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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Sad place

    Default Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    Hello!

    I would like to have a collection of phrases that a sort of Buddhist-type mystic would say. He has starved himself in order to find the Truth (no one understands what this means) and lives on a top of a giant oak tree. His only function is to say mysterious things that should not be overinterpreted by the players. He doesn't engage in any type of conversation with anyone.

    Would you like to give me phrases that he could say, please?

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Malimar's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    a nice pond

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    Consider browsing the Ice Cream Koan page over on TVtRopes.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Norway
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    Male

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    I recommend the various things mentioned in Tom Waits "What's he building" video, in between the title call.

    Last edited by Mordaedil; 2018-03-26 at 02:30 AM.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Devil

    Join Date
    Dec 2006

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    Intersperse liberally with Lu-Tze's quotes from the Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite from the Discworld novels.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jul 2014

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    When I need that sort of thing, I like to mash two proverbs together. It usually sounds juuuust wise enough to make the players wonder if it's important and what it could mean.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Malimar's Avatar

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    Oct 2010
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    a nice pond

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    Quote Originally Posted by ComaVision View Post
    When I need that sort of thing, I like to mash two proverbs together. It usually sounds juuuust wise enough to make the players wonder if it's important and what it could mean.
    Oooh, ooh, this reminds me of that time somebody ran a bunch of proverbs through a neural network and had it come up with new ones! Aha, found it!

    Ung.
    Last edited by Malimar; 2018-03-26 at 12:20 PM.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Mar 2014
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    Male

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    I would go with something from English as She is Spoke. It even has a recommendation from Mark Twain (yes that Mark Twain). He said, “Whatsoever is perfect in its kind, in literature, is imperishable: nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect, it must and will stand alone: its immortality is secure. … One cannot open this book anywhere and not find richness.” Take a peek at it, its worth your time.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Doctor Awkward's Avatar

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    May 2013
    Location
    Collegeville, PA
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    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    One of the old AD&D Oriental Adventure modules called "Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw" featured Hu Sen, the master of the Mad Monkey style of martial arts. About halfway through the module is an entire page of "Fortune Cookie Philosophy" to assist DM's in replicating the "wit and wisdon" of Hu Sen, intended to confuse players and preserve the mystery of the "wise old man".

    Reproduced here for your reading pleasure:
    Spoiler
    Show

    If you use the weapons of your enemy, you slowly become
    your own enemy.

    If a man leaves his parasol at home, he cannot complain
    rightly about the rain.

    Even the Celestial Bureaucracy has its dead letter office.

    What good is it for a man to write beautifully if his words
    have no meaning?

    Giving a weapon to an initiate is like giving a ladder to a
    carp-- the offer may be appreciated, but the gift goes
    unused.

    When being lent a hand, look always for the fist it may
    become.

    Remember that a dragon's breath is an excess of hot air-- it
    is in extremes that we find the greatest danger.

    There is more soul in a sunset than in a cyclone, more beauty
    in a swan than a hawk; raw force does not equate to triumph.

    If you always must look behind you, you will walk in circles.
    The greatest foes hide in mirrors.

    Telling an initiate the great mysteries is like lecturing to a
    volcano: even if there is an eruption you are unsure whether
    it understood what was being said.

    The warrior spirit is a demon in a bottle: once it is
    unleashed, no amount of effort can restore it to its container.

    Do you ask the swan how it calls, or the dragon how it flies?
    No, you observe, and meditate, and mimic. Do so in this case
    as well.

    Not all vipers hide beneath the floorboards.

    Look at your coins and you will see they have holes: look as
    well for the hidden strings.

    To a fish, a Kozakuran and a Shou look like twins.

    To a fish, a monkey and a man look like brothers.

    To a fish, a hook is a wondrous artifact.

    Gods and demons look at magic like men look at hammers
    and axes: both as weapons, but also as tools.

    Rings declare and adventurers swagger but peasants plant
    their rice and harvest it each year.

    If you burn a holy man, is his spirit in the ashes or in the
    smoke?

    Does an arrow consider the merit of its target, or the stone
    reflect on the honor of its foe?

    A reed will bend while a tree's great bough will break, but
    this matters little to the reeds if the bough lands on them.

    If you call a man a fool, prepare to find a foe.

    Those who tell you to build for the future are often trying to
    interest you in buying a swamp.

    A stone lion is sometimes just a stone lion.

    Carrying weapons makes you a warrior as much as sticking
    feathers in your hair makes you an eagle.

    The goose may fly, the fox may stalk, but only the pig hunts
    for truffles with his nose.

    Demons with three eyes always carry a spare, but otherwise
    provide only another target.

    Never let your opponent count to three unchallenged.

    When push comes to shove, push and shove.

    If all conflicts were decided by games of chance, the king
    with the powerful wu-jen would still do whatever he wants.

    You speak of democracy. A plague is most democratic, striking
    high-born and low without regard to their station or talent.

    Let kings decide: the people must still implement the decisions
    as they see fit.

    The more fair the maiden, the bigger the beast protecting
    her.

    Life is not a practice session.

    More power lies in a T'u Lung court fool than in its emperor.

    More happiness lies in a Shou Lung court fool's heart than
    in his emperor's.

    Dragons lie as a matter of course, if nothing else to keep in
    practice for important matters.

    The man can fall a hundred feet and be smashed flat, but an
    ant may be dropped from the moon and walk away.

    Worship the gods, listen to their advice, but don't lend them
    money.

    A fool and his money will soon party.

    When in doubt, listen to the man with the bloodier weapon.
    Last edited by Doctor Awkward; 2018-03-26 at 04:27 PM.
    Resident Mad Scientist...

    "It's so cool!"

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    VC I: Lord Commander Conrad Vayne, 1st place
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    VC XV: Tosk, Kursak the Marauder, Vierna Zalyl; 1st place, 6th/7th place
    Kitchen Crashers Protocol for Peace

    Quote Originally Posted by Troacctid View Post
    But that's one of the things about interpreting RAW—when you pick a reading that goes against RAI, it often has a ripple effect that results in dysfunctions in other places.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2011

    Default Re: Help needed to write random babblings for a wacky mystic

    Originally Posted by Tonymitsu
    About halfway through the module is an entire page of "Fortune Cookie Philosophy" to assist DM's in replicating the "wit and wisdon" of Hu Sen, intended to confuse players and preserve the mystery of the "wise old man".
    These are fantastic. Now I need a character just to use these in my game.

    Ahh, for the days when the game designers flung themselves wholeheartedly into this kind of wacky charm. Sometimes 3.P just plays it way too safe.

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