Roleplaying a Barbarian

Elandril

Newbie
How hard is it for a new person to roleplay a Barbarian? My brother will be joining me LARPing next summer and he was looking at Babrarians.
 
Depends on your chapters barbarian types.
I play a Northern barbarian (viking like) in my chapter and I have a blast with it.
 
The hardest thing that people seem to struggle with as a Barbarian character is the concept of "simplicity" as related to intellect. In our revised Barbarian packet at NH, we caution new PCs to keep in mind that it is possible (and even common) to be simple, direct and honest without being gullible, foolish and stupid. The national packet includes some interesting (and in my opinion, fun) information about playing the Barbarian superstitions; it suggests that a good Barbarian roleplayer will believe so earnestly in themselves and their rituals and superstitions that non-Barbarians will begin to wonder if or even accept the "simple Barbarian" and their beliefs as wise or factual.

I suppose the most important part of playing a Barbarian is to be confident. Whatever the player does, they ought to stick with it, make it a thing. Who's going to correct the guy (or girl) dressed in a dead animal and waving a sword around?
 
^"Who's going to correct the guy (or girl) dressed in a dead animal and waving a sword around?"
Ha ha at the last calgary game i did just this...taking parts (NPC attire)from a few dead foes and adorning my armor with them like trophies. Got a few good laughs.
I try and play somewhat simple/knowing the southern way of how some things are or playing up naivety to slang or certain phrases ie: "Stig watch my back" and look directly at their back "why?". Having fun with it is the best part, superstitoins and broken English is can be done in so many ways. Being "stupid " is so far from what a barbarian is. Just need to find you nich on how to play it and hqve it work with the LCO type.
Beeing proud with your head up is is an important part though.
 
My brain goes to Drax.

Finger on throat means death! Metaphor.

So many interplays in that movie with Drax are classic barbarian to me. Intelligent enough, but on a TOTALLY different wavelength than everyone else.

When did we establish that? Well I wasn't listening then, I was thinking of something else...
NOTHING goes over my head!... My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it.
I like your knife, I'm keeping it.
You're right. I was a fool. All that anger. All that rage. It just covered my loss.


Intelligent, but to the rest of us, such an idiot.
 
I personally dislike the broken English thing. It feels a little bit too "What Makes The Red Man Red" for my tastes. I would rather see a character speak plainly and without metaphor or connotation.
 
I try to play "simple" as a combination of blunt and literal with my current barbarian. She doesn't use or necessarily care for metaphor; in certain cases where the idiomatic phrase is really far removed from its literal meaning, she doesn't even understand them. She's not dumb and understands she is not always right - but she takes a lot of convincing to prove whether she's wrong. There are no compromises where her personal rituals are concerned, but dang can you try.
I also agree with Evan that adopting cave-man talk to convey "simple" can be a little frustrating or jarring. It's up to the individual player it hey want to speak like a cave-dude, but you gotta' commit to that if you're gonna' do it. Or eventually go through a weird barbarian "My Fair Lady" speech correction montage.

Speaking from my own experiences only: the hardest thing is deciding how much the PC is gonna' hate celestial magic. Some chapter packets pretty much forbid their barbarians from using it, some just suggest a strong dislike. How a character reacts to that is in part up to them - will they sleep in a ward? Will they even consider going in one? What happens in life or death situations? What if a bad guy gives them an elemental blade to try and stop them - do they or don't they keep swinging? It's important for your pal to know how their character will react to those situations because they'll come up. A lot. They also need to think about how other barbarians will react to their own reactions - I had a barbarian who accidentally used celestial magic and immediately turned herself over to be executed (spoilers: she wasn't). My current barbarian will kill any others of her tribe she sees using it. Again: I guarantee the character will interact with some if not all of these situations - it's good to think about how the character will roleplay their racial dislike.
 
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Oh i have a reason for the broken english and slight adolesent mind of my char ... it just hasnt come up yet
 
NOTHING goes over my head!... My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it.
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