Quote from: Brandybuck;903577Wondering if Real Life even has versions

Yeah, they are called "generations". There are problems with edition switch - you're usually sentenced to play the one you picked first to the rest of your life. technically you can go back to some earlier editions, but it requires moving to a place where everyone plays according to "old rules", like for example Mormons.

I've often pondered life paths in my work and came into conclusion that they are unfortunately often less than first idea.

First, they are setting specific so doing the right division between too detailed and too generic is hard. this makes them really heavy work when one changes setting (as often happens in game projects). Second, they are difficult to play test and balance. This is very important in game projects so players do not choose certain "right options".

The main advantage of life paths is that they allow you to insert history and setting building right into game start. For instance, see The Mandate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uube3NfYsPY This mechanic has also advantage of having hooks that can be used in game scripts. In tabletop adventure games Traveller is pretty much gold standard as far as life path systems are concerned and it should be basis to study where life paths should be taken.

I've myself pondered idea of generational character generation where player avatars are part of a family and form a group that player controls. Whenever there is an adventure player chooses which one(s) go to adventure and rest carry out annual cycle of "life path". This way you can have golden boys groomed to the top mixed with black sheeps within the same family.

Yes, lifepath is really background dependent.
But I try to abstract building blocks of typical societies/settlements too, so that there would be a basic framework to build from.
My current problem are societies in change, which are unfortuneately the most interesting to play in.

It is hard to find out who are the ancestors of a character when all natural flowing pathes start with them, but you have to end within a certain field. It may be hard to die during traveler chargen, but imagine you were never born, because your granddad didn´t meet your grandma... .

If you can develop a system for the effects of life on people in general, it can be used for characters who are not adventuring, PCs and NPCs alike, and also be used to develop what happened to new characters before they entered play.

I intend to create a computer program for chargen anyway, so if I ever get things running there will be a NPC-generator too.
With NPC it will be much less hassle as I intend to give the GM the options to set some guidelines (i.e. race, age, society, social rank, environment, theme or class) and then go the complete random way. With all decissions made in advance, I can just run along the tables an cut unfitting limbs and if I should run into the wrong corner start anew and I should still have a complete and fitting NPC in less than a minute.
If I have a player who is managing some influence points manually, it will generate some reluctance if I have to tell him "start anew", even if it is computer aided.
As I intend to put some emphasis on familiy and society connections anyway, it is intended to follow the life of people of interest in the characters life too this way.