Advice/Help Role playing a Feral character

[Kurrgen]

My gaming group is starting a new campaign, and I am looking to play a Feral Druid. I think the idea of a character that has had almost no interaction with civilization or humans could be very interesting. Has anyone played that type of character or have any ideas on how that character might interact with the rest of the party without speaking much. I feel at best he would only have the most basic grasp of spoken language.

 

[Idea]

I recommend being expressive by other means, and giving your character reasons to actively interact with the party in an expressive manner, such as intense curiosity or just being quite cheerful and excitable. You want some form of communication to be possible, even if not necessarily verbal or written, you want your character to grasp at least basic concepts others can direct them through, and you want to make sure you do not put the burden of interaction on the other players. That last part to me is the crux of making this concept work- It will very quickly and easily get tiresome if your character is hard to interact with in more than one way. Imagine putting all the work to figure out how to even get messages across only for your character to be antisocial? Or the reverse, trying to establish some connection with your character, but even with all that work the characters can't make any interaction meaningful.

Be proactive, and try to establish some way for the character to meaningfully interact and at least understand what's needed to give them directions.

 

[Kurrgen]

My gaming group is starting a new campaign, and I am looking to play a Feral Druid. I think the idea of a character that has had almost no interaction with civilization or humans could be very interesting. Has anyone played that type of character or have any ideas on how that character might interact with the rest of the party without speaking much. I feel at best he would only have the most basic grasp of spoken language.

I appreciate the input, you mentioned several of the concerns I was having about this type of character . I plan for him to be inquisitive, and looking for a surrogate pack. I haven't seen this type of character in play before, so I didn't have any frame of reference on how one might interact or behave in a group setting.

 

[FloofWhispers]

To play a Feral character, I recommend

1) Very limited speech

2) Aggresive towards anyone

3) Make irrational decisions

4) Just be silly and dumb ngl

 

[Daisie]

To get truly involved with the rest of the characters, it might be fun for your character to "adopt" a member of the group. Whether that's the first character they come across, someone who acts nicely towards them, or even whoever just LOOKS cool, I think that would mesh your feral druid in with the team pretty steadfastly.

And what I mean by "adopt" is like... following them around, wanting to spend the most time with them, being overly protective, ect. Really latch on to whoever you single out.

 

[Merciless Medic]

To play a Feral character, I recommend

1) Very limited speech

2) Aggresive towards anyone

3) Make irrational decisions

4) Just be silly and dumb ngl

If you are a humanoid character in a DnD setting (such as this), these behaviors would not be conducive to being a member of a group party role. Even if this were an RP between others, being aggressive towards anyone and making irrational decisions can affect the RP experience negatively if not reined in. Limited speech but having some concept of words your character cannot say is common in ferals, but not every feral will act silly or dumb. I have made several feral characters in my time, and a good portion of them are fast learners and extremely intuitive due to having to adapt and live out life in the wild (while being dense with more modern tech/society and either finding it awe-inspiring and wanting to learn more or getting scared and wanting to get away from it or destroy it). Most of which are closed off until they meet someone who is nice to them, then they just stick with that person like a lost puppy who they may or may not idolize. A feral making irrational decisions may look like that to other people, but it's rational to the feral. If a feral is hungry, they take food, no matter if they have to pay for it or if it's somebody else's. They may not realize it's bad until it's explained to them, and even then some ferals are stuck in the mindset of "why make biological needs that difficult to obtain when I can literally go 40 feet out of this crowded and confusing marketplace for food?"

Being aggressive depends on the feral. I have made those who are closed off and reserved, not wanting to commit to having any relationships outside of what they know. Others are extremely curious and will get too curious at times, maybe even asking pointed personal questions without realizing how embarrassing that is unless it's pointed out. I have made ones that are nice and polite (giving someone something as a way to appease them or make them feel better) and then I have made others easily irritable (different than being aggressive as they aren't just aggressive as a personality trait, but they are easily irritable because something they aren't used to can potentially be a threat, which they will act against and act irritable or more closed off).

The OP wanted to make their character more curious and want to know things about the world they are in, so being aggressive wouldn't help them learn more things and will create more of a division between the other DnD characters and players who are playing these characters.

Good ideas, but better set for a fanfiction or an RP partner (or multiple if you're lucky) who are okay with this kind of antisocial behavior.

 

[Merciless Medic]

If a feral is hungry, they take food, no matter if they have to pay for it or if it's somebody else's.

I just realized that most ferals wouldn't actually take somebody else's things. They won't just steal them from their hands or person or bag, but if it looks abandoned (even setting it on a table for a few minutes), it's fair game.