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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9287244" data-attributes="member: 6801845">Can they?&nbsp; I suppose.&nbsp; Is it going to make any sense, be helpful at all?&nbsp; No..&nbsp; Is it going to start being a bit stupid when everyone in the party just happens to get so lucky? Yes, I think so.&nbsp; Let's say your characters have backgrounds criminal, noble, folk hero, gladiator, sage, sailor.&nbsp; Each one has a background feature that requires that they be recognized and given special treatment.&nbsp; Except they're in Barovia, a strange land cut off from the normal world for centuries with no contact.&nbsp; A big part of the module is that the entire place is a mystery and they're fish out of water.&nbsp; How often can they &quot;just happen to stumble across&quot; people that know who they are?&nbsp; That sage is supposed to know who to contact to find info or where to go, but you know no one here and no one back home has ever heard of this place.&nbsp; The poor sailor of course is just completely SOL unless you redraw the map and add an ocean.I like the idea of backgrounds and mechanically the additional proficiencies are useful and a good idea.&nbsp; But much like traits, bonds, ideals, flaws I just don't really see them widely used.&nbsp; The earlier background features are just too specific to be broadly used if in-world logic matters to the group.&nbsp; There's no innate magic to the older background features, but trying to make them work when it makes no sense to the scenario makes them feel like they are.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 9287244, member: 6801845"] Can they? I suppose. Is it going to make any sense, be helpful at all? No.. Is it going to start being a bit stupid when [I]everyone[/I] in the party just happens to get so lucky? Yes, I think so. Let's say your characters have backgrounds criminal, noble, folk hero, gladiator, sage, sailor. Each one has a background feature that requires that they be recognized and given special treatment. Except they're in Barovia, a strange land cut off from the normal world for centuries with no contact. A big part of the module is that the entire place is a mystery and they're fish out of water. How often can they "just happen to stumble across" people that know who they are? That sage is supposed to know who to contact to find info or where to go, but you know no one here and no one back home has ever heard of this place. The poor sailor of course is just completely SOL unless you redraw the map and add an ocean. I like the idea of backgrounds and mechanically the additional proficiencies are useful and a good idea. But much like traits, bonds, ideals, flaws I just don't really see them widely used. The earlier background features are just too specific to be broadly used if in-world logic matters to the group. There's no innate magic to the older background features, but trying to make them work when it makes no sense to the scenario makes them feel like they are. [/QUOTE]

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