Regions and Regional Feats

[delericho]

During character creation for my new campaign, I got the sense from a couple of my players that they were choosing their characters' home regions based not on a burning desire to have their character come from that given region, but rather so they could gain access to a favourite regional feat.

Now, on one hand, I'm not hugely bothered by this, since the power level of regional feats isn't that much higher than regular feats. On the other hand, though, I would have thought the idea should have been to create a character you want to play, tie that character to the region that makes sense for the character, and gain a regional feat (or not) accordingly.

I was wondering, is this sort of thing common in games with regional feats? Do players tend to create character first, and get the regional feat as appropriate, or do they 'cherry pick' regional feats, and develop background to follow?

 

[Sammael]

In my experience, it is entirely dependent on the player. I've had both kinds of players, although I encourage them to come up with a concept first and then apply the mechanics.

 

[IronWolf]

I agree with Sammael. This is really going to depend on the player I think. Some will be looking to optimize their character as much as they can and look for a Regional feat that they feel will improve their character and then work from there. Others will design their character background for the flavor and then check to see which regional feats happen to be available to their character.

 

[Li Shenron]

On the other hand, though, I would have thought the idea should have been to create a character you want to play, tie that character to the region that makes sense for the character, and gain a regional feat (or not) accordingly.

The player has an idea about a character. Why should he choose first the region and then the PC's abilities? How could it likely for a player to start from "I'm going to be from Waterdeep" and only afterwards go and see what abilities he can have? More likely that he starts from a concept like "wizard expert in shapechanging" and THEN look for a region that makes sense for his PC to come from (i.e. the region with shapechanging experts, hence special feats).

character concept -> character features (class, skills, feats) -> place the PC in the setting (region)

Of course, it's not either that straighforward usually. Creating a PC is always going back and forth: from roleplay ideas to mechanical choices, from mechanical options available to adjusting/adding to the character background.

Plus, if you use regional feats, you just cannot cherry-pick! Cherry-picking means to pick character features from different sources. The point of using regions and regional feat is that each character only has one, from which it benefits in terms of having exclusive options available, but is barred from other regions' options. [Then, as soon as a player is allowed to have more than one region - typically with the trick of being a sort of wanderer - you might as well forget about the meaning of using regional benefits at all]

 

[BiggusGeekus]

During character creation for my new campaign, I got the sense from a couple of my players that they were choosing their characters' home regions based not on a burning desire to have their character come from that given region, but rather so they could gain access to a favourite regional feat.

Now, on one hand, I'm not hugely bothered by this, since the power level of regional feats isn't that much higher than regular feats. On the other hand, though, I would have thought the idea should have been to create a character you want to play, tie that character to the region that makes sense for the character, and gain a regional feat (or not) accordingly.

I was wondering, is this sort of thing common in games with regional feats? Do players tend to create character first, and get the regional feat as appropriate, or do they 'cherry pick' regional feats, and develop background to follow?

I use these heavily and I encourage players taking regional feats for the power. I find it helps the PCs get into character.

If the feats are written properly the roleplay should follow. If they aren't, you can help them out as a DM.

Example: A character rolls up a bard named Leif. There are a bunch of feats available, but the character decides that Leif should have the Lucky feat (+1 to all saves, +1hp) because Leif is from Luckyland. Even if we were to leave things there the game would be fine. The player may forget that Leif is from Luckyland, but since all the regional feats are a notch powerful, there's no lack of balance compared to the other PCs.

What you should try to do as a DM is also remember that Leif is from Luckyland. When Leif makes a save by 1, remember to remind Leif that being a Lucklander is a good thing. Every now and then if he rolls well, mention that he has all the luck of a Lucklander. Getting a critical hit has nothing to do with the Luckyland feat of course. But you're helping the PC identify with his country.

If you build up the connection, later on in the game, when Luckyland gets hit with an invasion of Thri-Kreen, Leif should be more willing to help fend off the attack and have an emotional stake in the outcome.

 

[Staffan]

During character creation for my new campaign, I got the sense from a couple of my players that they were choosing their characters' home regions based not on a burning desire to have their character come from that given region, but rather so they could gain access to a favourite regional feat.

The way I see it, if the regional feats are well-designed they create a roleplaying/background/mechanics loop. Basically, the player decides "I want to play a guy who was born in the saddle." He then sees the regional feat Saddleback, and says "Yay! That fits right in. So, I guess that means I'm from Narfell, then." This will then reinforce that people from Narfell tend to be superior horsemen.

I think this process creates characters that the player care more about than "I guess I'll be from Narfell. What are people there like? OK, they're good with horses. I guess I'll take the Saddleback feat then."

Of course, if the DM specifies ahead of time that "Your characters all come from the Dalelands," well, the horse-dude has to settle for Mounted Combat or something like that instead.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Depends on how the character approaches character creaton.

Because this isn't GURPS, Hero, or Tri-Stat, if there is some mechanic with a limitation around it that you want to pick, then you have to make character to concept.

If you're just making a standard character you have in mind, then it's concept to character.

 

[Arnwyn]

I was wondering, is this sort of thing common in games with regional feats? Do players tend to create character first, and get the regional feat as appropriate, or do they 'cherry pick' regional feats, and develop background to follow?

As others have mentioned, it may depend on the player.

For us, though, I find my players will do both. Most of the time they design a character and then pick a region, but sometimes they will pick a region with a feat they like and then build the character.

I'm quite happy with either, as long as the character reasonably fits the region that they come from. In any case, while all characters are vetted by me before they enter play, this is all academic as we've never had problem.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

This is a chicken-egg problem to me.

In the end, if the player is having fun, does it matter if they chose the feat then made up the background, or made up the background first and selected the feat?

Couldn't care less either way, personally.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

I was wondering, is this sort of thing common in games with regional feats? Do players tend to create character first, and get the regional feat as appropriate, or do they 'cherry pick' regional feats, and develop background to follow?

I just have to say, I'm surprised to see a number of people claim that "it depends on the player." I've never seen anyone do it any way other than (1) pick the feat, (2) accept the region that goes along with it. But that's just my experience, I guess.