D&D General 5E species with further choices and differences

[EzekielRaiden]

I think the number of backgrounds in 5e2014 and 5e2024 are just enough for the player to pick and choose what they want for their character.

And I do not.

 

[Corinnguard]

And I do not.

It's cool. I can see there being room for more backgrounds in D&D. Right now, I am just wondering how many more and how many of them are actually used or will be used by the players.

 

[Horwath]

I think the number of backgrounds in 5e2014 and 5e2024 are just enough for the player to pick and choose what they want for their character.

there is enough if they are just descriptive with custom bonuses to pick from.
if they are fixed, enough will be when we get every possible combination of Origin feat, 2 skills and 3 attributes.
right now, about 33k worth of backgrounds.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It's cool. I can see there being room for more backgrounds in D&D. Right now, I am just wondering how many more and how many of them are actually used or will be used by the players.

Well, to give you a good example of a background I felt was missing from 5.0, and which hasn't been matched in 5.5e yet to the best of my knowledge, one that I picked up from ENWorld itself. "Academy Graduate"--the idea that the rich and powerful send their kids to good schools where they hobnob with princes and brutal warlords' daughters and the children of archwizards, building up connections that last a lifetime.

Flavorful, interesting, and thematic--while actually articulating a particular kind of cultural institution and the opportunities that creates, as opposed to the terribly generic stuff from 5.5e.

 

[Corinnguard]

Well, to give you a good example of a background I felt was missing from 5.0, and which hasn't been matched in 5.5e yet to the best of my knowledge, one that I picked up from ENWorld itself. "Academy Graduate"--the idea that the rich and powerful send their kids to good schools where they hobnob with princes and brutal warlords' daughters and the children of archwizards, building up connections that last a lifetime.

Flavorful, interesting, and thematic--while actually articulating a particular kind of cultural institution and the opportunities that creates, as opposed to the terribly generic stuff from 5.5e.

That's a good Background idea. It's also a good example of Bardic Inspiration. I've been musing on and off about a background for a Tymanther Lance Scout. In the Dragonborn nation of Tymanther, all Dragonborn are required to spend two years being a member of the Lance Defenders, who are that nation's military. At the end of their two-year service, most of them go back to their original careers. But a few continue their career as a Lance Defender and stay with the Soldier background. Even fewer still are those Lance Defenders who are picked to be an elite member of their nation's military, the Lance Scout.

Unlike a Lance Defender, Lance Scouts were tasked to go beyond Tymanther's borders and learn more about Faerun. They were also trained to act alone or act in groups, and to track the movements of potentially dangerous dragons around the realms.

Lance Scout= Soldier + Outlander?

 

[CreamCloud0]

There will be thousands, yes.

Is it useful to have thousands of them as options?

Or is it useful to articulate relevant, interesting, evocative ones,

i think you could probably do pretty well in covering the broad strokes of things with a decent group of archtypical culture entries and then make like 2~4 specific species-culture entries for each species that highlight the things unique to them and their ways,

 

[DammitVictor]

Everyone seems to think it's this  brilliant idea to separate "race" from "background" and "culture"-- but then, nobody wonders why all of these supposedly nonhuman peoples all have the exact same backgrounds, expressed the exact same way, as humans.

That's why it makes them less unique.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Everyone seems to think it's this  brilliant idea to separate "race" from "background" and "culture"-- but then, nobody wonders why all of these supposedly nonhuman peoples all have the exact same backgrounds, expressed the exact same way, as humans.

That's why it makes them less unique.

because human or dwarf, elf or orc, there's only going to be so much difference between how one kind of species and another lives as a port town or a forest hunter-gatherer village, oh sure, the elf military civilization might favour longbows whereas dwarves hammers and orcs axes, but making a list of minor variations on the same concepts adjusted slightly for each species is a waste of production time and book space, and these species are more than intelligent enough that their entire culture isn't dictated by how they were born.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

That's a great way to describe how it works in real life; it's a terrible model for a fantasy roleplaying game.

Everyone says they want "cultures" and "backgrounds" and (yes, even) "races" to be more flavorful and iconic, but then they backpedal and start talking about individuals and exceptions and special circumstances and then they wonder why everything keeps coming out the same dull, flavorless shade of beige. They're homogeneous because you keep homogenizing them; if you want things to be special and different, you actually have to be willing to let them stay special and different. You have to be willing to say that they're not the same thing, that they're not interchangeable, and that they're not something to be ignored and that they're not 'guidelines' to be reskinned whenever someone says they want to play "a dwarf, but not like all the other dwarves".

It is literally the same people complaining that "fantasy races" are just different rubber forehead aliens that refuse to let them be anything else. When everyone, every single instance of something is 'an exception to the rules', nothing is special-- everything is blandly, identically unique, just like everything else, and it's boring. When you mix everything in the kitchen sink together, the only flavor you're left with is dishwater.

Damit Victor, I wish I could give a thumbs up twice to your post!

Say no to Dishwater!

 

[Corinnguard]

Everyone seems to think it's this  brilliant idea to separate "race" from "background" and "culture"-- but then, nobody wonders why all of these supposedly nonhuman peoples all have the exact same backgrounds, expressed the exact same way, as humans.

That's why it makes them less unique.

And more unique as individuals.