>>44093458
parents still alive so GM has another channel to fuck with you

None of the above.

>>44093458
if you never knew your parents, the DM can work out some big reveal, for the best or worst. but it's a pretty played trope...

Losing them recently. Means you have to actually make some decisions about your parents and who killed them, rather than simply saying, "I'm an orphan. Write a great story about why, GM!"

A character who has a complicated relationship with their parents, whether living of dead.

>>44093458
Depends on what you do with that.

If you remove parents because you don't want to be "burdened" with a family, you are doing it wrong.

If you remove parents to make a character have a soft spot / turning point in their lives / initiative for something new and/or different, then you're doing it right.

>>44093458
Never knowing. It's a really common trope, but "I am you Father" can be a real gut punch depending on the BBEG.

>>44093458
You slaughtered and ate your entire family because an unknown entity convinced you that you could gain their combined strength and will. If you are going edgy, go big. At least then it's something to work with.

People don't care even a tiny fraction as much for people they've never met as for people they've lived a large part of your life with. I just don't buy it that somebody would be extremely upset about the deaths of people they don't even remember, but being mad about your parents being killed when you're like 15 makes perfect sense.

Early dead parents is at best just an excuse to have 'evil step parents' and a Star Wars "I AM YOUR FATHER" reveal, both of which are overplayed.

I'd say losing them recently is more prone to having people ask about it

>>44093458
Losing them recently to the minions of the BBEG or one of his major henchmen. Gives your character a solid driving force forward in he adventure, as you seem to avenge your family. I actually prefer it having been just the relatively faceless mooks of the minions because it also allows the BBEG to see you as relatively insignificant, just some brat whose parents were refusing to sell their land and were killed for it.

I think the coolest backstory with respect to parents that a player of mine came up with was that they escaped an attempted filicide.

>>44093458
how about you aren't a fucking retard and you have both of your parents still alive?
And while at it you might as be a decent person and send a a little money home every once in a while. And write a fucking letter, everyone knows that you promised your mother that you will write from every town, but did you do that?