[ArkangelWinter]

Mute-5bp
Characters with this quality cannot speak, either due to vocal chord damage or psychological trauma. They gain no benefit from cyberware or bioware vocal enhancement, or adept powers requiring speech, and may not take Geasa involving speech.

Total Mute -10bp
Characters with this quality suffer from brain damage or psychological trauma that makes them incapable of holding "conversations" in the traditional sense. In addition to the drawbacks listed for Mute, they may not use commlinks, implant commlinks, the Matrix, Mindlink, or other technological or magical means to communicate to a person within the range of normal volume metahuman speech. This limitation does not apply if both subjects are in VR, or Astrally projecting.

[Walder]

How would the 10 bp quality be that different from the 5 bp version?

[ArkangelWinter]

The 10bp version means no conversation via text either, if the persons in speech range. So no "thinking" messages to your commlink implant to send, no quick text messages during a run, things like that. It stops the cheese that would make being simply mute in the traditional sense not much of a drawback in a hi-tech world. Basically it limits in-person communication to mutual VR, mutual Astral Projection, or old school pen and paper.

[Walder]

The 10bp version means no conversation via text either, if the persons in speech range. So no "thinking" messages to your commlink implant to send, no quick text messages during a run, things like that. It stops the cheese that would make being simply mute in the traditional sense not much of a drawback in a hi-tech world. Basically it limits in-person communication to mutual VR, mutual Astral Projection, or old school pen and paper.

Right0-oh, then. Sounds like a classy quality. I may use that for one of my less social characters.

[JustADude]

I like it.

Makes me want to build someone with the 5bp version that has an implanted commlink and uses speakers for a Steven Hawking voice.

[Crash_00]

Reminds me of a scene from an old Hell on Earth game. After hours of "interrogation" the bad guys brother shows up:

Excuse me, but why are you torturing the mute for information.

[CanRay]

Reminds me of a scene from an old Hell on Earth game. After hours of "interrogation" the bad guys brother shows up:

Excuse me, but why are you torturing the mute for information.

I miss DL:  HoE.

[All4BigGuns]

The 10bp version means no conversation via text either, if the persons in speech range. So no "thinking" messages to your commlink implant to send, no quick text messages during a run, things like that. It stops the cheese that would make being simply mute in the traditional sense not much of a drawback in a hi-tech world. Basically it limits in-person communication to mutual VR, mutual Astral Projection, or old school pen and paper.

So a quality that makes a useless character. Right. Either up that one to 35 BP or don't expect anyone to touch it...ever.

[ArkangelWinter]

It doesnt make them "useless". Really the 10bp version is more like what mutes in our world have to deal with. Take sign language as a language.  The reason the other version is only 5bp is because a commlink implant so easily bypasses all the negatives.

[CanRay]

It doesnt make them "useless". Really the 10bp version is more like what mutes in our world have to deal with. Take sign language as a language.

No thanks, my fingers barely work as is. 

Love to be able to understand it, however.  It's quite beautiful even when someone is outright swearing.  Friend of mine in College had some courses in it, so I got exposed to it a lot.

[Sichr]

It is completely possible that standard lingosoft and visual sensor would be able to decipher sign language. On the other side, this quality - its upgraded level...doesnt make sense. Either character is just "Mute" and can use other meanings to comunicate, even to bypass this via technological meanings (means essence and nuyen spent, so it is not just 5BPs for free) or the character is incapacitated the way Dyslexia works, but in more serrious manner, and he is not capable to hold conversation because he is not able to understand language in any symbolical meaning...and in this case even VR or Astral conversations are off. Otherwise nice, but this VR/Astral adds nothing. Man can have trodes all around his head, standing still in the corridor, being full VR immersed and comunicate with anyone else, and to switch back it would take only single action. Doesnt work...

[ArkangelWinter]

The upgraded version is based off actual people. My ex-wife is a psychiatric counselor and had a client (apparently not unique) who couldnt even write on post-its to converse with his counselors because his psychological trauma was so bad he couldnt "converse" at all. But he could email, write letters, hand off notes to a third party, things like that, because his brain categorized that as "correspondence" not "conversation".

I added the Astral exception because as far as I know your meatbrain's funky wiring shouldnt affect your Astral self, and I added the VR exception so it wouldnt completely cripple non-mages, though medically VR should be affected.

[Sichr]

Ah,..got it. You mean that he is unable of Interaction, well on the other side he is quite possible to write the book.
Well IMO this is really strange stuff. Like...usefull maybe for a blogger contact or somathing, well deffinitively nonplayable. Even your example shows that this people (I wonder how it is called) are not capable of comunication/interaction with partners as such, only expressing their own mind. That makes me really think about possibility that such person become shadowrunner :p

P.S: not that its not interresting