I am running a homebrew 5e campaign for 6 players. One is my wife, there is another couple, and the other pair is a father and son.
The couple has a three-year old child and my wife, and I have 4 children, one of whom is under a year old. All the older children play together in the other room during our sessions and are very well behaved. The baby sits in a highchair and hangs out with us while we play.
What has ended up happening is that the group has latched on to the idea that my wife’s character, a Half-Orc barbarian has this baby she carries around on her back, and they seem to be running with it. I haven’t said yes or no regarding it, but they seem to genuinely like the idea.
My questions for all of you is, how would weave that baby NPC into the story besides the obvious baby kidnapped by BBEG.
Also, would anyone have any funny rules or something they would enforce? I am looking for some inspiration.
BTH, I'd be super cautious of actually added stats / abilities / mechanics. Because once something actually has an impact on the game it can mess up the player's plans or players might try to exploit it and it becomes less fun/silly. It's like the difference between playing poker with matchsticks vs playing poker with money. I also would not kidnap / hurt the kid in the game unless you talk about it with the players first - again it could ruin the fun of it for them.
You can easily have the baby just be flavour without any mechanical implications - e.g. if they roll low on Stealth say that the baby starts crying, or if they roll poor Charisma check say the baby vomited on the person they were talking to, if they roll a bad Althetics check to climb something maybe that means the baby slipped out of the backpack and they fumbled grabbing hold of them.
If you want to include it in the story then I'd test the water with some minor things like: meeting a Fey NPC who can "talk baby" and has a wacky conversation translating for the baby for them, or having a mischievous ghost possess the baby, or maybe while they are investigating something the baby slips away, finds a crucial clue and starts playing with it like it is a toy.
I am running a homebrew 5e campaign for 6 players. One is my wife, there is another couple, and the other pair is a father and son.
The couple has a three-year old child and my wife, and I have 4 children, one of whom is under a year old. All the older children play together in the other room during our sessions and are very well behaved. The baby sits in a highchair and hangs out with us while we play.
What has ended up happening is that the group has latched on to the idea that my wife’s character, a Half-Orc barbarian has this baby she carries around on her back, and they seem to be running with it. I haven’t said yes or no regarding it, but they seem to genuinely like the idea.
My questions for all of you is, how would weave that baby NPC into the story besides the obvious baby kidnapped by BBEG.
Also, would anyone have any funny rules or something they would enforce? I am looking for some inspiration.
BTH, I'd be super cautious of actually added stats / abilities / mechanics. Because once something actually has an impact on the game it can mess up the player's plans or players might try to exploit it and it becomes less fun/silly. It's like the difference between playing poker with matchsticks vs playing poker with money. I also would not kidnap / hurt the kid in the game unless you talk about it with the players first - again it could ruin the fun of it for them.
You can easily have the baby just be flavour without any mechanical implications - e.g. if they roll low on Stealth say that the baby starts crying, or if they roll poor Charisma check say the baby vomited on the person they were talking to, if they roll a bad Althetics check to climb something maybe that means the baby slipped out of the backpack and they fumbled grabbing hold of them.
If you want to include it in the story then I'd test the water with some minor things like: meeting a Fey NPC who can "talk baby" and has a wacky conversation translating for the baby for them, or having a mischievous ghost possess the baby, or maybe while they are investigating something the baby slips away, finds a crucial clue and starts playing with it like it is a toy.
Thank you for the ideas!