Utilizing Background Features

[WMO?]

Personal experience, so this may not be a common thing, but if it is, I'm curious what the community experience is, what y'all think about it, and what we can do to make it better:

Something I noticed as a player is that I rarely think of employing my Background Feature or get a clear opportunity to use it. :smallfrown:
Something I noticed as a DM is that I never think of what my player's Background Features are, include opportunities for them to exercise them, or see them taken advantage of. :smalleek:

What do you do as players to apply your Background Feature to its fullest extent and include it in your gameplay?

What do you do as DMs to incorporate the use of or full realization of Background Features into your games?

I'm particularly interested in encounter design that integrates PC Background Features and players executing on Features to gain resources or info at the campaign level.

How has implementation of a Background Feature or the ability to draw on Background Features as a DM effort affected your game?

Do you work in Features as factions, to tie PCs to your setting or your plot?

Any good stories of exploiting a Background Feature in a sanctioned way that you profited from as a gaming group?

[RickAllison]

The foremost example I have of use was the Pirate background. Walked into bars and would just drink for free.

My cleric of the Raven Queen uses the Acolyte background to find new leads among underground sources.

[Naanomi]

Many other RPGs (GURPS, WoD, Heroes...) have 'background' stuff, so if you have experience with them I think the process is more familiar. Features seem to come in three flavors...

Most involve social contacts: sometimes adventure/clue helpers, sometimes extra resources. Players and GMs need to work together to make sure they come up; players seeking out their 'contacts' and GMs offering reasonable support
~Acolyte, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Artisan, Noble, Sailor, Soldier

Others have more direct and obvious mechanical benefits that should be pretty obvious.
~Charlatan, Knight, Outlander, Sage, Pirate, Urchin

I leave Hermit in it's own, because it requires collaboration and planning *before* a game to have any real effect in most cases...
~Hermit

[Crgaston]

My character's urchin background non combat urban travel bonus is flavorful and has come in handy for accomplishing more minor side quests in a day. It could be handy for following someone, I suppose,

Or even intimidation/confusion. If she knew someone's destination and typical route, she could be casually sitting and greet them several times over the course of their journey by moving along side streets ahead of them. Imagine the consternation it would cause to be greeted by the same smiling face, just sitting and eating an apple, or the same menaacing figure delivering a warning over and over on your way to see the king/deliver a message/whatever else.

[uraniumrooster]

I had a Lawful Evil Charlatan Bard with the Actor feat who I played as a master of disguise and con-man. My false identity was a nobleman, and with expertise in Persuasion and advantage on Deception/Performance, nobody ever questioned the validity of my forged scroll of pedigree. The DM allowed me to gain the benefit of the Position of Privilege feature from the Noble background while in my noble guise. It was a courtly intrigue style campaign with a lot of RP, so being able to forge other documents and correspondences worked out in my favor as well. Over the course of the campaign I was able to gain influence and set myself up as a close advisor to the Duke (the NPC ruler of the land we were in), and got the other PCs in the group elevated to high-ranking positions as well, though most of them never even knew my true identity. My false identity was even awarded with some real landed titles, and my true identity essentially became a dark secret that my character was trying to erase from history (even going as far as forging an arrest warrant for a past acquaintance who had recognized me in a tavern, then having him quietly executed).

[WMO?]

It could be handy for following someone, I suppose...Imagine the consternation it would cause to be greeted by the same smiling face, just sitting and eating an apple, or the same menaacing figure delivering a warning over and over on your way to see the king/deliver a message/whatever else.

This is an awesome idea! How creepy and fun and what mind-messery!


I had a Lawful Evil Charlatan Bard with the Actor feat who I played as a master of disguise and con-man...my true identity essentially became a dark secret that my character was trying to erase from history (even going as far as forging an arrest warrant for a past acquaintance who had recognized me in a tavern, then having him quietly executed).

This campaign sounds awesome, and this is the kind of thing I'm hoping to hear about on the part of DMs: really helping you use your feature and have it make an impact on the game

[Joe the Rat]

This weekend, the party found a cursed village of unquiet undead. After vanquishing the foul remnants, the Monk and Paladin decided they should put them to proper rest. The Monk took lead with his Acolyte background to administer Last Rites.

One of the Rogues is a Charlatan. He's never used his real identity.

[Naanomi]

I had a Hermit with secret beer recipes that could get anyone and anything drunk for the rest of its life. I was planning on getting Tiamat eternally sloshed but the game didn't make it to the end of the module

[uraniumrooster]

This campaign sounds awesome, and this is the kind of thing I'm hoping to hear about on the part of DMs: really helping you use your feature and have it make an impact on the game

It can be challenging as a DM. I've had varying degrees of success integrating characters' background features into play, and have found it really depends on the players more than anything. Some players get really psyched about their character's history and backstory and will put a lot of work into it, which gives you, as DM, a lot to work with. Other players aren't as into building their character down to the last intricate detail, and prefer to just kick back and play the game, developing their characters' traits as they go.

My advice: don't force it. The Background Features are mostly flavor, and not all players will care about them.

If a player sends you a 10+ page backstory with their family history and various friends and associates, that's awesome! Take the work they already did and run with it... make NPCs they can arrange to meet with if they have the Criminal Contacts feature, or throw in a thief-guildy side quest. If they're an Acolyte, make their particular faith a significant part of the world the party is adventuring in. If they're a Guild Merchant/Artisan, give them some business associate NPCs and provide opportunities to ply their trade. And so on.

On the other hand, if a player just wants to show up with their character sheet and isn't too concerned with using their Background feature, or writing out their character's history, that's awesome too! That player will likely have fun just playing the adventure, and you don't have to spend as much prep-time planning how to integrate their background into your campaign. Maybe make a note of what their background is, in case it comes up as a natural part of your campaign's story-line (if the group needs a meeting with the Captain of the Guard, maybe he'd be more accommodating if one of the PCs is a Soldier, for instance), but don't worry too much about making it into a big emphasis.

Let your players know you're open to ideas if they want to use their background features in creative ways, but as long as everyone is having fun, then you're doing your job.

[manny2510]

Background, not foreground. Never felt that the face melting cleric of the group's main contribution was housing situation.

[Foxhound438]

So in general I just look at a given feature and say to myself "how can this impact gameplay?" usually it's stuff that a DM would give you anyway, but if you say "I have this feature to do this" there should be no argument to it.

a few examples being:

as a wizard with the cloistered scholar feature, you can just tell your DM "I go to the library and use this background feature to gain access to it, and find a couple of spells for my spellbook"

anything with the far traveler feature can find company with interested locals, including important social people.

a knight gets 3 friends to help with gathering information, supplies, etc



some require a bit of DM cooperation, though, such as the hermit's or the inheritor's.

[Specter]

Usually backgorund features don't do much in terms of defining an encounter or solving a big problem; as a DM, you should incorporate them just to make a given character feel more useful, or reward a player for a well-planned backstory.

"The lord said it would take you three hours to reach the royal palace; luckily, you with your City Secrets [Urchin] can make it a lot faster for everybody."

"You are now officially hunted by some authorities. Luckily, you, as a devout worshipper of Pelor [Acolyte] can manage to find rest for the group."

And so on.

[Joe the Rat]

I had a Hermit with secret beer recipes that could get anyone and anything drunk for the rest of its life. I was planning on getting Tiamat eternally sloshed but the game didn't make it to the end of the module
Hermit is one of the tricky ones. That secret could be useless, or foundational to the campaign, depending on what you work out with the DM.

Trebly so for Adventurer's League.


I do love this one, though I would rule it that you have to get each head drunk individually. It's funnier that way.

[Naanomi]

I do love this one, though I would rule it that you have to get each head drunk individually. It's funnier that way.
Leave one sober (maybe... Blue) to play 'designated driver'

[Joe the Rat]

Green. It's immune to poison, and probably switched cups with Black anyway.

[Saeviomage]

My charlatan paladin will be using her second identity background feature as her main adventuring identity. "Huron Lightsblade" will be an upstanding inspirational paladin who basically disappears when he's not saving the world.

[Fighting_Ferret]

Performance should be what was used for that check, but that's DM fiat.

Back by popular demand is realistic, that a performer (even a so-so one) would most often, more than pay for their meal/room by bringing in more paying customers than would normally show up. Entertainment in towns and villages is pretty rare, thus a valuable commodity, especially to more common folk looking to take an aside from their everyday labors. Even in cities, your commoners are looking for entertainment, or people with more money expect to be entertained when they spend time in a tavern.

[Dhuraal]

I just want to throw my 2 cents out there. Personally as a player, I can live with and enjoy some small bonuses from background, such as a trinket or maybe "I worked in this one bar so I can get a discount for myself whenever I go to that specific bar" kind of thing. But, I really do not like the idea of "I wrote this in my background therefore I get this broad sweeping benefit", or I start off with all these bonuses and/or friends because arbitrary reasons x, y, z. I prefer to earn those. But, then again, I also really enjoy low level play, for what that is worth.

D&D 5e (despite my love for it) uses the second, in my eyes. For instance, the thought of every peasant in the universe being willing to feed and shelter me, because I happen to be a local Folk Hero in this one corner of the world just irks me.

I think this line from an article (http://lookrobot.co.uk/2013/06/20/11-ways-to-be-a-better-roleplayer/) summarizes my feeling best:


"You can write as many pages of backstory as you like, mate, but they don’t factor in one bit to the game unless you show them happening. Are you a shrewd businessman? Cool. Do some business, shrewdly, in front of everyone else."

Now let me say right now, this is my own personal feeling and if you enjoy that, all the power to you, I do not begrudge you that in any way. To each their own. I simply choose to ignore those in game.

Unfortunately for my players, this leeches into my DMing, because as I do not like receiving those benefits, I feel icky and wrong giving out those benefits. I will do it when they point out how their background might benefit them, but I make no effort to incorporate that. I leave it more to them to remember it.