How do you handle monster speech?

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Void
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How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Void » Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:28 pm

How do you handle "monster speech"?

I'm talking about playing goblin/ogre/orog/gnoll/kobold characters.
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Cortex
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Cortex » Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:40 pm

Not making it incomprehensible in text is a good start. Always make yourself understandable, exceptions being plain gibberish accompanied by emotes.
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Black Wendigo
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Black Wendigo » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:10 pm

I use broken English that is not too broken and also will emote sounds appropriate to said monster.

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Baron Saturday
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Baron Saturday » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:41 pm

Do keep in mind when writing as a monster that not everyone speaks English as their first language. I think it's perfectly fine to just add things like hisses or other race-appropriate noises that don't involve garbling the actual words.
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Sab1
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Sab1 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:56 pm

I remember when most gnomes seemed to speak like this. HimynameisBobitsgoodtomeetyou.

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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Tourmaline » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:02 am

Most monster PCs seem to congregate together and use similar speech patterns so, I'd just pay attention to what others are doing.

Also if you have normal or higher intelligence you don't need to talk like a dumb monster. Orogs especially may have a brutish manner but they aren't dummies and may speak as well as any human.

It can also depend on the language spoken. I always think it's fun when a goblin or something speaks broken english in common then is as fluent as an Oxford scholar when speaking goblin.

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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Void » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:18 am

Cortex wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:40 pm
Not making it incomprehensible in text is a good start. Always make yourself understandable, exceptions being plain gibberish accompanied by emotes.
The reason for asking is because when a gnoll or a goblin speaks exactly like a human would, it feels incredibly odd - because in this case there's no differentiation in text form that would separate it from usual races, and it doesn't invoke mental image of that monster. So, there should be something that would set the monster aside in speech pattern, even in cases when the monster is smart.

Either way, I'll think over the suggestions posted, thanks for the responses.
Last edited by Void on Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Sab1
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Sab1 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:22 am

I can speak german, but doesn't necessarily mean I speak it as well as someone who speaks it everyday or I don't make some mistakes when speaking it. I would find it odd if a goblin that doesn't speak common often breaks out with fluent perfect common.

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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Leshpar » Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:28 am

With me, I speak common relatively well, leaving out a few words here or there. I also add growls, snarls, and other appropriate sounds as well as generally being agressive as befits a gnoll. I also try to avoid large words when not speaking gnollish (animal). Also, choosing certain words to refer to things that say "I'm not human" helps too. Hands are paws. Having claws, tail, and a muzzle and referencing them in emotes help. Its not what you say, its how you say it.

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Iceborn
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Iceborn » Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:41 am

Monster characters speaking like they are all goblins with an int score of 3 is a common pitfall that you I'd encourage people to avoid.
On the other hand, making differences in the quality of your speech in different tongues can offer some layer of personality - perhaps your half-orc has terrible Common, consequence of just barely speaking it in his life, but he has a good understanding of Undercommon and he can express more complicated nuance in it, and he can control Orcish fluently enough to express language-specific components.

Then you have to question yourself as the emphasis, the speech pattern of the character itself. This is not something of just monsters - every race, every kind of character has their own things that mark them as different.
The goblin archetype tends to be of the overexcited little minion. Does your character fit this description? If not, then what do they believe in? What's their strongest conviction, their hate? Do they think themselves too important? Do they think -something- more important than other things? Do they growl? Snarl? Hiss? Have all the teeth? Perhaps fangs so large that they don't fit entirely in the mouth and makes them slurr their words.
And even then, expressing a monster - expressing any character is not just a matter of speech and accentuation. It's a matter of being, of their habits, of what is remarkable of them that immediately sets them aside from other creatures. What makes a character memorable is not only being - but what do they do with their being that feels either unique of them, or precisely what one feels like they would expect of what they are supposed to be, or embody.
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Seven Sons of Sin » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:13 pm

There's nothing really that should prevent a 10 INT goblin from sounding like a 10 INT human. We think of fantasy tropes and common interpretations as the prevailing roleplaying laws, but no one says that is so. Sure, people might find that more jarring and less immersive, but you can also handle it really well. Broken English as a form of "monstrosity" is arguably more insulting than anything else.
Rather, I would point to trying to get really in-sync with monstrous cultures. Do gnolls constantly talk about things to scavenge, and are their metaphors based around hunting, packs, and other caninine stuff? Do orcs always go on about GLORY and BLOOD for BLOOD GOD, and perhaps use strong emphasis on being confrontational? Are goblins conniving, and cackling, and want OGOOBOOGOO to be the one True God? etc.

You can do more than just poor syntax.
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by R0GUE » Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:45 pm

I really enjoy Sam Reagal's accent/voice of the goblin girl, Nott, on Critical Role. She sounds very intelligent, just with kind of a raspy cockney accent. But she also has a 16 Int.

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flower
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by flower » Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:45 pm

You have a wrong stance to the broken language of monster PCs.

It is not about "Iam int 3 so i cannot speak".

My dog is highly inteligent, but if he coudl speak, he would certainly form sentences and words into phrases differently, because MINDSET OF THINKING is working in very different dimensions.

So when goblin speaks like 3 year old child it does not mean neccesary the goblin is an idiot in terms of IQ but simple that goblin thinks in its own way, differently from my elf/human/whatever and thus i can have hard time to understand real meaning.

The brain of goblin, kobold, and anyone else, will work in different dimensions, with different ability to imagine things and with different importance on individual things, which can and should reflect in speech too. And the two races i mentioned, are fine example how it is done on arelith. Local kobodls often think in terms of "it" when it concerns themselves which is awsome way to reflect different style of thinking, while goblins on Arelith often own way to differ from others, by using "seemingly" broken language when not speaking in goblin (because each language is based on way of thinking).

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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Void » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:36 pm

flower wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:45 pm
You have a wrong stance to the broken language of monster PCs.

It is not about "Iam int 3 so i cannot speak".

My dog is highly inteligent, but if he coudl speak, he would certainly form sentences and words into phrases differently, because MINDSET OF THINKING is working in very different dimensions.

So when goblin speaks like 3 year old child it does not mean neccesary the goblin is an idiot in terms of IQ but simple that goblin thinks in its own way, differently from my elf/human/whatever and thus i can have hard time to understand real meaning.

The brain of goblin, kobold, and anyone else, will work in different dimensions, with different ability to imagine things and with different importance on individual things, which can and should reflect in speech too. And the two races i mentioned, are fine example how it is done on arelith. Local kobodls often think in terms of "it" when it concerns themselves which is awsome way to reflect different style of thinking, while goblins on Arelith often own way to differ from others, by using "seemingly" broken language when not speaking in goblin (because each language is based on way of thinking).
Yeah, that.

Also it is worth mentioning that gnoll has hyena head, and dog-like vocal chords. It is quite easy to look up "talking dog" videos on youtube. Some are quite creepy.

Gnolls aren't magical beasts either, so it won't be possible to justify fluent speech with magic (like it is with worgs, for example).

Either way, I think I've come up with something suitable.
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Tourmaline » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:57 pm

Gnolls having dog-like vocal cords sounds like one interpretation, not a rule.. I would think they would be more like humanoids with hyena faces. Not to take away from your own RP but no one should think they need to justify why their gnoll is able to speak as well as any other PC.

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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Iceborn » Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:48 pm

Gnolls are bestial humanoids with no intelligence penalty. There's nothing that says they are incapable, or handicapped in their speech. If there's anything in their lore that states otherwise, please bring it up - I never delved in their culture too deeply.

Also, I don't necessarily disagree Flower, but there's certain logic that marks the difference between "having a different mindset, which causes the language to behave in certain way when spoken by certain creatures", and "genuinely broken word spaghetti with no rhyme or reason". The former is great, the latter is just a lazy attempt at mimicking 'monster speech'.
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Void
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Re: How do you handle monster speech?

Post by Void » Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:29 am

Iceborn wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:48 pm
Gnolls are bestial humanoids with no intelligence penalty.
They have -2 int and -2 cha compared to a human.

Basically, same mental stats as a half orc would have.
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