D&D (2024) Bonus languages in One D&D backgrounds goes contrary to their other goals

[MatthewJHanson]

There is nothing about background that everyone doesn’t get for free.

You have convinced me that we should not have backgrounds, just floating options.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What’s the alternative, not giving languages?

Yes. Everyone did fine with backgrounds not giving languages by default for eight years.

2024 characters will get languages from their species and maybe their class already. And unless they remove the option, they can learn them during downtime. (When my campaign turned out to be about a war against a kobold tribe/Cult of Tiamat due to some player choices, I had players pick up Draconic soon thereafter.)

 

[darjr]

No, backgrounds can be great. Just needs more care.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You do know backgrounds already grant languages in the 2014 PHB, right?

Five of the 13 do: Acolyte, Artisan, Hermit (?!), Noble, Outlander and Sage. Amazingly, Spy does not.

But WotC isn't saying with the 2014 backgrounds that "if you're a gladiator, you obviously have a lot of contact with orcs," which goes directly against what they've been doing with orcs recently, including this UA.

Imagine a D&D Modern game where the Chef background automatically came with Spanish. You could make an argument for it, sure (a whole lot of Latin American folks in the kitchen of nearly every restaurant in the US), but you can also see why it's problematic by default, I imagine.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You have convinced me that we should not have backgrounds, just floating options.

I think background packages have a lot of potential -- my dad's bard is basically defined by his background as a pirate, and it led to a nice campaign centered on piracy.

This version of backgrounds needed one more pair of eyeballs before going out as-is, even as a beta product.

 

[Haplo781]

The solution is to reduce the number of differently-named backgrounds and instead provide several variations on a few.

E.g. here's a soldier that speaks Goblin and has proficiency in tinker's tools, and here's another Soldier who knows Abyssal and can play the lute. Give a short description of how each came by these elements.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The solution is to reduce the number of differently-named backgrounds and instead provide several variations on a few.

E.g. here's a soldier that speaks Goblin and has proficiency in tinker's tools, and here's another Soldier who knows Abyssal and can play the lute. Give a short description of how each came by these elements.

"Veteran of the Goblin Wars," etc. That works.

I don't think it's realistic, but it'd be nice to get a light re-theming of the PHB backgrounds in every setting that way.

 

[Charlaquin]

You have convinced me that we should not have backgrounds, just floating options.

That is the default. A “background” is just a set of those floating options you can take as a package, if you want to make one choice instead of several.

 

[Smackpixi]

Every background gets a language, every character has a background…so everyone gets a second language. Doesn’t have to be in Background, could be race, but doesn’t matter to me really. For the most part I think they just need to leave the example language blank, and say “pick a language”.

But in some cases, the suggestions can be useful prompts. I wouldn’t suggest Common Sign language for Urchins, but rather “Street Signs” something street kids communicate with silently that Squares don’t understand. Something very easy to work into a campaign for a DM even if it only comes up once. Obviously Sailor can be whatever, but some suggestions like Thieve’s Cant for Criminals seems appropriate (missing why you don’t) as a suggestion. What would be useful in the PHB would be a list of languages to choose from…though, that’s really more a DM obligation, tell your players what languages are in your world/might factor into adventure.

 

[SakanaSensei]

The will be treated as default and standard, even if WotC writes "EXAMPLE -- PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN INSTEAD" in big bold letters before each entry.

But let's step back one level: If you were to design backgrounds for the 2024 PHB, would you include a free language by default for each and every one of them?

I'd love to see them make it very bold and clear that they expect people to make their own and then give only three examples. A number large enough to illustrate their process but small enough that no one can mistake the intention that they are only examples.