D&D 5E The All-Kenku Party: Is it possible? Would it drive a DM insane?

Volo's Guide introduced the Kenku as a playable race. Interestingly, Kenku have no "creativity" when it comes to stringing words together. All they can do is mimic. (And squawk, I guess.)

This got me thinking: How would an all-Kenku party work? Is it even possible? Would it drive a DM insane?

There is only one way to find out.

As an experiment, I am asking someone to organize an all-Kenku session. The only supplies needed, beyond the usual D&D stuff, is a stop-watch to record the exact moment the DM cracks. I don't expect it will take more than 2 hours.

Please report back here with your findings. Thank you.

How party squawk *chirp* other?

*Deleted by user*

Prakriti said:

This got me thinking: How would an all-Kenku party work? Is it even possible? Would it drive a DM insane?

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It works by all the Kenku members behaving like members of that Star Trek: TNG race that can only speak in allusions (Darmok, when the walls fell!) or the character of The Fool in Laurie R. King's 'The Fool', who can only speak in quotations or the character in Gene Wolfe's 'Citidel of the Autoarch' who can only speak in government approved moral aphorisms..

It is possible, but it requires a very talented group of players (all of which around 140 IQ or higher, and all of which willing to put hours into memorizing passages, and all on the same page) to pull off well, and requires consensus as to what source material can be quoted in character for the purposes of the game - for example, you might agree that particular translations of Beowulf, Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Epic of Gilgamesh represent in game literature which can be freely quoted for the purposes of the game.

Speaking as a DM, I love racially homogenous parties as a campaign shtick, because it allows a deep dive into alien culture that would otherwise not get touched on or hand-waved away in a more typical campaign. In a typical campaign, every character is effectively human and very little attention is paid to what makes the non-humans different. So while a race without normal communication ability could not play in typical campaign, I'd be interested with the right group of players to deep dive into almost any bizarre concept. I don't know how long everyone would maintain interest in spouting quotes from ancient literature (or Marvel movies, or Star Wars, or whatever floats your boat), but it definitely sounds like you could earn some nerd points that way.

lowkey13 said:

To answer your questions-

3. You can't drive a person to a place he is already at.

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I prefer "Power madness". Much more descriptive than insane.

I mean "*squawk*"

There's a sidebar about the mimicry trait in the book. It sums it up to: Please don't overdo it. It sounds fun, but it'll be tiring for everyone else. Instead, talk about the noise they make and then what that's supposed to convey.

Giant Dire Cat.

Sidebar: I play with a group of deaf and hearing players.

The deaf PCs do not talk in-game with words but still communicate. Presumably so do the Kenku, otherwise, I'm not sure how they do anything?

Celebrim said:

It works by all the Kenku members behaving like members of that Star Trek: TNG race that can only speak in allusions (Darmok, when the walls fell!) or the character of The Fool in Laurie R. King's 'The Fool', who can only speak in quotations or the character in Gene Wolfe's 'Citidel of the Autoarch' who can only speak in government approved moral aphorisms..

It is possible, but it requires a very talented group of players (all of which around 140 IQ or higher, and all of which willing to put hours into memorizing passages, and all on the same page) to pull off well, and requires consensus as to what source material can be quoted in character for the purposes of the game - for example, you might agree that particular translations of Beowulf, Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Epic of Gilgamesh represent in game literature which can be freely quoted for the purposes of the game.

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!?

The players are not their characters. A player can simply say, "My character asks for a room at the inn using a weird allegory."

Ganymede81 said:

!?

The players are not their characters. A player can simply say, "My character asks for a room at the inn using a weird allegory."

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But that defeats the purpose of the experiment.