I was looking at the backgrounds in the spelljammer book, and I noticed that the backgrounds don't have characteristics listed with them. If it was like Van Richten's, I could understand that the traits and such were separate. But upon first glance I'm not finding any for the spelljammer setting. I don't have the book on DNDBeyond, so I'm not sure if I'm just missing them somewhere. If they are there, where in the book are they? If there are in fact none, why not?
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Hey y'all, I'm Okashido and I'm super into D&D. I like making characters(to the point where I have a doc about 100 pages long filled with character ideas.), am an aspiring actor in college, and also consider myself a storyteller and actor at the table. I enjoy making characters with backstories and watching them play off of other people. I roll with the punches and am a great Improviser. I can DM, but think my strengths lay in being a Player most. Hope we can all have fun and maybe play some games.
There are not any characteristics--likely because Wizards is going to stop including characteristics in backgrounds all together. Practically speaking, this makes sense--the characteristics are nothing more than suggestions--and rather dull suggestions at that. They take up a lot of space in printed works without adding much to character development that a player could not better create by just taking a second to think about the actual background itself.
Let's look at Acolyte, from the Basic Rules. What does:
Nothing can shake my optimistic attitude.
Have to do with being an Acolyte? Nothing. Literally any background could give rise to a character who has unbridled optimism. Or how about:
I am tolerant (or intolerant) of other faiths and respect (or condemn) the worship of other gods.
You already know you are playing someone with a religious background--the description of Acolyte reads "You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods." A person with a basic understanding of the world knows that some religious folk are tolerant of other religions; others are intolerant, and they can play their character either way. They do not need a chart to understand that is a trait their character might have.
Okay. That makes sense. I liked them personally since they could be inspirational for character ideas, but that makes sense. I can't fault that. Thank you for responding.
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Hey y'all, I'm Okashido and I'm super into D&D. I like making characters(to the point where I have a doc about 100 pages long filled with character ideas.), am an aspiring actor in college, and also consider myself a storyteller and actor at the table. I enjoy making characters with backstories and watching them play off of other people. I roll with the punches and am a great Improviser. I can DM, but think my strengths lay in being a Player most. Hope we can all have fun and maybe play some games.
I liked them too, it was convenient to be able to just pick out a couple of things and then only have to make up the ones that there weren’t good choices for.
If I had to guess, they will just include a set of Traits/Ideals/Bonds/Flaws in the PHB, and then they won't need to come up with a bunch of samey ones for the backgrounds in supplements after that.
For example, most of the traits/characteristics under Acolyte and Outlander would fit with Astral Drifter. And the several of the ones that don't (e.g. "I can find common ground between the fiercest enemies") don't really have anything to do with being an acolyte specifically anyway, there's lots of backgrounds that could work with.
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I was looking at the backgrounds in the spelljammer book, and I noticed that the backgrounds don't have characteristics listed with them. If it was like Van Richten's, I could understand that the traits and such were separate. But upon first glance I'm not finding any for the spelljammer setting. I don't have the book on DNDBeyond, so I'm not sure if I'm just missing them somewhere. If they are there, where in the book are they? If there are in fact none, why not?
Hey y'all, I'm Okashido and I'm super into D&D. I like making characters(to the point where I have a doc about 100 pages long filled with character ideas.), am an aspiring actor in college, and also consider myself a storyteller and actor at the table. I enjoy making characters with backstories and watching them play off of other people. I roll with the punches and am a great Improviser. I can DM, but think my strengths lay in being a Player most. Hope we can all have fun and maybe play some games.
There are not any characteristics--likely because Wizards is going to stop including characteristics in backgrounds all together. Practically speaking, this makes sense--the characteristics are nothing more than suggestions--and rather dull suggestions at that. They take up a lot of space in printed works without adding much to character development that a player could not better create by just taking a second to think about the actual background itself.
Let's look at Acolyte, from the Basic Rules. What does:
Have to do with being an Acolyte? Nothing. Literally any background could give rise to a character who has unbridled optimism. Or how about:
You already know you are playing someone with a religious background--the description of Acolyte reads "You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods." A person with a basic understanding of the world knows that some religious folk are tolerant of other religions; others are intolerant, and they can play their character either way. They do not need a chart to understand that is a trait their character might have.
Okay. That makes sense. I liked them personally since they could be inspirational for character ideas, but that makes sense. I can't fault that. Thank you for responding.
Hey y'all, I'm Okashido and I'm super into D&D. I like making characters(to the point where I have a doc about 100 pages long filled with character ideas.), am an aspiring actor in college, and also consider myself a storyteller and actor at the table. I enjoy making characters with backstories and watching them play off of other people. I roll with the punches and am a great Improviser. I can DM, but think my strengths lay in being a Player most. Hope we can all have fun and maybe play some games.
I liked them too, it was convenient to be able to just pick out a couple of things and then only have to make up the ones that there weren’t good choices for.
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If I had to guess, they will just include a set of Traits/Ideals/Bonds/Flaws in the PHB, and then they won't need to come up with a bunch of samey ones for the backgrounds in supplements after that.
For example, most of the traits/characteristics under Acolyte and Outlander would fit with Astral Drifter. And the several of the ones that don't (e.g. "I can find common ground between the fiercest enemies") don't really have anything to do with being an acolyte specifically anyway, there's lots of backgrounds that could work with.