Headless RP

[Chalkarts]

I want to do some RP but am hindered by my favorite toon being headless.  Any suggestions on roleplaying an effective mime?

[Darmian]

1 minute ago, Chalkarts said:

I want to do some RP but am hindered by my favorite toon being headless.  Any suggestions on roleplaying an effective mime?

Spend some time in the AE so you get the Mission Engineer Badge.  This will give you an AE Pad.  Use it as a communication tool.

[sponazgul]

1 hour ago, Chalkarts said:

I want to do some RP but am hindered by my favorite toon being headless.  Any suggestions on roleplaying an effective mime?

It is a challenge. I have an unspeaking character, Laconic Lord, and to communicate I usually use emotes i.e. “/e regrets he must leave the team” 

 

if someone is advertising a mission , I just send a /tell that shows up like this

 

Laconic Lord: <————

 

emoticons can help.

[Amp Up]

Dullahans usually speak in a disembodied voice

 

Or

 

Through text on a cellphone

 

Or

 

Pads of paper

 

You can get very creative 

[Latex]

Sign language?

idk, my dullahan-style character carried her head around and couldn't talk without it. Disembodied works though, there's not exactly an emphasis on realism when you've no head. When my char 'lost her head' her body bumped into things constantly and she had to feel her way around to prevent falling over.

[chase]

Most are assuming that since you're headless, you're unable to speak, but they're making some assumptions on the other features, so:
You're also earless.  Can you even hear?
You're also eyeless.  Are you sightless?
I'll leave out mention of the brain.


Regarding Speech Alternatives:
From a roleplay standpoint, being speechless really impacts how YOU interact with others.

I haven't known fully mute folk, but I've known several deaf folk with very limited speech range, and I've known some with severe motor control that impacted their ability to form all but a few words easily.  

The typical RP trope of having someone just write things down in full conversation and share it bugged my deaf friends because it really doesn't work well in RL like that.   it diminishes the experience.   It takes far longer to write fully than just speak it.   You MIGHT get away with a patient enough store clerk to wait to answer a hastily-scrawled "cucumbers?" if their pronunciation is too off,  but not writing, "pardon me sir, where are the cucumbers?"   We don't notice this in RP because we're all typing... which is pretty darn slow already... but it's something to consider in the RP.   

EDIT. More to come, just hit "Save" early

Gesture, or a combination of gesture and nearby props, are often far faster and very easily understood to the the less verbally challenged.  We don't tend to realize how much we innately incorporate gesture in daily actions.   I found it hugely amusing to find a mute RP'er that maintained a notebook they'd emote flipping through.   It works for complex answers, but finding basic "yes" and "no" values were hilarious...  or numbers (1-10, at least)... and there's others.

(Sidenote: Lip reading is HUGELY overrated in RP too.   A good experienced lip reader in close proximity with a full view of the mouth will still only l confidently pick up a third of the words using mouth shape. Knowing the context of the conversation and reading body language, can rule out a few options and make educated guesses.  (Context REALLY helps- people who leap off on random tangents can frustrate the HELL out of a lip reader.).  
 

Edited 13 hours ago by chase

[Chalkarts]

8 hours ago, Latex said:

Sign language?

idk, my dullahan-style character carried her head around and couldn't talk without it. Disembodied works though, there's not exactly an emphasis on realism when you've no head. When my char 'lost her head' her body bumped into things constantly and she had to feel her way around to prevent falling over.

He also lacks hands and feet.  He's seen some things.