D&D (2024) Is anyone going to use the new 2024 backgrounds?

[Zuranthium]

We get it, you think 5.5 does not offer enough new material in your opinion, think it's a money grab, and think they're lying about the level of newness of this release.

Where is your point? You claimed it's not what they are doing and have done nothing to support your argument.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I honestly think that the easiest, most interesting, and fairest thing to do is to use the 2024 Backgrounds, but let players trade any option for any other equivalent option, as long as it is done in a way that makes logical sense for that character.

Which is what I plan to do.

 

[Mistwell]

Where is your point? You claimed it's not what they are doing and have done nothing to support your argument.

My point is you're just repeating yourself and being dismissive of anyone who dissents from your view. All you said was you thought they did it to sell books. I responded Backgrounds in particular doesn't seem like a marketing plan one way or the other. You have not explained why you think it's a good topic for a marketing plan.

Who do you think is the target to be persuaded to buy this book over Backgrounds such that you thought that was a good well-founded view for this particular Backgrounds topic? Because it looked to me you're just trying to fit your old opinion about all topics and 5.5 into this subject even though it didn't fit this topic well.

 

[Zuranthium]

I responded Backgrounds in particular doesn't seem like a marketing plan one way or the other. You have not explained why you think it's a good topic for a marketing plan.

I never said it was a sole marketing plan. It's one of many things they have falsely boosted up as being some kind of big, important, creative feature. A package attempt to make it seem like 5.5 is a necessity to buy, along with all the other various 5.5 products that will follow. My product review is that it mostly sucks and people shouldn't throw their money at it. This is one of the features that sucks and I've detailed why.

Who do you think is the target to be persuaded to buy this book over Backgrounds

Whoever is interested in it. The concept of "the new character creation is going to make characters much deeper and more meaningful and improve your gaming experience" is most definitely something that could make a person want to buy a product.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Customizing is the whole point. If that is allowed this is entirely moot. If you are customizing a background though then you are not using one of the PHB backgrounds.

But what about those who don't want to customize? For those who the PHB choices cover what they want (and they do cover a substantial amount og ground), or for those who just don't want to take time to customize and want a simple set of choices available so they can get done with character building and start playing?

 

[tetrasodium]

I honestly think that the easiest, most interesting, and fairest thing to do is to use the 2024 Backgrounds, but let players trade any option for any other equivalent option, as long as it is done in a way that makes logical sense for that character.

Which is what I plan to do.

That's certainly ok for your tables. My games tend to last for longer & reach higher levels than average so I think that it is farr too early to give a blanket blessing for anything goes like that. We don't yet know what problematic unintended & disruptive combos will exist in 2024 & we don't know what parts of character creation/advancement they will be assembled from. What we do know though is that skepticism is entirely justified because wotc has recently admitted that they knew "very early on" about something that was too powerful as well as how RAI failed so spectacularly but waited a decade to start talking about or explicitly admit it. If I can't trust wotc to have my back when I notice something they know about seems screwy then I need to proactively take steps to mitigate the risk before it can impact my campaign or session planning

 

[Zaukrie]

But minmaxers aren't the only people who like to customize.

It's almost like statements are dials, not switches..... Like, not absolutes... I'm literally talking about my players. I never say this is how all players are.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That's certainly ok for your tables. My games tend to last for longer & reach higher levels than average so I think that it is farr too early to give a blanket blessing for anything goes like that. We don't yet know what problematic unintended & disruptive combos will exist in 2024 & we don't know what parts of character creation/advancement they will be assembled from. What we do know though is that skepticism is entirely justified because wotc has recently admitted that they knew "very early on" about something that was too powerful as well as how RAI failed so spectacularly but waited a decade to start talking about or explicitly admit it. If I can't trust wotc to have my back when I notice something they know about seems screwy then I need to proactively take steps to mitigate the risk before it can impact my campaign or session planning

For sure. I'm not too worried about it, even for my public tables (though I will probably follow AL guidelines there, assuming I agree with those guidelines) but I trust my players not to use it to find broken combos, and if they do by accident, well then I trust that we will nix that combo.

 

[mamba]

With the bonus on Wisdom I used every point I had available on Wisdom after I made my Strength Dex and Con 15,14 and 16 respectfully, but that is only 2 points I had available. With the bonus on strength I was able to devote 5 points to Wisdom with the SAME STRENGTH, DEXTERITY and CONSTITUTION scores

I am not sure I follow, that is exactly the point I was making. You bought a stupid set of stats and chose a stupid background, thereby getting a worse result than when not doing so

 

[mamba]

Then why do the promotional videos act like this "new" method of character creation is some revolutionary, exciting thing? It's either false marketing or a bad job at trying to create something that was somehow supposed to be special.

why are they talking about the changes in the book? I don't know, maybe because they want to whet your appetite? Showing you all the changes is a far cry from anyone buying the book for the backgrounds as the only reason