One thing I initially liked about 5e was the skill list--it seemed like a reasonable compromise between all PCs of a class seeming to have identical skillsets (old school) and "Use Rope"-level useless granularity. A few of them felt superfluous (Investigation f'rinstance) but it was basically ok.
The Background system in 5e, whereby a player has a race, class and then a secret third thing they used to do was interesting especially if you have an established world like I do because everybody's bringing a little more meat to the table. I also works well if you often have newbie PCs played by newbie players mingling with 10th-level, 10-year veterans rich in lore.
Being fairly old-school by inclination, however, I did not like how long character generation took--especially for new players, for whom I do not like to create the impression that the game is more complex than it really is. Backgrounds seem the worst culprit here: everybody creates race, class and stats, I can do the modifier math for them, and picking spells and weapons is fun. It starts to feel stupid when rattling off the background list though--so here's what I do:
When running The Zak Hack I just ask "What did your PC do before becoming a (wizard/fighter/thief etc)?" they usually have an answer right away. Then I give them 2 skills they don't already have implied by the job and some useful job-related trinket and move on. (Demon City handles this via the "Occupational Skill" which in turn is influenced by Call of Cthulhu NPCs who all have their own job as a %ile skill, like "Gravedigger 78%").
For example last session my pal Devin made a half-elf wizard and he said he used to be a plumber so I gave him a choice of (pick 2) Persuasion, Perception and Sleight of Hand, plus a guild letter of introduction and some tools.
Then the only question was what are elves doing with plumbing but let's be real, for elf cities the fountain budget alone is staggering.
22 comments:
That seems like a good way to get relevant skills quickly. Someone that I used to play with would spend forever going through the skills to pick his out.
I've ran the same idea but looser due to my system of choice being LotFP/BX. If someone's character was a plumber before beginning their career as an adventurer, they pretty much autosucceed (might be too strong of a word) on stuff relating to their occupational skills. So, it's like that they can obviously do plumbing stuff, but I also let them psychoanalyze rats if they can somehow explain how their skills and experiences as a plumber help there.
@orison
I'd agree to that, I just dont' want to -also- cheat them out of the pair of more general skills (like Sleight of Hand) that 5e usually gives every PC who has a background.
Its too bad he missed out on the wererat level last session--Full of Hell was playing.
I'm a big fan of 13th Age's skill thing where you get like a background and a profession skill, and you get a +5 in one and a +3 in the other
And in Jeff's game, Jesus is a Cleric with 5 (or maybe 6) pips in Carpentry, which is super.
It's a neat idea. One to try out definitely!
I agree with you about the 5e's skill granularity. I have had some experience with GURPS and they propose a Highly granular skill system (of course, they lay it out as optional) that at first glance, seemed fun for me, than it just felt like doing your taxes in the early nineties. I didn't do taxes then, but you know what I mean. Your closing bit about the elven plumber was great. There are the type of bits that leave me thinking about our fantasy worlds. My minds eye always see elven folk in their high horses - I struggle to imagine them performing our elementary chores but do assemble the fabric of our society.
i guess cool fountains are a bit of an elven trope (thinks about his own elven fountain he just wrote for the elven district).
not much of a 5e expert, never played it myself, but the idea sounds rightfully cool, it speeds up chargen and makes it more... cognitively digestible? anyway i'm personally all about things that help players orient themselves and define their character, they make for good roleplay prompts. This is definitely one of those.
I was avoiding PC backgrounds lately, because I don't have a clear idea how to incorporate them in the current game, beyond "your father is alive, and now it's your enemy", etc. I need to think about it.
At 2 am I am reading this through the blurred eyes of the tired, and seeing ‘elven tax collector’, and wondering a lot about that scenario. Always thought of taxes as a crazy human tradition which other races haven’t got time for. Perhaps the greedy dwarves would have bailiffs too. The mountain tax. The mining tax. Rail tax for mine-carts. Lantern tax. Bellow tax for freshening the tunnel air.
Its worth noting that 5e does have 'custom background' option where you just pick 2 proficiencies & tool/lang. That does make it a bit swifter, its just clumsily explained.
Anyway, 5e process is very long winded, every little reduction helps.
its the flaws, bonds, traits that trouble me. Not that I dont like the idea, I just always seem to pick something that sounds cool & later regret it. What happens in the game should form the traits, not what happened before you rolled the char.
@riquez
yeah we never use flaws, bonds and traits
Backgrounds are a nice way to add a little variety. I remember I let the players pick whatever two skill they want at some point. What troubled me back then was the Sailor. A lot of power players would pick it for the Athletics and Perception proficiency, then play anything but an actual sailor. So your hack of letting players pick any profession and assign two skills based on that sounds very reasonable.
I like this a lot, and it's so easy to do. Will be incorporating it into future games for sure.
I prefer the OSR skills as a d6, I think they work better
Totally agree, it makes sense with that kind of system
That is the LotFP system and I think it's hackable but annoying as-written. Someone with a 17 Dexterity still has a 1-in-6 Stealth and the Specialist can knows Language and the wizard doesn't. That's why--in a lot of my LotFP material--I alter this system. Of course the point of this post is I -also- find 5e system annoying and in need of hacking.
Agreed. One this I prefer in using OSR etc over 5e is that the hackability and nature of it where as 5e presents itself as not needing to be hacked when it does
@ecowatcher
If that is true it is about marketing, not anything int he material and i can't imagine caring about marketing in evaluating what thing im gonna use.
This is a perfect solution to this same problem I've encountered in 5e. No more flipping back and forth to choose all your skills!
This is seeming like a logical and efficient way of doing this. I am liking of backgrounds myself, but also find them to have much of the bloat common of much of 5th Edition.
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