King & Country: Character Nationality as Background

The latest article for EN5ider patrons! Previous vocations aren't the only types of character backgrounds. This article discusses the creation of character backgrounds based on nationality, along with two fully developed backgrounds: Crusader Nation and Arcane Dominion. By Mark A. Hart; illustrated by Scott Harshbarger. EN World EN5ider is the way to get weekly new articles and adventures for your game!

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16. King & Country. Previous vocations aren't the only types of character backgrounds. This article discusses the creation of character backgrounds based on nationality, along with two fully developed backgrounds: Crusader Nation and Arcane Dominion. By Mark A. Hart; illustrated by Scott Harshbarger.

 

[MasterTrancer]

Nice take!

 

[Morrus]

Wow. There's something in the air today! On Google+ this article prompted an unpleasant chap called Andrew Ferris to call me a "nationalistic scumbag" (presumably because he felt the Arcane Dominion was being discriminated against, or something) - he hadn't read the article. On Facebook, the same article causes a guy called Bill Mogenthien to rant about Dragonborn tails and call those with different opinions about Dragonborn tails "weirdos". I strongly suspect he, too, has not read the article. Still, fun times all round, as both appear to have helped increase the number of EN5ider patrons today! Thanks guys!

 

[darjr]

When will this tailism end!!!!

 

[Li Shenron]

Wow. There's something in the air today! On Google+ this article prompted an unpleasant chap called Andrew Ferris to call me a "nationalistic scumbag" (presumably because he felt the Arcane Dominion was being discriminated against, or something) - he hadn't read the article.

(I can't read the article either BTW.)

There might be something wrong in the message delivered by "nationality/cultural backgrounds".

Note that here we're talking about fantasy nations and cultures, so if someone takes it personally they are clearly overreacting... If you create e.g. an "Asian background" this can become offensive because of the following reasons:

- you are trivializing the concept of "being Asian" into a (very) limited set of features
- you are implicitly suggesting every Asian-themed character should have the Asian background

The first reason is actually why I wouldn't ever want cultural backgrounds in my game (especially if inspired by RL cultures or themes). It just doesn't make sense to me to distill "Asianness" into 2 skills and a small bunch of other things. Even a fantasy nation cannot be as simplistic as that. There was a reason why Backgrounds were originally conceited as "roles in society" and not "different societies", and that reason is that all societies need a lot of different roles, not people who all know how to do the same few things.

The second point shouldn't be a problem at all, as it is just a matter of perception, but why not explicitly remind the players that an Asian-themed character can take the Asian background but can also still take any other background? IMO this could easily be misinterpreted by players, who might think they have to take the Thay background if their PC is from Thay, but really this is not the case!

---

I have myself struggled a little bit with similar problems in my 5e conversion of Rokugan: there, standard (Basic/PHB) backgrounds representing society roles don't work because everyone's a Noble. Instead of nations, there are clans, but clan backgrounds wouldn't work either because there are no standard backgrounds, and thus everyone from a certain clan would look the same (unless they choose not to pick a background at all!). I have used family backgrounds instead, because homogeneity within family members is not as problematic as homogeneity with the whole clan, but still I have to explicitly remind players that they are never forced to use the ready-made background at all.

 

[JeffB]

I dont like Dragonborn, but it is a good article Russ. I would like to see the Author flesh out the remaining example nations.

 

[Morrus]

I dont like Dragonborn, but it is a good article Russ. I would like to see the Author flesh out the remaining example nations.

Good news! We're commissioning Mark to write a follow-up article!

 

[Gilladian]

I fully intend to adopt these backgrounds into my campaign world. I like!

I do agree though, that nobody should feel pushed to take a background just because they come from such a place.

 

[JeffB]

Good news! We're commissioning Mark to write a follow-up article!

Excellent News, I'd say!