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Krynn's Free Feats: setting-specific or the future of the game?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8619573" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Well overgeeked, it's like this. If there's no place in your game for that "fantasy", that's fine. I didn't really expect to be treated like a king when I chose noble for my character, but I did think it would be more useful than it ended up being. I mean, even in AL, I would occasionally see an adventure that says "hey if a character belongs to this Faction or has this Background, this happens". I just never got my turn at bat, as it were.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, as Maxperson has pointed out, this is campaign-dependent; if a DM wants to work Backgrounds into their campaigns, great, since I think the intent is that they do- but without guidance, a player can pick a Background that doesn't really matter in the game that's being played.</p><p></p><p>Like if I'm an Outlander or Outlaw and we're working for the rightful ruler of a land, that might be a <strong>disadvantage</strong>! Yet the Background implies that being an Outlander or Outlaw is an <strong>advantage</strong>.</p><p></p><p>A lot of space in the PHB is devoted to Backgrounds, so I don't think they were intended to be vestigial, yet they certainly can be, and you do get DM's who say "you have no right or expectation for your Background to matter".</p><p></p><p>Who could blame a designer for realizing they could have bypassed this by giving each Background a mechanical benefit instead of a vaguely defined Feature?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8619573, member: 6877472"] Well overgeeked, it's like this. If there's no place in your game for that "fantasy", that's fine. I didn't really expect to be treated like a king when I chose noble for my character, but I did think it would be more useful than it ended up being. I mean, even in AL, I would occasionally see an adventure that says "hey if a character belongs to this Faction or has this Background, this happens". I just never got my turn at bat, as it were. Obviously, as Maxperson has pointed out, this is campaign-dependent; if a DM wants to work Backgrounds into their campaigns, great, since I think the intent is that they do- but without guidance, a player can pick a Background that doesn't really matter in the game that's being played. Like if I'm an Outlander or Outlaw and we're working for the rightful ruler of a land, that might be a [B]disadvantage[/B]! Yet the Background implies that being an Outlander or Outlaw is an [B]advantage[/B]. A lot of space in the PHB is devoted to Backgrounds, so I don't think they were intended to be vestigial, yet they certainly can be, and you do get DM's who say "you have no right or expectation for your Background to matter". Who could blame a designer for realizing they could have bypassed this by giving each Background a mechanical benefit instead of a vaguely defined Feature? [/QUOTE]
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Community
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Krynn's Free Feats: setting-specific or the future of the game?
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