@Zachiel what edition are you using?

Question: If I was making Link as a PC, what would other people's opinions (as in, I'm asking for your opinions) on a character that can't talk?

@Ben that'd just be weird IMO -- while the lack of voice acting is a salient trait of the game -- it doesn't carry over to the characters

I've successfully run mute characters--but not in D&D.

Specifically, in Fate:

Well, basically, going off the long-running joke that Link can only speak in noises of extreme exertion ("Hup! Ha! HYAAHH!") The question of carrying that over to a PC is questionable...

[shrug] It depends entirely on the group and system. A mute PC in GURPS means you took a severe flaw to get more points for other abilities, for example.

I'd be totally fine with it in my group, provided the players were all on board with it and it didn't slow things down much.

I've been in games where some PCs didn't speak each others' languages, or only had single-digit vocabularies.

(One horror game was made extra-tense by the players' decision to have one PC speak German; one German and Tibetan; one English and Tibetan; and one only English; all the NPCs spoke only Tibetan. In another group that choice might have made it slow and dull, but for us it was an excellent mood-builder and was exploited to create paranoia appropriate to the game's horror themes.)

Although Link is rarely given voiced or written dialog, in OoT and MM (the ones I've played most), characters respond to him as if he does, and sometimes you get an actual choice of dialog to respond with. They're just not defining Link's dialog, which is generally a choice made to avoid the disconnect a player feels when their character says something they wouldn't. That aside, a mute Link (or anybody else) is totally playable. As BESW says, though, it depends on the system and the group.

Another game I ran (D&D this time) had a PC raised by wolves. He knew a number of words in Common equal to his intelligence score, but when a druid used speak with animals to translate through his wolf companion, he was quite keen and sharp--albeit using wolf social logic.

This is true. The system is D&D 5e, so I'm not sure how that would work out, but I'm really not sure about the group. They'd likely get frustrated pretty quickly

@BESW That is an awesome idea

In a group I trusted implicitly not to abuse the power, I'd be tempted to play a Link-like character Chewbacca style: I make unintelligible noises, and the other players have agency to respond to what I'm saying as they see fit.

Effectively I'd set tone by how I say things, but my fellow participants would be free to decide what I'd actually said.

also stuff you say might be defined by when you say it

Actually now I think about it, we have come a cross a mute NPC in the game...

Right. They'd be limited by what makes sense in context, obviously.

if you talk after someone else you probably just made a snarky response

depending on context of course

So it'd effectively be like talking in a language that no one else speaks.

That could be interesting...

In that case, it'd be like your character talking in a language that the characters around them understand, but you as a player don't define.

@Pixie This is an exercise I'd love to try sometime. It'd need a really specific group dynamic.

@BESW Definitely. There'd need to be a level of trust and understanding. It would be great if it worked, though.

@BESW That does actually sound like it would be a lot of fun.

@Pixie @Shalvenay do you both have the fudge dice script?

@doppelgreener I do not. P:

@Pixie Grab it from the fate room's description.

@BESW ^

I find myself in a problematic conundrum...

?

I need to replace my phone or its battery and there doesn't seem to be a good way to go about it.

Here in Australia, phones are either bought outright (for like $600-800), or networks provide them with a 2-year contract for one quarter the overall price, and you pay the phone off over the course of the contract (which makes the phone $100-200).

My 2-year contract just ended a couple of months ago. Because I'm off contract, the battery replacement requires sending the phone off to the manufacturer and paying a fee of $200-250. This fee is extortionately high, and almost certainly chosen to motivate me to buy a new phone instead of bothering with repairing this one.

I could get a 2-year contract, but I'm planning on moving to another country in 6-12 months, so that's out of the question.

Which means I either pay for an extortionate battery replacement for an old phone that's now also no longer under full software (and security!) support, or I pay somewhere between $600-800 for a phone outright, and get a bring-your-own-phone plan that is relatively cheap and won't lock me into a 2 year requirement.

Or I wait it out for another 8-10 months and get a new phone when I'm in Europe.

I'll probably wait it out.

this sounds like an exceptionally horrible way to do business

not that it doesn't make money, but that it is actually horrible to your customers

@trogdor it only has to be not distinctly more horrible than the competitors! It's much cheaper if I'm still on contract.

so the biggest issue is that a contract would have wasted time

and you would maybe even need to get a new phone after anyway

Yeah. It's a strategy for planned obsolescence

...wow.

I seem to have stumped this Stack :P

@Shalvenay what with?

@doppelgreener nvm, for now at least :) we'll see how my D&D 3.0 question re: caster levels of PC Su abilities goes.

is there region locking issues with phones in Australia vs USA

@user507974 there may be frequency support issues with phones in .au vs .us

(ITU REgion 2 vs ITU Region 3 to be precise)

@user507974 Don't know. (I'm not heading to the USA anyway)

@Shalvenay A system that was abandoned partway into its lifetime, replaced with a revision that was seeking to be its better?

[thumbsup]

@IronHeart I'm trying to puzzle this out for the sake feeding input to the folks running a NWN server

good luck

@doppelgreener Just get a crappy pre-paid.

@Ben I rely enormously on my phone, a crap one is not an option. :'( Currently it's between waiting it out or getting a whole new one, but I should probably look into that region locking issue user50797 brought up.

@doppelgreener Do you have any other devices? Tablet perhaps?

@Ben I do have a tablet.

However, I externalise most of my memory and organisation into my phone, which is absolutely always there in my pocket.

It's harder to ensure I'll have a tablet with me at the gym, on the bus, visiting the grocery store, etc.

Is it a possibility you could use that for the other functions you would normally use your phone for? You can get sims for them as well.

@doppelgreener That's true, I'm just throwing ideas to try and help resolve your conundrum ^-^

Thanks. I appreciate it and it's not an easy conundrum to resolve that does not involve sticking out the low battery or $wazoo

I don't mean to necessarily invite solutions - I just needed a place to air my thoughts. This is not an easy thing to solve and I don't want to frustrate people by turning down most solutions offered.

May I enquire as to what type of phone it is, and what exactly the issue might be?

@doppelgreener No, that's fair enough. It's your issue, and I understand you might need to resolve it yourself. But I just feel if I can help, I shall. Doesn't matter whether or not it is of any use

(Without being annoying of course haha)

It is a HTC One. (It's a couple of years old, a version prior to the m8.) The battery needs charging once a day during moderate use, twice a day during heavy use, and a full charge takes 2-3 hours. I use it at least moderately almost every day. That charging can be done overnight, but I'm beginning to have a lot of very active days where I will use it heavily and won't be stationary during the day for that midway charge.

I do have a backup portable charger, so I'll probably be using that - but it's decently heavy and thick, so it's harder to, y'know, port.

It's still one of the smallest and lightest pocket chargers around, but alas heavy duty - one full charge of a hungry phone - comes at a toll.

Arr hurr... I see. (dumb question) but you can't open it to access the battery, can you?

There's no obvious way to do that. Come to think of it there's probably a guide online.

There seem to be multiple guides online complete with videos. (googled "open htc one to access battery")

Maybe I can do that, since the service warranty's already more or less void, find out what it is, buy a new one for $less and put that in.

Boom boom! We have a solution! (Maybe) haha

@Ben We just might!! You clever son of a gun.

Biggest question on my mind now is whether I can actually get one of these batteries affordably, but finding that out can wait a couple of days.

Brainstorming is fun

Brianstorming is too.

Brain doesn't think so

Nor does Brian.

\o

o/

[high fives]

[Return-Fives]

@doppelgreener Probably selfish of me, but seeing as I do work for a Telco, did you want me to see if we can organise a 12 month plan for you instead?

@Nyoze I'm going to look into the home battery replacement as a primary option, but I will consider that for a backup.

I appreciate the offer.

Well, I float in and out, so let me know if you wanted to look at something.

I don't recall a replacement battery for the HTC One outside of a service centre repair, but good luck!

Whats going on today anyway?

@Nyoze Yeah, it's possible it'll be a proprietary battery I can't get.

You never know. I don't have any contacts in the service centres or I'd ask, sorry :(

Thanks regardless for thinking of it. :)

Everything feels like a ghost-town today :(

hey guys, what would you expect to see as the difference between weapons a level 1 character and a level 20 character are using in 5e, stat wise

it seems like anything other than tiny buffs completely throws the class balances out of whack

@Nyoze At least here you aren't discussing about dating sites like on the SE Meta Tavern.

@doppelgreener somehow related to you.

@Derpy Well... That's true.

@Nyoze That user is pretty popular for game reference videos. The art style he uses is from paper Mario, and he mix up different games and references.

Hey guys, I think I've got a custom magic system in place that has the single best trolling of players ever as an explanation (likely will be a epic tier reveal if a scholarly character pursues the knowledge of it)

Sounds nice!

Is the rest of the setting appropriately meta as well?

@user507974 what is the essence of your trolling?

Good morning

[wave]

@waxeagle Would you mind unfreezing the Back Room, please?

@BESW np

Thanks very much.

@Derpy hahaha! that was pretty good, thanks.

@doppelgreener my pleasure. I hoped for a prince cameo somewhere but it is pretty good as is.

imgur.com/gallery/9ygl6b1

So... I just woke up and picked my phone up to check the time. Except when I did, there was an event notification on screen. The event? "The end..." I did not create this event. I am a little unnerved.

Someone probably set that as a practical joke to you

I figure. I'm just trying to think how they possibly could have done so.

No one normally has access to my phone.

did you start any game recently? There are games that do similar things.

Nope. Haven't downloaded anything in a while.

I don't do much on my phone at all. xD

@Pixie do you have the screenshot? It would help GREATLY to narrow the investigation down

@eimyr I don't, but it's an event that's been added to my calendar.

When is the end, according to your calendar?

There's no mystery about what it is; it's a normal event notification. It's just how it got there. The end is today, all day. :P

Also, android, iphone, Winphone?

Android.

hmmmm

do you live with anyone?

Yes. I doubt very seriously that any of them would touch my phone, though it's possible.

If you are logged into an email on Android and that's synced with your phone calendar someone might send you an invitation to an event called the end, which would then be placed in your calendar

Even if you don't accept, it is added in some cases - is this likely?

Also, is this likely that you set it yourself ages ago and don't remember?

Sometimes an event has "created at" timestamp

There is no reason I would have set an event like this. I don't use the calendar at all, really.

@Pixie It is also possible that someone created it as a prank or a prelude to a surprise. It might have been Shia LaBeouf

Checking my email to see if that's what happened.

I'm intrigued. Let me know what comes of it when the event is over.

Hopefully I'm still around to let you know. :P [becomes creepypasta]

Maybe it's those guys? chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/24699399#24699399

Hmm. It's set to repeat annually.

A couple of stuff ended today. Vietnam War, Siege of Vienna...

@Pixie do you have a history of sleepwalking?

Stuff like that is within the ability of a sleepwalker I know

I don't. I'm narcoleptic, and there is a period of time when I first wake up that I often don't remember, but I'm not coherent enough to do something like this during that time.

Okay...

Hmmm

No creation time, and this is a calendar associated with the email I've had for at least 10 years now, so it could have been created at any point. Because I never use the calendar, I never would have seen it.

You would see an email entitled The End or something and it would be delivered last year or you would have noticed it in 2014

I tried searching. No such emails in my inbox.

This might not comfort you, but if someone wanted to really hurt you, they would be less conspicuous. Like, you know, someone who plans to murder you wouldn't send something like that. If this was done with malicious intent it was done to mess with you, not be quick and efficient.

I'd ignore it but get a sleep app that activates when sounds are made - and then listen to what is recorded.

@Pixie a hold over from the so called end of the world 2012?

@Tashio was that on 15th of October?

@eimyr No, was 12/12 I think?

or something like that

Also, put a tiny bit of sellotape on the corner of the bedroom doors. Invisible at night btu you'll see if someone opened it.

@eimyr Oh yes, I'm not seriously worried about it. An unpleasant and slightly bewildering thing to see when one first wakes up, but I'm not actually afraid. xD

Mm. I could do that, but I'm confident this isn't the work of my family.

If you figure this out, let me know.

Will do!

Also, what's up apart from creepypasta?

Not too much. Figuring out what to eat. How are you?

Quite alright, thanks.

I was pondering having a go at online roleplay with SE people tonight, but I'm seeing a house for rent.

Also, I have this baby comign to me sooooon: drivethrurpg.com/product/149562/…

Ahh. I wouldn't have been able to attend this evening anyway, likely streaming Wadanohara for my boyfriend again. Maybe we'll get to... the end. :P And neat, I know you've been excited for that.

What's Wadanohara?

Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea, a story-heavy RPG with dark themes.

Yeah, my girlfriend bought it for me as a bday gift.

Sooo you are playing that and you boyfriend watches?

Lol, they even say public streaming is forbidden.

That's... unexpected

Yep. He mentioned needing to either play it or find an LP of it, and I was like, "hey, I could do that." xD And it's a private stream, so we're good. :P

Nice. I had a similar experience - My gf wanted to see how Dead Space looks like but she gets too stressed in horror games

so we settled for me steering and her backseat driving

It was a bit funny, because I've played a bit of Dead Space before and I knew it's jumpscare heavy and I knew how to fight the monsters effectively.

Haha.

So when the tentacle aliens showed themselves she was all excited and grossed out and I was like "sit still so I can aim, you ugly barf! I have little ammo!"

"Shoot! Shoot!" "Nah, I don't wanna waste ammo on [melee] this [melee] bugger [melee kill]" jumpscare "Behind you!" "Oops, you were right"

I loved it.

That sounds pretty fun.

is your bf an RPG player too?

Yep. Sometimes he'd just rather watch than play.

I mean p&p, tabletop RPGs.

Oh, yes, that too. xD

btw, I wonder...

@BESW Hey, do you have any nice printable template for named NPCs for Fate?

@waxeagle Game tonight? If we do, I'll have to leave by 8pm PST/11pm EST.

Actually, I might not be available at all. Will report back on that.

@Grubermensch no game tonight

probably no game next week either

Ah alright.

@Ben This is what I'd do if I had both the time t rewrite all the encounters in the adventure book and if I knew for what to-hit ratio to aim.

@Nemenia 4e

@eimyr Had a power outage in my area so I couldn't reply. The macroscale rules of magic are understood in my world, but the microscale reasoning is not yet understood. If enough research is done, the players can learn the ultimate mechanism of the magic is probability manipulation.

imgur.com/gallery/tMTwkyQ

that is cool

indeed

@eimyr Nothing that ever worked for me.

@Zachiel Sounds like it's time for... [dat-dat-da-da!] A NEW QUESTION! [Mild echo]