House rule idea background and dice

[Imaro]

Does the problem the background specialisation stuff seems aimed at fixing (people spamming their one super-broad background for everything) actually come up in play? It's plausible that it could, but I haven't had a chance to actually play the game yet..

Yeah I'm curious about this as well.

First I'm trying to think of a background (That's not an obvious power play move) that could be used on nearly everything (or close enough to it to be a problem). Does anyone have any examples of this type of background?

Second I tend to agree and lean towards @Manabarbs post. I've run the first session of my 13th Age campaign and I didn't run into this problem because I made sure the PC's were creating actual backgrounds as opposed to just a skill or just a profession. I didn't do this just for story potential (thought that is definitely a benefit) but instead because in making "backgrounds actual "backgrounds" they become naturally limited and more narrow by their own descriptions.

Finally I find this such a hard thing to understand as an issue when 13th Age has given final say to the DM, if I thought a background was going to be problematic why not just talk to the player about it... same thing if a background becomes problematic in actual play. I guess with the DM having final say as to whether a background is applicable or not I just don't see this as a major problem.

 

[Manabarbs]

If anything, the bigger problem with too-general backgrounds is that they tend to overshadow the character'sother backgrounds. Because only one background bonus applies to any check made by a character, it's natural for players to try to draw connections between their higher-ranked backgrounds and the situation. If a character has Bone Collector +1 and Arctic Navigator +5, you're going to hear a lot more stories about arctic navigation than about bone collecting. A +1 or +2 background taken alongside higher-ranked backgrounds that have some application overlap can go underdeveloped if the DM doesn't try to bring it to the fore.

 

[Paraxis]

I think I will go over the players backgrounds and just jot down what traditional skill I think they would be good for and keep it to myself. I am just trying to get used to the whole 13th Age thing myself, my group got a late start and we are still in the middle of the first organized play adventure.

I don't think I have any characters in my game with a +1 background I don't think many people would pick that. So far it has been +5/+3, +4/+4, or +4/+2/+2 and those seem like the same combinations I hear other people talk about on forums and stuff.

On further thinking the whole idea of having fewer focuses the higher the bonus is a bad one, again idea came to me on little sleep I had a feeling it was not all that great to begin with. I should just learn to sleep on my hair brained ideas and post them later.

 

[Zireael]

If you want the +1 backgrounds to be used, what about a house rule that makes you pick a +1 background?