The year is 1974.
Increase every character’s age by 10 years.
If any of your characters are older than 60, roll a ten-sided die to see if they died. If you got 7-10, they are dead. Otherwise, they are still alive.
The Vietnam War was during this decade, so roll a four-sided die for every man 23-45. If you roll a 4, he died in the war. Otherwise, he survived.
Relationships
Roll a six-sided die to see what happened to each couple.
1-4: They are still married / they got married
5: They got divorced / they broke up
6: One partner died (you decide which one)
If there was a divorce or death, roll a ten-sided die to see how long ago it was.
- this year
- one year ago
- two years ago
- three years ago
- four years ago
- five years ago
- six years ago
- seven years ago
- eight years ago
- nine years ago
If the divorce or death was more than two years ago, any living partners can have a new relationship. Anyone else who is single and over 18 can also have a new relationship.
Roll a six-sided die for new relationships:
- single
- dating
- engaged
- married
- married
- single
If the character is dating, engaged, or married, add their new partner to the family.
Children:
Any woman who is older than 20 can have children, if you want.
Roll a six-sided die to see how many children.
If she already has children from a previous round, only add more children if the number you rolled is bigger than the number of children she already has. (For example: you have a woman with two children, and you roll a four. The number for 4 is three. So you give that woman one more child.)
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Then you roll a ten-sided die for the children’s ages. The children can’t have been born before the mother was 18, or after she was 50. If you get an age that doesn’t work, roll again.
- newborn
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
Then roll a die with an even number of sides for the children’s genders. Even numbers are girls and odd numbers are boys.
Character Names
Roll a ten-sided die for new characters’ first and middle names.
- Boho Baby Names Defy Convention | Nameberry
- 1970s Names | Nameberry
- Country Music Baby Names | Nameberry
- The first name of one of your parents, aunts, or uncles
- girls: Three Syllable Girl Names | Nameberry boys: Classic Boy Names | Nameberry
- Comeback Candidates: Are we ready for babies Gregory, Susan and Mark? | Nameberry
- For a kid: a name that honors a relative. For a partner or pet: roll again
- Gender-Neutral Baby Names | Nameberry
- Nickname Names | Nameberry
- Modern Hero Names | Nameberry
Roll a four-sided die for a new partner’s last name:
- Generate some using Last Name Generator and pick your favorite
- Choose one off this Nameberry list - American Last Names as First Names - All Names | Nameberry
- Combine two random nouns that you think sound good together
- Use this generator and pick the first one it gives you - Surname Generator (namegeneratorfun.com)
Optional Steps
Do you want to add pets?
First, roll a 2-sided die (or flip a coin) to see if they have 1 pet or 2.
Roll 1 / Heads: They have 1 pet.
Roll 2 / Tails: They have 2 pets.
Then, roll a four-sided die to determine what kind of pet each pet is.
- A dog
- A cat
- Another mammal (rabbit, hamster, guinea pig, etc)
- A non-mammal (bird, fish, tortoise, etc)
If you get a pet that isn’t a cat or dog, it’s okay if the pet is something that is very rare or impossible to keep as a pet in real life.
To name a pet, roll for only one first name and no last names.
Do you want to add careers?
Use this random job generator to pick a career for every character over 18. If the career would require you to go to college and the character is 18-24 years old, you can make them a student majoring in something related to the career instead. If you get a career that would not have been possible in 1974, generate again until you get one that would be possible.
Random Job Generator (randomgenerate.io)
You can also make any character you want choose to be a stay-at-home parent instead.
: [name_m]Newton[/name_m] the red tabby (14) 
: [name_f]Alma[/name_f] and [name_m]Hugo[/name_m] the mutt)