William Brandes Stoddard
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Improving Backgrounds in D&D 2024
🕑 Added 2024-12-16 17:48:27 +0000 UTCI’ve got a number of issues with the way the 2024 rules change Backgrounds from their 2014 form. In this post I want to dig into those issues and see if we can improve upon them. If I stumble upon something worth having, this could become a DM’s Guild release, much like my Level Up Your Background posts did.
Some of my issues here are addressed in the 2024 DMG, that offers generic “just do whatever” rules for making Backgrounds… but generic “just do whatever” rules are a new problem of their own, because it means the game can’t reference them elsewhere. If the game treats a choice like it doesn’t matter, players and DMs will too.
The Problems
The first and worst problem is that Ability Score Increase has moved from 2014 races (where it didn’t belong, because it encouraged players to optimize race/class pairings) to “oh my god we don’t care, have your 3x +1s or your +2 and +1” in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (best solution so far) to 2024 Backgrounds. In 2024, each Background lists 3 of the 6 abilities, and you can assign your 3x +1s or +2 and +1 to those. Even this light restriction serves no positive game purpose, though, and adds nothing to the marriage of story and mechanics. Many classes want a specific combination of two, such as Paladins needing Strength and Charisma, and that pairing isn’t common.
The second problem is more complicated. There’s a general understanding that Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws didn’t really land with D&D’s users. They’re a nice idea that is very hard to use well in the course of play, so all they wind up accomplishing is getting players to think about character history and personality. Honestly, one of the biggest problems in my experience is that character-as-intended and character-as-portrayed/perceived are at best overlapping, never ever identical. The reward for using these roleplaying hooks, Inspiration, is its own set of problems.
The third problem is Background Features. This is a case of the 2014 PH proposing a playstyle that the DMG and published adventures hadn’t the faintest intention of helping DMs implement. Background Features anchor your character in society, in the form of a reputation or connections that benefit you in a small way (for most Backgrounds), change the context of your social interactions (Charlatan), let you explore and exploit your surroundings in an unusual way (Urchin), or that greatly improve your Arcana/History/Nature/Religion under the right circumstances (Sage). And so on.
All of these features accomplish a lot more if they’re addressing needs that characters actually have in the course of play. The published adventures can’t predict your Background, so they can’t easily build in the right problems. Most of the adventures are highly focused on overland travel, but don’t offer guidance on how to drill down from “travel montage” to “okay, how are we getting free and safe lodgings for the night.”
The fourth problem is that Background Features have been replaced with Origin Feats, a design shift that started with Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. The issue with Origin Feats in the PH is that it’s another moment that feels like pressure to powergame your Background, because you very much do not want to spend a feat choice on these after character creation. Many of them are interesting, but they also don’t grant an Ability Score Increase or other equalizing power. They’re just less powerful than other options. I don’t enjoy optimizing, but it’s hard to look away from it in this case.
The fifth problem is that the Equipment entry for most Backgrounds included one unusual or defining item, some kind of token of your past within that Background. I got story mileage out of a few of these: Stands-in-the-Fire’s cleric with the sage background started with a mysterious tome that had the name of a potential campaign villain, the Highlord of the Fey known as the Thornweaver. Giving players one unusual object can do so much to spark little stories that give the characters texture and depth, and I think it’s a terrible mistake for D&D to move away from that. If DMs don’t want to use them, it costs nothing, but if they’re not there, players mostly won’t remember to ask for something like that.
Sixth and lastly, many Backgrounds had an additional table with a character history detail, such as the Folk Hero’s Defining Event table or the Soldier’s Specialty table. That’s all gone, as is the Folk Hero Background as a whole concept. This change makes character creation less interesting, because going through the process has fewer opportunities to spark story ideas in the reader’s mind. I don’t understand a motivation for this change, other than a layout-level decision that Backgrounds should be half a page and paired with a half-page art piece.
My goal, then, is to bring moments that spark story back into Backgrounds. I’m not even engaging with a lot of the new Backgrounds added in things like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, or Strixhaven, which represent more extensive experimentation in Background Features, and that 2024 rejects.
Something New
If all you did with 2024 rules was to move Ability Score Increases out of Backgrounds and into Chapter 2, Step 3: Determine Ability Scores, absolutely nothing of value would be lost, as proven by the DMG’s rules for making your own Background. If all you did with 2014 rules was to accept that Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws don’t feel actionable in the course of play, well, that’s how we’ve been playing for ten years anyway, so it’s pretty clear that it works!
But what if we tried a few other things?
First off (but outside the scope of this post), there needs to be a whole chapter of the DMG on engaging the characters that you actually have in the group. There’s so much good in the DMG, but even at 384 pages they had to stop at some point. They never quite get around to discussing understanding who the characters are and seeing every detail of them as the cause of or solution to the problems the characters face. Dream up problems that showcase the PCs’ capabilities, encouraging them to express characterization.
Second, my main issue with Origin Feats could be solved if they were balanced so that when you take them at level 4 and later, you get that +1 ASI. I’m also going to suggest adding explicit handling for what happens to ASIs that would push you over your current ability score cap. “They’re lost, guess you should have planned better” is not an acceptable answer. My secondary issue with Origin Feats could be solved by making them more flexible for each listed Background—here again, the DMG’s build-your-own-Background makes it explicit that it doesn’t matter.
I certainly want to bring back the custom equipment, and even expand it. The game still has Trinkets, so I think I’d like to see those come from your Background, and each Background gets its own d10 or whatever table. Just strengthening the story suggestion of how you acquired the trinket (“my Background, somehow”) might help. In addition to your Trinket, though, I think it’s cool when Soldiers have their rank insignia and/or discharge papers, maybe Criminals have their own wanted poster (or someone else’s, if they’re that kind of Criminal), and so on. It is okay to ask players to imagine more story around their characters.
I like the old Background Features, but I think they don’t go far enough or suggest enough about how to use them to solve problems. I’d like to develop that just a little more. For example, the Acolyte’s Shelter of the Faithful feature is useful in a lot of ordinary in-town things (room and board, healing, some spells, other non-dangerous duties as assigned), but there’s no sign of plugging this into Downtime Activities, beyond a reference to sustaining you at Modest Lifestyle.
Readers, this line right now is you witnessing live (…ish) the moment in which I realized that there are no Downtime Activity rules in the 2024 DMG or PH. The Bastion chapter in the DMG, crafting in the PH, and Training as a reward are the last remnants of what was once an under-used Downtime Activity system—once again, a system that the published adventures didn’t seem to engage. Oh, hey, there’s a rule for grinding Renown as a kind of Downtime. So what Downtime Activities we do have are tucked away in a bunch of different places, making it so much harder to understand your options.
The Bastion system does indirectly contain most of the kinds of things you could do in 2014 and XGTE Downtime Activities, but if I start on how I think that falls short, I will never finish this post.
So with the acknowledgement that there is no extant Downtime Activity system, it’s necessary to reinvent one. What I’d like to see for Background Features is that they all offer a Downtime Activity benefit (one thing Backgrounds represent is what you do when you’re not coming together to stab in groups) and a benefit, no matter how ribbon-like, in social interaction or exploration. I thought it was great that 2014 Background Features simply stated what you could do and didn’t require a roll, but I’m not attached to it being that way.
I’m going to try a few new Background Features.
Duties of the Faithful (Acolyte). You have served in a local temple, cult, or organized religion. You gain the following features:
· You have Renown with a local temple, cult, or organized religion. Your starting Renown score equals the higher of your character level or your Charisma modifier. When you gain Renown with this group, increase the Renown gained by 1.
· Create or choose one NPC mentor within the local temple, cult, or organized religion. The NPC does not accompany you on adventures, but offers advice, support, and social leverage when appropriate to the character.
· You can spend seven days performing rites to your god or patron in a temple or other appropriate space. For the next seven days, a number of creatures equal to your Proficiency Bonus gain Advantage on saving throws with an ability score of your choice.
False Identity (Charlatan). You have established a second identity, with documentation, acquaintances who know you as that identity, and disguises appropriate to that persona. You gain the following features:
· Your second identity has Renown with a faction of your choice. That persona’s starting Renown score equals the higher of your character level or your Charisma modifier.
· You can switch between the two identities, including applying necessary clothing and makeup, in 1 minute. At level 11, this improves to 1 action.
· You can spend seven days developing and establishing a new false identity. You can maintain a total number of false identities equal to your Proficiency Bonus; beyond this number, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep all of the details straight, and you may have to make Charisma (Deception or Performance) rolls just like anyone else. When you create a new false identity, you can choose to discard an existing one, but you may find it more beneficial to fake the death of a false identity to further your schemes or cover your tracks.
Underworld Contact (Criminal). You have criminal connections, from your past or present, and you know the ins and outs of gangs, guilds, and criminal fellowships in a wide region. When you move to a new region, you can learn the nature of its criminal network quickly. Determine your criminal specialty (same table as in the 2014 PH).
· You have Renown with criminals. This sometimes works against you in social interactions with agents of the law. Your starting Renown score equals the higher of your character level or your Charisma modifier. When you gain a greater treasure than any you have previously won, increase your Renown by 1.
· You can spend seven days making money. In addition to maintaining a Poor lifestyle, you gain GP equal to 10 x your Proficiency Bonus. At level 11, you instead maintain a Modest lifestyle and gain GP equal to 20 x your Proficiency Bonus. At the end of the week, roll 1d6; on a 1, you have drawn too much attention from agents of the law.
· You can spend 1 hour casing a location by observing it from outside, while positioned somewhere inconspicuous. Make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against a DC assigned by the DM (usually 15). On a success, the DM gives you three pieces of useful information about means of entry, defenses, or escape routes.
· (As a note, I believe firmly that Spy should get different Background Features than Criminal, Pirate should get a different set than Sailor, and possibly Privateer should be separate from both Pirate and Sailor.)
Okay, those are my current efforts. I think there’s more that needs to happen in replacing Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws to deliver the improvements to Backgrounds that I think are possible. If this seems interesting to you, please let me know, and I’ll see about continuing the Background Features into the other 2014 Backgrounds.
