D&D (2024) RIP, 2014 PHB backgrounds

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be honest I did not know I could make a custom background until I read the UA and compared it to the material in the PHB. Which I probably would not have read it so closely if I did not decide to make a YouTube video on the UA.

Actually reading the UA and the PHB puts you in a very small camp of D&D YouTubers.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

If you write a book and some people don't read it thoroughly, that's on those readers, not the writer. You can lead a horse to water . . .

So I've worked as a classroom teacher, and like probably everyone whose ever had that job I learned in my first week in an actual classroom that students will almost never read the actual instructions of an assignment, say a worksheet, no matter how clear and strategically bolded they are, if based on the layout of the assignment or some other extrinsic factor they think they already know what they are supposed to do with it. An RPG is different in that they seem to disproportionately appeal to the sort of people who do actually read the rules, and usually the knowledge of commonly overlooked things actually written in those rules gradually filters out to the rest of the community. But otherwise I think the dynamics are basically the same.

Very few people read a book like the PHB word for word. Rules that run counter to common assumptions people make based on the presentation will routinely be overlooked or misunderstood. In a system where you have to choose a race, a class, and background and then there is a section with extensive options for each, and the prior two choices don't have a presumption of being able to create your own custom option, people are naturally going to think they're supposed to pick one of the set options. People are particularly likely to skip sections that seem like boring front matter that are in the way of them reading about all the neat backgrounds.

That being said, since the consequences of people not reading the instructions thoroughly in this instance are just that they have a background that's maybe not as much to their exact tastes as the one they would have invented, I think the accessibility benefits of listing out pre-made backgrounds far outweigh the consequence of a large segment of players thinking they are mandatory.

 

[NaturalZero]

I've made more characters than I can count in 5e and I've always used the custom background option. Making that the default really feels, IMO, like the developers catching up with how the game is played, much like the floating ability score modifiers.

The people that I play with usually swap skills out on the backgrounds, so the idea that people have been actually using them straight out of the book is pretty surprising to me. If they want people to understand that picking feats and skills is the default, they really should just put that text up front as part of the process and list pre-mades explicitly as examples as an afterthought. In the 5e PHB, the custom option is presented as a little side thing that apparently many missed. Just make that the main text and the pre-mades as a sort of side-bar.

 

[Greg K]

I think that the background section should also instruct players to talk to the DM before creating a background to ensure it fits the setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In the 5e PHB, the custom option is presented as a little side thing that apparently many missed. Just make that the main text and the pre-mades as a sort of side-bar.

The importance of page design in helping readers process information cannot be overstated.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think if we conducted a survey of D&D users, we'd find that very few of them use custom backgrounds, even though they've been a choice in the PHB since 2014. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same thing with the 2024 PHB.

I think part of the problem is that customizing your background reads like an optional rule you’d need to ask your DM about. This is in part because it’s presented after the list of backgrounds, and in part because not all backgrounds are created equal, which makes changing some of the benefits feel like cheating. The UA fixes both of those problems, and so far I haven’t actually heard from anyone who doesn’t understand that custom is default in the UA. I have only heard people saying “well, people are going to treat the examples as the default anyway.”

 

[Charlaquin]

Maybe under language phrase it as "Pick any language (for example Halfling)". So you're got your picked-out option, but it's super-clear that it's just an option.

Are we also going to do that with the tool, the two skills, and the ability score increases? At that point, why write the same thing 18 times instead of once at the beginning?

 

[Staffan]

Are we also going to do that with the tool, the two skills, and the ability score increases? At that point, why write the same thing 18 times instead of once at the beginning?

Because tools and skills are more clearly associated with the background. I don't have the file available right now, but no-one is going to object to a Farmer background giving you proficiency in Animal Handling, Nature, and Farmer's tools – that's perfectly reasonable. But then adding "halfling language" because "many farmer's almanacs are written in halfling" seems like a Big Stretch. Most of the other background languages had similarly dubious justifications.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So I've worked as a classroom teacher, and like probably everyone whose ever had that job I learned in my first week in an actual classroom that students will almost never read the actual instructions of an assignment, say a worksheet, no matter how clear and strategically bolded they are, if based on the layout of the assignment or some other extrinsic factor they think they already know what they are supposed to do with it. An RPG is different in that they seem to disproportionately appeal to the sort of people who do actually read the rules, and usually the knowledge of commonly overlooked things actually written in those rules gradually filters out to the rest of the community. But otherwise I think the dynamics are basically the same.

Very few people read a book like the PHB word for word. Rules that run counter to common assumptions people make based on the presentation will routinely be overlooked or misunderstood. In a system where you have to choose a race, a class, and background and then there is a section with extensive options for each, and the prior two choices don't have a presumption of being able to create your own custom option, people are naturally going to think they're supposed to pick one of the set options. People are particularly likely to skip sections that seem like boring front matter that are in the way of them reading about all the neat backgrounds.

That being said, since the consequences of people not reading the instructions thoroughly in this instance are just that they have a background that's maybe not as much to their exact tastes as the one they would have invented, I think the accessibility benefits of listing out pre-made backgrounds far outweigh the consequence of a large segment of players thinking they are mandatory.

For proof, watch the Critical role Vox Machina live play, 100 episodes in they are still getting rules wrong. Although in some cases I never could decide if Matt was getting the rule wrong or implementing a house rule.

 

[Gorck]

Something about creating custom backgrounds as the default method just doesn’t sit right with me. Life is about trade-offs. One background might have something you really want, but also something you don’t want. Another background might get rid of the thing you didn’t want from the first background, but doesn’t have the thing you did want. This makes for a significant decision point for the player: which option is more important for my character.

I understand sometimes a player might have a specific design in mind for their character, but there isn’t an existing background that fits the theme. That’s a perfectly valid reason for creating a custom background. But when people are just cherry-picking all the items that they want every time they create a new character, there’s no longer a give-and-take; it all becomes just take. You can’t always get everything you want; sometimes you need to make compromises. But when you CAN get everything you want, that cheapens the decision-making process and renders each choice less meaningful.