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<blockquote data-quote="Swarmkeeper" data-source="post: 7493043" data-attributes="member: 6921763">There you go again... re-flavoring the fluff! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />I think it is worth pointing out that a clear distinction can and should be made between a PC's backstory and their background.&nbsp; The background of soldier, for example, comes with tangible mechanical benefits as outlined in the PHB.&nbsp; The backstory of the PC is the pure fluff that the player gets to make up and has NO real mechanical benefit (e.g. I was a soldier on the northern front in the Gnoll wars... my company was slaughtered and I escaped and was cared for by an ice Druid... blah blah blah).&nbsp; In other words, a backstory is just for fun and should not affect rolls at the table.&nbsp; Sure, a player should work with a DM to make sure it all makes sense in the context of the world, but that should be a very low hurdle if the DM has outlined some base expectations (e.g. this is a high fantasy pseudo-Medieval campaign - no gunpowder, no robots, and absolutely no rapiers).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Swarmkeeper, post: 7493043, member: 6921763"] There you go again... re-flavoring the fluff! :p I think it is worth pointing out that a clear distinction can and should be made between a PC's [B]backstory [/B]and their [B]background[/B]. The [B]background [/B]of soldier, for example, comes with tangible mechanical benefits as outlined in the PHB. The [B]backstory[/B] of the PC is the pure fluff that the player gets to make up and has NO real mechanical benefit (e.g. I was a soldier on the northern front in the Gnoll wars... my company was slaughtered and I escaped and was cared for by an ice Druid... blah blah blah). In other words, a [B]backstory[/B] is just for fun and should not affect rolls at the table. Sure, a player should work with a DM to make sure it all makes sense in the context of the world, but that should be a very low hurdle if the DM has outlined some base expectations (e.g. this is a high fantasy pseudo-Medieval campaign - no gunpowder, no robots, and absolutely no rapiers). [/QUOTE]

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