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<blockquote data-quote="Dr_Ruminahui" data-source="post: 5811700" data-attributes="member: 81104">When we started my campaign, the only backgrounds were those in the Scars of War (I think that's what it was called) adventure path.&nbsp; Themes did start coming out until they hit paragon, and by that point I didn't feel that they were really ncessary.&nbsp;So, basically I let them each choose one of the SoW backgrounds, but based on its name and description alone - I didn't let them read the rules text.&nbsp; It gave them nice little perks (and a little hook to add a bit of backstory to their characters), but nothing truly necessary to their characters - for example, the PC that has &quot;Noble Scion&quot; would still be a foppish noble, but for his &quot;brother&quot; the paladin who took &quot;Jailhouse Convert&quot; I don't know if he would have worked a bit of bad-boy history in without that as inspiration.&nbsp;If I were to run a different campaign, I'm not sure I would allow themes - they don't really seem necessary to having a developed character and instead seem like a source of PC imbalance, given that IMHO they are of greatly varying power levels.&nbsp; Additionally, they add a level of complexity for little benefit.&nbsp; They simply don't fill a void that I felt was (or indeed still feel is) there.&nbsp; If the majority of players wanted to take them I would let the party do so, but I personally don't think they add much to the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dr_Ruminahui, post: 5811700, member: 81104"] When we started my campaign, the only backgrounds were those in the Scars of War (I think that's what it was called) adventure path. Themes did start coming out until they hit paragon, and by that point I didn't feel that they were really ncessary. So, basically I let them each choose one of the SoW backgrounds, but based on its name and description alone - I didn't let them read the rules text. It gave them nice little perks (and a little hook to add a bit of backstory to their characters), but nothing truly necessary to their characters - for example, the PC that has "Noble Scion" would still be a foppish noble, but for his "brother" the paladin who took "Jailhouse Convert" I don't know if he would have worked a bit of bad-boy history in without that as inspiration. If I were to run a different campaign, I'm not sure I would allow themes - they don't really seem necessary to having a developed character and instead seem like a source of PC imbalance, given that IMHO they are of greatly varying power levels. Additionally, they add a level of complexity for little benefit. They simply don't fill a void that I felt was (or indeed still feel is) there. If the majority of players wanted to take them I would let the party do so, but I personally don't think they add much to the game. [/QUOTE]

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