D&D (2024) I just got a 2024 PHB From Gen Con. AMA!

[pukunui]

I worried this would be the case as soon as we discovered that the Wayfarer Background is defined as something completely unrelated to being a traveler.

Yeah, that one is weird. They should have either gone with a different name (what's wrong with "urchin" exactly?) or a different description (one that invokes traveling from place to place rather than someone who grew up on the streets).

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yeah, that one is weird. They should have either gone with a different name (what's wrong with "urchin" exactly?) or a different description (one that invokes traveling from place to place rather than someone who grew up on the streets).

The issue with urchin was that it usually means a child, often an orphan. It didn't account for someone who was a homeless adult, or a child who grew up in a very poor family, but still had a house.

 

[pukunui]

The issue with urchin was that it usually means a child, often an orphan. It didn't account for someone who was a homeless adult, or a child who grew up in a very poor family, but still had a house.

OK but the original Urchin background was very much focused on the former. The description reads "You grew up on the streets alone, orphaned, and poor. You had no one to watch over you or to provide for you, so you learned to provide for yourself ..."

If WotC had wanted to expand the background to be more inclusive of other types of homeless people, why did they go with this description for Wayfarer? "You grew up on the streets surrounded by similarly ill-fated castoffs, a few of them friends and a few of them rivals. You slept where you could and did odd jobs for food. At times, when the hunger became unbearable, you resorted to theft. Still, you never lost your pride and never abandoned hope. Fate is not yet finished with you."

A "wayfarer" is a traveler. Someone who lives their life on the road, moving from one place to the next, never settling down anywhere. They're not necessarily homeless, and they don't live on the streets in a single community. They might sleep rough in the wilderness or they might sleep at inns or in people's barns or whatever. They may have come from a wealthy upbringing but their wanderlust got the better of them.

"Wayfarer" =/= "Orphaned street urchin", despite what WotC might want us to think.

If anything, "Wayfarer" should have been the new name for the Outlander background. That would have made a lot more sense. Instead, they got rid of the Outlander and gave the Urchin a nonsensical new name.

 

[FrogReaver]

The description of Darkness just states that it's a heavily obscured area. A heavily obscured area imposes the Blinded condition. It would seem that the rules are saying that people without darkvision are effectively blind outside at night, even on "most moonlit nights". That's a bit heavy-handed.

One can rule a moonlit night is dim light?

 

[pukunui]

One can rule a moonlit night is dim light?

That's certainly what I would do. I was just pointing out that the 2024 rules specifically state that characters risk being blinded "even on most moonlit nights".

 

[mellored]

One can rule a moonlit night is dim light?

As someone who has takes walks at night fairly often.
If you're in the open under a full moon with no clouds, it's normal light. Rare, 20 on a d20

If you're in the brighter half of the moon with no clouds, or full moon with light cloud, then it's dim light. Uncommon 15-19 on a d20.

If you have the darker half of the moon, clouds, trees, canyons, unlit buildings or ruins (excluding rooftops), or any kind of shadow, then it's darkness. 1-14 on a d20.

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, that one is weird. They should have either gone with a different name (what's wrong with "urchin" exactly?) or a different description (one that invokes traveling from place to place rather than someone who grew up on the streets).

Urchin specifically refers to a child. And there are very few non-negative words for transient and unhoused people. I'm sure they were looking for a synonym and vagabond or hobo wasn't going to work.

That said, Wayfarer isn't perfect, but it represents migrants, refugees, and other people who move frequently due to circumstance far better than urchin, which only ever made me think of Dickensian scamps.

 

[pukunui]

Urchin specifically refers to a child. And there are very few non-negative words for transient and unhoused people. I'm sure they were looking for a synonym and vagabond or hobo wasn't going to work.

That said, Wayfarer isn't perfect, but it represents migrants, refugees, and other people who move frequently due to circumstance far better than urchin, which only ever made me think of Dickensian scamps.

As I said above, the issue is that everything about the Wayfarer background except its name still very much points toward "street urchin". Even the illustration is of a city street.

The Wayfarer background is no more inclusive of other transient/unhoused people than its predecessor was.

 

[Remathilis]

As I said above, the issue is that everything about the Wayfarer background except its name still very much points toward "street urchin". Even the illustration is of a city street.

The Wayfarer background is no more inclusive of other transient/unhoused people than its predecessor was.

More likely, they dumped the term last minute and needed to find a word at the end of the alphabet so as not to disrupt the layout.

 

[pukunui]

More likely, they dumped the term last minute and needed to find a word at the end of the alphabet so as not to disrupt the layout.

That is as likely an explanation as any!