Voicing Concerns

DMs use voices many times to make a character unique.  From the gravely voice of the barkeep, to the british accent of the scholar, they make NPCs seem to come to life just a bit more for the players.  The question is, should players themselves use them?

First, let me kick things off by saying that my take on this is yes and no.  It really depends on the character, and the player as well.  PCs are “unique” by their very nature.  Unique is in quotes only because to many players don’t actually make unique characters, but to those around them, they’re unique.  If Bob plays a fighter, then you can see Bob and know who that is.  The unique voice is unnecessary to make Bob unique.  Sure, if Bob is playing a foppish swashbuckler, then Bob might want to do his best Errol Flynn impression just to add to the tone of the character, but does he really need to?  I don’t think so.

However, character voices come in very handy in other game situations.  For example, let’s say you base a character on Doc Holiday.  Let’s make it a western campaign, and the DM approves you playing real western figures, so you’re playing Doc Holiday.  So, after doing some research on Wikipedia (hey, it’s fast and cheap), you find that Val Kilmer’s portrayal in Tomestone is pretty accurate, so you watch the movie and learn to talk with that thick South Georgia accent (and, for the record, not all of us from down here talk like that.  Doc Holiday’s home town isn’t that far from my home town of Albany, GA).  Now, you talk about being someone’s “huckleberry” and that they’re a “daisy”.  In this instance, that odd voice goes lightyears to bringing Doc Holiday back to life.

Now, it’s important that a voice not be a crutch to get out of proper role play.  With the Doc Holiday example, he still needs to drink and gamble as primary ways to spend his time.  The character can not be the voice, and the voice can not be the character.  There has to be more substance.  However, with proper substance and the voice, the character can come to life in ways you never even dreamed of!

The Burned Lands Part 3 – Class Groups

With the blog carnival in full effect, here’s the latest addition to The Burned Lands, my homebrew world that is currently in development.  The term class groups may sound like roles from 4e, but really they aren’t.  Instead, these are classes that have some sort of bond based on common origins, common command structures, etc.  This was actually inspired by the druidic orders from history, and spiraled from there.

As it was ripped off from historical druids, why not start there?  The Druidic Order consists, obviously, of druids.  However, bards are also part of this order.  Anyone can be a troubedor, but not everyone can be a bard.  In The Burned Lands, PC classes are unique, and the bard is no exception.  Bards are trained by the Druidic Order and are responsible for keeping the Lore alive through their stories and can, if necessary, serve as judges and diplomats.  Druids, since they worship nature rather than dieties, survived the God War realatively intact and are not the most plentiful healers on the island.  The order also has the NPC class of Brehon, which is basically a judge/lawyer class.  While druids and bards can fill this role, the brehons are specially trained for this.

As I’m a huge fan of the martial classes, let’s visit them next.  The Martial Path is made up of fighters, rangers, berserkers (which are just barbarians renamed), scouts, and warblades.  It also contains the NPC class of warrior (as outlined in the 3.5 DMG as opposed to Unearthed Arcana).  Their niche in society is pretty obvious.  Rangers could easily fit within the Druidic Order, and will often serve the druids, but most of their abilities are martial in origin which is why they are in this path.  Now, you’ll notice that there are no monks here.  Unfortunately, the monk class doesn’t fit within the context of The Burned Lands at this time, so unfortunately they’re not there.  As more of the world is explored, it’s possible they’ll show up.

What would a fantasy world be without magic?  The Arcane Path is made up of wizards and warlocks.  Based on the magic system I’ve outlined recently, there was no reason to keep around the sorcerer, so they’re gone.  Warlocks, on the other hand, offer something a bit different to the table.  Now, I honestly like the 4e version better, so warlock characters will need to outline how they formed the pact and with what.  NPC adepts, as outlined in the DMG, also reside in this path.  In The Burned Lands, adepts are viewed with the same awe as any other magic user, due to there being so few of them.

Lastly, is the Religious Path.  Clerics and Paladins reside here, as to NPC priests with no spellcasting abilities.  Their extensive training to follow the Gods (there are only three left, which will be outlined later) forges a bond between these two classes, which only makes sense really.

Now, you haven’t seen the rogue.  Don’t worry, they’re still around.  They simply follow no particular path.  As rogues, they tend to be outside of society anyways, so they continue this so far as the path system is concerned as well.  OK…honestly, I wasn’t sure where to put them, but this seems to work just as well, don’t you agree?

Now, you may be wondering why I bothered grouping these classes.  It’s a fair question really.  Character interactions are often adlibbed with no real guidance.  Different paths have approached the world differently, creating philosophical differences between individuals.  By grouping the classes, we can see where these tensions lie.  Classes within a group will get along as a whole, but obviously there are exceptions where an idividual is the issue, rather than the class.

The Druidic Order gets along with the martial path and that’s about it.  There is always tension between the druids and the religious path.  There also tends to be a great deal of tension with the arcane path as well.

The martial path gets along with druids and the religious path, but doesn’t get along to well with the arcane path (with exceptions based on individuals).

The arcane path tends to see themselves as slightly superior to the other paths, but will work with them when essential.  However, they don’t get along with any of them.

The religious path gets along well with the martial path, but view the druidic order with mistrust and, at times, open hostility.  They also mistrust the arcane path, but only because of the devestation that wizards left in their wake after the God War.  They can’t help but feel that wizards are a true danger to the entire world!

So, there’s the latest of The Burned Lands.  I hope you all enjoy what I’ve laid out so far.