Hello! I'm Josh Steele "The Rev. Dev," a pastor-turned-programmer.
I was a #PhD Candidate in theology before quitting the PhD for the sake of my #family (wife and 3 kids) and #mentalhealth. After looking for church work (I'm an ordained priest), I did a #coding bootcamp (Tech Elevator), and now work as a full-time #softwareengineer.
Terrorist groups are increasingly adapting to technology to recruit, to disseminate illegal content and to promote violence. #OSINT can help identifying these networks and understanding the way they operate online.
On a family vineyard with vines as thick as hippogriff legs you work the grapes. The slow, tedious springs and summers on the hard scrabble rocks are exhausting, the harvest a frenzy of activity. Then the fun starts, as does the waiting.
The vintner enjoys all of this time, but the apex of their art is the finished bottle, and sharing it with others. They carry stories in their bottles. Stories of grapes, of skies full of wyvern, of the journey past the bandit camps, of that one time the mage saved their vines, and that other time when the druid thought they were helping.
Every bottle has a story as does every person who sips it. The vintner is not just an expert at crafting wines. They are a marketing specialist and a storyteller. Each barrel, every cork, each wineskin, every jug – another tale to tell is discovered. The vintner may not have intended to travel the lands on quests, but they know whenever they return to their villa and vineyard they’ll have new discoveries to share.
The following rules are a pre-publication example of a Vintner – a background for the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Skill Proficiencies: Nature and one of Deception or Persuasion Tool Proficiencies: Farming Tools, Winemaking Tools Languages: None Equipment: Farming Tools, common clothes, 1 pound of cheese, 3 wine skins, 3 small cups or glasses, 10 gp
The vintner has a knack for storytelling and conversation. Through pouring a tasting and chatting they are able to learn a tale from the person’s past. Sometimes these are of an adventure, or a foible, or a mystery that needs to be solved, and at the rarest times these tales are things that were supposed to always remain hidden.
Characteristics: For now, use those from the Guild Artisan or pick & choose your favorites. Whenever my background project sees full publication there will be unique characteristics for all of them.
To more capture the feel of the pseudo-Mid Ages/Renaissance period the Vintner is the grower, the maker, the taster, the seller. Plus, that type of specificity gets anti-5e pretty quick. While the Guild Artisan can capture this background, it forces the artisan into a guild. Many adventurers pride themselves in their independence. The Vintner had to be a solo gig.
The choice of Deception or Persuasion is out of a desire to represent the different angles in marketing that can occur within the flavor business.
When it came to tools versus languages there was a part of me that wanted a language rather than second tool, but that was hampered by two things. First, I generally frown on how D&D handles languages. Second, if I’m bundling growing in and have developed Farmers Tools, let’s use the Farmers Tools.
The feature, which uses a Chinese proverb rather than the Latin In Vino Veritas, is an attempt to capture the flow of story and words as friends and even enemies commune over a bottle(s). As a DM having a player with this feature helps grant so many clues in new ways.
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Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
Some heroes work the earth, till the fields, care for orchards, manage vineyards. The adventuring life was not part of their blood. There is no heroic act of rebellion or violence in their past, like the Folk Hero. They show their potential and heart every day. Some rise early, work late, and rest hard. Others understand nature, harnessing those forces to do as little as possible until harvest comes.
All are connected to the land. Whether serf or free, whether rural or within the city, the farmer raises crops not just for their own family, but to supply a larger group. They are the blood of a civilization – vital.
Some farmers do not get to remain in the pastoral life. They can be conscripted into battles, inspired by a local bard, maybe their debts force them to work with a local gang, Whatever took your farmer away from their homestead to the adventure they are on now that homestead, connection to earth, and family is a part of them forever.
The following rules a pre-publication example of a Farmer – a background for the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Nature Tool Proficiencies: Farming Tools, Vehicles (Land or Water) Languages: None Equipment: Farming Tools, common clothes, beast of burden (donkey, mule, dog, etc) or cart, basket, 2 days rations, wine skin, 2 gp
Feature: Horn of Plenty
Through your knowledge of foods, their qualities and usefulness, combined with an uncanny knack for preparation you are able to stretch food supplies. A meal that would normally serve one serves two. They are both content and satisfied. A harvest in which you participate is also more effective – your senses help find a few more plants that are ready, branches that are missed, or mistakenly dropped produce. Those harvests produce more food, resulting in an increase in gold or barter value of 50%.
Characteristics: For now, use those from the Folk Hero or pick & choose your favorites. Whenever my background project sees full publication there will be unique characteristics for all of them.
Alternate: Beekeeper
https://fullmoonstorytelling.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/pexels-photo-3577458.jpegPhoto by FRANK MERIu00d1O on Pexels.comDrop Athletics for Sleight of Hand. This is to represent the deft hands of someone who does their best to avoid being stung too frequently. Their loads also tend to be lighter compared to farmers who carry bushels of apples, shovel manure, dig irrigation, etc.
Alternate Feature: Sweets
You always have some honey – tiny jars, little wax sticks, hard candies, the format is up to you – to give away. Generally those who are gifted your sweets welcome the gift and have a positive impression of you and your group. These gifts can act as a salve to harsh spirits or a reward for previous help. They can also be traded for other uncommon goods that you may be in need of.
Originally included as an option for the Remarkable Drudge, Farmer’s Tools are a must have for any farmer.
Farmer’s Tools
Cost: 5 gp | Weight: 7 lbs
Proficiency with farmer’s tools means that you are familiar with the operations of a farm, orchard, vineyard, or other cropland. You are knowledgeable in the typical crops within an area, to include when to plant and harvest them. You also know their market value in most lands.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
Languages in most Dungeons & Dragons settings is rather rudimentary. There’s the pidgin-trade tongue of Common (and sometimes Undercommon. From there, the typical known languages are based on races and the planes.
A character might know Common, Elvish, and Primordial for example.
This is bland, unnecessary, and lacks verisimilitude. Get rid of languages. They rarely come up at the table. For most tables, languages are simply “You can communicate” or “You must use gestures.” Few encounters are successes and failures based on the 3-7 languages a character knows.
Instead replace them with Culture: NAME.
This would also replace Intelligence (History). This small tweak aids deeper connections between certain character classes and backgrounds with the world in which they are played.
What do you gain from adding Culture?
Especially in games with heavier social and exploration pillars you have a better idea of what your character knows. Rather than have a wood elf raised as an urchin on the streets of Waterdeep be capable of talking to every single elf in the world, as if language is hard-coded in the soul, it is instead a learned thing.
Said wood elf would instead know Common and the Culture of the Sword Coast, able to communicate with the peoples in and around Waterdeep, as well as knowing the traditions of the various peoples, their symbols, their stories.
The characters are deeper, with more connections to the world in which they play. A Fighter-Sage would be intimately familiar with many nations and cultures, rather than just a few and whatever the DM determines is known through a d20. A character that has studied the Dalelands would know the holidays, conflicts, and ways to communicate that are common in the the Moon Sea and the Inner Sea.
At its simplest with Culture, you know more.
What do you lose by removing Languages and History?
Not much.
The characters will still be able to communicate as always. There may be a perceived penalty for a few backgrounds, but there is a fix for that.
There is additional bookkeeping. You will have to use a custom field on DnDBeyond.com, for example.
How does adding Culture work when building a Player Character?
While building your character in the standard order (Race, Class, Background) take note of every language learned. Each of these are replaced with adding a single culture.
When you would take History you would now have the option to take another proficiency or take a culture.
Additionally, I would encourage most tables to use a PC’s Intelligence modifier to add (or subtract) from known cultures. This is mostly because Intelligence is undervalued within the game.
Example: A High Elf, Fighter, Sage would begin knowing as many as 8 cultures known. This would represent their studious familiarity with many peoples.
Full Moon Storytelling is presented by Homes by KC
Homes by KC is a Keller-Williams Realtor with a background in interior design, marketing, and project management.
Follow her on Facebook or Instagram to see featured homes in the area as well as to get advice on the real estate market around Puget Sound and southeast Washington.
You can support Full Moon Storytelling by choosing Homes by KC for your next real estate transaction.
How do you use Culture?
Use Culture like you would use History, but apply it like a tool. Most often it would connect with Intelligence, but there are times when your proficiency in a culture would apply to a check based off of Wisdom (if a character isn’t proficient in Insight their awareness of the opponent’s culture might help them) or Charisma would apply.
Knowing a culture of a peoples with which you are interacting is particularly helpful in social encounters. A character familiar with a particular empire should be able to take advantage of that knowledge at the table!
Are you familiar with the Dalelands? Then you would recognize their heraldry, for example. Hidden societies, or subsets of a culture may require a check (DC: 15) to see if you have studied or are aware of that aspect.
Practical Examples of Cultures in D&D
Within the World of the Everflow, a rather narrow setting, the following cultures would be available;
Western Wildes
Ancient Sheljar
Ancient Gallinor
Kirtin
Daoud
Crinth Confederacy
Azsel
Mehmd
Gobkon Union
Dragonken
Church of Quar (yes, this is cross-national group with influence throughout the continent of Kin)
There are other faiths and cults that may be appropriate
The Scholars and Proctors of Grace
In a more explored and developed setting such as the Forgotten Realms I would recommend using the super-national regions such as, but not limited to the Sword Coast or the Dalelands or Chult. If you are a member of a Faction, assume that you know their Culture too. The list of political groups, religions, factions, and other strong cultural groups within the Forgotten Realms would fill an entire wiki.
If you are playing in Eberron: Rising from the Last War the various nations of Khorvaire would all be appropriate Cultures as would most of the religions.
Tables that use other setting would have to assess that setting. Do not make the cultures too narrow, nor too broad (then you just have the language problem, but different).
Within Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything there is an optional rule that allows you to create a character that shifts their proficiencies around. No longer is every Dwarf a brewer, mason, or smith. No longer will every Elf know how to use a sword.
The ability to swap these out lets you tell new stories through new mechanics. But the change to the game mechanics are quite minor. Half the classes already allow the weapons that the Dwarf and Elf start with in the Player’s Handbook, in this case many optimizers will take Tools in order to expand their skills.
Yes, this expands the powers of certain combinations Race and Class. Frankly, ignore that tiny tic up in power.
This optional rule in Tasha’s grants you the ability to expand the story of your character.
https://fullmoonstorytelling.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/pexels-photo-5711899.jpegPhoto by Anna Shvets on Pexels.comSince your Dwarf didn’t grow up knowing masonry, but instead was a woodsman, what does Woodcarver’s Tools mean for them? Were they part of the crew that regularly left the caves of the fathers to harvest the massive trunks that became reinforcement for the great halls? Or were they just not raised among their people, instead taking their mother’s stone carving tools but applying those to the softer structure of wood to create art?
Your High Elf that did not learn the sword and bow, maybe instead they have Coffee Gear and Insight, because they founded a cafe where they interacted with wizards, nobles, and adventurers. You aren’t a warrior by nature, instead you are someone who understands the people who go out and see the world beyond the city.
https://fullmoonstorytelling.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/pexels-photo-1309778.jpegPhoto by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.comLike so much of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the mechanics by this decision do not create power creep – they fashion story creep. There are 25 tools, plus Gaming Sets and Musical Instruments. Your character that has more of these than typical or usual has reasons for these.
As you generate new ways that your spells manifest (one of my favorite suggestions in Tasha’s) you should generate the reasons for your differing skill set from the classical presentations within your race. Whether it is all in your head, or a single line on your character sheet, a hint in the art you commission or draw, or an entire blog entry is up to you, the player.
But it should be there, because the 1000 thousands of stories that can be told in any game session originate in the mechanics, but the mechanics aren’t the point – the story is.
Full Moon Storytelling is presented by Homes by KC
Homes by KC is a Keller-Williams Realtor with a background in interior design, marketing, and project management.
Follow her on Facebook or Instagram to see featured homes in the area as well as to get advice on the real estate market around Puget Sound and southeast Washington.
You can support Full Moon Storytelling by choosing Homes by KC for your next real estate transaction.