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Bonus languages in One D&D backgrounds goes contrary to their other goals
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<blockquote data-quote="Ondath" data-source="post: 8740682" data-attributes="member: 7031770"><p>I'm not saying WotC did this by mistake, but it shows a thematic shift from 5E that doesn't fit my tastes. 5E was much more simulationist in how it judged equipment (things were priced according to how much they probably should cost in a faux-fantasy economy, and backgrounds and classes received equipment packs according to <em>what made sense</em> for their economic status and tools of the trade). Now, backgrounds are clearly a gamist construct that doesn't concern itself with creating a sense of verisimilitude: It's more important for the rules to give a fair amount of resources to everyone.</p><p></p><p>But since the resources in question are trivial (who cares if the Urchin starts with 2 silver pieces and the Noble starts with 10 gp? They'll both get hundreds of gp upon completing their first quest!), I don't think this standardisation was needed. Hell, you could still have custom backgrounds be the default but still keep simulationist prices: Just tell the players that they can choose up to 50 gp worth of starting equipment, but they're advised to choose 1 gp total for a lower-class character, 10 gp for a middle-class character and 50 gp for an upper-class one.</p><p></p><p>Hell, when it comes to tools and languages, 5E already was making things equal without making everyone bilingual: Backgrounds that gave no languages gave two tool proficiences and backgrounds that gave no tools gave two languages. The game already assumed that tools and languages were interchangeable. Why do we need to force everyone to get exactly one language and one tool now?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ondath, post: 8740682, member: 7031770"] I'm not saying WotC did this by mistake, but it shows a thematic shift from 5E that doesn't fit my tastes. 5E was much more simulationist in how it judged equipment (things were priced according to how much they probably should cost in a faux-fantasy economy, and backgrounds and classes received equipment packs according to [I]what made sense[/I] for their economic status and tools of the trade). Now, backgrounds are clearly a gamist construct that doesn't concern itself with creating a sense of verisimilitude: It's more important for the rules to give a fair amount of resources to everyone. But since the resources in question are trivial (who cares if the Urchin starts with 2 silver pieces and the Noble starts with 10 gp? They'll both get hundreds of gp upon completing their first quest!), I don't think this standardisation was needed. Hell, you could still have custom backgrounds be the default but still keep simulationist prices: Just tell the players that they can choose up to 50 gp worth of starting equipment, but they're advised to choose 1 gp total for a lower-class character, 10 gp for a middle-class character and 50 gp for an upper-class one. Hell, when it comes to tools and languages, 5E already was making things equal without making everyone bilingual: Backgrounds that gave no languages gave two tool proficiences and backgrounds that gave no tools gave two languages. The game already assumed that tools and languages were interchangeable. Why do we need to force everyone to get exactly one language and one tool now? [/QUOTE]
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Bonus languages in One D&D backgrounds goes contrary to their other goals
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