Roleplay/Quest Rewards: Additional Backgrounds

[TopCheese]

So the thread on "crazy champion tweaks" lead to me thinking that the game should incorporate backgrounds as rewards for quests and role-playing.

This would happen, at most, once or twice throughout a moderate or long campaign.

If you save a small village you may gain the benefit of the Folk Hero background and one skill from that list of you used it during the quest (and you aren't trained in it).

If you rub elbows with nobles for a quest and they come away viewing you positively you could have the Noble background feature and one skill (if you use it and untrained) or if they come away negatively you could gain a different background benefit such as charlatan.

I want to find a ton of backgrounds and then incorporate this into my games. I may make opposing features, so you might get the skill but not the feature (unless you give up the other feature).

Even if I do this multiple times and players gain a lot of skills and features I don't see this as a problem, it shows growth without taking a meh feat.

Any suggestions on how to implement this? Any suggestions on where to find homebrew backgrounds?

[XianTheCoder]

I actually had a similar idea that I implement slightly differently. I take the organization and renown system from the DMG and use it as my base for rewards. PCs each have renown in various organizations (how tight or loose you want the affiliations to be is up to you, but I prefer fairly tight affiliation) and as they gain renown and increase rank they gain a benefit. The exact nature of the benefit depends on the organization.

So for example, if I'm running a massive overarching campaign, then maybe I have 4 PCs all with one primary affiliation each (a thieves guild, a magic academy, an adventuring guild, etc) and they may gain some other affiliations as the game progresses (city of X where they saved some noble or something like that). Each organization has ranks and at each rank I assign a reward. So a major affiliation in a university may give a bonus to research rolls at low ranks and a magic item at higher ranks. Minor (IE small/weak/local) organizations would provide much smaller bonuses (like a +1 to social rolls within the region or the ability to haggle at better rates, etc). I generally like to create each main organization ahead of time, discuss the rewards (at least the low rank ones) with each player that has interest in the organization, and go from there. I want the players to be excited and interested in moving up the ranks. I also include some drawbacks, which are reward dependant. I find that the use of organiztions in this way are helpful in navigating the players towards the plots that I want to push without it feeling like I'm railroading them. Another thing worth noting, not all affiliations/organizations have "ranks", some relatively minor affiliations are simply pass/fail, if you are in good with them you get a bonus, otherwise not, but there isn't much more to aspire to.

The design intention was to find a way to bring back the original Prestige Class feel from 3.x without the craziness (if you remember the original Prestige Classes were almost all organization/affiliation based). So usually I provide each player with a means of acquiring at least one or two special abilities or feats, but these come at fairly high ranks, showing a continued commitment by the player.

[TopCheese]

Oh yeah I recall prestige classes, siiigh, I'm not sure what some of those people were thinking. I think there was test based prestige classes or feats too...

What I would probably do is make each background their own area of expertise. As the players interact with people or areas of the background feature they will gain points (perhaps anything I would normally give inspiration for).

Three "levels" to these will be.

Skill/Tool Choice 1
Skill/Tool Choice 2
Background Feature

Less organizations and more "where your character is growing" type deal.

If the party does task 1 for a church and one of the players is role-playing and helping out they may gain inspiration. They gain a point in "acolyte". Of another player keeps lying to the church or deceiving them they may gain inspiration under the "criminal" or "charlatan" background.

Given enough points, or as quest rewards of they gain enough points, they can take a skill or tool prof. After enough work they can gain the actual feature.

This would be quite easy, as a DM, to keep track of and gives a sense of growth that rewards role-playing while levels in class rewards roll play.

[MrConsideration]

I don't track it numerically, but I do reward players with little notices - "Seeing as you helped Skorri Strongarm come to the throne of Gamotha, you have an ally there forever....even if he is a little embarrassed of you. He can keep you informed, put you up, and help you contact figures." I think background features would be a great way to model this - they essentially have the Pirate feature (people look the way when you commit minor crimes) in one specific city.

It goes the other way, too. My players have assassinated a political figure on a flimsy pretext.....and they're therefore 'known' as sellswords and mercenaries. This can be both a blessing and a curse...

[Regitnui]

This is a brilliant idea, I think. It's a nice way to give renown some weight, without completely disengaging the role play for numbers.

[JellyPooga]

I don't track it numerically, but I do reward players with little notices - "Seeing as you helped Skorri Strongarm come to the throne of Gamotha, you have an ally there forever....even if he is a little embarrassed of you. He can keep you informed, put you up, and help you contact figures." I think background features would be a great way to model this - they essentially have the Pirate feature (people look the way when you commit minor crimes) in one specific city.

It goes the other way, too. My players have assassinated a political figure on a flimsy pretext.....and they're therefore 'known' as sellswords and mercenaries. This can be both a blessing and a curse...

This is more like the approach I'd take. It could be tracked and adjudicated in a mechanical sense, like the Renown system suggested in the DMG or the additional Background Features the OP suggests, but I prefer a much more fluid approach.

You help the village, so the village is friendly towards you. So's the Blacksmiths' brother who lives in the town 2 days ride away (once he gets word of it). You do a quest for the Archmage and he gives you access to his library for research. You put the screw on some Noble for the Thieves Guild and they'll let you shop at their black market, but the Noble and his cronies don't much like you hanging around their pub anymore. So on and so forth.