"For some of this mythical goodness, try throwing relatives of PCs into your campaigns. Imagine if the paladin finds the evil necromancer is her father. Or the grizzled space-freighter captain learns that one of the new crew recruits is the daughter he never knew about. Or two PCs discover they're half-siblings! The dwarf and the elf!"
As The Empire Strikes Back, and god knows how many Soap Operas and Comic Books, have shown, writers love revealing unexpected relations between characters.
Tropes:
- Cain and Abel and Seth: Sibling dynamic is shaken up by the revelation they have another sibling.
- Daddy DNA Test: A man takes a test to find out if he is a child's father.
- Deceptive Legacy: A character finds out they were lied to about one or both parents.
- Disappointing Heritage Reveal: A character finds out about their ancestors and isn't impressed.
- Everyone Is Related: The majority of the main cast are related to each other.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: A character finds out that how they're related to a family member is different from what they believed.
- Hereditary Twinhood: Twins foreshadowing more twin relatives.
- Hybrid All Along: A character raised as one species discovers their true parentage.
- I Am Not Your Father: A character's parent reveals to them they're actually not their parent.
- Long-Lost Relative: A character meets a relative that disappeared long ago.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: A character reveals they are the parent of another character.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: A character reveals they might be another character's parent.
- Luke, You Are My Father: A character reveals they are another character's child.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: A man cannot be certain if a child is his and can only go by the mother's word.
- Mistaken for Incest: Two characters in a romantic relationship are mistakenly assumed to be biologically related.
- Mistaken for Related: When people think that they or someone else are blood related, but they're wrong.
- Mysterious Parent: A character's Missing Mom or Disappeared Dad is revealed to be significant in some way to the story.
- Not Actually His Child: A man finds out his child isn't biologically his.
- Not Blood Siblings: Can be used as a twist; siblings are revealed to not be biologically-related, such as via adoption, usually so they can date without it being too incestuous.
- Oblivious Adoption: A character didn't realize they were adopted.
- One Twin Must Die: Having twins is considered bad luck in this setting and so one must be disposed of.
- Really Royalty Reveal: A character discovers they are descended from a royal family.
- Refused Reunion: A character who's missing and/or presumed dead turns out to be alive but chooses not to see or inform their family about their existence because they'd be better off not knowing.
- Relative Error: Siblings are mistaken for lovers by another character who didn't know they were related.
- Same Race Means Related: Characters of the same ethnic background are assumed or revealed to be related.
- Same Surname Means Related: Two characters who have the same surname are probably related.
- Secret Legacy: A character discovers their parents are special in some way and so are they.
- Secret Other Family: A character has another family their relatives didn't know about.
- Separated at Birth: Twins who were separated when they were born are reunited.
- Surprise Incest: Characters discover they're blood related after getting romantically/sexually involved.
- Switched at Birth: Newborn babies are switched (either accidentally or deliberately) so they end up with different families.
- Unknown Relative: The identity of a character's close relative is unknown to them, the audience or both.
- Unpleasant Parent Reveal: A character discovers an Awful Truth about their parent(s).
- Who's Your Daddy?: Not knowing who your father is causes lots of drama.
- Your Son All Along: A character finds out they're actually the parent of a child they know, but were unaware they were related to.
