D&D 5E Legends & Lore 8/4/14: Here Comes the Player's Handbook

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I don't think having one "Outlander" background to cover all wandering foreigners is necessarily a bad idea, and it's certainly not inherently racist. I mean, "hermit" readily covers a European-style bearded guy who prays alone in the woods, a Japanese-style solitary Zen master, a Middle Eastern-style prophet wearing a hide shirt, and so on. The "outlander" could easily be generic without being racist: you have an accent, you find local customs strange and sometimes offensive, you have esoteric knowledge from your home culture, etc.

 

[Andor]

If WotC had really gone that route, it would be the dumbest.background.ever. I mean seriously, one background to cover "all foreigners" is not just dumb, it's bordering the racist. How the hell can I think everyone outside our kingdom/continent has the same skills proficiencies?

You furriners is all the same wit yer garlic breath and funny accents! Wha cin't ya talks like normal folk?

Outlander
Skill: Cook Weird Food what gives me gas
Skill: Steal our wimmin folk
Skill: Bathe too often
Proficiency: Funny Accent

 

[Snapdragyn]

I'm going to make an ocean-themed team with a Hermit, Sailor, and Urchin. Too bad the genasi isn't out yet.

I'm guessing the Hermit will be a crabby fellow?

 

[Steely Dan]

I'm going to make an ocean-themed team with a Hermit, Sailor, and Urchin. Too bad the genasi isn't out yet.

I'd DM that, a sort of Sponge-Bob Square Pants campaign.

 

[tuxgeo]

Days ago I wrote (incorrectly):

One way, which I don't think WotC will have decided to use, would be this:
• Every PC with the "Outlander" background gets Perception -- because everyone willl want to take it anyway.
• Roll 1d12 on the Table for your second skill proficiency. Guides get Survival, but Horse-Traders get Animal Handling, and so on.

That might work. (But, again, I doubt they did it that way.)

Now the answer has been posted in another thread:
The "Outlander" background gives Athletics & Survival; One musical instrument; one Language; and the "Wanderer" feature.

Compared to the "Guide" background in the playtest, the following are the same: Athletics, Survival, and Wanderer: that is to say, both Skills plus the Feature in the "Outlander" are straight from the "Guide." The only thing comparable from the "Bounty Hunter" is getting a Language of your choice.

For my tastes, that's not enough to consider the "Outlander" to include the Bounty Hunter at all.
(It's almost as though WotC didn't want players to play Boba Fett in the "Tyranny of Dragons" adventures.)

 

[the Jester]

For my tastes, that's not enough to consider the "Outlander" to include the Bounty Hunter at all.
(It's almost as though WotC didn't want players to play Boba Fett in the "Tyranny of Dragons" adventures.)

Yep. I've already copied over the bounty hunter background into my burgeoning tentative homebrew conversion list. Although I did turn it down a bit, as the playtest backgrounds seem to come with a lot more oomph than the final ones.