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

[Arilyn]

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?

It'll encourage players to just pick and move on. This, in turn, will start getting players to pick a background solely based on what will give them the best stat and feat for their build, and then the actual story elements of the backgrounds will be forgotten. Some GMs might only allow the "official" backgrounds. Some players might never even realize custom backgrounds are a possibility.

Why do I care? D&D is the gateway hobby. It's a creative hobby but this discourages that. But Arilyn, you've been playing OSR games. Not much to character creation there. True, but the creativity in modern OSR comes from decisions made from play and the openness of choices. These games require creative solutions to problems or there'll be a lot of dead characters. Also, there tends to be long lists of background in these games. Some are delightfully weird or flavourful.

I don't love the drift in D&D to just being about choosing options from a WotC pre-approved list. There is becoming a certain sameness to 5e, which will turn off potential players who'll miss the richness of the hobby. And yes, D&D is vastly more popular than ever, but ever so slowly the gameplay set up in 5e is becoming more prescribed. The designers tell us the 2024 version has more choice and options, but I actually feel like, for me, it'll have a little less room to breathe. Looking outside 5e, there is an explosion of wondrous creativity. I want some of that in the 5e books.

This is a long rant over something as simple as backgrounds in the 2024 PHB, but it's a symptom of other problems I see bubble up in the game. And we had custom backgrounds in the playtest and were told that the whole origin system had received high ratings. Then this. It bugs me on a philosophical and design level. I want the game to encourage players to think about where their characters come from, whether it's as simple as farmer leaving their whole life behind, as whimsical as stepping out of a child's dream or as dark as raised by a doomsday cult.

 

[Corinnguard]

there will be people for who it is one of the reasons to get the new books, I very much doubt it will ever be the main reason

There are going to be many reasons why someone is going to be getting the new books. To name a few:

• Some are going to get the new books and 'mine' them for anything useful that they then can use their 2014 campaigns. This will be for things like any changes to species, classes, feats, spells, etc. that are actually better than their 2014 counterparts.
• They're new to D&D, and it's the only set of books they'll be initially aware of.
• Everyone in their immediate group has made the switch to the new books. Basically, the Fear of Missing Out.
• So, they can personally compare the new books with the old books.
• Because they're completists. They want to collect the latest books and add them to their D&D collection.

Background is just one aspect in the character creation process. It's not enough of a reason to go out and get the new PHB. Maybe if there was a Big Book of Backgrounds. But that's 3pp material that doesn't require a player to go out and get the big three.

 

[Stormonu]

To encourage more in-depth character creation, I will be moving the ability mods to character names.

You gain a +2 to the following ability based on the first letter of your name:

First Letter	Ability
A-D	Strength
E-K	Dexterity
L-M	Constitution
N-P	Intelligence
Q-V	Wisdom
W-Z	Charisma

Using an umlaut or other digraph gets you +1 to two abilities.

The number of vowels in your name determine where your +1 ability mod goes.

Number of Vowels	Ability
1	Strength
2	Dexterity
3	Constitution
4	Intelligence
5	Wisdom
0	Charisma

And the feat that you gain depends on the number of apostrophes and dashes in your name.

 

[mamba]

Background is just one aspect in the character creation process. It's not enough of a reason to go out and get the new PHB.

I agree, I am not sure the person I responded to does however

 

[Corinnguard]

I agree, I am not sure the person I responded to does however

If I came across the new PHB and checked it out to see if it was worth buying, backgrounds would not be the first section I would look at. I would check out the species first, and then look at the classes and subclasses. As those two sections of the PHB hold more interest for me.

 

[Mistwell]

You act like corporations selling questionable products and using marketing to twist the narrative and maintain brand dominance is a good thing.

Literally almost nobody perceives this 2024 edition as a "questionable product" that is "twisting the narrative". It's why I pointed out just how many times you've made this claim here...to very little agreement. Which doesn't make you wrong but it should at least imply that stating it as fact is a pretty questionable position to be taking. There should be at least some humility to consider the possibility this is something people like and want and it's just not your thing, as opposed to being objectively evil like you appear to be asserting.

In reality WotC is owned by Hasbro and all the management cares about is pushing product in the most superficially profitable way possible, not the artistic/substantive integrity of what they are creating. The goal is to keep costs low and follow a formula: fill books with as much fluff as possible, to create the illusion of a high page count being a quality-stuffed product, with just enough changes to make it seem like something everyone must have.

Nothing of what you said rings as accurate to me and a lot of people.

 

[Mistwell]

Background has become a substantial and important design space.

There will be more DMs and players who put more thought into background, and with background feats and good proficiency rules, there will be DMs and players who buy a book because of the backgrounds.

Nobody is buying the book BECAUSE of backgrounds, nor are they refusing to buy the book BECAUSE of backgrounds. It's not meaningless but it's not the meaning he was spinning on it, and he later admits that it isn't even backgrounds he's upset about it's the entire product.

 

[Yaarel]

Nobody is buying the book BECAUSE of backgrounds

Heh, speak for yourself.

If there is a book that has great backgrounds and a great system for backgrounds, that is a reason for me to buy the book.


There are already players who buy a book because it has a species that they like. Now, background and species are worth roughly the same design space. Actually, including abilities, background has more design space than species does. A species is worth about three background feats. The background abilities by themselves are worth three background feats, plus there is the free feat, plus the two skills, one toolset, and three languages: the entire background is worth about five background feats.

Background is now a huge deal. Any player who cares about flavor and-or mechanics needs to start thinking carefully about backgrounds.

 

[Corinnguard]

Background is now a huge deal. Any player who cares about flavor and-or mechanics needs to start thinking carefully about backgrounds.

So, if background is your number one interest in the upcoming PHB, what's your number two and number three interests in that book?

Once again, a topic that needs to be polled and voted on by everyone here.

 

[Yaarel]

So, if background is your number one interest in the upcoming PHB, what's your number two and number three interests in that book?

Once again, a topic that needs to be polled and voted on by everyone here.

Species, background, and class, and feats, and spells, are all necessary for me to build a character. So I cant really leave any of the design spaces out. But any book that helps build a great character concept has my interest. Background is now especially important to me, because it connects a character concept to the world.