There is no method in DnD Beyond for me to look at or see the Background of any of the characters in my party. I'm not even talking about a background story that they write for their characters (though that would be awesome if it could be added), but even seeing the background they chose for their character when the first created it, like Adventurer or Hermit. I did a little bit of searching through these forums and saw some older posts on this topic, and to be honest I am rather surprised that it hasn't gotten more community traction that this should be changed. My understanding is that DnD Beyond is SUPPOSED to be a digital tool for players of Dungeons & Dragons to play together and share their experiences and stories. I simply do not understand why such an important part of a character's sheet was deliberately excluded from DnD Beyond. 

I hope that this is something that will be changed in a future update, and that other members of the community will also agree with me that we should have this piece of information available for the members of our own groups. I cannot understand any logic that would make excluding my character's background from my party a good decision, aside from the fact that it is just one less thing for programmers to have to do. Being a programmer myself however, I also know that it would likely only be an afternoon of work adding this info to the site followed by a few days of testing. I feel like it is simply lazy excluding this from our character sheets.

I made my response as a video (not listed, don't worry) coz its easier and I will show you what you missed. Because, you can, indeed, view your character's backstory as a DM.

[Redacted]

Anywhosits, here's ya go.

I was not referring to a back story. I was specifically referencing my player background. It is a concrete decision I make in game during character creation that has a notable effect on my character. I get various skills, etc. based on this choice. It is not something arbitrary to share via role playing when specific game mechanics are designed around that system. 

Your background is supposed to be part of your backstory - it is what you were doing before being an adventurer and provides the mechanics of your backstory - the skills, proficiencies and things you learned or gained as part of it. 

True, but it is also a literal, mechanical component of character creation. It should be visible on our character sheets, though I have not found any way to see the background chosen by my fellow party members. I do see that in the DnD beyond app that your background is shown in your characters info on the list page, so why can't it be visible on the character sheet on the site? I don't want to have to go to the app to find that info if I'm working on the website... Also, I didn't find the background displayed in the app until earlier today, but I still haven't figured out where to see it in the website. It may be somewhere... but not anywhere I have found. My Entertainer Bard can use a feature from his background to find free lodging for an evening, so your background clearly has in game effects. It should be on the character sheet. 

Quote from DMFirmy >>

True, but it is also a literal, mechanical component of character creation. It should be visible on our character sheets, though I have not found any way to see the background chosen by my fellow party members. I do see that in the DnD beyond app that your background is shown in your characters info on the list page, so why can't it be visible on the character sheet on the site? I don't want to have to go to the app to find that info if I'm working on the website... Also, I didn't find the background displayed in the app until earlier today, but I still haven't figured out where to see it in the website. It may be somewhere... but not anywhere I have found. My Entertainer Bard can use a feature from his background to find free lodging for an evening, so your background clearly has in game effects. It should be on the character sheet. 

 
It's on the sheet. Description tab. 

It is for in my campaigns. It is not for my fellow party members in a campaign I am not running. Still, I didn't even know THAT was there, so thank you for the info.

Glad I didn't come and ask, because you would have rained sarcastic hell on me. Thanks for the vid! 

P.S. I have learned that I am quite blind.

The guy has a point...and this has been an ongoing issue in many of my campaigns - no one can see anyone's backstory. [Redacted] Furthermore - creating characters in a campaign should always alow a characters backstory to be visible to the creator...DM or not. [Redacted]

To the moderators, this is still an issue that needs to be addressed, please. We cannot see each other's back stories still. If there is an actual update or answer I am still all ears.

Quote from Dontmoveplaydead >>

The guy has a point...and this has been an ongoing issue in many of my campaigns - no one can see anyone's backstory.

 
The player can and the DM can so I am unsure where you're getting "no one" from. Nobody else needs to see it - other players shouldn't be reading the backstory of other characters, they should be learning it through roleplay and making notes if needed. This is why it can't be seen by others - this was by deliberate design. 

Quote from Dontmoveplaydead >>

Furthermore - creating characters in a campaign should always alow a characters backstory to be visible to the creator...DM or not. 

 
It is visible to the creator. I showed this.

[redacted]

Quote from Dontmoveplaydead >>

 

To the moderators, this is still an issue that needs to be addressed, please. We cannot see each other's back stories still. If there is an actual update or answer I am still all ears.

 
To the moderators: this isn't an issue for some of us and if you do implement this feature please do so with a toggle so we can disable it. Some of us prefer sharing the backstory through the roleplay like it was meant to. Ultimately, given the bugs and stuff that exists I'd very much prefer you work on those instead of this. 👍

Quote from Dontmoveplaydead >>

The guy has a point...and this has been an ongoing issue in many of my campaigns - no one can see anyone's backstory. Meeting what you think is too aggressive of a question with passive aggressiveness is a poor recipe for success and can cause an issue. If you make a good enough argument, people will listen and when the powers that be check in they think that problems are solved when they haven't actually been addressed. Furthermore - creating characters in a campaign should always alow a characters backstory to be visible to the creator...DM or not. Your video was actually a waste of your's, mine, and several other people's time. That's actually not cool. People rage ask questions...and people rage answer as well. Let's try not to forget that we are all on the same rock flying through space just trying to play a game that we love with each other.

 

To the moderators, this is still an issue that needs to be addressed, please. We cannot see each other's back stories still. If there is an actual update or answer I am still all ears.

I'd honestly prefer large parts of my players backstories be kept from others in the group, especially when it comes to potential allies and enemies.  It's far more fun for the players to meet a new adversary and go "Huh, who's this guy think he is?" and then one player at the table goes "Ohhhh... shiiiit...."

Any change definitely needs to be an active choice, even if it's a "Public backstory section, private backstory section", or a toggle.