Heritage and Background?
This afternoon’s mechanics question: what is the use of Heritage and Background. Based on the actual play videos it seems like a match earned +1d in older versions of the rules, but they don’t seem to actually do anything in v5. In a demo session last night we ended up using them like FATE Aspects: if the player could justify how it was useful they earned +1d. This was satisfying but feels open to abuse. Maybe a way for the GM to leverage Heritage and Background against the character would help.
To me, they’re part of fictional positioning. It provides a starting point for how your PC might act, the kind of people they might know, how they’ve been brought up, and equally (or more) importantly, how they haven’t. A PC from a Labor background is not from an Academic background, so the GM might adjust positioning or effect based on that information.
You get +1 dot in an action rating during character creation for both your heritage and background. (page 31)
You earn XP when your heritage or background are incorporated into play. (page 18)
Because what kind of dot goes with what heritage is sort of wide open, we used it as a chance to learn something about each heritage. The PC from the Dagger Isles takes his heritage dot in wreck? The person playing that PC says what it is about the Dagger Isles that makes people from there so good at wrecking.
Yeah, that’s fun.
I used them in a game yesterday. The crew had tangled with (and murdered) Ulf Ironborn and put his crew into disarray. They also gained negative points for other Skovlander factions (Refugees, Consulate etc). This week they had to deal with a fixer in the docks are and every complication is related to the fact that he’s Skovlander and they have a bad rep amongst Skovlanders. They have to work twice as hard or pay twice as much to get information and … I won’t go further as my players could be reading.