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Custom backgrounds in the 2024 DnD rules offer much more flexibility and power than written backgrounds, but I don’t think we’re intended to always use them in place of a written backgrounds.
#dnd #dnd5e #2024dnd #dmadvice
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Custom backgrounds in the 2024 D and D
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rules have some kind of weird
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implications and I I want to talk about
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why I don't use them in my content. Um
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I'm not entirely opposed to people
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bringing custom backgrounds to my table.
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If my entire table agreed that that's
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what they wanted to do, perfectly fine.
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The custom background rule was mostly
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included for backwards compatibility so
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that we could continue to use
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backgrounds from previous rule books,
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but it is objectively by far the most
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powerful character option. It is by far
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more powerful than any written
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background, and there's no way a written
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background could keep up with the custom
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background because it promises you any
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feat you want, perfect ability scores,
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perfect proficiencies. Part of the
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interesting thing of picking a
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background is finding something that
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fits what you need or finding something
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close enough and working within those
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constraints. Now, again, if you're at a
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table and everyone wants to use custom
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backgrounds, absolutely go for it. Like,
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as long as it's balanced between players
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at the table, I don't think anyone's
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going to have any problems. But I try to
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make my content for like the baseline
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assumptions of the game, like bare
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minimum knowledge of how your game is
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being run or played. So I have to assume
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that people are going by fairly strict
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rules as written definition and usually
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not using optional stuff like custom
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backgrounds etc. The ability to
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customize your background was much more
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important in the 2014 rules because it
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was so likely that you would get
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overlapping skill tool and language
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proficiencies that you needed to be able
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to swap those things out. And also the
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features from backgrounds really didn't
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have any significant effect on the game.
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like 90% of them were the ability to
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couch surf with friends. So yeah, you
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could just safely assume custom
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background in 2014, but in the 2024
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rules, because they come with so much
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mechanical impact to your character, I
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think most groups are probably going to
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stick to the written backgrounds,
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especially things like organized Bye.
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