-The Bard, Theodosia the Bold
The Expanded Background System:
As you probably know, 5e (and most modern fantasy RPGs) has a background system in which characters choose a simple role that explains what that character did before they became an adventurer. I am an enthusiastic supporter of background mechanics in RPGs. I am a firm believer in grounding as many aspects of a character as possible in mechanical features, because in a combat focused system like D&D and its descendants, the more that the mechanics of the game are connected to the character, the more one inhabits that character when they play the game - at least the theory goes.
However, while the 5e background system works well, I do find myself thinking it is somewhat simplistic. Beyond a background giving a character an idea of who they were before they became an adventurer, a background, I believe, should ground a character in a certain world. By understanding how a character grew up in a complex world, one can understand how to act and roleplay in that world. The more complete the picture I give the player, the more rich their understanding of the world and their own character should be.
Beyond this, there is also an issue I have with the way Races are presented in most fantasy RPGs. In the Original Edition of D&D, Gary Gygax made race determine not just your language, racial abilities, and culture, but also your class; Humans got to choose, but Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings were much more limited, and the Basic Edition of D&D would codify this further, framing Race as Class, in essence tying the two concepts together. In a gonzo, whacky game, I think this can be a lot of fun, but in a long form, epic, role-play centric campaign, we tend to think this sort of thing hampers players' ability to craft an interesting character. In 5e, Race is fully separate from class, but it is not separate from culture. The base assumption of most fantasy games like D&D is that Race is Culture - just as in the Original Edition, it was only Humans who had full control of their class, in 5e, it is only humans that are encouraged to think about their culture, as something separate from race. For the other races, we know their culture by their race and sub-race. I believe that for a long form, epic, role-play centric campaign, this should be done away with: Instead, while race and culture should have certain connections, and even strong tendencies to be linked, they can in fact be separate, and rather than leaving this task solely in the hand of the player, I have created a mechanical system to represent this on the player's character sheet.
Now that you know some of the background to the backgrounds, we can look at how Expanded Backgrounds work. Expanded Backgrounds have 4 separate features that will, when combined, determine your whole background. They are Culture, Upbringing, Education, and Former Occupation. Each of these individually will contribute mechanically and narratively to who your character was, and who they are now. Keep in mind that this system is far more customizable, extremely so - with the expanded background system, there are 57 Cultures, 18 Upbringings, 14 Educations, 150 Former Occupations, and other options that make it for a total of 6,506,892 unique Backgrounds, so if you ever feel confused or lost, talk to the Dungeon Master, and he can guide you to where you want to get to. Furthermore, if you can't seem to figure out a way to construct your character with these backgrounds, speak to the DM. It may be that either the backgrounds can be reworked slightly to allow for your character idea, or that your character idea is beyond the scope of the campaign. The following entries link to these 4 aspects of the background, and once you have picked each, you will have the background of your character. NB: Because of the way Expanded Backgrounds work, races do not grant any languages, as they would normally. This is entirely determined by your background.
Below, you will find links to the major sections of the Expanded Background System, including an Index with links to every article herein.
Expanded Background System Index
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