| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1IrrlichtJan 10, 2015 12:12:56 | Hey guys, I need your opinion...
One of my players wants to play a silent tielfing rogue. I like the idea, i could be interesting for the roleplaying. But how do I handle it? I thought about letting the other characters roll some checks if he wants to "tell" (sign) them something. But on what? Int? And a DC of... i don't know, 5 - 15, depending on the environment...
Did anybody of you something similar before? Any other things I should think of? |
| #2Ninja_FerretJan 10, 2015 12:56:57 | make the guy roleplay it. He can only speak to you with what his character is doing. If he wants to speak to the pcs or NPCs he has to act it out or sign it himself. If the other players dont understand or you dont. Their reactions should just be that.
Say he wants to try to tell the other players there is a trap there. he should try to relay that to the pcs with hand movements or actions. You can let him discribe what he is doing but try to keep that limited and make him act it out (say he walks 5' forward is one he can discribe what is happening.) and have him shoo away the other pcs to back up.
I think it would be awesome if he is the scout of the group and comes upon ogres or something. Him trying to tell the party that there are ogres in the forest a bit waiting to jump out at you would be like a game of sharades (spelling?).
The other pcs might have to figure it out on their own. I could be fun or it could be frustrating to the pcs. All depends on your group make up. |
| #3RhennyJan 10, 2015 13:43:18 | In the Hoard of the Dragon Queen game we are playing now, the Dwarven Fighter in our group doesn't speak common and non of the other PCs can speak Dwarven. He basically does what he wants and we follow him or we grab him and try to hold him. We are working with hand signals and body language and understanding what we know about his character. I have to say, it is kind of a pain in the butt.
My cleric in the group spends off times teaching him common.
Luckily, there is a Dwarf NPC in the keep at Greenenst, so when we are with him, he can translate for us. That has given us better insight into the Dwarf's motivation.
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| #4Devils-AdvocateJan 10, 2015 14:54:28 |
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| (Reply to #2)CCS |
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| #6THEMNGMNTJan 10, 2015 18:38:19 | I think it's a lame idea that just slows down the game at the expense of his character concept. I would make him play charades, roleplay it, etc. It'll take a few sessions before he and the other players get sick of it and sanity prevails. |
| #7Devils-AdvocateJan 10, 2015 18:46:03 |
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| #8MechaPilotJan 10, 2015 19:01:53 |
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| #9Archon007Jan 10, 2015 19:20:06 | Yeah go with 1 other player takes sign language and then that character can translate it for the rest of the party. That will make for some funny roleplaying. As the silent character signs "Jimmy should go around back" and then the sign language person says "he says Jimmy should kick down the front door"
We had a lot of fun with this in Star Wars and our Wookie player. |
| #10OoftaMegJan 10, 2015 19:38:08 | Have you talked to the rest of the people playing what they think? Because allowing one person to bring a character this disruptive to the table may or may not work.
There are a lot of ways around it, of course. Sign language, thieve's cant (for simple communication anyway) slate and chalk, etc.
But ... D&D is a group activity. This one person shouldn't dictate for the entire group a feature that could be a major disruption to the rest of the group having fun.
As a DM you sometimes have to disallow options that either don't make sense to you and your world or that will not fit in with the rest of the group. You need to make sure this isn't the latter. |
| #11BRJNJan 10, 2015 20:02:48 | Two more words: Thieves' Cant. He gets this automatically at Rogue1. Includes a written sign code. Certainly includes a hieroglyph for "traps ahead" and "disabled traps ahead". If he wants to teach another PC the written form of the Cant, use downtime or the travel time along the highways to do so.
Rig For Silent Running, as your PC is doing, sounds like a fun way to RP Stealth-ing, but not to go through every single minute of every single day. |
| #12DungeonKrusherJan 10, 2015 20:06:20 | I'm playing a Soldier Background character who has taken to teaching the rest of the party military-style hand signals. We use a few of the basics (hold of fist to signal "stop" and that sort of thing) so we use pre-game out-of-character time to discuss what signals we are learning. This lays the foundation for when the game starts, a character will say "I tell the group to stop, and then tell the what I see." We don't worry knowing what all the exact signals are, just to speed things up; we find that trying to have the players learn the signals ends up bogging down the game.
The complement this, our DM rolls a d20 to see how much detail can be conveyed -- but not in an onerous way, and not necessarily with a *fail* opportunity. Example, the group is walking, and somebody holds up a fist: we stop. Since we're all looking out and keeping an eye on each other, it's not like we have a problem seeing that. Maybe the scout wants to relay "Four guards: two are wizards, one is a warrior, one is an orc. They are 400' ahead, hiding in brush to the left of the road." The roll represent not only the skill at performing the signal, and also whether we've discussed the signals beforehand. Perhaps DC8 is basic knowledge, such as "Four bad guys up ahead." and 11 would be "Four bad guys 400' ahead on the left." 14 would include the hiding in trees, or what the guards look like. 17 would be everything.
These are rough. We're still working it out.
The short answer: if the player wants to play a silent character, that's fine. Just don't let it ruin everybody else's good time. If the entire group isn't into a gimmicky character aspect for one player, it's probably not a good idea. |
| #13iserithJan 10, 2015 20:52:14 | Write in the rogue's inability to communicate verbally as a flaw (i.e. traits, ideals, bonds, flaws). The player communicates normally with the other players and, fictionally, their characters have figured out a way to communicate with the rogue. Sometimes, however, the player can choose when the flaw gets in the way, imparting disadvantage on a roll or costing them something in a particular situation, When he does, the player earns Inspiration. |
| #14Devils-AdvocateJan 10, 2015 22:22:02 |
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| #15iserithJan 11, 2015 14:24:08 |
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| #16Archon007Jan 11, 2015 15:04:08 |
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| #17iserithJan 12, 2015 6:52:52 |
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| #18SorxoresJan 12, 2015 7:58:49 | make them have a basic code for commun stuff like (I'm using this trick when the druid wildshape into animals)
stomp your left foot/back leg) (no need to make noise just the movement of stomping) for: trap ahead, move back Stomp right foot/back leg for: ennemy/ambush ahead be prepare for a fight waving left hand: all safe come forward waving right hand: dead-end
clapping hand (or stomping with both front leg) (again no noise needed, just the movement count): goal reached / treasure.
Yes if the druid become a snake we have a problem. When the druid become a spider we need a cheat sheet to remember all the different combination possible with the 8 legs.
Since you are using a humanoid creature (character race) instead of animal you can even use more elaborate code (similiar to military/police code)
hand in front of the eye to mean ennemy/ambush, then show finger for the amount of ennemy detected, point people to distribute role, etc... those hand signal are very simple to google and find ont he internet then import in the game. Most of them can be very intuitive and easy to learn. |
| #19ZalbarthemadJan 15, 2015 20:14:26 | You all seem to be overcomplicating things. I think it's a fabulous idea. Just have the PC SAY (or pantomime if you're tabletop together) what his character is doing/motioning etc.
1.. Irrlicht looks over at the fighter and raises an eyebrow questioningly while shrugging her shoulder. |
| (Reply to #17)Coredump00 |
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| #21BRJNJan 17, 2015 18:21:44 |
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