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

[CreamCloud0]

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?"

i'm sorry i just don't see how 'we're in the lowlands, a place where your altitude adaptation isn't applicable' is meaningfully different from 'we're in barovia/another continent, a place where your criminal contacts isn't applicable'

 

[Faolyn]

i'm sorry i just don't see how 'we're in the lowlands, a place where your altitude adaptation isn't applicable' is meaningfully different from 'we're in barovia/another continent, a place where your criminal contacts isn't applicable'

Because you're actually following RAW when you say a goliath can't use high-altitude acclimation in the lowlands, whereas you're arbitrarily deciding a background feature doesn't work because you say so.

In the majority of backgrounds, there is nothing that says that feature goes away when you're away from the PC's base of operations. You're deciding that. When people say things like "they don't know you're a folk hero so you can't use the folk hero feature," that is deliberately ignoring what that feature actually says (which is nothing about people knowing or not knowing you're a hero). When people say "you don't have a criminal contacts here," without saying "but you can work on getting new contacts," you're deliberately ignoring the feature.

 

[mamba]

Because you're actually following RAW when you say a goliath can't use high-altitude acclimation in the lowlands, whereas you're arbitrarily deciding a background feature doesn't work because you say so.

no, it doesn’t work because they are too far away from their ‘base’, that is not any more arbitrary than lowland vs mountain. I grant you that it is not RAW because the feature is worded poorly and forgot to mention it

When people say "you don't have a criminal contacts here," without saying "but you can work on getting new contacts," you're deliberately ignoring the feature.

I don’t think I have to say the latter, that is something the player should think about

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don’t think I have to say the latter, that is something the player should think about

You don't have to say it if the player in question is familiar with the game and how you run it. If they're not one or the other of those things, it would be kinder of you to mention it. I play a LOT with people who are either unfamiliar with the game itself or how I run it. Many of them expect things to "just happen" where I prefer that there's (in the very least) some story behind how it happens. I find that it works best to quickly get everyone on the same page, if only for clarity.

Or in other words, I'd probably say the latter, myself. YMMV.

 

[Chalice]

It seems unlikely, for a number of reasons. But I will probably view whatever comes up with my usual curiosity, and who knows, there might be some neat mechanics worth bolting onto a game we will be playing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In the majority of backgrounds, there is nothing that says that feature goes away when you're away from the PC's base of operations.

In my opinion, in many cases there really ought to be though.

 

[mamba]

Or in other words, I'd probably say the latter, myself. YMMV.

depends on the case, as you said. If the player is new or does not think about it, I’ll end up dropping hints, but I would not open with ‘you have no contacts here, go find new ones’.

For Barovia I doubt I’d point it out at all if it is about sending a message, sending word to their contact won’t help them here anyway

 

[FitzTheRuke]

In my opinion, in many cases there really ought to be though.

I agree - though I'd also say that they're also missing suggestions for alternatives (which I think they ought to have). They seem to be simultaneously too tight and too vague, somehow.

depends on the case, as you said. If the player is new or does not think about it, I’ll end up dropping hints, but I would not open with ‘you have no contacts here, go find new one’.

I follow you. You wouldn't want to step on the player's toes by leading them by the nose. At least give 'em a chance to come up with that sort of stuff on their own.

 

[Faolyn]

In my opinion, in many cases there really ought to be though.

Sure, I agree. And that's where I'd go through the backgrounds, rewrite things, put them in a googledoc and send my players the link. Just like I'd do for any other homebrew changes I make to the game's rules.

 

[Greg K]

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?

Because the DM did not have a published adventure path picked out to run nor did he or she have a pre-set story in mind in which the PCs would end up in a far away setting or another plane. Instead, the players actions or events in response to the players actions resulted in the party traveling to a far away land or to another plane after the campaign had begun.