Given my linguistics background, I always disliked the fact that beast races/ creatures are capable of full speech. This is physiologically impossible, and it’s always broken immersion for me in fantasy games, where I still expect some form of verisimilitude.

However, I was delighted when I read about Orcs and their speech impediments, as well as Saurians having their own speech limitations with limited vowels and different consonants. Not to mention the “dragons can talk only in legends” bit, which I absolutely loved, given the unreliable narrator factor in Forbidden Lands.

In this vein, there’s something that bothers me, which is Wolfkin as a playable kin. At some point I can read that they communicate between one another through howls and such, but there’s an awkward omission on how they, as playable kin, would communicate with other kin. Not to mention that they despise other kin anyway.

So my first thought is to ban this kin from being payable at my table outright, unless all the party plays as Wolfkin.

Just wondering what is everybody’s opinion on this. Full disclaimer, I am still halfway through the GM’s handbook, so there may be some stuff I am missing.

  • claycle
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    1 year ago

    Re: dragons:

    spoiler

    Scarne can clearly talk, but perhaps she is more of a primordial being than an actual dragon.

    Re: Wolfkin

    Assume they are more like this:

    Chewie

    • Pyrgos@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks! Yes, I thought about it, and that’s definitely something I’m willing to do. The art in the book doesn’t really match it, but I can always assume that there are Wolfkin that are more feral than others.