NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9084394" data-attributes="member: 6790260">As I said above: like recognizes like. This is literally written into the description of the ability. You look like you fit in, even if you don't actually fit in, because you have that je ne sais quoi aristocratic air. (Which, of course, can bite you in the butt too--you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, but a silk purse stands out pretty hard in the pigsty.) Certainly, things could be much more complicated, at the very least a language barrier is likely.But guess what?I've literally done something like this. And it worked! It was actually super cool, particularly because it put a frequently quiet player in an interesting role. So the fact that you think this is an utterly ridiculous, unbelievable scenario when I've not only done it but gotten a shy and casual player to open up some more and genuinely feel deeply invested as a result tells me maybe you shouldn't dismiss this as some utterly ridiculous, impossible example.(Formally speaking, the character has class features for diplomatic stuff rather than a 5e-type Background, and it was a bit of time travel very roughly 3000 years into the past rather than 5000, but I hope you'd agree that those are rather less important than the event itself.)Criminal contact, no. But just as above, like recognizes like, and you can't tell me that some cunning bastard wouldn't see the potential there and try to do something with it. Not only is that a sweet narrative moment, it's actually quite realistic--because when you're a prince-of-thieves kind of person, you learn how to size people up right quick, and more importantly, how to see potential where others see none at all. Seeking out and investing into a professional relationship--"networking," one might say--is a big deal, whatever stratum of society one calls home.Just a tiny bit of creativity can turn a dull, flat "nope, sorry, doesn't work, move on" into an amazing experience. This specific one hasn't happened (and isn't likely to; the time shenanigans probably won't come back), but something loosely analogous is likely in the future, and I can't wait to see how the vaguely-criminal-ish character (our party Bard) handles it.And I assert that the "recognition" you speak of is much more fundamental than "oh yes, I literally already know your name, family history, rap sheet, and favorite dining establishment." That it can be built off of those intangible, ineffable, intuitive things that factor into nonverbal communication.Conversely: Perhaps it is D&D--or, rather, a limited perspective of what D&D can be--that is at fault here. Perhaps we should exhaust as many avenues as we can reasonably try before finally admitting defeat, and that only with great reluctance. Perhaps, instead of viewing these backgrounds as a poorly-wrought, alien imposition that can and should be thrown off like a soiled jacket as soon as one is out of the rain, we should see them as a welcome pointer to new, interesting, useful things that we can leverage into excellent gameplay and/or narrative with just a few minutes and a dollop of creativity.Perhaps we should be looking for a reason to say yes, rather than looking for a reason to say no.</blockquote>

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