Hello friends!

It’s show and tell day today! A while back (and by ‘while’ I mean couple years at this point) I had an idea for some Dungeons and Dragons backgrounds. Warlock inspired backgrounds specifically. For those who are not familiar, a warlock is a character who has used their charm and wit to make a bargain with a powerful entity and been rewarded with magical and supernatural powers. You can make some great characters from that premise. But it feels like people only include a deal with a devil, or a fey, or a cosmic horror, or whatever other power beings exist in your world, if they are playing a warlock. Which yes I get why there is literally a class for it. But hear me out, what if we used that backstory element with other characters as well?

Warlocks gain magic powers from their pact. Which is awesome. I mean who doesn’t want to know magic? It’s the best! And the warlock class gets plenty of cool magic stuff. But there are plenty of other things you could want from beings of immense power. Do you want to be the best swordsman in history? Make a deal. What is an enemy country plotting against your homeland? Make a deal. What is the secret ingredient of the best cinnamon buns in the world? Make. That. Deal.

The warlock class doesn’t do a great job of filling all the fantasies these deals in one class, and I don’t think it should try to either. But I still want to see (and play) characters who fit the fantasy that the class doesn’t cover. So, my idea was to create a series of backgrounds in a document I’d title ‘I’m not a warlock but…” and make backgrounds for people who wanted to play the wizard who sold their soul for knowledge. Or the bard who promised ‘a favor’ in exchange for fame. And from there I thought “Oh I could do this for all of the classes!”. Cue immense scope creep! I did a lot of brainstorming for different classes but quickly got overwhelmed and ended up abandoning the project before I even finished warlock. While I probably won’t try and finish my plan of making 12 articles of 3 backgrounds a piece, I did think it would be fun to share some of my thought process and highlights from it.

For warlock I had three background ideas: a deal for knowledge, a deal for physical prowess, or an unwitting deal. A deal for knowledge was mainly inspired by your classic wizard and devil deal. But it could also be things like a judge presiding over a trial they know is rigged and an innocent person is going to take the fall. Maybe an eldritch being offers to delve into the minds of the culprits and learn where evidence against them is hidden. Then a deal for physical prowess could be a wish to be a great athlete or warrior. Or maybe it’s to cure a disease that has left you hardly able to walk. Finally, an unknowing deal just scream fairy tale to me. Or maybe you promised your childhood ‘friend’ that you would always protect them. Fast forward and there is a demonic invasion and you learn they are a devil who has taken to the battlefield as a commander to deal with their hated enemies. Now you must fulfill your promise and keep them alive. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways you could slice a warlock thematically, but I was trying to be straightforward.

The one I got the furthest in writing was deal for knowledge. It was the strongest fantasy in my head and it was sooo fun to come up with a table of flaws for. Here are some of my favorites I came up with:

• Any price for knowledge is worth it, especially if someone else is paying.
• I react poorly whenever someone questions me in too much detail.
• When I close my eyes, I hear the words I swore as part of my deal as barely audible whispers.

It might be fun to try a brainstorming prompt of thinking of character flaws some day. But that day isn’t today and I still have my favorite thing I built for this project to share. The background feature! These are normally a fairly insignificant benefit you get based on your character’s background, like not paying for lodging in a specific circumstance. I don’t know that what I came up with is the most useful feature, or even one that can be implemented well, but it amuses me nonetheless.

Feature: Of course I know that!

               Having been granted knowledge from rather than learning it yourself mean that sometimes there are small… gaps in what you know that might betray your pact. However, as a matter of self-preservation you have learned how to deflect attention away from these minor details. People are less likely to be suspicious of you when small details in your story don’t add up.

And there you go, a small glimpse into the thoughts that meander through my little head. What about the rest of you, do you have fun ways you’ve thought of reflavoring TTRPG classes? Or an abandoned project that you still have fondness for?

Until next time,

Onwards to adventure!

• CozyPandaDragon