diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 8a02ee465..9d19f4210 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ Changes between 2.2.1 and 2.2.2.dev
   e.g. from module, class and at function level.
 - add chdir method to monkeypatch funcarg
 - fix crash resulting from calling monkeypatch undo a second time
+- extend reports accepting kwargs to set arbitrary additional attributes
+  this helps xdist serialization/deserialization of extended/customized reports
 
 Changes between 2.2.0 and 2.2.1
 ----------------------------------------
diff --git a/_pytest/runner.py b/_pytest/runner.py
index 12d3a5375..048ca1dd9 100644
--- a/_pytest/runner.py
+++ b/_pytest/runner.py
@@ -141,6 +141,10 @@ def getslaveinfoline(node):
         return s
 
 class BaseReport(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, **kw):
+        self.__dict__.update(kw)
+
     def toterminal(self, out):
         longrepr = self.longrepr
         if hasattr(self, 'node'):
@@ -190,7 +194,7 @@ class TestReport(BaseReport):
     they fail).
     """
     def __init__(self, nodeid, location,
-            keywords, outcome, longrepr, when, sections=(), duration=0):
+            keywords, outcome, longrepr, when, sections=(), duration=0, **extra):
         #: normalized collection node id
         self.nodeid = nodeid
 
@@ -219,6 +223,8 @@ class TestReport(BaseReport):
         #: time it took to run just the test
         self.duration = duration
 
+        self.__dict__.update(extra)
+
     def __repr__(self):
         return "<TestReport %r when=%r outcome=%r>" % (
             self.nodeid, self.when, self.outcome)
@@ -226,9 +232,10 @@ class TestReport(BaseReport):
 class TeardownErrorReport(BaseReport):
     outcome = "failed"
     when = "teardown"
-    def __init__(self, longrepr):
+    def __init__(self, longrepr, **extra):
         self.longrepr = longrepr
         self.sections = []
+        self.__dict__.update(extra)
 
 def pytest_make_collect_report(collector):
     call = CallInfo(collector._memocollect, "memocollect")
@@ -250,12 +257,13 @@ def pytest_make_collect_report(collector):
         getattr(call, 'result', None))
 
 class CollectReport(BaseReport):
-    def __init__(self, nodeid, outcome, longrepr, result, sections=()):
+    def __init__(self, nodeid, outcome, longrepr, result, sections=(), **extra):
         self.nodeid = nodeid
         self.outcome = outcome
         self.longrepr = longrepr
         self.result = result or []
         self.sections = list(sections)
+        self.__dict__.update(extra)
 
     @property
     def location(self):
diff --git a/testing/test_runner.py b/testing/test_runner.py
index aa543299f..10a8c9610 100644
--- a/testing/test_runner.py
+++ b/testing/test_runner.py
@@ -315,6 +315,21 @@ class TestSessionReports:
         assert not rep.passed
         assert rep.skipped
 
+
+reporttypes = [
+    runner.BaseReport,
+    runner.TestReport,
+    runner.TeardownErrorReport,
+    runner.CollectReport,
+]
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('reporttype', reporttypes, ids=[x.__name__ for x in reporttypes])
+def test_report_extra_parameters(reporttype):
+    args = py.std.inspect.getargspec(reporttype.__init__)[0][1:]
+    basekw = dict.fromkeys(args, [])
+    report = reporttype(newthing=1, **basekw)
+    assert report.newthing == 1
+
 def test_callinfo():
     ci = runner.CallInfo(lambda: 0, '123')
     assert ci.when == "123"