5e Backgrounds and the Maelstrom

WizCo keeps pumping out 5e (I refuse to call it "Next", it sounds silly) playtest material. I continue to have no time for much of anything other than jojo, work, school, and sometimes sleeping. I sometimes find a few minutes to look at whatever they are doing, think to myself

 'that seems neat, I like the direction this is going, I may be able to use this.'

Then add to myself

'just as soon as I find something that approximates time.'

I am hopeful that the classes that follow my current MBA class are at least modestly lest ridiculous. So maybe, maybe I will actually be able to use some of the ideas I occasionally work on as I wait for jojo to fall asleep so I can rest/do homework/wash dishes/finish priority clients/eat.

But enough whining!

I'm starting to sound like this guy. You know, when he was younger.

 So, in 5e (if you haven't been following it) you get 'backgrounds'. It's basically a skill delivery system with some interesting fluffy bits. Among the fluffy bits are a 'trait'. A Trait 'is a special ability that describes something your character can do, or can expect, related to his or her place in the world'. So, for example, the Artisan background comes with guild membership (in whatever trade you have).

The backgrounds, especially the trait imply certain things for the setting. For example, the existence of a guild of any kind, it's location where free food and lodging abound, connection to (and the existence of) powerful political figures. The Bounty Hunter trait implies the existence of a bounty board (and thus people who maintain it and post on it), and some form of law that governs it's use. Several background assume the existence of nobility and government.

Most of that is all pretty standard fair for fantasy worlds, so you could take it at face value and move on. In the Maelstrom, for example, nobility and governments exist...but not exactly like it reads in the playtest material. So the backgrounds in the playtest material give some stuff to explain.

Let's start with the artisan. I'm perfectly happy with trade guilds running around. That's cool. They list 9 trades, that's plenty of categories and plenty of guilds. But the guilds would kinda need to be in the Sanctums. So are they different in each city or do the guilds have locations in numerous cities? Basically, either there is a different Messenger's Guild in every Sanctum or there is a global Messenger's Guild that operates in every Sanctum. For simplicity I like the global guild idea. It's not terribly realistic, but I think the trait is more valuable if the character can travel from Gilneas to Stratholme and still find it useful (as opposed to just being useful in 1 or 2 of 15 sanctums). So, there are 9 guilds that cross the political and geographic lines of the Sanctums and the Realms.

That is a HUGE deal. I've just introduced an effectively global faction into the game. How do they communicate? Do they communicate? Do the rules change from Sanctum to Sanctum? Who is in charge? Where are the 'main' headquarters? Is there a main headquarters? Ack!

I have no idea right now. I'll deal with that later. In the mean time, there are 9 trade guilds, they exist in all (or most) of the Sanctums.

Guild Thief will add another guild, but I might make it several...the "families" if you will. I really like the idea of the thieves guilds being racially divided to some extent but also specializing in certain areas. For example, the human families are the least focused, they do a bit of everything. The elvish families are mostly theft, political corruption, counterfeiting, white-collar stuff. Probably some prostitution or sex trafficking too. The Orcish family are more into protection rackets, assaults, enforcement, human trafficking, some terrorism stuff. The halfling familes...those little guys are just feared. They mostly do the really nasty stuff. Besides being the best straight-out thieves, they are also the most feared assassins.

The Spy is also interesting. Spies work for governments and governments rule Sanctums. So basically, every sanctum that has a need to spy on other sanctums (all of them) will have some kind of spy organization. I can tell you right now, the Shinto spy network is a bunch of ninja clans. That's for sure. I have no friggin idea what the Sheol (Undercity/Stratholme) spy network will include (ghosts? wraiths? vampires?).