If you have played a half-giant...

[Callisto]

I'd like to get an opinion on something.

I'm writing up a half-giant character in case my PC dies tomorrow and I wanted to know how important the listen skill is to a half-giant? Since they can't sit at tables but by nature pay close attention to those around them, it seems like an important skill to have.

However, the guild and subguild that suit the background don't have the listen skill, so I'm a little torn.

Opinions?

[EvilRoeSlade]

The listen skill is very important.  The only worthy substitute to it is interacting with characters that will pay attention to you as a character.

[Agent_137]

follow your background. Ignore skills.

Sure, listen might be really useful....but in all my characters that i've ever written up, i've followed this advice and been served well.

[X-D]

Hhhmmm, on the point of a half-giant, don't listen to agent-137.

Playing a half-giant without listen is PAINFUL. And somewhat unrealistic to me, considering HG mentality and how interested they are in other people.

For me, listen ranks as about 95% must have on a half-giant.

Take the main guild that fits the backround then pick from one of the subguilds that gets listen.

[Anonymous]

I don't rate it quite as highly as other people do, apparently.  Mainly because a half-giant's curiousity makes them have an automatic reason to start a conversation with anyone.  Moreover, their size and disposition normally results in half-giants being given a lot of leeway in social situations.

No matter what you do, however, you absolutely have to have your half-giant start each sentence with 'Me' and have them engage in all sorts of wacky hyjinx in public settings.  Perhaps have him wear a giant diaper and soil himself during tense moments.

"Me go boom boom."  Comedic gold if you ask me.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I hate you so much right now, Christopher Robert Woods.

[My 2 sids]

A.  Half-giants arn't cavemen, just slow.
B.  Listen is ABSOLUTLY important for half-giants.  Background is they've never been able to hear anything (being so far away) that they would have picked up on how to listen.  

:idea:  :idea:  :?:  :?:  :!:   How come half-giants don't come with listen skill?

[Anonymous]

I hate you so much right now, Christopher Robert Woods.

Hate feeds me!  I grow stronger!

[X-D]

No matter what you do, however, you absolutely have to have your half-giant start each sentence with 'Me' and have them engage in all sorts of wacky hyjinx in public settings. Perhaps have him wear a giant diaper and soil himself during tense moments.

"Me go boom boom." Comedic gold if you ask me.

Damm! I've been playing mine all WRONG!!!!

And on a less sarcastic note, true, that curiousity does give them automatic reason to start talking to anyone, a major reason why listen (to me at least) is so important. I find it hard to think that my HG would think Hey, what are they talking about over there...tell people at table, Hey, what ya talking about.

Easier to overhear then butt in with a question or comment. Combined with the fact very few tables/chairs etc support a half-giant's weight and if he/she is clanned or has a job, that gets very annoying very fast in a clan or out.

Like I said, playable without listen, but PAINFUL.

And nod to my 2 sids, always wondered that myself, half-giant curiousity about people and that they have never been able to sit at tables with others and being well above most crowds, you would think listen would be racial. Plus they have REAllY big ears:)

[Cenghiz]

Ops.. Should half-giants talk like.. blubbering?
I thought they talk like children, but with good enough Sirihish.. Nothing about speech in helpfiles AFAIR; so could someone please hint me?
Sorry posts in the middle were sent while I was typing :p.. There was an IC event that I shouldn't miss.

[Angela Christine]

:idea:  :idea:  :?:  :?:  :!:   How come half-giants don't come with listen skill?

Yeah!  Those gigantic satalite dish ears ought to be good for something.  A lower cap than any of the guilds that that get the skill though, generic half-giants don't need to be able to hear great distances or through doors.

The other benefit would be fewer half-giants attempting floristry.    A halfgiant mangling a small, delicate flower is just sad.


AC

[Anonymous]

Ops.. Should half-giants talk like.. blubbering?
I thought they talk like children, but with good enough Sirihish.. Nothing about speech in helpfiles AFAIR; so could someone please hint me?

It is easier to start off with what DOESN'T characterize a half-giant's stupidity. A common trend in the past has been to portray half-giants as speaking like Tarzan does in popular movies. While this is a player's prerogative, it is not particularly accurate. A half-giant is very observant to the habits of others, and prone to imitating them. There is no place where a half-giant would have picked up such bizarre speaking patterns, so it doesn't make much sense to have them.

Similarly, speaking like a child is not the most appropriate way to portray a half-giant. Very young children often speak poorly because they have not grasped the proper situations to use words in. As mentioned above, half-giants are very attentive to such things. It will take them longer to figure it out than it would a human, but an adult half-giant understands most grammatical rules - especially the simple ones - but might slip up on such things as saying "an" rather than "a" before a word that begins with a vowel. These examples, while specific to speech, really illustrate how all of a half-giant's thought processes work.

[Cameron0202]

Why dont they just auto add the skill listen to half-giants? So that you can always have it and pick stuff that goes with your background?

[Anonymous]

Why dont they just auto add the skill listen to half-giants? So that you can always have it and pick stuff that goes with your background?

I'd rather they make it so that Half-giants can 'sit' at a table with an echo they they kneel by it instead of settling on a chair.

Giving them an extra skill just because they can't sit at a table is taking it a little bit far.

[SpyGuy]

I agree with CRW on this point, it makes sense that half-giants would logically just kneel by the tables.  Not be listening to Lord Fancypants all the way across the room.

[Agent_137]

<------------ stands corrected.

I'd rather they make it so that Half-giants can 'sit' at a table with an echo they they kneel by it instead of settling on a chair.

Giving them an extra skill just because they can't sit at a table is taking it a little bit far.

Great idea.. They should be able to 'sit near' table.

A bloated half-giant is here sitting, near a small table.
Near a small table, a half-giant speaks.
Etc.

[ShaLeah]

A.  Half-giants arn't cavemen, just slow.

You're right, they aren't cavemen but if you mean they aren't stupid, you're wrong.

Possibly due to the magick which birthed half-giants, however, they are infamously stupid...

...half-giants (a race originally produced by magick, known to be as stupid as they are large).

[My 2 sids]

I just mean they arn't "me *ug* want sqeek-sqeek".

[ShaLeah]

I just mean they arn't "me *ug* want sqeek-sqeek".

They can most certainly be big piles of blubber and stupidity.  That is determined solely on how the thing was raised.  I've only played one HG but she was spoiled and preened and girly and easily flustered when she didn't get her way. She was raised to have a decent vocabulary but if she had been raised by say... a mute, deaf and blind gith, I think it's safe to say that she would have been uging all over the place until she learned different.

[Anonymous]

They can most certainly be big piles of blubber and stupidity.  That is determined solely on how the thing was raised.  I've only played one HG but she was spoiled and preened and girly and easily flustered when she didn't get her way. She was raised to have a decent vocabulary but if she had been raised by say... a mute, deaf and blind gith, I think it's safe to say that she would have been uging all over the place until she learned different.

Yeah, but that is a really...REALLY extreme set of circumstances.  Based on the docs your average half-giant will have a non-tarzan/childlike vocabulary.

[ShaLeah]

They can most certainly be big piles of blubber and stupidity.  That is determined solely on how the thing was raised.  I've only played one HG but she was spoiled and preened and girly and easily flustered when she didn't get her way. She was raised to have a decent vocabulary but if she had been raised by say... a mute, deaf and blind gith, I think it's safe to say that she would have been uging all over the place until she learned different.

Yeah, but that is a really...REALLY extreme set of circumstances.  Based on the docs your average half-giant will have a non-tarzan/childlike vocabulary.

By your logic then, to play devil's advocate, a 30 year veteran HG of House Oash could have the vocabulary of a noble or a Kadian HG slave who was trained to tidy up the warehouse would not only be fluent in Cavilish but would be well spoken as well from listening to all the merchants from the time it was trained.  How many giants have you encountered with a massive, well spoken vocabulary?

I should rest my case but I won't.
Let's be a bit more realistic, HG's that are not enslaved or adopted by a Noble House will probably be raised by do gooders or opportunists. I'll cede that they will readily imitate phrases of people who hang around them but I can not conceive that one would repeat "The socio-political status of the Reigner Supreme has been in dire need of militant restructuring due to the fascist nature of the former oppressors" and much less -understand- it. Half-giants are stupid. Period. It says so in the docs, vocabulary, the ability to say I instead of me, does not change that fact. Not all will be extreme one way but the fact is that they -are- stupid, how the player exhibits that stupidity is up to them.  I'd prefer personally to not be forced to conjugate correctly simply because the "tarzan-like" speech annoys some.

ShaLeah
-who can't even count the amount of non-sirihish speaking pcs she's encountered that cut out all kinds of words to portray a difficulty in learning common or a difference in speech patterns...

[Delirium]

By your logic then, to play devil's advocate, a 30 year veteran HG of House Oash could have the vocabulary of a noble or a Kadian HG slave who was trained to tidy up the warehouse would not only be fluent in Cavilish but would be well spoken as well from listening to all the merchants from the time it was trained.

That is absolutely correct and possible.

The difference is that the giant would probably mix words up and place them in the wrong order, or take a while to form their sentances as they try to sort out the words in their mind.

[ShaLeah]

In my opinion, feel free to agree or disagree, roleplaying a giant with a pathetic manner of speech is realistic and not only that, but probable considering their mental capacity.  If the tables were reveresed and said giant spoke with the eloquence of a highly trained aide, I would personally consider it unrealistic roleplay. A half-giant with tarzan talk -shouldn't- be opposed to, which seems to be the case.


I have not implied that unsavory speech patters would be the only way to roleplay a giant, I am saying that doing so would not be so obscure that people would look at the HG like he was on crack. The giants will mix up words, they will misunderstand them, they will use them inappropriately, pray tell, they may even call a dwarf a longneck!
It seems that it's hard for people to remember that half-giants are stupid. They aren't big humans, they're stupid. To me, they are the epitomy of social faux pas. How do you play being stupid? That's the bottom line.


I think I'll bow out of this one and maybe Callisto's thread can get back on track.  Good luck and have fun, proper speech or not.  

[Anonymous]

By your logic then, to play devil's advocate, a 30 year veteran HG of House Oash could have the vocabulary of a noble or a Kadian HG slave who was trained to tidy up the warehouse would not only be fluent in Cavilish but would be well spoken as well from listening to all the merchants from the time it was trained.  How many giants have you encountered with a massive, well spoken vocabulary?

None, because, again, you are using an extreme scenario here.

Not all will be extreme one way but the fact is that they -are- stupid, how the player exhibits that stupidity is up to them.  I'd prefer personally to not be forced to conjugate correctly simply because the "tarzan-like" speech annoys some.

It annoys me because it goes against what the docs say.  I don't pick and chose which documents I consider canon.  If the docs made it clear that most half-giants talked like the Hulk, then I'd do that.  And I'd enjoy it.

A common trend in the past has been to portray half-giants as speaking like Tarzan does in popular movies. While this is a player's prerogative, it is not particularly accurate.
...
Similarly, speaking like a child is not the most appropriate way to portray a half-giant.