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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silam" data-source="post: 9875583" data-attributes="member: 7055898">I don’t mean to say that it’s absolutely implausible to find a way to make the backgrounds fit. I can improvise and spitball some connecting dots as much as the next fellow. My point is rather that most of the basic backgrounds are not that inspiring.Like, if I look at the 2e edition kits, a lot of them had top notch flavor. They gave a sense of incredible destiny, either because the character had some sort of innate ability that made them get chosen by a selective guild to learn their path, or else had to dedicate inordinate effort and years or even decades to learn their craft. The class and the kit and the race, that was the whole background, and it felt really special. If you wanted to also have been a sailor, that was fine, you could add all the fluff you want, but the mechanics need not be intertwined with it. Contrast with 5.5e where you are a generic sailor + generic fighter (or whatever) and eventually you’ll grow into some slightly differentiated subclass (kit).I think as more splatbooks come out there’ll be more backgrounds and it will get better… and they will also probably come out with slightly looser background, e.g., the "classical elf" background lets you raise dex and/or two other stats, gives you performance and another skill, any feat, etc.</blockquote>