I personally dont take Volo's word for gospel. The guy is a classic lovable, but unreliable narrator, who isn't as knowledgeable as he thinks he is. He gets their tendencies right and some fascinating stuff about them, but blows some a bit out of proportion to make it sound more interesting/strange and to sell his books. I think this goes for all the stuff he writes about, not just Kenku.
( And yes, i have played Kenku before by having and expending a list of sounds, noises and phrases they picked up. I also describe sounds instead of trying to imitate them.)
I found a work around on the language with a Rougish Ranger who was forced into a monastery copying tomes, forging ancient artworks (Expert Forgery, not triclassed into Monk, acolyte etal..) and taken along as an unspeaking assistant to capture languages, hidden under robes.
With a backstory of having been a "monk" for 10yrs he's rather adept at talking common.
I’m playing a Kenku in my current campaign, and he’s kinda like the comedic break of the group. He usually don’t speak until there’s something he needs, otherwise he just uses body gestures and a notebook to communicate. For the most part he’s just following the person in the party that he’s imprinted on which is our Drow. Like you know in movies where the school bully has the 2 like sidekicks that just follow him around and they just always say “Yeah, *whatever insult the bully just said*” that’s him.
I have played 2. My first one, I was asked to produce sources where she would have heard various things and I ended up with the idea that she roosted in the rafters of a theater and heard a lot of Shakespeare, so then she just quoted that and then started appropriating phrases and words from the party. (After the oneshot she made a living making forgeries of her now famous party mates handwriting and other slightly shady pursuits).
For my more recent birb (monster hunter ranger in a home brew world), her mentor and adoptive guardian from a youthful age sought to expand her vocabulary and read to her regularly to help her. So she can carry on conversations quite well, though the different voices she uses to say each word can be a bit confusing until you've gotten used to her way of speaking.
how do humans learn words? mostly by hearing their family talk. so kenku would sound similar to other humanoids.
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This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic byVitaly S Alexius
I'm playing in a campaign with 3 players, and one of them is a Kenku. the DM let her start with a list of common easy phrases, but ever since she started, she's been creating a growing list. She does a phenominal job, and i'm excited to see her keep it up. It is an intentionally light hearted campaign since our last one was super serious, so i'm sure that helps too.
For a recent one-shot we did a modern fantasy game based on 80's aesthetics (I used an actual Mall Madness board as the battle map). One of the players played as an Arcane Trickster Rogue Kenku named, "Hi, I'm Taryn" who spoke almost entirely in valley girl slang and movie quotes. Because of the goofy nature of the game the fact that she couldn't effectively communicate was just part of the fun. The point of the game was to buy lavish gifts to give to the Princess, but in the end despite someone else giving the better gift Hi, I'm Taryn just lured the princess into a back room, killed her, then used Disguise Self and her mimicry ability to become the princess, which seemed like an appropriately wacky scenario to end the one-shot with.
I have played one and the “entirely unplayable” part is nonsense. Look through your notes and find any sentence your character has heard. If you need to say something different, use telepathy if you have it or make sounds to say that.
For example this one time my warlock kenku cast detect thoughts to see what was behind the holes that the bolts were coming out of. There was a gnoll thinking reload so I made a hyena sound and a crossbow reloading.
I have played one and the “entirely unplayable” part is nonsense. Look through your notes and find any sentence your character has heard. If you need to say something different, use telepathy if you have it or make sounds to say that.
For example this one time my warlock kenku cast detect thoughts to see what was behind the holes that the bolts were coming out of. There was a gnoll thinking reload so I made a hyena sound and a crossbow reloading.
if i heard that i would assume its a threat, cackling and crossbow
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic byVitaly S Alexius
I play a kenku and there's a few ways to manage effective communication. I was very drawn to the RP aspects, and personally decided I would only speak in phrases that occurred during our campaign. This means in early introduction I was not able to communicate as effectively as I have the longer we play. Here's my language work arounds.
1) My Kenku spent some time during a camp/rest helping practice sign language to share across party members. Kenku seem like a super cool way to include the deaf or Hard of Hearing communities. Also, look at the Mandalorian/Boba Fett for ideas.
2)Kenku read and write- note their mimicry specifically indicates hand forgery. In downtime, I shared with my campaign a few sentences of my backstory by writing in the dirt at minimum if something is really important.
3) I have a document of party quotes that is listed out with various groupings such as "cautionary" or "collaborative" or "greetings". This lets me take direct quotes from players that I like and then implement them as necessary. I used to be the note-taker in our former campaign and this makes a fun call back for all our interactions as I get to quote the characters own words back to them. It also means players intentionally give me phrases they'd like to hear repeated out of context like "there's ****ery afoot" or whatever they think is funny. It means we're creating our own inside jokes every time we communicate because they know I'll be parroting their words back to them
4) I also will state sounds I'm making. In my current campaign there are these terrible bells that toll when certain creatures appear. I imitate those sounds when I see them as a warning and also it's my "toll the dead" spell. Or I state, "I imitate a creaky door" or whatever.
5) when it comes to casting (I'm a cleric) there is literally nowhere that states your spells have to be some archaic language or even something fancy. So my spells are all just phrases that seem relevant. Your healing spells can be as simple as "look alive". It's whatever you want it to be. Sure, if you're a wizard then maybe it's a book you read and therefore a direct quote. The idea of magic is either divine, learned, or innate, but YOU can choose to make it any words you want for verbal components.
I've also heard of people making sound boards communicating in actual sounds, making great movie quotes, or just conveying things in sounds as pictures. Ultimately, yes, it's more creative RP but if you're drawn to the race, then it's your sandbox to co-create with your campaign members.
Alas, this might be a bit off-topic from the request, but I've always wanted to play a Kenku diplomat/emissary for a king or queen. They could literally deliver messages in the voice of their steward.
But yes, I am actually intimidate to play one because I don't think I could due it justice or otherwise figure out how to communicate with the group.
This is actually brilliant for world-building. A guild of secure messengers entirely made up of Kenku runners.
I wonder how everyone feels about the updated Kenku stats MMoM added, which dropped entirely the requirement that they speak exclusively in mimicry, and seems to be even more deliberately vague about it
I personally dont take Volo's word for gospel. The guy is a classic lovable, but unreliable narrator, who isn't as knowledgeable as he thinks he is. He gets their tendencies right and some fascinating stuff about them, but blows some a bit out of proportion to make it sound more interesting/strange and to sell his books. I think this goes for all the stuff he writes about, not just Kenku.
( And yes, i have played Kenku before by having and expending a list of sounds, noises and phrases they picked up. I also describe sounds instead of trying to imitate them.)
I found a work around on the language with a Rougish Ranger who was forced into a monastery copying tomes, forging ancient artworks (Expert Forgery, not triclassed into Monk, acolyte etal..) and taken along as an unspeaking assistant to capture languages, hidden under robes.
With a backstory of having been a "monk" for 10yrs he's rather adept at talking common.
I’m playing a Kenku in my current campaign, and he’s kinda like the comedic break of the group. He usually don’t speak until there’s something he needs, otherwise he just uses body gestures and a notebook to communicate. For the most part he’s just following the person in the party that he’s imprinted on which is our Drow. Like you know in movies where the school bully has the 2 like sidekicks that just follow him around and they just always say “Yeah, *whatever insult the bully just said*” that’s him.
I have played 2. My first one, I was asked to produce sources where she would have heard various things and I ended up with the idea that she roosted in the rafters of a theater and heard a lot of Shakespeare, so then she just quoted that and then started appropriating phrases and words from the party. (After the oneshot she made a living making forgeries of her now famous party mates handwriting and other slightly shady pursuits).
For my more recent birb (monster hunter ranger in a home brew world), her mentor and adoptive guardian from a youthful age sought to expand her vocabulary and read to her regularly to help her. So she can carry on conversations quite well, though the different voices she uses to say each word can be a bit confusing until you've gotten used to her way of speaking.
how do humans learn words? mostly by hearing their family talk. so kenku would sound similar to other humanoids.
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic by Vitaly S Alexius
I'm playing in a campaign with 3 players, and one of them is a Kenku. the DM let her start with a list of common easy phrases, but ever since she started, she's been creating a growing list. She does a phenominal job, and i'm excited to see her keep it up. It is an intentionally light hearted campaign since our last one was super serious, so i'm sure that helps too.
For a recent one-shot we did a modern fantasy game based on 80's aesthetics (I used an actual Mall Madness board as the battle map). One of the players played as an Arcane Trickster Rogue Kenku named, "Hi, I'm Taryn" who spoke almost entirely in valley girl slang and movie quotes. Because of the goofy nature of the game the fact that she couldn't effectively communicate was just part of the fun. The point of the game was to buy lavish gifts to give to the Princess, but in the end despite someone else giving the better gift Hi, I'm Taryn just lured the princess into a back room, killed her, then used Disguise Self and her mimicry ability to become the princess, which seemed like an appropriately wacky scenario to end the one-shot with.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I have played one and the “entirely unplayable” part is nonsense. Look through your notes and find any sentence your character has heard. If you need to say something different, use telepathy if you have it or make sounds to say that.
For example this one time my warlock kenku cast detect thoughts to see what was behind the holes that the bolts were coming out of. There was a gnoll thinking reload so I made a hyena sound and a crossbow reloading.
if i heard that i would assume its a threat, cackling and crossbow
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic by Vitaly S Alexius
I play a kenku and there's a few ways to manage effective communication. I was very drawn to the RP aspects, and personally decided I would only speak in phrases that occurred during our campaign. This means in early introduction I was not able to communicate as effectively as I have the longer we play. Here's my language work arounds.
1) My Kenku spent some time during a camp/rest helping practice sign language to share across party members. Kenku seem like a super cool way to include the deaf or Hard of Hearing communities. Also, look at the Mandalorian/Boba Fett for ideas.
2)Kenku read and write- note their mimicry specifically indicates hand forgery. In downtime, I shared with my campaign a few sentences of my backstory by writing in the dirt at minimum if something is really important.
3) I have a document of party quotes that is listed out with various groupings such as "cautionary" or "collaborative" or "greetings". This lets me take direct quotes from players that I like and then implement them as necessary. I used to be the note-taker in our former campaign and this makes a fun call back for all our interactions as I get to quote the characters own words back to them. It also means players intentionally give me phrases they'd like to hear repeated out of context like "there's ****ery afoot" or whatever they think is funny. It means we're creating our own inside jokes every time we communicate because they know I'll be parroting their words back to them
4) I also will state sounds I'm making. In my current campaign there are these terrible bells that toll when certain creatures appear. I imitate those sounds when I see them as a warning and also it's my "toll the dead" spell. Or I state, "I imitate a creaky door" or whatever.
5) when it comes to casting (I'm a cleric) there is literally nowhere that states your spells have to be some archaic language or even something fancy. So my spells are all just phrases that seem relevant. Your healing spells can be as simple as "look alive". It's whatever you want it to be. Sure, if you're a wizard then maybe it's a book you read and therefore a direct quote. The idea of magic is either divine, learned, or innate, but YOU can choose to make it any words you want for verbal components.
I've also heard of people making sound boards communicating in actual sounds, making great movie quotes, or just conveying things in sounds as pictures. Ultimately, yes, it's more creative RP but if you're drawn to the race, then it's your sandbox to co-create with your campaign members.
This is actually brilliant for world-building. A guild of secure messengers entirely made up of Kenku runners.
I wonder how everyone feels about the updated Kenku stats MMoM added, which dropped entirely the requirement that they speak exclusively in mimicry, and seems to be even more deliberately vague about it
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium