Barbarian Rage, is it Barbaric?

[dark cauliflower]

guyz,

I was thinking about this. The Barbarian Rage as it is in the game books seems to always be a barbarian ability. You know, only barbarians seem to have it. Is this just a quirk of the games, to justify having a barbarian class? I think I saw it first in Unearthed Arcana 1rst edition dnd thing.

Conan seems to have a rage of some sort.
Fahrd, I can't recall him having one. Its been awhile since I read the Lankhmar stuff but I swear he never went crazy beserk in battle.
Slaine, from the fabulous Slaine comic, doesn't seem to have a barbarian rage but something different: a warp spasm. That's where the earth power flows through his body and distorts him into this grotesque giant thing.

What other barbarians do we know of that have the rage?

Last night when I was reading Viriconium, specifically the Pastel City, the character Grif went into this berserker frenzy but I don't believe he was a northern barbarian.

Which leads me to wondering if Rage, should be limited to a Barbarian class. What if it is something that can strike warriors, like madness?

thoughts, barbarous ones?

[GnomeBoy]

I am developing the idea of 'battle frenzy' for a particular character for a game I'm throwing together for an upcoming con...

The idea is not even remotely all ironed out yet, but I think it's going to boil down to x number of rounds where only a critical will do damage to this character, where they can name any round to be such a round at the start of their action. Once it's used up, it's used up (workable for a con, easy). What the downside/trade-off for this is, I do not know yet (reduced-size action die following the invulnerability?) -- but I can well imagine that players enjoying limited invulnerability for the short term, such as it is.

I'll try to remember to check back in this thread, once I have the idea further developed -- may be worthwhile to others to have it to tinker with...

[dark cauliflower]

I do know when Slaine is done with his warp spasm he is boiling hot and I think exhausted. It sounds a little similiar to that but without the warp.

heh, this guyz blog has picture of a warp spasm and his rules for it in dnd terms:
http://www.heropress.net/2011/07/sleepy ... pasms.html

[Ravenheart87]

Berserkers and Úlfhéðnar and plenty of heroes in germanic/nordic stories and mythology, including one of their poets, Egill Skallagrímson. The celtic Cú Chulainn had something similar too called ríastrad or warp spasm.

[cthulhudarren]

The Orc class in Crawl! mag (issue 5 I think) has a really good rage mechanic! I'd use it.

[dark cauliflower]

Berserkers and Úlfhéðnar and plenty of heroes in germanic/nordic stories and mythology, including one of their poets, Egill Skallagrímson. The celtic Cú Chulainn had something similar too called ríastrad or warp spasm.

yeah, the celtic thing... that's where Slaine got his warp spasm thing since his tales are drawn from the Celtic stuff.

[cjoepar]

I would be very surprised if the rage does not come from the Celtic Berserkers in real human history. They would get totally drunk, then paint themselves with something called wode (not sure about the spelling) which was a blue paint that had some narcotic effects, if I'm not mistaken. Then they would run screaming into battle wearing nothing but a torc.

[dark cauliflower]

what's a torc? According to Slaine they ran in naked, or skyclad as its called in the books.

[Ravenheart87]

I would be very surprised if the rage does not come from the Celtic Berserkers in real human history.

The celts might have had some crazed warriors, but the berserkers are of norse origin. Even the name is from the old norse language. Don't mix things up.

[TheNobleDrake]

I would be very surprised if the rage does not come from the Celtic Berserkers in real human history.

The celts might have had some crazed warriors, but the berserkers are of norse origin. Even the name is from the old norse language. Don't mix things up.

Yeah, if you mix up your historical references too badly someone may go bear-shirt over it.

[Crimsontree]

The Orc class in Crawl! mag (issue 5 I think) has a really good rage mechanic! I'd use it.

Anyone know how the DR rule works?

[cjoepar]

what's a torc? According to Slaine they ran in naked, or skyclad as its called in the books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc

Yes, usually naked except for a torc.

@Ravenheart: Thanks for keeping me honest. I am by no means an expert on any of this, just commenting from my memory on the subject.

[dark cauliflower]

oh yeah, the torcs are all over the place in Slaine. Im sure they name it in the books somewhere.

torcy torc torc!

[GnomeBoy]

I would be very surprised if the rage does not come from the Celtic Berserkers in real human history.

The celts might have had some crazed warriors, but the berserkers are of norse origin. Even the name is from the old norse language. Don't mix things up.

Yeah, if you mix up your historical references too badly someone may go bear-shirt over it.

If I were smarter, I wode have seen what you did there...

[Colin]

The use of woad as the blue body paint used by the Celts is a long-standing misconception, though we know they certainly used it in dying some textiles. Woad is actually pretty rubbish as a skin paint or skin dye (it's a skin irritant!) and doesn't work well in such use. Various bog-preserved bodies have since shown elements of copper-based pigment on the skin, and oddly enough copper can be used to produce a blue pigment, one much more vivid than woad produces.

Colin

[dark cauliflower]

its interesting, I'm going over the DCC critical tables and Battle Rage is there. It seems that DCC assumes that our melee fighters, dwarfs, halflings, warriors, clerics, thiefs are already angry when they are in battle! What happens is that they lose control, let the rage take hold of them and start hurting everyone around them.

I don't know if I'd make a Warrior who is chaotic more prone to having Battle Rage occuring. That might be the best way of dealing with BRage instead of making it an ability.

[Ravenheart87]

I don't know if I'd make a Warrior who is chaotic more prone to having Battle Rage occuring. That might be the best way of dealing with BRage instead of making it an ability.

Or make it a Deed for warriors. Easiest way.

[cthulhudarren]

The Orc class in Crawl! mag (issue 5 I think) has a really good rage mechanic! I'd use it.

Anyone know how the DR rule works?

You mean besides the obvious.. -x from damage taken? Not sure. Even so, again, the rage mechanic from the Orc class in Crawl! is a perfectly viable template for barbarian rage.

[dark cauliflower]

I was thinking last night that it an option would be to tie "berserk rage" to the characters background instead of having it be part of a class.

Zulth of the Wolf Steppe People was born with the fury that had been noted among his people. In times of desperation, they would howl at the moon and chase their enemies from the land as part man, part wolf. Later Zulth gave up the live of a hunter and took to thievery. But his old rage never left him.