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Right now as I learn the ropes of RPing outside of videogames, it's just me and one friend playing Pathfinder. I ended up GMing for various reasons, but I also wanted to play a character at the same time. In some ways it's a bad idea because your character knows what the GM knows, which is unfair, so you have to kind of "nerf" your character's decisions in many ways. In other ways it's a good idea because it gives you an in-universe, in-character way to drop hints to the player and enhance his experience - kind of like being Midna to his Link. Not to mention, it's a way of having more than just a solo adventure and a way for me to learn about playing the game as well as GMing it. But naturally, it's in regard to the bad side of it that I come to you for advice...

The idea struck me to make my character mute - it would be convenient because as GM I can't have my character saying "Hmm, I have a strange feeling there's a hidden passageway here!" and things like that. If she were mute, it would naturally explain why she doesn't have much direct, explicit input to the player's actions and would also get me out of having to talk to myself, as my cleric talks to the innkeeper or whoever. But as you may have just noticed, I said "cleric". A cleric that cannot talk cannot cast most (any?) of the spells, and that's quite a problem.

I've toyed with different ideas, from her having a bird on her shoulder - like Mormont with his crow in A Song of Ice and Fire - who says the components for her, deducing from her somatic gestures which words he's to say, or the same basic idea but my friend's character filling in the verbal component for her. There'd be some rule, like he'd have to spend a free action and possibly be within so many yards. So most importantly I'm wondering does that even make sense? Can someone else offer the verbal component? Secondly, do you have any other ideas to get around the whole mute/verbal component issue? Thirdly, can you think of another way to explain why my character never offers any advice or anything? I've thought of "strong silent type" and "vow of silence (apart from spells)" but they both seem a bit silly and don't really explain why she'd remain silent in a perilous situation when her very life is at stake.

I am completely new to PnP RPGs but not at all new to cRPGs or the RPG experience in general. I used to play the Jackson & Livingstone CYOA books as a little boy and have been playing cRPGs for over 10 years. I seriously love the imagination and concepts that exist in these worlds, and I've often nearly got into PnP stuff, but it's not until very recently, largely thanks to the Beginner Box, that I've really taken the plunge. The problem isn't the complex combat rules or anything like that - I love that stuff and now it comes pretty naturally to me - it's actually more the GMing and, um, "ambient roleplaying" (for want of a better phrase) that always confuses and confounds me. As you all no doubt know, the various cRPGs such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights all do a great job of embodying the combat systems of DnD-type gaming, but everything the GM would do is done by prescripted sections and game developer designed NPCs. That's wonderful when you're engrossed in those games, but now that I'm trying to do this "for real" (not to bash the PC/console versions of RPGs) I feel totally lost when it comes to certain elements that I'm sure you old veterans all take for granted.

It's really hard for me to put into words what I find so confusing and consequentially off-putting, but I'll try. It basically boils down to the non-linearity putting a potentially infinite strain on the GM. In a computer game, you have what you have. Maybe it's a relatively limited world like Torment, maybe it's a vast world like World of Warcraft. In either case, there's no room for argument - you have what you have. With PnP it feels like the player could say "Well I slap the barmaid for not telling me the whole story" and then suddenly I have to figure out how she'd act, how the landlord would act, how any nearby customers would act. Or they may say they steal a boat and row out into the ocean. Indeed, how that would affect the future of the adventure. In a town, there are potentially 1000s of NPCs and yet I doubt it is expected of the GM to have lines and information waiting for all of these Schrödinger-esque people (they both do and don't exist, only asking them a question confirms their existence...)

So even on the most rudimentary of levels, how does one depict a town and how does one allow the players to interact? Must I map 600 barrels and their loot? Must I populate all of the 100s of buildings? Or is everything meant to be generated procedurally, and if so, does that not slow things down somewhat? Going on from that, if the players leave the village, in a cRPG they would walk along a road - but here am I meant to map out a road with trees, a ruined cart, broken crates with gold pieces within? Is every yard to be mapped, or do I simply say "You leave town and arrive at the cave... and now you are in the cave?" I feel more questions will arise with answers (should anyone be kind enough to read my ramblings and answer) but for now answers to the previous questions and worries would be greatly appreciated.