This is What Game Day Feels Like

Most people complain about Mondays, but that's the day I have game. Without fail, this is how it feels every, single time.

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In Their Own Words: Finding Your Character's Voice

Creating a character you can get into isn't an easy process. You need to know who this character is, where he or she came from, as well as facts like age, gender, ethnicity, race, religious views, fighting style, education, family life, and a hundred other things that aren't listed here. When you've finally figured all of that out, and you have a fully-fleshed concept in your head, you still have the biggest hurdle of all left to jump; finding that character's voice.

Some masks are harder to put on, than to take off.

Giving a character the right voice is perhaps one of the most important things a player can do, especially in the absence of costuming and virtual avatars. Everything from timbre to word choice plays into it, and everything has to fit together to create a unique, complete whole. It can be a little intimidating at first, so we here at Improved Initiative have put together a list to help you express your characters in their own words.

Tip #1: Accent

An accent is one of the first things you notice when talking to someone. If someone is British, German, Russian, Indian, etc. you notice. Accents are indicative of a geographic upbringing, and that can be used to intimate things about a character. This is especially true if the common language of the land was not the language your character was born speaking.

Ask yourself where your character was born, where she grew up, and what languages she speaks. Also ask if your character has an ear for languages, and can speak them fluidly and flawlessly. Lastly, ask if your character's biology would lead to any kind of linguistic quirks. If your character is a half-orc chieftan who is more comfortable with orc, gnoll, and giant, then his common might be guttural. It might also be hard to understand him if he has tusks, which could lead to him speaking in short, terse sentences even if he knows the language well. If your character is a human learned in esoteric lore, then she might be able to read and comprehend the language of inhuman Outer Gods and other ancient beings. She might have difficulty speaking that language with only a single tongue, though.

Another handy thing about accents is they can make it very clear when you're in character, and when your character is speaking a different language. That lack of confusion is appreciated by storytellers and by fellow players both. For those who need examples of accents, this video by the very talented Amy Walker goes through 21 accents seamlessly in less than 3 minutes.

Tip #2: Word Choices

What words a person chooses to use says a lot about them. If a person was raised in a folksy environment, then backwoods slang will always be part of that individual's vernacular. If someone was raised to the priesthood, or spent a life as an academic, then that person might use precise words with a lot of syllables, or make references to books and learning other characters wouldn't know about. Career soldiers may speak in clipped sentences full of slang picked up during training, and performers may use sensational word choices that draw the ear and intrigue the listener out of habit.

Which words a person chooses to use is a reflection of what they know, and who they are. It might also be a projection the character uses to create a certain impression. If a canny barbarian knows people will underestimate him if they think he's stupid, he might deliberately use simple words, or even the wrong words, despite knowing better.

Tip #3: Linguistic Tics

Every person has his or her own, unique way of speaking. These idiosyncrasies go beyond an accent or a culture, and they make a person's speech pattern unmistakable. The often used trope of "hulk speak", where a character speaks largely in third person and uses simple or childish terms for more complex concepts, is a common one among characters who are not very smart.

These tics can be big things or little things. Does your character have good diction? Does the character have a catch-phrase, like "trust me" or "the gods will as the gods wish"? Does the character speak one way when in the public eye, and another way in private? How does your character's speech change with emotion? Is a character terse or verbose? Does the character swear a lot, and are the curse words real-world swears or are they curses used in the game world? Does the character use derogatory phrases for members of a certain profession, race, sex, etc.? All of these things can speak volumes about the character in question.

Tip #4: Pitching It

Perhaps the easiest trick in the book for making a character's voice sound different from your normal speaking voice is to pitch it. If a character is small or slight, then a higher-pitched voice would help create that visual. If a character is barrel-chested, or of a large stature, then making your voice deeper will help reinforce that image.

Adding qualities to your voice can take practice, but it can be very useful as audio shorthand. A rasping voice might represent a life of hard use, or an injury/scar on the throat that never healed right. Speak in a monotone if a character feels little emotion, or to show someone constantly distracted by interior thoughts. Put a growl in your tone for someone that's aggressive. Movies, plays, and audio dramas are great places for even more examples.

Tip #5: What Isn't Being Said

Quit looking, it's not on your sheet.

Language is how ideas and culture are expressed. Sometimes what people don't say can be just as important as what actually passes their lips.

What does that even mean? Well, it means that if a culture doesn't understand an idea, then there won't be a word for it. For instance, if someone was raised speaking infernal would there be a word for "apology", or would the nearest translation be, "I acknowledge your suffering"? Would abyssal have a word for "friend"? Does orc have a word for "love"? The languages characters speak, and the cultures they come from, influence how they act and what ideas make sense to them.

Wait, one more! Is there a goblin word for "self-preservation"?


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Table Talk: That Time When My Paladin One-Shotted the Campaign's Final Big-Bad

We've all got a few of those stories. That one time where the dice were in our favor and we couldn't be stopped, that great exchange that left the room silent, or that session when the most ridiculous course of action worked for no reason other than you popped up a natural 20. Table Talk is the newest addition to Improved Initiative, and it's where we brag, boast, and perhaps share an embarrassing fumble or two. To lead us off I'm going to tell you a tale of how I accomplished the unthinkable; I one-shot killed the final enemy of a huge, published campaign.

I was pretty goddamn surprised, myself.

You Did What?

Okay, so this story's going to take a wee bit of background before we get to the good part. Several years ago a friend of mine by the name of Justin Duncan got his hands on the Carrion Crown adventure path. For those of you not familiar with it, it's essentially an entire campaign where you're facing nothing but undead horrors, eldritch abominations, and every blasphemous, squamous thing the Pathfinder bestiary can fling at you. I figured it would be a good time to stretch beyond my usual fighters and barbarians to try out a paladin. But not just any paladin; I wanted an Undead Scourge. Essentially a paladin so dedicated to fighting the undead that many of his abilities were ineffective on living, but undoubtedly evil, creatures, while at the same time wreaking pure havoc on the living dead.

Valgard Grimwald

Valgard was once a peasant farmer, living with his wife and working the cold, unforgiving ground of Ustalav. She died of a sickness one winter, and despite the frigid temperatures Valgard dug her grave and saw her safely beneath the snow. When spring came he found her grave had been defiled, and her body stolen. He roamed the mountains, following the signs and stink of the living dead until he found the necromancer who had been using his Ilyena for his own, twisted pleasures. That man was a long time dying, and once his wife had been placed back in her bower Valgard dedicated himself to wiping out the living dead by taking up arms in the service of Pharasma, goddess of death.

But Paladins Have to Have a Lawful Good Goddess, Don't They?

Yes, don't interrupt me. I asked Justin whether he would allow me to play a paladin who served a neutral goddess, provided I kept his alignment lawful good. I was willing to follow Iomede, or even Erastil, but I felt that for story reasons Pharasma made more sense. He agreed, and acquiesced to my request.

Back to the story. So we begin in the Town of Harrowstone fighting ghosts, move onto another town where a sentient flesh golem is being put on trial for murder, and the party eventually goes beneath the waves to fight a horde of horrors that would have been right at home outside Lovecraft's Innsmouth. In addition to Valgard we had a bard detective, a rage prophet, and a titan mauler who had picked up a lycanthrope template somewhere along the line. Not a party to be messed with lightly. In that place beneath the waves though, the DM decided to pull some shenanigans on my behalf.

I had made it known from the beginning that one of the goals I had for Valgard was to find him a holy avenger. It's possibly the most stereotypical paladin thing you could ask for, but I wanted to do it. Rather than just taking something straight out of the book (Justin's flare for the dramatic simply would not allow something so plebian), he decided to craft a relic that fit Valgard, as well as his goddess. What I got was a holy bastard sword that increased my lay on hands, dealt extra damage to anything undead, and which had disruption on it. I pointed out that disruption was sort of a blunt-weapon-only ability, to which he told me it's a relic, it has the properties on that sheet. I nodded, having done my duty as a conscientious player, and took the sword with something approaching unbecoming glee.

Then What?

Right. So the party hacked, slashed, diplomacized and intimidated its way through half a dozen books (the vampire chapter was particularly short, as we took on a CR 18 challenge at level 12 and came out the victors. That's a separate story all by itself), and we wound up at the final encounter of the whole campaign. A wizard on a mountaintop preparing to steal the power of the Whispering Tyrant, and to become the most powerful lich the ages have ever seen. As we advanced on him to stop the ritual (Spoiler Alert, in case you haven't guessed what the final boss in an undead-centric campaign is), a dracolich crawls around from the mountain peak and throws itself between us and the soon-to-be-lich king. Justin places a colossal size red dragon mini on the map, an excited grin plastered across his face. Roll initiative!

By sheer, stupid luck Valgard goes first. Since the dragon is flat-footed and its reach rendered moot, the paladin declares his smite, then charges with sword raised high and calling out to Pharasma to guide his hand. He swings, and hits only because of the +2 from the charge. First blood! I start gathering my dice, preparing to list out the way I'm using channel smite, and calculating how many dice I have to roll. Then I remember it's a disruption weapon, and off-handedly say, "Hey Justin, roll its fort save. Yeah I know it has to roll a 1 for it to matter but there's a 1 on every die."

Justin rolls, and the smile fades from his face. He's staring at a natural 1, an automatic failure. He takes the dragon off the table, and gestures to me. We sit there, stunned, staring at what just happened. In the game world the dracolich bursts into smoking bone shards and ancient dust, and when the cloud clears Valgard stands with nothing more than forty feet between him and the wizard who would enslave the world.

Don't go anywhere, this gets better.

The newly made lich, who is realizing that the odds have suddenly and drastically shifted out of his favor, goes next. He casts mage's dysjunction on Valgard's sword, which as an artifact gets all kinds of chances to save. It fails those saves, and is destroyed. The lich manages to keep his magic, but destroying an artifact of a deity has a chance to draw said deity's attention. Not much of a chance, something like 5%. So Justin rolls percentiles, high is good for us. 98%. Pharasma is now paying very, very close attention to what's happening in this pitched battle.

The rest of the party advances on the newly made lich, and things go very poorly very quickly for him. Holy energy is thrown through Valgard's fists, lightning brought down from scrolls by the bard, and sheer, brutal blows from the barbarian are cutting him to pieces. After the third round the lich falls apart, but we know he'll reconstitute soon. We also know that, for story reasons, destroying his phylactery could kill the person who does it. Valgard, who has sought nothing more than to be granted an afterlife with his wife, destroys the phylactery without hesitation. He sacrificed himself to save the country he loved, and Pharasma made him one of her eternal guardians.

This remains, without question, the most epic thing I have ever done with a set of dice.


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Moon Pope Monday: The Great and Powerful Moon Pope!

My current party's cleric, the Great and Powerful Moon Pope!

Moon Pope Allows This

There is no explaining Moon Pope. Moon Pope was, Moon Pope is, and Moon Pope shall ever be. Much like the new feature for Improved Initiative, Moon Pope Monday. A simple post, it will be a video, a picture, or maybe just a man with a box on his head getting ready to make a will save.

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