Volo's Guide AL Rules - You can play them all!

[jasper]

Thanks. This was being asked at the store when they got their copy. I got my copy yesterday. I need to update my Max Age chart.

 

[Pauper]

My main problem with making Volo's PCs have a specific background is that the story reasons behind those restrictions are lost on 95% of players. They have no idea what or where Thesk or Njara are.

Everything else is fluff. I can't see somebody penalizing you for never bringing up Thesk or Njara.

For starters, it's not Njara -- it's Najara. (See the following map taken from the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide.) It'd be nice if the WotC people who wrote the document actually got the names right.

Secondly, for the Goliath particularly, one piece of 'fluff' is particularly telling -- the setting of the character's origin in Thesk. Either this detail is significant, and Goliaths who aren't from Thesk are going to be at some kind of narrative disadvantage as future adventures presume that they are, or the detail is not significant, in which case there was no real point in including it.

I can understand not wanting to force players who don't really care about the setting to learn about it -- though interestingly, my experience is that characters that are more grounded in the setting inspire players to focus more on role-playing during those parts of the adventure that are geared to role-playing, rather than simply sitting and waiting for those parts to be over so they can go back to murder-hobo-ing -- but as noted, the specifics of these backgrounds, for most races, are so generic that I don't see that it deprives a player of agency to retrofit all Goliath and Aasimar characters to fit the backgrounds provided.

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Pauper

 

[CapnZapp]

[MENTION=17607]Pauper[/MENTION]: I really think you are overthinking this.

The simplest and most straight-forward explanation is that they simply wanted to provide some grounding for those players appreciating it.

Not only is this a faintly benign interpretation it is also the most likely: why on earth do you suspect them of planning to trip up their own players?

 

[Pauper]

The simplest and most straight-forward explanation is that they simply wanted to provide some grounding for those players appreciating it.

If that's true, then why are players required to use the material when making a Volo's Guide character?

Not only is this a faintly benign interpretation it is also the most likely:

It makes a good post-hoc justification, I'll give you that.

My feeling is that the most straight-forward explanation is that they've recognized that some players want to tie their character backgrounds more explicitly into the story and so decided to provide some information to do so, which is a positive thing. I have no idea why the decision was made to require players to use the information, but I feel strongly that, if the information is important enough to be required for Volo's Guide characters, it should also be required for characters made with the same races from non-Volo's Guide resources.

See? Not over-thinking it at all.

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Pauper

 

[CapnZapp]

I guess I need to remind you of my previous reply: To me, it's quite evident backwards compatability trumps that. Players are required to choose a faction unless they weren't before.

Also, I honestly think you're making a much bigger deal out of the "requirement" to have a certain background story. I can't imagine a player ever being held to task for that background, or lack of attention to it. As I said previous, if you want to play a paladin from Amn I can't imagine anyone stopping you. I would simply do it. Then, if somehow the subject of my place of birth comes up, I'd quickly acknowledge my mandated origin to make that topic go away. Nothing stops me from quickly falling back into talking about Amn and Paladin High.

Pauper, I'm just offering possible explanations. I'm not defending their decisions - I'm painting them out to be not worth complaining about. I just don't see how this should stop you from enjoying your character

Best Regards,
Zapp

 

[kalani]

Let's use the Goliath example. Nothing is stopping you from originating in Thesk and then relocating to [insert desired town] either during childhood or young adulthood.

Nothing says you can't see two places as home. IRL I have two homes - my native Australia and Canada where I immigrated. What is wrong with having your Goliath feel similarly to their adoptive home? These background restrictions are deliberately vague and easy to work with.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I tied my goliath character (pre-Volo) in with the storylines just fine without being required to be from somewhere (isn't Thesk a LONG way away?) I set mine in the mountains near Phlan and a victim of Red Cloak atrocities from Hillsfar in his native home.

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[Pauper]

Pauper, I'm just offering possible explanations. I'm not defending their decisions - I'm painting them out to be not worth complaining about. I just don't see how this should stop you from enjoying your character

Well, that explains it -- I'm not approaching this from a player perspective, but from the perspective of the DM who has to coordinate all these potential disparate background elements.

For the most part, I agree, the background details generally don't matter in AL. However, the fact that certain backgrounds were specifically created for this season suggests that they will matter. Either they do matter, in which case players who don't have them for their characters will be either at a disadvantage or will otherwise be 'left out' of certain facets of the season storyline, or they don't matter, in which case there's no real reason why they should have been mandated.

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Pauper

 

[Pauper]

(isn't Thesk a LONG way away?) I set mine in the mountains near Phlan

Here's the irony -- Thesk *is* in the mountains near Phlan. (See a map, or DDAL 5-1.)

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Pauper

 

[KahlessNestor]

Here's the irony -- Thesk *is* in the mountains near Phlan. (See a map, or DDAL 5-1.)

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Pauper

Yeah...no. Thesk is halfway across the continent by Thay and Aglarond. Nowhere near Phlan. My goliath is from the Dragonspire Mountains near the ruins of Zhentil Keep and the Raven, right next door to Phlan.

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