I Think Sometimes People Sleep On The Idea Of Barbarians In More RP Focused Games

I think sometimes people sleep on the idea of barbarians in more RP focused games

Yes I know we all love to play the smooth sexy person, or the ingenious trickster. However there is always a place for every class in every situation you just have to think about what your character would really do.

For instance; recently my Dragon born lumberjack barbarian Kava found herself with the rest of her party smack dab in the middle of a murder mystery. Now one of Kava’s main attributes is that she seeks simple solutions, Kava often sticks by other more investigative members of her party like the Artificer Mercer, and is honestly in her element when she has a clear directive.

You may be thinking, not the best fit for a mystery…and on the surface you’d be right after the inciting incident I attempted a few checks to investigate things…this obviously did not work because Kava has a -2 to all intelligence checks, and I found myself frustrated that none of my skills really applied to this situation. I sat at the table thinking for a few moments than I decided…well if I’m this frustrated…imagine how Kava must be feeling, Kava spent her entire life helping others and deep down enjoys being of use and helping…so I rolled an intelligence check for Kava and obviously it was very low, so I decided that Kava is going to start making poor choices and randomly start accusing people and honestly roughing them up, Kava is a blunt instrument after all.

So Kava goes into a rage accuses the butler because she was told once that it’s always the butler that did it, Kava accuses the butler, and this actually allowed me to weave in Kava’s family connection because it was Kava’s brother Tim Jr that read that in a book and told it to Kava, when convinced not to kill the poor soul right than and there she went though the house just indiscriminately accusing and yelling at people. Punching walls and clocking herself in the chin every six seconds or so to mechanically keep her rage going. This house wide rampage also allowed some nice RP moments when another party member would be questioning an NPC and suddenly a 6’ 5” Dragon born picks up that NPC and absolutely loses it and gives the help action by throwing off their guard.

Eventually I and Kava came to the same conclusion, the murder is in the house and if I can keep everyone in the same room either A by process of elimination we know who the killer is or B the killer cannot hinder our investigation. So these poor people are stuck in a room with this DRAGON who seems to be just yelling two herself, and getting deeper talking about her family and stuff. At this point another PC casts a spell on me to make Kava quieter, which kind of makes sense in character but they’re a general knob all around so that doesn’t matter.

Soon after the thinking members of our party figure out who the murders are, one paid professional, and the one who paid the professional, this means that Kava’s status as a “big axe” gets to be reinstated as we chase down the killer though the mansion. Unfortunately Kava after successfully punching her way through a caved in celling gets hit in the FUCKING FACE by a blindness effect and is essentially taken out of the fight.

But that story is just to say, it’s easy to find a way to make your character work in any situation if you can get into their head, and adjust accordingly.