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<blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 8775337" data-attributes="member: 7635"><p>The whole kerfuffle started when people pointed out that the backgrounds in the playtest were using some of the same bias (intended or not) that racial cultures did. Gladiator (with its strength boost, orc language and SAVAGE attacker feat) was viewed as WotC saying gladiators in D&D were associated with orcs and savagery, and that just is the old orc lore with extra steps. There were threads on Enworld pointing this out, lest you think this was just a Twitter outrage. People literally read it and thought "why do all gladiators speak orc? Why do all farmers speak halfling?" And a few wondered why all criminals are dexterous or nobles charismatic. In short, people read it as "this is what a gladiator/farmer/noble is" rather than "this is what they could be". </p><p></p><p>The question is whether having these prepackaged bundles few people beyond be players are going to use is worth the chance that a background is viewed as restricting or even problematic. I want to trust WotC can thread that needle, but I've seen how WotC has made some unforced errors and how quickly people were willing to jump on the gladiator thing as yet another example of that. IMHO, the limited value of the premade bundles isn't worth the headache of people analyzing them as world building. There is no language you slot into gladiator that doesn't paint the race as violent, and having "choose x" is a waste of space. </p><p></p><p>So yeah, people will make that mistake because they already have. And it immediately became a minor tempest in a teapot. And the fixes are to make the system more complicated or redundant. So maybe the best move is to abandon the presets or reword them closer to the quick builds in the class section (a paragraph full of plain language suggestions). But the current format is ripe for misunderstanding.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Remathilis, post: 8775337, member: 7635"] The whole kerfuffle started when people pointed out that the backgrounds in the playtest were using some of the same bias (intended or not) that racial cultures did. Gladiator (with its strength boost, orc language and SAVAGE attacker feat) was viewed as WotC saying gladiators in D&D were associated with orcs and savagery, and that just is the old orc lore with extra steps. There were threads on Enworld pointing this out, lest you think this was just a Twitter outrage. People literally read it and thought "why do all gladiators speak orc? Why do all farmers speak halfling?" And a few wondered why all criminals are dexterous or nobles charismatic. In short, people read it as "this is what a gladiator/farmer/noble is" rather than "this is what they could be". The question is whether having these prepackaged bundles few people beyond be players are going to use is worth the chance that a background is viewed as restricting or even problematic. I want to trust WotC can thread that needle, but I've seen how WotC has made some unforced errors and how quickly people were willing to jump on the gladiator thing as yet another example of that. IMHO, the limited value of the premade bundles isn't worth the headache of people analyzing them as world building. There is no language you slot into gladiator that doesn't paint the race as violent, and having "choose x" is a waste of space. So yeah, people will make that mistake because they already have. And it immediately became a minor tempest in a teapot. And the fixes are to make the system more complicated or redundant. So maybe the best move is to abandon the presets or reword them closer to the quick builds in the class section (a paragraph full of plain language suggestions). But the current format is ripe for misunderstanding. [/QUOTE]
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