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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Backgrounds: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em?
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<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7568571" data-attributes="member: 6677017"><p>I can't really answer the question because I don't see the Ideals, Flaws and Personality traits as part of your Background. That's not how I understand the text. While Backgrounds have some suggestions for appropriate options, that is no more a part of the Background than the quick build suggestions for Classes.</p><p></p><p>How often the story elements of Backgrounds come up depends on the character and context. The Entertainer one comes up frequently for the Bard. The other ones (Sailor, Inheritor, Faction Agent, and custom*), come up when relevant. In other words, the players all know their backgrounds and Backgrounds and it is a part of their character concept.</p><p></p><p>As far as the various elements of personality, we rarely reference those anymore. They were useful at the beginning of the campaign, but now we'd have a hard time remembering them all without looking at the sheets. I switched to a "players award all Inspiration" model (I'm not sure it's exactly the same as DMG off the top of my head; they just each get to award Inspiration once per session.) and they rarely reference the personality elements when handing out Inspiration--usually just going by whether the character role-played well in general according to our understanding of who they are, or just for adding to the session in general.</p><p></p><p>* I always make sure to clearly emphasize to new players that there is a rule which by default authorizes you to alter Backgrounds or create new ones following the specific rules given. This is a core basic rule, and I don't know why it seems like everyone misses it if I don't spell it out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 7568571, member: 6677017"] I can't really answer the question because I don't see the Ideals, Flaws and Personality traits as part of your Background. That's not how I understand the text. While Backgrounds have some suggestions for appropriate options, that is no more a part of the Background than the quick build suggestions for Classes. How often the story elements of Backgrounds come up depends on the character and context. The Entertainer one comes up frequently for the Bard. The other ones (Sailor, Inheritor, Faction Agent, and custom*), come up when relevant. In other words, the players all know their backgrounds and Backgrounds and it is a part of their character concept. As far as the various elements of personality, we rarely reference those anymore. They were useful at the beginning of the campaign, but now we'd have a hard time remembering them all without looking at the sheets. I switched to a "players award all Inspiration" model (I'm not sure it's exactly the same as DMG off the top of my head; they just each get to award Inspiration once per session.) and they rarely reference the personality elements when handing out Inspiration--usually just going by whether the character role-played well in general according to our understanding of who they are, or just for adding to the session in general. * I always make sure to clearly emphasize to new players that there is a rule which by default authorizes you to alter Backgrounds or create new ones following the specific rules given. This is a core basic rule, and I don't know why it seems like everyone misses it if I don't spell it out. [/QUOTE]
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