My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad
UPDATE: The partial background found in this article is a preview. It is fully available as a Pay What You Want product on the DMs Guild in a pretty PDF with art and 14 other ready to roll backgrounds.
Of all the backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook, the most interesting to me is Folk Hero. When I first wrote the Farmer background, a lot of people were saying it was just like Folk Hero, but I insist these two backgrounds are very different. A Farmer starts out as just that – a person working a field and/or tending to livestock. A Folk Hero already has a winning reputation and has committed some heroic deeds to earn that status. I mean, it’s right in the name! So that got me thinking that there should be unknown farmers who rose to fame only after leaving home and beginning and adventuring career, like Luke Skywalker or Eragon. Thus the Farmer background was born.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the Folk Hero again. What if an adventurer had a level of fame before his or her career began, but he or she didn’t actually earn it? What if, instead, this fame was inherited? What interesting pressures, advantages, quirks, morals, and obstacles could that instill in a person?
With those questions in mind, I set about designing the Legendary Lineage background. Got a PC with famous adventurer parents? A heroic grandma? Then this is the background for you. It also works if you’re designing a Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton PC. Check it out below!
Legendary Lineage
You have heroes in your family background and the story of your ancestors is known far and wide. Perhaps your parents were a famous adventuring duo, or a grandparent hunted and killed many great evils. Maybe your heroic bloodline has many heroes within it going back as far as any can remember. Whatever the case, the deeds of those who came before you are great and the public’s expectation of your accomplishments is even greater. The weight of your family name affects all you do.
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, History
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, vehicles (land)
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a wood figure made in the likeness of an ancestor, a signet ring, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp.
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