D&D Hombrewery Guide - Background Design

Backgrounds are a simple, flexible, and fun way for players to add a little bit more depth to their character. A fighter may have been a skilled artisan before picking up a sword while a rogue may have started out as nothing more than a thief in a big city.

Walkthrough
When creating a Background, start with the following concept:

What is it you are trying to represent?
Remember that a background is not the same thing as, or a replacement for, a backstory. A background is supposed to represent the type of life experiences that your backstory has provided you. It isn't a backstory on its own, but is part of it. Rather, a background represents how your backstory affected your character up to this day, when they began adventuring.

As a result, a background should be designed to be as open-ended and broad as possible, while still being thematically focused.

As such, backgrounds be written in the style of the core rules backgrounds - generic. In order to make a flexible, open-ended background, try to make sure it can work for: Note that this does not mean detailed and specific backgrounds which could only work for certain characters or in certain settings are unwelcome, but it is very much preferred that you be as generic as possible when creating a background.
 * Any Gender;
 * Any Alignment;
 * Any Core Race;
 * Any Core Character Class;

Examples of themes to avoid include: You should also consider the following:
 * Requiring a specific character option, like gender, race, alignment, or some other mechanical property like an ability score requisite.
 * Something so broad as to be nondescript, like "person" or "grandson".
 * Anything which would be better described as a race or character class.
 * Anything that is antithetical to the collaborative nature of D&D.
 * The uniqueness of your background, both thematically and mechanically.
 * Consider whether your idea could already be covered by a pre-existing core-rules background. They are incredibly broad, and can cover most types of people in a fantasy setting.

So, once you have your theme clear in your mind, start writing. Give at least one good paragraph describing and explaining your theme and its scope. Then follow that with a solid paragraph of questions for the player to consider when choosing this background. The questions should cover the basics required to justify the background selection, and should be phrased such that the answers will help write the character's backstory.
 * The types of games your theme could appear in.
 * For example: If it's really dark and grim in flavor, then DMs who are running lighter, more fantasy-adventure or comedy games, may be distraught by a player bringing a character with that background to the table.

Skill Proficiency
Every background gains proficiency in two skills. Though this is the norm, you should not go above two under any circumstance. You should also have a very good reason to have less than two.

Tool Proficiency and Languages
As part of a background, a player character can gain proficiency in up to two Languages or Tools. For example, a player gains proficiency in two Languages, two Tools, or one of each.

Equipment
The starting equipment for a background can include adventuring gear and tools. Weapons and armor are not normally acceptable.

Starting Money
This is typically contained in a pouch and should not exceed 25 gold.

Clothing
These are typically items such as robes which have no specific mechanics.

Flavor Items
A background should grand between one and three (inclusive) of these items. These are special items with no specific mechanics which exist only in the background's equipment. These include symbols of authority or allegiance, special tools, unique clothing articles, sentimental items, etc.

Specialization
Not every background includes a specialization. A specialization section is useful when you want to make a background that is so broad, it incorporates many types of things which we have other words for. In other words, it's a way of overcoming the problems generated by the excessive granularity of the English language. This allows it to capture all of the richness and variety it was intended to represent.

The norm is six options that a player can either choose from or randomise by rolling a six-sided die. For ease, this wiki will adopt six options as a mandatory standard.

Roleplaying Feature
Every background should have a roleplaying feature. Those proficiencies, and the items they come with, are intended to represent a character's life leading up to the start of your adventure. When writing a roleplaying feature, remember that a background is not a backstory.

A roleplaying feature is an explicitly justified unique way of interacting with the world or its people, based on your background type. A roleplaying feature is, at its core, a story writing tool. Of particular importance, the types of stories we tell through D&D are called adventures. A roleplaying feature should impact either the world around the character, the character themselves, or - ideally - both.

A roleplaying feature should also not have any effects with regards to game mechanics. It should be purely about the character and their journey before becoming the adventurer everyone sees at the start of the campaign.

When designing a roleplaying feature, try to focus on one of these key objectives: Finally - it must also be useful to the player. That can be very hard to do without creating mechanical systems within it. Read the examples in the Player's Handbook, and look for other officially published backgrounds if you're still unsure.
 * Getting the player to interact with the Dungeon Master in an interesting way.
 * Getting the player to interact with other players in an interesting way.
 * Letting the character interact with their environment in an interesting way.
 * Letting the character interact with other characters in an interesting way.
 * All of the above.

Suggested Characteristics
You should give an overview of the general nature of the background, and how it typically affects people. This leading paragraph should give players enough information so that they, and their DM, could create new characteristics for themselves during character generation, rather than trying to guess at what is appropriate, or being strictly restrained to the features given.

Traits
Traits are personality and behavior quirks which make them behave in a unique and interesting way. They exist almost entirely for the player's benefit, as a guideline for how to play their character, kind of like alignment, but even more loose. They include accomplishments, attitudes, voices, habits, preferences, tics, interests, mannerisms, feelings, disposition, and behavioral quirks. They may be justified or not, and can sometimes be key motivators behind the way a character thinks.

Ideals
Ideals are specific motivations. They are the actual guiding principals that the character values most over anything else. Ideals are typically keyed to a specific alignment, but may also be unaligned. Interesting things can happen when a character of one alignment chooses an ideal which is not in accordance with that. It can make for dynamic and interesting characters, so avoid the laziness of just making every ideal "unaligned". Ideals can be used by the Dungeon Master to motivate characters toward achieving certain goals, or to create tension between the players and world, or between the players themselves, by presenting them with challenges which conflict with their ideals. Ideals are one of the most powerful hooks a character can have, because they can be used extensively by both the player and Dungeon Master.

Bonds
Bonds are - for all intents and purposes - a tool which can be used by both the player and the Dungeon Master to create a connection between the character and the world they're adventuring in. A bond can connect a character to almost anything from people to places and can be easily incorporated to create story hooks and drive both the character and narrative forward.

Flaws
Flaws are - for the most part - character flaws such as a quickness to a particular emotion, a particular conviction, or and irresistible impulse. Flaws add flavour to a character in the sense that not every character is perfect. Not only that, it can give a character an objective to work towards to such as overcoming their flaw, or it can given them an interesting or fun quirk.