Backgrounds: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em?

[5ekyu]

The Backgrounds of course have a bunch of lists - lists of what [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] calls 'colour' - but not lists of stuff that's actually going to add drama to the game. No list of three-four evil tyrants to overthrow in the Folk Hero narrative, for instance.

Sorry but whether or not anything, any trait, is "actually going to add drama to the game" has ZERO to do with its presentation or rules - it is totally up to the player and Gm and what the game in play makes relevant.

Without looking, i doubt there was anything I saw on the lists with backgrounds that cannot "actually add drama" to a game.

One doesn't need "pre-defined" or "mechanics" to get to drama.

Heck, the first scenario of my current campaign the key to major dramatic resolution was "hey, do you speak draconic?" combined with character background.

But i would say this - if you and your Gm share the belief that you cannot make drama out of the 5e backgrounds, then perhaps the Thule presentation and pre-definitions are needed for your game.

 

[5ekyu]

IMO the whole thing is wasted space, or at least could be reduced to a one line title + skill & equipment package. Backgrounds intended to be more than that ought to be campaign specific. As featured in the PHB they are a waste of space for me; they are generic waffle and don't give me anything useful.

Well there you go.

 

[S'mon]

But i would say this - if you and your Gm share the belief that you cannot make drama out of the 5e backgrounds, then perhaps the Thule presentation and pre-definitions are needed for your game.

It's not a question of 'cannot', it's a question of whether it gives any help in doing so. I don't find the PHB ones give anything useful. I definitely think this stuff should be campaign-specific.

I created a specific Background ("Ruin Scavenger") for my PC in the latest campaign I joined, and that worked better. It's still 'background' though, ie what she was before she started the campaign, it doesn't do much for future play.

 

[5ekyu]

It's not a question of 'cannot', it's a question of whether it gives any help in doing so. I don't find the PHB ones give anything useful. I definitely think this stuff should be campaign-specific.

I created a specific Background ("Ruin Scavenger") for my PC in the latest campaign I joined, and that worked better. It's still 'background' though, ie what she was before she started the campaign, it doesn't do much for future play.

whether or not " it doesn't do much for future play." is a choice, not a rule or a set outcome - it doesn't even seem to be the intent of the backgrounds in 5e - they seem to leave it open.

if you and your Gm make that choice by default, then the thule rules and pre-fab mechanics likely are needed and helpful.

 

[S'mon]

Well there you go.

Indeed.

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION], it's like you're channelling The Forge!

I'm intrigued by how 13th Age does backgrounds - they are the source of skill bonuses, but directly, not via the intermediation of background-granted skills. So it becomes more like a free-descriptor system.

As you're describing the 5e PHB backgrounds, it sounds like they don't have the strengths of free-descriptors because their mechanical impact does get mediated through goodies that they give you; and they don't have the strengths of "kickers" or relationships because they leave all of that to be made up anyway.

That said, I thought the Hermit's discovery looked like it could be interesting - have you had any play experience with it?

 

[akr71]

I DM for two groups. For one group the background weighs heavily into RP choices and things I can mine for personal quests. The other group is much more casual and the background is mostly irrelevant except for the 2 skills it provides the characters. This group is mostly in it for killing monsters and finding treasure.

The Roll20 group I play in, backgrounds are somewhere in between the two groups above. We aim for a significant amount of RP & background choices play into it, but at this point, class skills and choices have more impact, both mechanically and RP-wise. However, we've been playing together for almost 3 years, so the time these characters have been together is more impact-ful than any pre-game choices we made designing the character.

 

[S'mon]

That said, I thought the Hermit's discovery looked like it could be interesting - have you had any play experience with it?

No, I made a Hermit but only got to play him one session.

Likewise I think a player in my Stonehell Dungeon Crawl made a hermit, but that was very explicitly an old school "what happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon/what happened outside the dungeon does not matter" premise. I do remember briefly discussing his Horrifying Insight with him as a motivation for going down the dungeon.

 

[S'mon]

[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION], it's like you're channelling The Forge!

Well I'm coming off ca 18 months of hardcore OSR dungeon crawling in Stonehell, so for my new Thule campaign I'm leaning hard into the Dramatism. My other 'new' 5e campaigns are Princes of the Apocalypse as a follow on to my 6-year 4e Loudwater game, and resuming my ultra high level Runelords of the Shattered Star game as an online game. Both of those lend themselves to a light dramatist approach - where Stonehell was 1/10 on the Dramatist scale, those two are maybe 4/10 and Thule is up around 7/10 or so. It's almost "Story Creation in Play"

 

[Blue]

How are D&D's expanded role-playing features coming along? Backgrounds, with their suggested Traits, Bonds, Ideals, and Flaws, give a PC more tools beyond Alignment to get into a character's head. But does anyone use them? Does anyone not use them? Will they make their way into 6E? Sound off!

I run slightly differently so I need to answer this two ways. Basically, Traits, Bonds, etc. can be inspired by backgrounds, but need not have anything to do with them.

So the collection of "backgrounds plus TIBF" is almost always - but that's because the TIBF really focus on what makes the characters tick.

(I also let them revise them over play as makes sense.)

If I was to look at just backgrounds with TIBF, it's occasionally. More when a background and a class are less in sync. For example the criminal con-man bard is more likely to reference their criminal background specifically, while the criminal rogue is just rogue-like, and rarely it's specifically because of background.