I was talking to a friend about Soulhaven, and how it's a shame that there never seems to be much going on there, not much of a 'community.' And we were wondering why... I think I came up with part of an answer.
So Soulhaven is a really neat area conceptually, and it's beautifully built too. But in my mind it has one, huge problem...
Soulhaven's "vibe" is of a medievil abby. Think Cadfael books. Western, christian monks gathered together mostly in solemn meditation, prayer, aestetacism, and contemplation, with a bit of learning and scribing on the side. Sure there's the martial aspect, that exists, but it's all decked out in that style, repleate with loverly kitchen guardens, people wearing grey habbits, and tonsures.
And to be clear- this is great! I love this as a vibe! There's honestly some really cool, interesting roleplay to be had around this. This is the first thing, before I got into DnD, I thought of as a 'Monk.'
But the problem we run into is that DnDs monk isn't this.
DnD monk is Jackie Chan, Kung-fu-Panda, and so on. It is very strongly based on the idea of eastern philosophy, of bum-kicking unarmed combat, and the (roughly) chineese astetic.(1)
Cool though current Soulhaven's vibe is, it is NOT this. There are overlaps, for sure - but they arn't the same.
So lets say I want to play the more western style monk vibe - I'm thinking Cadfael sort, habit, tonsure, lots of prayers, offering sanctuary to people, so on, so forth... Well Soulhaven has the perfect vibe, sure! But... I can't live there unless I have 'can kill you with a single punch' abilities of a martial monk. That's wierd, right?
Likewise if I want to really get into the whole very steryotypical vibe of being a DnD monk - with deep philosophy, cool fighting, amazing feats of unarmed physical fighting - Soulhaven to me doesn't... -quite- fit, in my opinion.
I'm not entirely sure of how to 'fix' this - or even if It maybe needs fixing? I'm kinda curious on the community's opinion. I do REALLY love Soulhaven's whole vibe, it's beautifully constructed and I don't want it to go away... but at the same time I'm not sure if it quite fits the class it's supposed to be dedicated to?
The only answer I can think of myself - that's easy to implement at least - is to simply open up the Classes on all the quarters to Clerics (and maybe lore masters?). That brings it more into the whole religious aspect that it feels it fits? There's always rooms empty in it, so I'm not too concerned about Monk Pcs suddenly having 'no where to live.' It might encourage it to be more of a community based around the 'feel' of the area.
But I'd be really interested in seeing what other people think? If no other ideas pop up, I'll put the above up for suggestion.
(1) I'm sure there's a conversation about things like cultural respect, accuracy, and so forth to be had here. But this isn't the place. It's what it is.
