GURPS Wiki

"The material presented here is a community original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games."

READ MORE

GURPS Wiki
GURPS Wiki

Cost: -15 or -25 points

Cannot Speak is a physical, mundane disadvantage, described in Basic Set, p. 125, and referenced in GURPS Space, p. 221, on mitigating the disadvantage with a computer speech synthesizer.

  • Cannot Speak (able to make vocal sounds): -15 points
  • Mute: -25 points

Exceptions[]

GURPS Horror 78 gives some exceptions:

Even ghosts with Cannot Speak can often utter a single, programmed phrase (“Get out!” or “Evangeline”), sing a tuneless children’s song, or otherwise unhelpfully allude to their trauma.

GURPS Zombies 69 also:

This is fair for zombies that can vocalize well enough to convey basic information (“Moan once for ‘yes’ or twice for ‘no.’”) – Cannot Speak allows verbal communication, just not spoken language.

Some animals can speak (dolphin, parrots, and ravens) but either their language is outside human hearing or their use of human vocabulary is very limited.

Fantasy[]

F55 defines Lilith as "Cannot Speak (Mute; Only When Insubstantial, -10%) [-23]

Telekinesis[]

H18 "A generous GM may allow you to possess a corpse and speak with its mouth without Telekinesis." after noting Telekinesis w/ Animation is normally needed to make inanimate bodies you possess move.

See also[]