D&D (2024) RIP, 2014 PHB backgrounds

[dave2008]

Which part don't they want to do? They don't want to pick the ability score increases that best match their chosen class? They don't want any say in what languages their character knows? They want to have their first-level feat chosen for them sight-unseen? Or they don't care what proficiencies they have?

Yes to all of that. They simply don't want to think about it. They want to pick a theme,* at most, and that is it.

*Such as "soldier," etc.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes to all of that. They simply don't want to think about it. They want to pick a theme,* at most, and that is it.

*Such as "soldier," etc.

I wonder how many will pick options that aren't aligned with their class, such as a soldier wizard with a +2 Str. It will be race/class combos all over again.

At least this time the PHB has the "but I want to put the +2 in Int" option covered.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder how many will pick options that aren't aligned with their class, such as a soldier wizard with a +2 Str. It will be race/class combos all over again.

I'm not sure it matters.

The folks who want to min-max their characters for the best stats possible will do so under any system. Many of them wouldn't care about roleplay anyway and those that do will roleplay even the crazier combos.

Conversely, the folks for whom roleplay is their primary focus will pick crazy combos, but usually because of the friction between them. My 78 year old dad plays a pirate bard and it's been a lot of fun leveraging both sides of the character.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Again, if I was seeing widespread misunderstanding of how it works, I might be concerned. I saw a little bit of that as the knee-jerk reaction when the UA first dropped, and when it was pointed out, the same people shifted to saying “well, other people are going to misunderstand it.” And I just don’t really see that. Again, some people might, but it is a simple matter to point out the actual text to them, just like we did with the initial wave of misunderstanding.

There does seem to be a lot of people who understand it claiming that other people are not going to understand it. Even to the point of asking for it to be changed or removed because of a misunderstanding that, while it can happen, doesn't seem to be too hard to correct by pointing to the part that says you can make your own.

 

[dave2008]

I wonder how many will pick options that aren't aligned with their class, such as a soldier wizard with a +2 Str. It will be race/class combos all over again.

I can only speak for my group, but it has varied from person to person IIRC. I don't remember their backgrounds off the top of my head so I will have to check when I get a chance.

At least this time the PHB has the "but I want to put the +2 in Int" option covered.

I am glad the are going to have all of the customizability, but I just know it is not for my players and that is absolutely OK.

 

[Fifth Element]

As a wise boss once said to me: "think about how smart the average person is. Then think about how 50% of them are dumber than that."

I'd say this is a deepity rather than actual wisdom. Even if you could measure intelligence with enough precision to allow you to determine the one person who is the median, there would be HUGE numbers of people on either side of the median that are so close to the median in intelligence that it would make no difference at all. You would never be able to determine that they were any more or less intelligent than the median on a day-to-day, because the difference would be so tiny. So in reality there would be some significant proportion of people who for all intents and purposes are as smart as the average person, leaving far less than 50% to be less intelligence than that.

That, plus the fact that you can just as easily say there are 50% of people who are smarter than the median as well, thus making the exact opposite point using the same assumption, renders the whole thing rather meaningless. Especially in the context of game rules written in a book. Who is more likely to pick up a book to play a game from it, someone of below-average intelligence, or above-average?

 

[Charlaquin]

There does seem to be a lot of people who understand it claiming that other people are not going to understand it. Even to the point of asking for it to be changed or removed because of a misunderstanding that, while it can happen, doesn't seem to be too hard to correct by pointing to the part that says you can make your own.

Exactly. Will this be misunderstood sometimes? Of course. But I don’t think that’s a reason to throw out the design, especially when the misunderstanding is trivially easy to correct.

 

[Gorck]

I'd say this is a deepity rather than actual wisdom. Even if you could measure intelligence with enough precision to allow you to determine the one person who is the median, there would be HUGE numbers of people on either side of the median that are so close to the median in intelligence that it would make no difference at all. You would never be able to determine that they were any more or less intelligent than the median on a day-to-day, because the difference would be so tiny. So in reality there would be some significant proportion of people who for all intents and purposes are as smart as the average person, leaving far less than 50% to be less intelligence than that.

That, plus the fact that you can just as easily say there are 50% of people who are smarter than the median as well, thus making the exact opposite point using the same assumption, renders the whole thing rather meaningless. Especially in the context of game rules written in a book. Who is more likely to pick up a book to play a game from it, someone of below-average intelligence, or above-average?

Wow, you put way too much thought and analysis into a simple George Carlin joke.

 

[shadowoflameth]

Can't agree with you there. My players don't want to create a background. They just want to pick one and go. So, for my players, I hope they keep backgrounds in '24.

Agree. Whatever they do for the final formula, I'd like to see: here are completed backgrounds and if you want to make your own, here's what you get in one.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I very much prefer creating my own backgrounds (the rules are right there in the Player's Handbook). Four of the last five characters I've played had custom backgrounds: Town Guard, Vampire Hunter, Whaler, and Tunnel Engineer. The one time I played a textbook background, it wasn't by choice: our DM told us that all characters had to have the Soldier background.

Do folks not write their own backgrounds? For me, it's a big part of the fun of character creation.

When I DM my players are about 50/50 on make there own or take one that fits... I once made everyone have to pick one and 2 players HATED it... I told them they could swap a skill and/or language out and that didn't help.

I almost always take a background, and make little mods.