non-speaking tips?

[Miltonaut]

I have this character, Mackintosh, who's a sentient cloak--think MCU Dr. Strange's cape or Carpet from Aladdin. The body/mannequin is there only because the character creator forced me to have one. To keep this short, I'll put Mack's bio in a reply.

One of the RP hurdles is that Mack can't speak. Mack is weakly telepathic and can "hear" that way, but it can't really have a conversation. I've mostly been talking OOC, or using thoughts to describe physical actions.

 

1) Anyone have a non-speaking toon and have tips to share?

2) How would I craft some macros/keybinds for common actions? "Mackintosh flies up to $target and swirls around them in greeting"

3) Would the example in #2 violate the no-touching rule of RP etiquette?

[Miltonaut]

 Mack has been owned by the Mackintosh clan for as long as it can remember, absorbing personality and power from each of its owners. Eventually, the clan resettled in North America in one of the early colonies, and Mack continued to protect the clan leader in this new land.

 

Although it never shirked its duties, Mack only revealed itself to those it deemed worthy. Mack's last owner was one of these.

 

A bright young student at Paragon U trying to decide between a life of science or heroics. She went out with friends one night and left Mack at home. Mack learned of her fate a few days later when some of her friends came to clean out her apartment. She had been killed while attempting to protect another young woman from attackers in an alley behind a bar.

 

Mack decided to to honor her legacy by protecting the people of the city she loved. And maybe find a new clan to serve.

 

((Mack is only a cloak. If interacting with Mack, ignore the "body".))

[CrudeVileTerror]

We talked about mute characters a little bit recently in General, actually.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22968-how-far-do-you-take-your-role-playing/

Perhaps there will be something handy for your purposes there!

 

For a character like yours, I would lean heavily on "body language."  Have the cape try to communicate much like the one does in the film you mentioned.  Tugging on limbs, pointing, fluttering dramatically.

[Latex]

You took on a challenge that's for sure.

 

I'd take inspiration from the Magic Carpet in Aladdin, it's possible to convey basic emotions but you're going to be seriously limited in deeper conversation. I'm not sure how you could go into deeper exploration of the character (with other characters) without writing or speaking somehow, sign language of some sort could work with a bit of a reach.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Latex

[VV]

I love this! How creative. I agree with the others, descriptive gestures are the way to go. Of course, you are going to be mostly unable to convey complex thoughts and ideas, but the basics should be easy to cover.

 

Mack gestures urgently at the approaching CoT coming up the hallway.

Mack bows in greeting.

Mack waves goodbye.

Mack gestures "thank you" touch a corner to where its lips might be. 

 

That is the other thing, sign language has some pretty broad gestures to convey certain phrases, many of which are easily interpreted even without knowing it well. Also, can Mack write? Heck, depending on how far you want to go with it, Mack could carry a tablet, type on that.

[GM Kal]

When you absolutely need to communicate, and you need a good "copout", use:

 

;calculate

 

...and emote magically drawing words in the air as you give the text.

 

Is this cheap? Maybe 😏

 

[biostem]

OP, you can use something like:

 

/macro Swirls "em swirls around $target in greeting"

 

It should result in a grey button, labeled "Swirls", when when pressed, (and assuming you have someone targeted), will display what you wanted.