playing an Unintelligible player (Pikey)

[RacingBreca]

I am preparing to play a character that is inspired by Brad Pitt's character from Snatch, "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil.

How would you play a character whose speech was mostly unintelligible? It sounds fun, but I could imagine it getting obnoxious, both to play and to play with.

The idea is that his nomadic caravan has traveled far and wide, picking up pigeon slang from around the world. Being mostly rogues and barbarians, the tribe is also inundated with thieves cant speakers.

I think I will give him slightly slurred speech and obscure exclamations, both worsening with stress. With intention, he will be able to slow down his speech and annunciate properly.

The build uses a grappler chassis, with Rogue 2/ Barbarian 5. Rogue 2 gets the all important Expertise in athletics as well as Cunning action (Dashing with proned and grappled opponents is awesome); while Barbarian 5 gets you rages (Advantage on Athletics Checks), Bear totem toughness, and extra Attack.

The Tavern Brawler feat as a Variant Human adds a lot of fun role-play value. "Mickey uses the goblin corpse as a makeshift club, and hits the Orc with it", or "Mickey takes the grappled and prone Orc to Suplex City".

What concerns would you have as a player or DM?

[Tiadoppler]

Concerns for you:
Are you okay not being the center of/not participating helpfully in most social encounters?

Concerns from party perspective:
Are you, the player, very good at physical communication? Charades, non-verbal signalling, body language? In my current campaign, I have a character who takes laconic to the extreme. This works because the player is very physically expressive and usually only needs a word or two in addition to their movement to get a fairly complex point across. That character usually takes the role of "only sane person" with lots of silent sass and sarcasm. Not being able to speak is a minor concern, compared to being unable to communicate.

Concerns from DM perspective:
None. Have fun! I know I will...

[willdaBEAST]

I think your character concept works best with a partner. Have your character be completely unintelligible, but there's one person in the party who fully understands them and can translate, or just treats it like a normal conversation. Otherwise I think it's going to be pretty disruptive and hard for your character to contribute. It'll also let you fully realize the idea, instead of finding a way to tone it down for everyone else's sake. You can convey a lot through tone, cadence and gestures, so I don't think your player partner in this case wouldn't even need to be a close friend.

[Mellack]

Personally, I think that would get old fast. It would be fun for the first conversation, but just annoying after that. If you are playing a one-shot, I say go for it. If you are planning a full campaign, pass.

[Vogie]

Personally, I think that would get old fast. It would be fun for the first conversation, but just annoying after that. If you are playing a one-shot, I say go for it. If you are planning a full campaign, pass.

Yeah, I'm in this camp. It'd be the mumble-y equivalent of playing Groot.

[RacingBreca]

Personally, I think that would get old fast. It would be fun for the first conversation, but just annoying after that. If you are playing a one-shot, I say go for it. If you are planning a full campaign, pass.

It is for a one shot, so I feel comfortable taking on the challenge. Thanks for the consideration.

[Laserlight]

I played the paladin in my sig with an accent best described as "thick Appalachian plus a large plug of chewing tobacco". Some of the players, including the DM, found him almost unintelligible--but the DM said that was perhaps his favorite PC among all the campaigns he'd run.

[RacingBreca]

I played the paladin in my sig with an accent best described as "thick Appalachian plus a large plug of chewing tobacco". Some of the players, including the DM, found him almost unintelligible--but the DM said that was perhaps his favorite PC among all the campaigns he'd run.

Well done! That is high praise.

I hope that I can pull it off.

[Angelalex242]

Reminds me of the time I played a monk like a B movie martial artist.

"This humble one thinks..."

Complete with the usual Bruce Lee sound effects while fighting.

I annoyed the **** out of people very quickly.

[Ganymede]

What concerns would you have as a player or DM?


I could imagine it getting obnoxious, both to play and to play with.

That's about it. If you're playing with randos on Roll20, give it a shot, but please do not treat your friends this way.

[MxKit]

I'd look at the way they suggest playing a Kenku in Volo's Guide, honestly. Feel free to slur a bit normally so long as your party can understand you (as you say he's not always flat-out unintelligible), but when he starts getting impossible to understand, switch over to not speaking in character. Note that Mickey makes a weird muffled 'muffafa' sound that's obviously a curse, or say something like "Mickey's speech is slurred to hell and back now, but it's still clear he's suggesting you storm the place."

And agreed that a "partner" who understands him is your best bet, but just having the entire party have been around each other long enough that they can all translate him would probably work even better. Just don't actually unintelligibly mumble and wave your hands and make the other players try to figure out what you're trying to say, or all of you, you included, and your DM are just going to get frustrated and annoyed.

[ErHo]

A non vocal Sorcerer that refuses to cast anything but Magic Missile?

Tons of fun!!!