NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thyrwyn" data-source="post: 6491034" data-attributes="member: 12354">I think backgrounds are a phenomenal tool that can be used to add flavor and depth to a campaign. I would argue, however, that it is not their race that makes elves, dwarves, etc... So alien, it is their culture. I plan on using backgrounds to reflect cultural differences, not racial ones.Would a soldier from a dwarven kingdom have different skills and ideals than one from medieval England? Sure, but wouldn't they both have different skills and ideals than one from feudal Japan. I also wouldn't limit them by race - you want to play a human that was raised by Elves and take the Elven Treesinger background? Go for it. An Elf that grew up as an urchin in a medieval human city? OK. Those characters would both have different ideals and viewpoints than their so-called 'racial norms'. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature (actually, all literature) often uses the 'adopted outsider' as a trope, because it is a useful tool to give the audience a means of exploring an alien culture from a familiar perspective. The works of CS Friedman and C. J. Cheryl come to mind, but also classics like "Last of the Mohicans" and "Captains Courageous".This also gives the world crafter a means of changing the racial trappings without changing the race. In my last campaign, a 4e Pirate-themed setting placed in a vast archipelago, the elves were reflavored as one of the colonial powers and were modeled on Imperial China, the humans were indigenous tribesmen with a Polynesian flair, the Gnomes were akin to the colonial Dutch, the Hobgoblins/Goblinoids worshipped a vast pantheon of gods with a Hindi feel, but focused on pain and suffering...I would suggest that instead of trying to force your players to play a certain way, try finding ways to make them want to play that way. If you make racial/cultural outlooks interesting and engaging, then your players will want to explore them, too.</blockquote>

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