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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9084364" data-attributes="member: 6801845">Let's suppose a scenario. The party steps through a portal and is transported 5,000 years into the past. What features would actually work?  There's obviously no contacts, criminal or otherwise.  There may or may not be libraries for that sage to investigate.  Even if you're Prince Grand High Poobah, it's of a country that won't exist for another 4,000 years so it's meaningless.  Assuming the locals even recognize nobility as a thing.There is no logical reason for someone to have a criminal contact, at least not right away.  That pirate that can get away with minor crimes because of their reputation is just as unknown as everyone else.  The archeologist might be able to tell people approximately when we are because of their training.  The noble might have a better idea of what the social hierarchy is and even have advantage on interactions with the ruling class.  But if they want to get an audience with the ruler of the land, which may not even have the concept of nobility in terms of inherited titles, claiming a noble lineage of somewhere that doesn't exist is not going to buy them anything.It would be jarring to me as a player and be completely illogical world building if all of our background features still worked as written.  Many of the background features are based on recognition, contacts and understanding how things work where people are from.There are times when background features as written won't work.  Doesn't mean the feature is totally worthless, it may or may not be.  But these features are not built in to the framework of D&D, IMHO they're tacked on.  Many are poorly worded or thought out and many only apply where the person would logically be recognized.  I'll take a ruling from a DM that makes sense for the scenario we find ourselves in over strict literal reading of the rules for background features any day of the week.</blockquote>

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