D&D (2024) Learning to Love the Background System

[Davinshe]

I am in the "entirely reject" camp when it comes to the new backgrounds, and I doubt anything can change my mind. For me, one's backstory needs to be mostly independent from one's build. The idea that I'd have to have a lower score in my primary ability because of my backstory is anathema to creating a memorable D&D character. I'll just let players take their attributes, skill, and origin feat as they wish, and I predict that this will eventually become the default.

 

[Charlaquin]

So people didn't like species being pre-packaged combos of ASIs and features, as many players felt that they had to choose one that provided proper ASIs to their class, and now the exact same issue has been shifted to background...

I don't really get it. Like I was fine with species ASIs, but if that was deemed undesirable design it seems crazy to just repeat the same structure elsewhere.

Yeah, I liked the idea of ASIs being tied to background in the playtest, because there custom backgrounds were presented as the default, so it was effectively ASIs, a 1st level Feat, two skills, one tool, and one language, all floating, and thematically tied to your upbringing, that you could flavor however you wanted. But having them all be fixed in the PHB and shunting the custom background rules to the DMG just repeats the same pitfalls as species ASIs (though again, without the implied biological essentialism, which is at least an improvement IMO). Really strange change to have made without soliciting player feedback, I definitely would have voted dissatisfied if they had presented it this way in the UAs.

 

[Vael]

I dunno, maybe I'm just too sanguine because I'm a permissive DM by nature, but I can't imagine saying no to the player that wants to make a swap or two and that these backgrounds are suggestions, not written in stone.

A player wants to get their Luke Skywalker on and play a Sorcerer with Farmer? Sure boost CHA instead of Wisdom. Your street kid is more known for taking a licking than luck? Swap Tough for Lucky in the Wayfarer. Your background gives Thieves Tools and you're playing a Rogue? Grab a different tool, it's fine.

 

[MarkB]

Prompted by this video from Treantmonk, I’m starting this thread about the background system.

Interesting that he's allowed to post images taken directly from the PHB in this video. I wonder if the rules have changed, or if they only applied to certain chapters.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The one thing I don't understand about ASIs, whether they are tethered to species or background, is... why aren't they simply attached to class, where they effectively belong? Not only is it your character's biggest area of training, but it's seen as very important to match your ASI to your class. So important, that I suspect that it's vanishingly rare that anyone doesn't put at least one +1 in the classes prime ability. Why not skip that step and just put it there? It's not like you couldn't still put "choose STR, DEX, or CON" for your fighter, or whatever.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Interesting that he's allowed to post images taken directly from the PHB in this video. I wonder if the rules have changed, or if they only applied to certain chapters.

They produced new guidance that limits the number of pages they can use, but they're not (AFAIK) outlawing any particular pages.

 

[roguish]

Personally, I will be using custom backgrounds with pride and delight. Because here's how my ideal Background mechanic works conceptually:

Every story has a beginning. Your character's background represents where you came from, and what your life was like before you became an adventurer. Like every living being, you were shaped to an extent by your environment. That includes, but is not limited to, your previous occupation(s), your social class, the area you grew up in along with its geography and climate, your kin and kith, your upbringing, your culture, all the places you've traveled and all the relationships you've formed.

All this contributed to what you are now, and your Background is an amalgamation of everything you gained during your formative years.

Benefits: pick 2 or 3 stat boosts, an origin feat, two skills, and a tool, take 50 gold, off you go.

From there, every table and DM can choose one of two approaches.

1) it's the DM's job to rein in the background's benefits, making sure they fit the flavour and aren't too convenient for the character's build

2) it's allowed and indeed expected to pick benefits that are most convenient to your build

See, with so many factors going into the flavour (and rightly so, all these things do shape us, you are not just your job!), surely something will be able to justify the player's choices, unless they make something silly on purpose. So I'll take the second approach. But the first is also very doable, if that floats your boat, and I sincerely think it's a much better mechanic than having 16 choices and waiting for WotC's official blessing (custom backgrounds in the DMG, and additional ones in splatbooks down the line) to add a 17th.

 

[Charlaquin]

I dunno, maybe I'm just too sanguine because I'm a permissive DM by nature, but I can't imagine saying no to the player that wants to make a swap or two and that these backgrounds are suggestions, not written in stone.

I’ll probably be going custom backgrounds from day 1. But I’m still annoyed that they moved that option to the DMG, because I’m sure there will be plenty of DMs who don’t allow any background customization simply because it isn’t in the PHB.

 

[MarkB]

At least we know that there will be background customisation rules in the DMG, so while I consider the current ones too constrained, I'm not too worried about it. After all, how many PCs am I going to build and play in two months?

 

[Seramus]

Just in general I want to inspire more build diversity instead of less. It doesn't bother me that some options may get picked more often than others, so I will certainly be allowing custom backgrounds at my own table. Plus, the implication that only humans have Lucky Criminals, Alert Soldiers, or Tough Gladiators is goofy.