rpanons | [D] How you like me now?

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I'm going to be playing a character who is completely mute. It's not a psychological condition, it's physical, and he's not deaf. Any and all advice is completely welcome!

If the gameplay is mostly prose, playing a mute character isn't that hard. Describe physical reactions, and use inner monologue to develop characterization. You do have to be wary of other players who will godmode by unrealistically "intuiting" your character's inner monologue. Crack down on that right away if it happens so people don't fall into the habit. Consider that your character might have worked out some basic sign language with their canonmates and other close associates, but charades are a really clumsy way to communicate IRL so don't rely on that. If the character uses some kind of adaptive device to communicate (like by writing, or by typing on a PDA, or by using a voice synthesizer) you can describe how they write their response - is it sloppy, is it decisive, etc? But physical reactions, especially subtle ones, will probably be the main way that you can project your character's "voice" to other characters.

In more dialogue-driven action gameplay, mute or mostly silent characters can get annoying when the player doesn't give enough for other players to work with. Be descriptive! Having your character respond with a simple shrug or a nod says nothing. If they communicate via writing, use bold or italics or whatever to differentiate that from normal speech.

For network logs, if those exist in the game, it's probable that your character is going to prefer text chats to video chats unless they use sign language to speak.

finding the right amount of character thoughts in monologue is key imo. body language in real life has a lot of small nuances the average person doesn't consciously notice, but we're subconsciously aware of, so some narrative on thought helps fill in those gaps.

but like above anon said, too much and people will suddenly have mind reading powers, which will quickly become frustrating. it's also fun to post a tag of mostly body language and see it understood.

the key to any rp tag is making sure the other person has something to respond to. your character doesn't need to say anything to do that. think of times you've had voiced characters not speak in tags and why that worked.

if it's awkward at first, stick with it and wade through reactions you get. you'll figure it out as you go, and that's okay!

[D] How you like me now?

General: Mute characters

Re: General: Mute characters

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