D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[FitzTheRuke]

that is how I see it, to me that makes them not special in the sense @Sorcerers Apprentice meant

Agreed.

 

[mamba]

The real question is: why are you, the DM not telling your players when they make their characters that they're going to be traveling to a far-away place or another plane where you will ensure that background feature is going to be useless?

no one said we would not, the discussion was about whether the feature would work, not about how they ended up with it in the first place

 

[Lanefan]

It's a default assumption in D&D, change that and you're playing a very different game.

Default assumption in your D&D, maybe.

Not in mine.

 

[Oofta]

It's a default assumption in D&D, change that and you're playing a very different game.

I've never assumed the PCs are particularly special. Some may believe they have a destiny, some called to the service of a god. They likely have above average attributes of one form or another depending on the PC. But inherently special or unique? No. They may rise to greatness through their deeds and actions, but they are not born superheroes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've never assumed the PCs are particularly special. Some may believe they have a destiny, some called to the service of a god. They likely have above average attributes of one form or another depending on the PC. But inherently special or unique? No. They may rise to greatness through their deeds and actions, but they are not born superheroes.

I agree. They have a decently high likelihood of becoming someone special (should they survive to rise to greatness) but they don't have any inherent special qualities (beyond, like you say, being slightly above-average people generally).

They're people - they could go either way. It's up to the players to get them to greatness. Assuming that's a desired part of the overall adventure, which it often is, but not always.

 

[Faolyn]

no one said we would not, the discussion was about whether the feature would work, not about how they ended up with it in the first place

But the point is, if you're telling the players that they're going to a far away land and because of that, their social feature flat-out doesn't work, what are the players saying in response to that? Are they cool with it? Are you going to work with them to have their feature work, or to create a new feature for them?

 

[Oofta]

But the point is, if you're telling the players that they're going to a far away land and because of that, their social feature flat-out doesn't work, what are the players saying in response to that? Are they cool with it? Are you going to work with them to have their feature work, or to create a new feature for them?

For me at least part of the point is that I've played with exactly 1 person that really cared about their background out of dozens of people. I know I don't really care the vast majority of times. If someone wants a background that has impact, I'll work with them and we'll come up with something.

It's much more common for people to want a backstory, but that's different from the background with features.

 

[CreamCloud0]

But the point is, if you're telling the players that they're going to a far away land and because of that, their social feature flat-out doesn't work, what are the players saying in response to that? Are they cool with it? Are you going to work with them to have their feature work, or to create a new feature for them?

do i need to warn a player of every potential situation one of their features might not be applicable? do i need to say to the goliath in the intrigue campaign we're never going to a location where their high altitude adaptation will come in to play or to druid 'hey we're visiting a city tree stride might not be the best thing to have on your spell list'

and it's not like background features are foundational abilities of your character build, they're a nice situational perk at best.

 

[mamba]

But the point is, if you're telling the players that they're going to a far away land and because of that, their social feature flat-out doesn't work, what are the players saying in response to that?

that is still a different discussion then why the feature should (not) work.

I’d say if we played CoS, this should be discussed during a session zero, so they can choose to pick a different background. If they happen to find themselves on a different plane by level 8 due to where their actions took them, then that is simply what it is, no warning in session 0

Are they cool with it?

depends on the player, generally yes

Are you going to work with them to have their feature work, or to create a new feature for them?

depends on the situation, if we started with CoS and they had their chance in session 0 to decide differently, then the feature flat out does not work.

If they are on a different plane for a session or two but then return, same.

During session 0 they could have worked on one however.

That being said the criminal still will have an easier time making new connections, but the feature flat out does not work as written, they first have to establish new connections and build trust / a reputation, and then it is still limited by location and not a universal ‘call home’

 

[Faolyn]

do i need to warn a player of every potential situation one of their features might not be applicable? do i need to say to the goliath in the intrigue campaign we're never going to a location where their high altitude adaptation will come in to play or to druid 'hey we're visiting a city tree stride might not be the best thing to have on your spell list'

and it's not like background features are foundational abilities of your character build, they're a nice situational perk at best.

By RAW, a goliath is acclimated to high elevations. Even if your players never go up a mountain, the goliath is still acclimated.

By RAW, some backgrounds give perks, such as saying that the PC can expect some accommodations with certain groups of people. If you, the GM, arbitrarily decide to ignore the RAW because you don't want it to work that way, then the decent thing to do would be to tell the player ahead of time you're ignoring the RAW.

It would be like if the player's backstory said their goliath was born on the plains instead of the mountains, so you decided that means they don't have resistance to cold damage--but you didn't bother to tell the player that until they actually got hit by an attack that did cold damage (or give them a different damage resistance in place of cold).

So do you need to tell them? No. But you should, unless you want to be a jerk about it.

"Hey, so you've made a criminal. But we're playing Curse of Strahd, where you get sucked to another plane of existence. You're not going to have any criminal contacts. Do you care about that, or do you want to figure out a new background feature to replace that?"