Amnesiac and Mist Outlander backgrounds

[Nirnel]

So, I read Jester's Heroes of Light and, among all the gold I found, I missed a background I would have liked to see, so I started writing one, and I was on a roll, so... here goes nothing

AMNESIAC
Some trauma or spell erased your memory. You may have forgotten the most recent months or years —during which it seems that every kind of things happened— or you may even not recall who you were before that event. At any rate, uncertainness nags at you and it motivates you to search for any clue that sheds light on the void of your history.
As a player, you have the option to detail the said event and what happened during the forgotten time; or you might leave the details to the DM, or even agree with them to improvise on the run during the campaign. Proficiencies on tools and additional languages can be determined during character creation —especially if the amnesia covers a relatively short time— or they can be assigned during the campaign. In the latter case, a language or proficiency can only be assigned the first time it comes into play. For instance, once it is established that a character does not speak Elven, this language can’t be chosen for the character. These details can also be left on the DM’s hands so they assign them as better befits the campaign. Even if you choose your proficiency and/or language at character creation, your character might ignore the fact that they have them.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Investigation
Other proficiencies: One type of professional tools
Additional languages: Any one
Additional equipment: Common clothing (it might have started as finer clothes and got weathered down), a mystery item from the trinkets table with uncertain significance, belt pouch with 20 gp

Feature: Shadows of the Past
You may not remember what happened to you, but there are clues about it scattered around the land. It can be something that rings a bell, or maybe an individual who remembers some data or anecdote about you, or some document with your name in it. The DM, once per session, can bring one of these clues into light to draw your attention towards a given element; if you have met a dead end, for instance, it could lead to the town, inn or neighborhood where it’s most likely you find a thread to follow. If the DM doesn’t volunteer the usage of this feature, you can always ask them to use it, but they have the final say on the matter

Suggested Characteristics

d8 Personality Trait
1. Whenever I meet new people I tend to closely inspect them in case something about them rings a bell with me
2. Since I don’t recall my name, I introduce myself with a new identity each time
3. I tend to drink in the hope that alcohol will rouse my memories
4. I use to make a characteristic gesture in a mechanical way, and I don’t know why
5. Whenever I get altered, my manner of speech changes noticeably
6. I fret whenever I don’t remember any detail, small as it may be
7. There’s one kind of people (Little girls with tresses, red-haired males…) that makes me feel in a certain way, be it a good or bad feeling
8. I feel a certain impulse everyday at the same time (waking up in the middle of the night, being suddenly hungry, a pain in a given part of my body…)
d6 Ideal
1. Mastery of Destiny. I enjoy my newfound freedom of not having to fulfill expectations (Chaotic)
2. Roots. Nobody should be deprived of their origins and heritage (Good)
3. Moderation. I shy from commitment, in case I end up fighting my own unlnown interests (Neutral)
4. Tradition. I feel a newfound respect —or perhaps an old one— for any custom that helps us remember the past
5. Resentment. I envy when others have affective bonds which I lack and I enjoy breaking them up whenever I can (Evil)
6. Knowledge. Every bit of data in my mind is precious and can teach me something about my past (Any)

d6 Bond
1. I treasure my connection with the first person I remember meeting after I lost my memory, who helped me live through the ordeal
2. I somehow remember the deity I used to worship and I put everything om my religion
3. I carry with me a sealed letter addressed to an importan individual, who I hope will give me a clue about what I forgot
4. I often go back to the first place I remember after my memory loss in search of clues
5. I remember a name, a face and a feeling (affection, hatred, fear…), and I search untiringly for this person
6. I have been contacted by someone who claims to know about my past and who seems to want something from me

d6 Flaw
1. I easily forget or exchange people’s names, even in the most awkward moments
2. I constantly see false signs of people around me knowing things I ignore, which infuriates me
3. I feel like I don’t belong to any group, since this is not my real life
4. I also forgot some crucial rules of social behavior
5. Whenever I find a clue that might lead to my past, I drop everything so I can investigate it
6. I hate forgetting things. I must spend some time memorize every bit of data, no matter how irrelevant it is 

MIST OUTLANDER
You don’t belong in this world. You might be born in the Forgotten Realms, Athas or even Eberron, alien to the Demiplane of Dread until the Mists carried you here.
Work with the DM to determine the circumstances of your transition to the Land of the Mists. You may have arrived pursuing a villain who was also dragged, or maybe an entire town was swept into the demiplane when someone commitment a heinous atrocity. You might instead have committed some dark act that caught the Dark Powers’ attention or angered your Vistani guides back in your home world. You may even have been transported in order to undergo a given quest and you hope to return home when you finish.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Intimidation
Additional Languages: Any two nonhuman languages you choose
Additional Equipment: Traveler clothes, an alien item: a stuffed or otherwise preserved piece of the body of a monster which does not —or barely— exist in the Mists, like a dragon or an orc; or any item bearing an emblem belonging to any organization from your home world. Belt pouch with 15 gp

Feature: Living Enigma
Sages in the Land of Mists feel fascinated by the existence of other worlds. At least, the ones who don’t think that you belong in an asylum. In addition, many other inhabitants of the demiplane find your most mundane stories fascinating, whether you are a good or bad narrator. This gives you access to people who others might find unapproachable, but abuse this and you may end up in a straightjacket

Suggested Characteristics

d8 Personality Trait
1. Sometimes I mumble in a language known by nobody else in this world
2. I tend to exaggerate the stories about the world I come from
3. I find fascinating every difference between this world and mine and I usually comment them for hours after finding them out
4. There is a creature that doesn’t exist in this world, about which I speak whenever I can
5. I try to enlighten the mood with jokes or light chat wherever I go
6. I tend to skeptically reject beliefs from this world until I get proof of their reality or something whose criterion I trust confirms them for me
7. Whenever I find a nonhuman humanoid, I tend to seek for their company and conversation
8. Every night I look up to the sky trying to find the constellations that can be seen from my world, and I never give up about this

d6 Ideal
1. Dark Power. This new land is full of opportunity and power for those strong enough not to let their scruples control them (Evil)
2. Crusade. People in this land are subject to evils that mist be fought (Good)
3. Religion. My deity is more powerful than the timid entities worshipped in this sorrowful world, and I will prove it when I can contact them (Any)
4. Entropy. This world’s very existence is an aberration. I must attack at its deepest foundations so we can restore the natural order (Chaotic)
5. Hope. The despair and weariness of many natives are the reason evil holds so much power in this world, and I must do something about it (Good)
6. Adoption. I decided to stay here and find a proper place among the great native heroes —or anti-heroes or villains— of this world (Any)

d6 Bond
1. I entered the Mists along with a villain from my home world, and I won’t stop until I defeat them
2. A Vistani prophecy showed me the way I can go back to my world, but I need to find a concrete individual first
3. I swore to avenge the death of the first person who cared for me in this world
4. I know native adventurers who taught me how to survive in this land; they are the closest people to my heart I have now
5. A Darklord decided that I am either a menace or an important pawn in their plans, and their agents follow my track
6. Just after I stepped out of the Mists, I provoked someone’s death and I look for redemption in the eyes of their loved ones

d6 Flaw
1. I believe absolutely everything anyone tells me about this strange world
2. I always try to categorize creatures according to their species and salient abilities usually take me by surprise
3. I’m not entirely aware that stories about my world make me seem to be barking mad
4. I am almost paranoid, treating everyone as potential agents of the Darklords
5. I’m obsessed with the Mists and the possibility of traveling through them. While I don’t just walk blindly into them —not any more at least—, I look for a Mistway or a Vistana guide back to my world whatever it takes
6. I am too fast to trust anyone who shows the smallest bit of knowledge about my world
 
Background Mixing

There are a few kinds of backgrounds. In the basic rules we find backgrounds that reflect a character’s upbringing, while others reflect their occupation —so a Soldier might have spent his childhood in the streets as an Urchin, while his companion was pampered and raised as a Noble until she decided to enlist. In Ravenloft sources (like Curse of Strahd or Jester’s Heroes of the Mists or even the Backgrounds above) we also find backgrounds that reflect an event that marks a character. It stands to reason, then, that a character can have elements from several backgrounds. Even backgrounds of the same type might be combined (like a princess who used to sneak out of palace wearing the stableboy’s clothes, who might be both an Urchin and a Noble, both backgrounds designed to reflect one’s upbringing).

There are several ways to combine Backgrounds
• The most straightforward way to reflect this, of course, is choosing the Background that better suits the character and applying its feature, proficiencies and languages, but mix the suggested characteristics of all Backgrounds, adding any characteristic equipment from the secondary backgrounds like trinkets or the like to the initial equipment
• In addition there’s also the option to mix their Skill Proficiencies (taking a total of 2 between all Backgrounds) and Other Proficiencies and Additional Languages (again taking 2 total between both categories and all backgrounds)
• A further layer of customization would be mixing two Background features but limiting them. Contacts or reputation may have been partially lost, knowledge can be out of date… This can also be the rationale for not having a background feature at all when the character’s past suggest they could have it. If it still feels slightly better than a single Background, a character can have Flaws from each of them

On the other hand, the DM can simply apply two Backgrounds to all characters in the campaign. If for some characters it seems that more Backgrounds are appropriate, it would be easier to apply the above guidelines to them

[Mischief]

Nice! Looks like 5e content! I'll put some more comments here when I have the opportunity to read it.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

AMNESIAC

There is an article on D&D Wiki with the same premise: Unknown_(5e_Background).

[Nirnel]

AMNESIAC

There is an article on D&D Wiki with the same premise: Unknown_(5e_Background).

Interesting. I didn't know about this site. Not enough to think about searching through it at least. Thank you very much, it seems to have more work than the version I wrote.