https://youtu.be/qboLvZ5YQSg?t=5066Here is my plea for you to not give up on making the character backgrounds more expansive. I am saying this as someone whose favorite game of all time is Divinity: Original Sin 2. The biggest flaw with that game’s story (outside of the journal, but thats a thread I'll make for another time) is the background tag, and Origin character system. A custom character can’t be as great as an Origin character, because they innately have less options that are available to them. Custom characters aren't better just because I am the one who made them. For example there is little reason to play a mystic scholar undead, because Fane exists, he is an inherently more interesting character, because characters already know him and react accordingly, and he has more dialogue options my custom character can never have access to, just because he's Fane. Having only classes, and races matter, is again going to run into this similar trap, because a githyanki fighter, solider, with the same stats as Lae'zel will be less interesting than just playing Lae’zel herself. The systemic benefits of picking a background are great, but you can, and should take it further just for custom characters, because it will allow them to feel like they belong to the world. Now because criticism without critique isn’t particularly helpful I’m going to try my best to explain what I hope you do with backgrounds instead.
Folk Hero: You come from a humble social rank, but you are destined for so much more. Already the people of your home village regard you as their champion, and your destiny calls you to stand against the tyrants and monsters that threaten the common folk everywhere.
I’m going to talk about the Folk Hero background first, because it was the background that made you unsure of what to do with backgrounds. When the player selects this background they should have a drop down that lets them choose what they did, in a similar fashion to selecting a deity or patron for a cleric or warlock.
1 I stood up to a tyrant’s agents.
2 I saved people during a natural disaster.
3 I stood alone against a terrible monster.
4 I stole from a corrupt merchant to help the poor.
5 I led a militia to fight off an invading army.
6 I broke into a tyrant’s castle and stole weapons to arm the people.
7 I trained the peasantry to use farm implements as weapons against a tyrant’s soldiers.
8 A lord rescinded an unpopular decree after I led a symbolic act of protest against it.
9 A celestial, fey, or similar creature gave me a blessing or revealed my secret origin.
10 Recruited into a lord’s army, I rose to leadership and was commended for my heroism.
Since all the custom characters either originated from Baldur’s Gate, The Underdark, or the Astral Plane you should customize each of these to the place of origin. For the sake of keeping this lengthy post as brief as possible just assume I’m using Baldur’s Gate as the place of Origin. I’ll use 2 as an example to what you could write there. “I saved the inhabitants of Candle Keep from a raging fire, managed to put it out, and save most of the people”. If I select this the people of Candle Keep, characters related to Candle Keep, and several citizens of Baldur’s Gate should know who I am, and react accordingly. If you want to take this even further you could have whatever alignment the player choose at character creation impact how the character went about performing this action at the time. Characters could refer to them as “The hero of Candle Keep”, and based on the character's disposition in combination with your original alignment they say it in a cheerfu/hopefull, or sarcastic/antagonistic way. Maybe throughout their journey they learn the fire was not actually a natural disaster, but something Raphael orchestrated, which ties this custom character the player made back into the main plot of the game. When you combine this with a character’s race, class(s), and ability score you have a significantly more fleshed out custom character that can actually rival the various Origin characters you’re creating. My next, and final example will be on the Criminal Background, because that is the background I have the most interest in playing for early access, and the full release.
Criminal: You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You’re far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.
1 Blackmailer
2 Burglar
3 Enforcer
4 Fence
5 Highway robber
6 Hired killer
7 Pickpocket
8 Smuggler
Again, the criminal specialty should be a drop down list of choices I get to choose from that has an impact on what I was doing before I got captured by mindflayers. They should influence how the people in Baldur’s Gate react to me, and it should tie back into the main narrative in some way.
1 “I was a Blackmailer, and I found a lot of dirt on someone that was a hindrance to my clients plans within the city of Baldur’s Gate” (perhaps my client was Raphel, another antagonist in the game, or someone working against them).
6 “My last target that I succeeded in killing was important in some way to the antagonists of the game, before my abduction at the hands of mindflayers” (This is the specialty that I have the most interest in picking).
Feature: Criminal Contact
You have a reliable and trustworthy contact who acts as your liaison to a network of other criminals. You know how to get messages to and from your contact, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.
Either before or after the player picks their specialty, they should also have a contact within Baldur’s Gate that they can select. Perhaps it ranges from a mafia organization, to the thieves guild, or assassin’s guild, and alignment can have a factor in how famous or infamous the player is within this organization. Alignment could decide who my contract within the organization was, so that the custom character and contact are on the same wave length, and good friends. You could also maybe limit specialty to the type of contact that you pick. Specialty and alignment could also determine what the players' current relationship with the flaming fist mercs, and the politicians of Baldur's Gate are.
In preview material we saw a dream sequence for Astarian, and I would love it if every custom character had dream sequences that let us act out the moments that led up to our abduction at the hands of mindflayers, and other sequences at camp where our companions also try to get to know who we used to be. I would also suggest replaying the opening hours of Dragon Age: Origins as various different origins for inspiration on how to improve this. If the player has a patron or diety they should have an option of saving how much influence that being had on their background
I hope I’ve made a strong enough case for you kind folks at Larian to keep trying to do more with Backgrounds for custom characters to make them more meaningful, and story relevant. I am really looking forward to Early Access, but that last bit during the Q.A sent me massive red flags that you were repeating the same mistake, and not giving custom characters the love they to truly feel like a part of the world, and not just a complete blank canvas. I know this is going to be alot of work, but I can promise you, if you do this it will make the game such a significantly better experience for so many players, and you've show you're unwillingness to compromise on quality in the past.
