GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH Adds New Backgrounds and Flavor to Old Backgrounds for D&D Characters

In Dungeons & Dragons, backgrounds can be used to help provide flavor, guide players as they create a backstory, and even provide additional benefits based loosely on said backstory. Well, with the release of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, players have a few more options at their disposal. Of course, with the new adventures, there are some notes on old backgrounds like the Acolyte and Charlatan for the DM to help better immerse characters with backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook into the new adventures in ports and on the high seas. However, there are now a few more backgrounds for players to sift through.

The first of these new backgrounds is the Fisher. It makes you good at fishing, gives you an awesome story to tell in an attempt to win over others, and it gives you proficiency in History and Survival. Next, is the Marine who knows how to kill. While you become proficient in land and water vehicles as well as Athletics and Survival, Marines are also able to travel a lot more and get a dramatic element added to their backstory called a Hardship. Moving on we have the Shipwright who can repair ships every now and then in addition to proficiency in History and Perception. Finally, the Smuggler. The Smuggler can help the party law low in certain towns determined by the DM and player, is proficient in Athletics and Deception, and has a “Claim to Fame” that ranges from smuggling stolen art through a crowded battlefield to having a secret heart of gold helping families escape war.

These new backgrounds present new opportunities for players to create exciting new characters and I’d be interested to see what happens with a party of Marines who can travel twice as long in a day. They can get to places so fast! Are you using any of these new backgrounds?