Quick Links
A mechanic inDungeons & Dragonsthat gets shunted in favor of the far more dynamic and engaging backstory is the humble background. You have players who have selected a background in alignment with their stories, but you have no way of making those pesky background mechanics of any use.
Perhaps you’ve played in campaigns that hardly utilized them—they were just words on the paper to fill up the sheet. Aside from occasionally glancing at your traits to remind yourself how to play your character, you may realize that you’ve not played in a game that uses your character’s chosen background. So, how do you incorporate backgrounds into your own game?
Add Existing Feats To Backgrounds
The good news is that Wizards of the Coast knows peoplearen’t using their backgroundand recognizesthat this is a problem. Space on the character sheet shouldn’t be wasted in any TTRPG. That’s valuable note space.
With the release of Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse, Wizards introducedeasier ways to incorporate features into backgroundsto make them more relevant inPlanar PhilosopherandGate Warden. You can use these as a template to build your own backgrounds or to edit existing ones.
If you’re up for some homebrew,you can simply go through the list of feats for 5e and group them up with matching backgrounds.Then,remove the background feature.
The background feature could potentiallyoverpowerthe character, so it’s better to get rid of it altogether if you’re using this method for improving backgrounds.
For instance,MobileandObservantmay go well with theSpybackground;you may toss out the Criminal Contact feature, and lend one of those features to itinstead.Folk Heromay receiveSkilledorTough, or perhaps theOutlandercan! What matters is that it makes thematic sense, and if you can explain it, then try it.
Treat The Features As Actual Features
Not all backgrounds are created equal;The Haunted One’sfeature explicitly detailscommoners taking up arms to fight by your sidedue to their uncanny ability to sense your trauma by looking into your eyes, whereasEntertainerlets youstay the night for free as long as you perform for that same night.That’s not even mentioning the healing anAcolyte’sbackground can provide in comparison with theFisher’sability to… tell a fishing story to a bunch of NPCs.
The Fisher’s background is objectively hilarious, but to be fair, it can be useful while trying to persuade a group of people to help you.
The Haunted Onepractically decimates the unhappyEntertainermechanically, adding weapons and bodies to your player’s fight against the ancient and powerful lich that’s been tormenting their nation for years. Though theEntertaineris a great feature for roleplay and within cities, players may feel that it falls short in combat-heavy campaigns.
And why should the poor bard suffer any more than she has to? Each feat has its place, but the Entertainer’s background feature can shine if you let your players spend time in cities. So, as the Dungeon Master,make time for those cities or inns on the road, encourage the players to stop off and rest in areas where there’s relative civilization, and encourage your players to have their roleplay moment!
Ultimately,read the background features and create scenarios in which they may be useful.
Putting It In Practice
For easier understanding, try dividing your player’s backgrounds into’Frequent Use’and’Every So Often.'
Ideally, in a balanced game, theHaunted Onewon’t have scenarios where they’ll be constantly having to recruit commoners to fight, and the Noble won’t be securing audiences with local lords every other session;these are your ‘Every So Often’s.‘They help massively, but they perhaps won’t be features you can use every session.
That being said, you shouldn’t punish your players for picking the background! ensure they’re getting those moments to shine as well, just regulate the ones that seem like they could become mechanical issues.
Meanwhile, the Entertainer can work every night and save your party’s coins. It may not be as impactful asconscripting a farmer because you’re threatening, but it will be ableto be used often and helpfully.
Let their features mean something! If anOutlandercan find food and water, then having them makesurvival checksrenders their feature moot. If you want to mitigate it for asurvival campaign, let it be a short rest ability or have them roll with advantage permanently while doing it. Or, outright ban the background from the game.
Utilizing Bonds And Flaws
In the same way that you mayread a player’s backstory, you need to go over the background portion of their character sheet. Not only do players sometimes tuck hidden things in there, but it’s good to encourage your players to pull from the sourcebooks’ suggested traits, especially for new Dungeon Masters.
Bonds, Flaws, and Traits are more there forhelping those new players build backstoriesanyway, but even seasoned players will use them as inspiration for their characters!
Traits are guidelines to help players roleplay, so while they are important, they’re not going to be as feasible for you to incorporate them into your own game.
Bonds
As far as bonds go, a lot of the backgrounds have NPCs baked into them. Requiring players to select one option thatgives them an NPC in their background can function just as well as a background feature, allowing you some ready-made characters to introduce into the campaign.
Flaws
Flaws are one of the best parts of the provided backgrounds;not only do they give your characters thematic Achilles’ Heels, but they can be used against the character at any time. In fact, as a Dungeon Master, you should make clear that you’ll be using those flaws if you want to incorporate them into your game!
Set up encounters specifically meant to engage with those flaws,whether it’s goading the players into a fight or taunting their character with ghosts of their past.
