IF you want to play a character who lets say doesn't speak how do you role play that? has any body ever done it successfully? what about if you have a mask that you have and you have sworn never to take it off until you find the man who killed your father ect...
it usually comes down tot the GM being a RIchard and making you attack the town guard.
allow me to give you a real world example I bought a shiny new luchador Mask and decided it would be cool to wear it all day and call my self Rey del Mundo and walk in to walmart i was promptly assaulted by a blue vested lady and told to take off my mask I explained to her I was form mexico and I was visiting and in my country I can't take off the mask. she told me she would call the cops....so I left
now if this were a game of good old pathfinder I could try to bluff or maybe diplomacy or even intimidate but the cops would be called and then i would have to fight the cops.......in the movies and novels these things just seem to get passed over oh look a flying horse and a drunk bearded child who lives in a mountain ...but that guy has a mask! or that guy doesn't talk...
IF you want to play a character who lets say doesn't speak how do you role play that? has any body ever done it successfully? what about if you have a mask that you have and you have sworn never to take it off until you find the man who killed your father ect...
it usually comes down tot the GM being a RIchard and making you attack the town guard.
allow me to give you a real world example I bought a shiny new luchador Mask and decided it would be cool to wear it all day and call my self Rey del Mundo and walk in to walmart i was promptly assaulted by a blue vested lady and told to take off my mask I explained to her I was form mexico and I was visiting and in my country I can't take off the mask. she told me she would call the cops....so I left
now if this were a game of good old pathfinder I could try to bluff or maybe diplomacy or even intimidate but the cops would be called and then i would have to fight the cops.......in the movies and novels these things just seem to get passed over oh look a flying horse and a drunk bearded child who lives in a mountain ...but that guy has a mask! or that guy doesn't talk...
Well, you can wear a mask at WalMart regardless of what you were told. You can't wear it in a bank because the FBI finds that a bit suspicious.
As for the character that doesn't talk, that's easy. Don't talk. You will have to find other ways to communicate with the party. Get creative. In a 2nd Edition game I was in, I played an elf that didn't know Common. He felt it was beneath him to speak in anything other than Elven. It was interesting sometimes watching me try to communicate with the party.
For the mask, wear a mask. If you are told to take it off, tell them you were burned by acid or something. Maybe it's just the style. Role play it.
If your GM is a jerk about it, then don't bother. It's not worth the fight. Just remember that it can come with some problems and you should be ok.
I've done the character who can't speak before. I played a member of a race with no vocal ability whatsoever; she could whistle, maybe sigh, that's it. You can be remarkably communicative even if you are totally mute. When I needed to communicate complex concepts I still wrote things down (PC had high Int, this was a 2E fighter/wizard). But you can still say a lot by pointing and other gestures. I also described my body language and played up facial expressions as well. It didn't hurt that my character was a bit of a CG prankster, so her mischievous grin was usually a good sign of trouble to come!
Now, with a mask, the facial expressions are out, but gestures and body language can still work. And my PC also had a sign language (it was a custom race), so the others picked up a few words in it. Too bad that I used two shortswords in fights when I wasn't spellcasting :)
As a sidenot we had a BESM(Anime based gaming system) game with mute once that involved flash cards and a shapie.
I've been in a party with a mute goliath, and he communicated with grunts and gestures.
I've seen a party arrive to a PC's tribe just after their nemesis, who was a shapeshifter. They arrived during a holy week of silence, so it was all antics of describing gestures. The DM would roll Sense Motive I think, with DCs set by how well players could come up with their gestures, to see if they were understood. Or how a PC might interpret another PC's message. It was pretty fun.
I guess i was just thinking of batman every time he is knocked out the enemies decide at the last minute NOT to take his mask off I feel like i never have that luck at all. i was just wondering about playing a snakeyeyes type and seeing danger do you think i could get whistling daggers to throw at the bad guy sneaking up?
besides grunting......
If your GM would allow it you could suggest a "sign language" language that you and you fellow PCs could learn by investing a skill point in "linguistics".
This is also a great time to consider taking the Teamwork feats. You and your party know how to communicate through subtle body language.
We had a mute character in our party. It made for...some interesting situations...
Situations like everyone forgetting that he was mute and putting him on watch (so he couldn't warn us when we were attacked).
Or
Him hearing that a party member was in trouble and trying to get the rest of the party to respond ("What is is Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well?" <-- an actual line from that session).
Or
A local ruler questioning each party member, and then throwing us all in prison for our companion's "lack of cooperation."
Or
Having him be the only witness to a crime and not being able to tell anyone.
Or
He would end up with an amulet that controlled an enemy shield guardian, but was unable to command it.
Or
He would be the only one at our table to be able to figure out an in-game riddle that would allow the party to continue their quest, but be wholly unable to communicate the answer to the party adequately.
...
In short, the GM had a field day. And he didn't even have to try. More than half of the problems we encountered were our own fault.
It's good for a laugh in the short term, but in the long run, it really will just drag the party down. I don't recommend it unless you have everyone's express consent (AFTER you've explained to them the possible consequences of playing such a character).
I know it's not quite the same, but in a thieves' guild game I'm playing a deaf rogue/oracle (the actual deaf curse). Due to being deaf, I'm playing a character that thus far never speaks. He reads lips, and can communicate through some sign language if anyone else knows the language. He also carries a deck of specially designed playing cards that he can write messages on.
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If you really want to get into character, just write stuff down when you feel the need to communicate. You could also go with the "I'm just translating what my character is saying in sign" route if you and your group don't actually know a sign language.
Also, for the wearing of a mask IRL, be careful with that. Private places (technically, any store is a private business that allows the public access) can make rules against it and some cities have ordinances against wearing masks that cover the whole face. Something about it looking suspicious and such.
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I guess i was just thinking of batman every time he is knocked out the enemies decide at the last minute NOT to take his mask off I feel like i never have that luck at all. i was just wondering about playing a snakeyeyes type and seeing danger do you think i could get whistling daggers to throw at the bad guy sneaking up?
besides grunting......
The whole "don't take off the mask" thing works because of genre and medium. For genre, you've got a lot of masked whatevers running around that have identities they wish to conceal. For medium, Batman isn't interactive like an RPG, but written. The mask comes off only when the author says the mask comes off. The mask can work if you get the GM and players to agree to the convention. But you need the full buy-in first.
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I have had a lot of fun playing a character who can make a limited set of sounds. Whistles, grunts, groans, etc. One player picked up on it and pretended he could understand me while always misinterpreting my intentions.
This sort of stuff tends to work best in role playing oriented games rather than combat focused.
RD that was some good suggestions the thins you described is what I am saying how do you get around that?
it was just something I Was brewing in my dangerous head one mine a paladin monk named preaches-with-fists that doesn't talk. but i think it is too much work and you have the have the right setting.
it was just something I Was brewing in my dangerous head one mine a paladin monk named preaches-with-fists that doesn't talk. but i think it is too much work and you have the have the right setting.
I had a player try this in one of my games. First he role-played pantomime. Then when that got frustrating he had his character write things down on a slate, which he represented by writing stuff on a note pad. Then he got tired of that and started saying "[chatacter name] writes the following on his slate." and just speaking what the PC would write. Finally he just made a new character.
I'm going to agree with LazarX here. Everytime I've GM'd a "mute" character, it's always come with the bonus description of "oh, and he's kind of a 'lone wolf' type." Groan.
I played a wookie in my first Star Wars game... It wasn't very much fun. I got very frustrated trying to growl and howl my intentions, until finally someone else took the 'wookie language'. Then I had to tell him what I was trying to say, and he would repeat it back to the rest of the group...
WAY more trouble than it was worth... the idea was MUCh cooler in my head than in reality :(
I played one once. I was actually a co-DM with a secret identity. He was a masked hero in all black. Roderick Alexander was his name. Little did everyone know that Roddy boy was a drow noble ranger with one level ahead. My mission was to gain the trust of the party, and sell them out to my master.