I'm building a campaign with a Kraken and wanted to play it as an ancient god who's regular coming is prophesied by the cults he established long ago. I wanted to ask if anyone has any tips, tricks or cool ways to play a telepathic character. Most of our group's interactions have been straightforward slash and grab so I really wanted to change it up.
Scare them. In the middle of the woods give one of the players a few telepathic words sent by the kraken, simply turning to the player and saying that they hear the words in their head.
Change up who hears the voice - every now and then - and bam! You’ve got the players not only interested, but hopefully, scared! The Kraken is an immense, powerful, and most likely inscrutable being. It’s hard to play a C’thulu esque monster (as we are mere mortals playing a game), but keeping it mysterious and scary is the best way (in my opinion) to add that layer of power and unknown to the monster.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Have the Cultist not speak common. It's tongue is something else. When it talks they don't really "hear" the other language... but they understand the words. As the conversations goes on they realize the mouth movements and the words don't match. Like the mouth of an actor in a dubbed movie. As the conversation goes on they realize there is another sound... that sound is what the cultist is actually saying. They don't understand the language. That is when they realize the cultist in speaking inside their heads.
This sort of thing always harkens back to the Eldritch horrors found in things like the Lovecraft mythos. Telepathy is funny because it's not just words, it's thoughts, memories, messages, feelings, etc.
Maybe introduce a reoccuring nightmare. Deliver visions periodically of apocalyptic scenes. Then there's a personal favorite, start dropping skill checks: A player feels an overwhelming sense of dread, as though a phantom is inches from strangling them, and they need a Perception check to find the source (which is actually nothing but telepathic foreboding miles away).
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Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
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Hey all,
I'm building a campaign with a Kraken and wanted to play it as an ancient god who's regular coming is prophesied by the cults he established long ago. I wanted to ask if anyone has any tips, tricks or cool ways to play a telepathic character. Most of our group's interactions have been straightforward slash and grab so I really wanted to change it up.
Thanks!
Scare them. In the middle of the woods give one of the players a few telepathic words sent by the kraken, simply turning to the player and saying that they hear the words in their head.
Change up who hears the voice - every now and then - and bam! You’ve got the players not only interested, but hopefully, scared! The Kraken is an immense, powerful, and most likely inscrutable being. It’s hard to play a C’thulu esque monster (as we are mere mortals playing a game), but keeping it mysterious and scary is the best way (in my opinion) to add that layer of power and unknown to the monster.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Have the Cultist not speak common. It's tongue is something else.
When it talks they don't really "hear" the other language... but they understand the words.
As the conversations goes on they realize the mouth movements and the words don't match. Like the mouth of an actor in a dubbed movie.
As the conversation goes on they realize there is another sound... that sound is what the cultist is actually saying. They don't understand the language.
That is when they realize the cultist in speaking inside their heads.
This sort of thing always harkens back to the Eldritch horrors found in things like the Lovecraft mythos. Telepathy is funny because it's not just words, it's thoughts, memories, messages, feelings, etc.
Maybe introduce a reoccuring nightmare. Deliver visions periodically of apocalyptic scenes. Then there's a personal favorite, start dropping skill checks: A player feels an overwhelming sense of dread, as though a phantom is inches from strangling them, and they need a Perception check to find the source (which is actually nothing but telepathic foreboding miles away).
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero