D&D (2024) Is anyone going to use the new 2024 backgrounds?

[mamba]

Because I want to play a specific background, with a specific backstory. Just like before Tasha's I wanted to play an Elf.

The PHB should not be throwing barriers in my way to doing that.

eh, sure, the PHB is fine throwing barriers your way, that is why a wizard does not get all the skills of a monk either

Having to create a custom background or not being a sailor barely registers as an obstacle

 

[MoonSong]

Veterans have a sidebar that let them know they can still use the old ways if they want, and new players can also investigate those same insights if they want to do it that way too.

The crux of the discussion is that that sidebar won't be there, or at least not in the phb and will be gated behind DM approval.

 

[ECMO3]

pretty sure you would not just let any sailor fly a helicopter... specific beats generic

But every Naval Aviator is a sailor.

They won't let any sailor tie a ship to shore or run a fuel hose from one ship to another either. Only a Bosun does that. Not any sailor can run a gas turbine engine, only an Engineman does that. Not any sailor can arm bombs only an Aviation Ordnanceman does that. Every sailor can't work on ship wiring, only an Electricians Mate does that. All these jobs are specialized and all of the people doing them are sailors. (note on Fireman and Ordanceman - those are official Navy Rates and the term applies to both men and women with that rate).

Every job on a large ship is specialized (except for firefighting which everyone has to know how to do even though there are specialists for that). A modern ship is staffed by hundreds or thousands of sailors, each with a specialized role and every one of them is a sailor.

A Naval Aviator is a specialized sailor.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Maybe because this book is also written for the brand new players who are picking it up for the first time (maybe without a veteran to walk them through it), and the background packages are designed to narratively and mechanically make sense for those new players. Veterans have a sidebar that let them know they can still use the old ways if they want, and new players can also investigate those same insights if they want to do it that way too.

The book needs to be written to have interesting narrative and story aspects, not just rules objects without context.

See, this is the exact reason I dislike the designers' decision to move the custom background rules to the DMG. I'm a DM. I to want to be able to point new players at my table to a player-facing rule that encourages them to create interesting, engaging backstories. I don't want to game with players who've been told creating a backstory in D&D is all about picking options off a drop-down menu.

 

[Mistwell]

It's a superficial useless change that's packaged as some meaningful thing, in order to sell books.

Nobody is buying a book because of backgrounds, and nobody who wrote the backgrounds at WOTC thought people would buy the books because of backgrounds, Hyperbole isn't necessary or helpful on this topic.

 

[mamba]

But every Naval Aviator is a sailor.

so what, not every sailor is a naval aviator. If you want the 'fly helicopter' feat, you need to use a different background, sailor does not give you that

A Naval Aviator is a specialized sailor.

precisely, and a sailor is not

 

[Micah Sweet]

See, this is the exact reason I dislike the designers' decision to move the custom background rules to the DMG. I'm a DM. I to want to be able to point new players at my table to a player-facing rule that encourages them to create interesting, engaging backstories. I don't want to game with players who've been told creating a backstory in D&D is all about picking options off a drop-down menu.

Why can't you tell them about that same if it's GM-facing? Why does it matter in your own game where the rule is, PH, DMG, or your own notes?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I will point out that those Cantrips would be pretty darn useful for a sailor too.

In the day of sail you would be hard pressed to come up with a reason for a Sage to use Mending or Prestidigitation before a sailor would use those. Lines and sails were constantly parting, this was a regular problem on sailing vessels, and then for prestidigitation cleaning (swabbing) the deck and careening the hull.

I would put Find Familiar on there too as more useful for a sailor. Not sure what that familiar would actually do for a Sage, but a sailor; tons of uses - Fly your crow up to the top of the mast (or even higher above the ship) and look out through his eyes instead of someone climbing to the crows nest for a lower vantage. Send the Quipper under the ship to see what is fouling the anchor and then maybe even summon a crab to clean it off.

But I bet that is not an option on the Sailor background.

Yeah. Also cool. Probably they thought more about mundane sailors though and gave them tavern bawling.

I think custom backgrounds are needed (and we get it in the DMG). If your job on the ship was exactly what you described, why should a DM say no?

But what I wanted to do was proving, that nothing in the rules hinders you playing a sage barbarian by the book and be a good and useful character.
With 16 con and 15 str, you will still be a great barbarian. That extra wisdom might help you perceive something or resist a mind control effect once in a while. Your spells/rituals will make your utility greater as that of a regular barbarian. So no, you are not actively hindered in playing your barbarian by just taking the sage background.

 

[ECMO3]

precisely, and a sailor is not

But they are both sailors. The definition of a sailor is: a person whose job it is to work as a member of the crew of a commercial or naval ship or boat.

That includes a ton of people with specialized skills, both on modern vessels and in the day of sail. They are all sailors though - the Navigator, the Pilot, the Harpoonman etc.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Nobody is buying a book because of backgrounds, and nobody who wrote the backgrounds at WOTC thought people would buy the books because of backgrounds, Hyperbole isn't necessary or helpful on this topic.

I wonder if some people are buying the book, because the have gone full circle by anouncing that they are even less interested to get a book because of a some minor reveal they don't agree with.