The ties that bind

I had a bit of a conversation with hueffmea today about heroes in RPGs, and whether or not their motivations are as easily stereotyped as villains. hueffmea argued that there are more reasons to act selflessly than selfishly, but since most RPGs demand that the characters run off to fight evil (and with a bunch of near-strangers to boot) at the drop of a hat, a lot of motivations get lost. Characters with strong ties to community and family don't make obviously good adventurers.

Indeed, I can think of three campaigns - without trying really hard - in which the GM obliterated the family and community ties I'd created for a character, often within the first few games. It was just the game kickoff in the Call of Cthulu game, of course, but in the other two*, it seemed to be purposefully to cut the PC(s) loose from a prior life before setting them off on the campaign voyage.

( Which suggests that there may be an unexplored class of adventures that deal with people who are rooted. )