Which is what I really like about such systems. Even for people who are genuinely interesting in seeing the game from the characters perspective it's not that easy to take that perspective instead of making objective descisions based on the knowledge that this is a story that follows lots of well known and established conventions.
When faces with a situation to which there is no obvious right solution, most people will check their character sheet to see what options they have. And seeing "You are a nobleman, you have been trained in diplomacy and educated in the local politics" can make a very big difference. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". Usually this is treated as something negative, but in RPGs it's something very useful. If a player plays a nobleman, then give him the tools of a nobleman. And just by that, he will attempt to find solutions you would expect to come from a nobleman.
It's the same thing with the unfortunately obscure Allegiance System as an alternative to Alignment. Always doing to good thing and doing things well prepared and according to certain principles is nice and well, but not always very helpful to take the characters perspective. But when you instead see "You are a firm believer in the teachings of the God of Guardians and you undyingly loyal to your duke", then it will be often very obvious what your character would do, even when as a player with different ethics and knowledge of the conventions of the story you know it would not be wise and your character will probably regret it.
I am working on a setting both for my own campaigns and publication, in which social class will be very important (similar to a Samurai game). I have to see the final rules for 5th Edition, but currently I plan on using only 6 backgrounds that are available to characters in that setting, which correspond to the social class they grew up with. Noble, citizen, servant, slave, outcast, and monastic. In addition to skill bonuses, I particularly like the Background Features, which are completely roleplay traits:
- A noble will be offered food and accomodations, even in the lands of his enemies, as other nobles would bring shame on their families if they don't threat others of their class as they deserve, or allow their subjects to overstep their boundaries. On the other hand, nobles draw a lot of attention and commoners will not talk openly to them.
- Outcasts face persecutions wherever they go, as their family must have done something terrible to have been exiled. And since they are not welcome in any place, they all must be thieves and liars to go by. On the other hand, they all suffer the same prejudice, which makes them look out for their kind and only trust each other. As a result, an outcast character can walk freely in the hidden party of the city that other people don't even know exist and have ready access to information and services that are not available to anyone else.
Backgrounds are a lot more than just a skill package to speed up character creation. When the DM uses them well, they can have tremendous impact on how deep the players dive into the world of the game.
