D&D 5E forget classes, i want more backgrounds

[JonWake]

I'd pay real money for a book of backgrounds.

 

[thalmin]

I'd pay real money for a book of backgrounds.

I think you will get your chance. I hope it won't take too long.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think you will get your chance. I hope it won't take too long.

The challenge, I think, keeping a ton of homebrew backgrounds being released is the tie to ideals/bonds/flaws. That presentation and verbiage seems to be something that falls under copyright protection, and thus we'd have to wait to 2015 to see just what kind of OGL license we'll see. Until then I see a bunch of stuff like this, where it's just a basic table:

Background skill skill Tool
animal trainer animal handling medicine
carpenter perception insight carpenter's tools, woodcarver's tools
circus performance acrobatics 1 gaming set
cowboy animal handling ahtletics vehicle (land)

 

[SigmaOne]

After a plentiful selection of Backgrounds, something I want to see: good guidelines and suggestions for creating our own backgrounds

Has anyone put this question to Mike Mearls? Sounds like something that might appear in the DMG?.

 

[thalmin]

The challenge, I think, keeping a ton of homebrew backgrounds being released is the tie to ideals/bonds/flaws. That presentation and verbiage seems to be something that falls under copyright protection, and thus we'd have to wait to 2015 to see just what kind of OGL license we'll see. Until then I see a bunch of stuff like this, where it's just a basic table:

Background skill skill Tool
animal trainer animal handling medicine
carpenter perception insight carpenter's tools, woodcarver's tools
circus performance acrobatics 1 gaming set
cowboy animal handling ahtletics vehicle (land)

Ughh. That's like condensing Romeo and Juliet into "Two kids fall in love and end up dead."

 

[Tony Vargas]

Personally I think the new Backgrounds and their emphasis on character development are going to do more to make this game awesome... - characters that have personalities and are defined much more like "a criminal" or "a folk hero" than the rogue or the fighter. Someone said it seemed like the Backgrounds took a strong hint from the Apocalypse World/Dungeon World style,

Backgrounds are a good idea. Haven't seen AW/DW, I'm sure they're a fine idea in there, too. They were also pretty good when 4e did them. They were a little sketchy as 'secondary skills' randomly rolled in the 1e DMG, but still basically the same thing (what your character learned to do besides his class, typically a mundane profession). For that matter, in 3e you could model your background with judicious use of a few skill points in Crafts or Professions...

So, sure, nice - but not revelatory or revolutionary or anything.

 

[MarkB]

Ughh. That's like condensing Romeo and Juliet into "Two kids fall in love and end up dead."

Dude, spoilers.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Has anyone put this question to Mike Mearls? Sounds like something that might appear in the DMG?.

They're already in the basic set. Page 36. Pretty much tells you how to create your own.

 

[CM]

Personally I think the new Backgrounds and their emphasis on character development are going to do more to make this game awesome than even advantage/disadvantage.

Ok, more like "10th"

I lost count.

 

[GX.Sigma]

After a plentiful selection of Backgrounds, something I want to see: good guidelines and suggestions for creating our own backgrounds

Has anyone put this question to Mike Mearls? Sounds like something that might appear in the DMG?.

What's wrong with how it works in Basic? Any feature, two skills, two tools/languages. What more could you ask for (besides more examples, which we're going to get in the PHB anyway)?