A little veteran advice?

[Hedgedhogst]

I've encountered a girl on the road. She appears to be mute, and has no clothing or protection.
I've tried talking and gesturing, with minimum success. I'm not keen to leave her be. She's travelling in an area where people have very low tolerance for anything outside of 'the norm'.
I've turned to walk with her, which she seems happy with... But then she's also quite content with sucking on a stone she picked up off the ground.
I don't mind hanging around and looking out for her, but it's going to be tough if at least some communication, or at least understanding, isn't found.
What do you suggest I do when we reach a town?

[mojomuppet]

If the rp is not satisfying to you, don't waste your time. I have a horrible time with mute chars and IMO there are way to many of them. I think I've met one mute person my whole life, in Cantr there seems to be one in every other town.

[Hedgedhogst]

The RP is great. Just appears that this girl may have hit her head a few too many times. She's also either deaf, or she's hit her head a LOT too many times.
I'm enjoying the challenge so far, but I fear things won't progress... I'd hate to walk away. Heh.

[SumBum]

Uh, what exactly are you hoping to get from it then? You've said the RP is great, you enjoy the challenge, etc...

[MelloYell]

i havent met that many mute chars. deaf ones, but not mute ones. i wouldnt say theres harm in trying if you enjoy the rp. even chars that dont speak or talk....well gestures are a universal language. if youre enjoying it, i say stick with it and see what happens.

[Hedgedhogst]

Uh, what exactly are you hoping to get from it then? You've said the RP is great, you enjoy the challenge, etc...

To be honest, if communication doesn't start happening soon, I'm going to run out of ideas. If I leave her be, anything could happen to her. I don't want that.
I don't know what I really hope to hear by means of advice... Just that this is new to me, and if a veteran has dealt with this before, I guess I'd like to hear of their experiences.

[SekoETC]

Most if not all mute chars I've seen have been able to write. If someone is mute and illiterate or dumb, it's going to be a big challenge to learn any form of communication, even more so if she's deaf.

[Sunni Daez]

I have seen mutes well played and some not so well played. Some leave it up to the others to do a majority of the RP.. be prepared to do this. A well played mute can take a lot of effort, consistent effort. I played Summer Silverblood. She was a very active and communicative mute. It took a lot of time to do things for her, and a lot of typing. She learned a sign language along the way, I kept well written notes, to copy and paste for each sign, just so they remained consistent.

I am not saying the player will do this to you, but, be prepared to do the majority of the RP, unfortunately, it becomes boring when that happens.

[SumBum]

I'd say it all depends on what you and/or your char are willing to do. Some players/chars don't mind working their butt off to get through to a char, others don't have the patience for it. That applies to all sorts of scenarios (differing languages, chars that are disabled somehow, or just plain stubborn ones) where it creates a challenging/difficult situation. Some of my chars might go out of the way for that girl, some of them wouldn't bother.

One of my dim-witted chars was very fortunate to have someone who went through a painstaking process to teach him how to count. It was a lot of fun and I was totally impressed by the other player's RP and patience. I probably wouldn't have the patience to go through all that if the roles were reversed.

Decide how much effort you want to put into things and if you or your char are going to be devastated if, as you say, there isn't any "progress".

[mojomuppet]

I'd say it all depends on what you and/or your char are willing to do. Some players/chars don't mind working their butt off to get through to a char, others don't have the patience for it. That applies to all sorts of scenarios (differing languages, chars that are disabled somehow, or just plain stubborn ones) where it creates a challenging/difficult situation. Some of my chars might go out of the way for that girl, some of them wouldn't bother.

One of my dim-witted chars was very fortunate to have someone who went through a painstaking process to teach him how to count. It was a lot of fun and I was totally impressed by the other player's RP and patience. I probably wouldn't have the patience to go through all that if the roles were reversed.

Decide how much effort you want to put into things and if you or your char are going to be devastated if, as you say, there isn't any "progress".

Well put Summy!

[Alladinsane]

If you think the char is literate, you can write notes....I run into alot of them also...or -have- only one right now and we have a system starting to work out. Scratching short notes in the dirt with your finger or a stick (rp). If they aren't literate, (how does -anyone- spawn literate...brings back a paradox that has been debated to exhaustion) then some of the stuff regarding Helen Keller and her teacher Anne somthing . Obviously don't read them to communicate with this char, but it does help further understanding of the challenges faced by both sides and might be applicable IG.

Most of all, make it fun.

[lulkoek]

There seems to be more 'handicapped' people in any text RP than in RL, yeah, but to get back on the topic:

What I would suggest is try a few different things, but if you get little reaction to what you do, move on.
I did the same once with a mute character that I encountered. She too seemed to be rather... simple... I tried to accommodate to her, but eventually that player must have felt there wasn't much more to be gained and she died. Big disappointment there.

I have one mute-deaf character myself, but that character can write and read lips. It's handy to ignore things you don't want to hear, Most of the characters around that char are less active than the mute and she more or less 'leads' the village, being the eldest and that.