I tried a silent playthrough of scarlet hollow! here are my results for chapter 1

I got bored and wanted to see if it was possible to do a silent playthrough. My rules were to talk as little as possible, however any actions that didn't involve speaking were free game. Here are my results.

My traits were Hot and Powerful build.... Character name? Link!

The major decisions ended up being;

-Took some boiled peanuts from a stranger

-found an opossum living in my dresser

-Ate something terrible

-crashed at Stella's

-heroically escaped danger in the woods

-punched a monster in the face. I am the danger

-Met Stella's friend Kaneeka and her mother Sybil, and learned about Ditchings.

-Crashed at Stella's

Remain silent: This is all instances where the option chosen said 'remain silent' (or something along those lines) Overall 24 times!

Action that isn't speaking: Any action that is not remain silent or speaking. Grey areas like nodding silently automatically get roped in here! Overall 63 times!

Character automatically speaks: 3 instances of this. Here they are;

"Great its been hours since I've gone" *House tour*

(Powerful build) "There must be some easier prey then me you could kill" * Fighting mountain lion*

(Powerful build) "Stay back" *clearing the way to the car*

(I probably could've avoided the dialogue if I didn't pick powerful build there)

Forced to pick dialogue: 2 times

"Alright what's next" (House tour)

"Is she always.. You know?" (Stella asking about Tabitha)

Overall:

I wouldn't really recommend doing a mute playthrough, its clear the game is built on you exchanging dialogue. So getting no response to your behavior took out a lot of the immersion out. However there were also alot of actions you could take without saying anything which let me build a good roleplay for my character.

There weren't actually to many instances of people commenting on Links silence. The only times I can think of were Tabitha saying he was to stunned to speak, Duke asking if he was shell shocked. Its clear that the game intended you to say something there and assumed you did. I don't think this is bad game design, the game is built around dialogue and I wasn't participating in that.

Some fun notes on the playthrough:

-one of the only things Link said to Tabitha was that he needed to use the bathroom. How bad did he need to go?

-Link gave boiled peanuts to Dustin and Stella as introductions.

-Link pet all the animals he could.

-Kaneeka I love you girl, but genuinely it was so awkward to see you talk and get stonewalled. Like he was walking away at the end and you let him take the soda for free. Girl have more self respect. (I don't think Linked disliked her. He's just socially inept)

-Link walked into the library, pet the cat, was about to leave and Becka still complained that it was too loud. What talking girl?

-He lost his soda. Link is now thirsty, parched, and suffering.

-Duke gave Link a beer and they drank in silence. Link got his refreshment, I think he would now die for Duke.

-Link did text Tabby. Texting is not talking

-I was curious so I made a save to see if Stella would like the Link enough for you to get the exclusive 'hot' scene at the end. No she rejected my boy Link. Guess his princess is in another castle or in another cabin