speaking like a native

[Daigoro]

Other situations that could help a well-accented non-native are reading from a script, performing a rehearsed monologue or having lines fed to them through an earpiece.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

The other variation is having a flawless regional accent at a native speed, but not having the vocabulary for well-known-but-rarely-used words, such as "corridor". This would call for some Acting rolls to disguise the lack of vocabulary.

They would come across as someone who had a lower IQ or who has some other 'impaired IQ mimicking disadvantage'. Like Illiteracy.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Not per utterance, but per significant statement. The "uh-huh," "yes," and similar utterances that are part of handshaking in a conversation can come for free.

I would say at most once per scene, probably even rarer. Going undercover like that can even be a Job.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I would say at most once per scene, probably even rarer. Going undercover like that can even be a Job.

When I look at the Mimicry rules, it seems to me that one intended use is to sound like a specific other person, which takes a roll vs. Mimicry-3 (or Linguistics-7 or Acting-9). In that particular case, I think you are expected to roll once per scene, just as I think you are expected to do so with Acting or Disguise to carry off an impersonation. That might generalize to what you do when you're trying the lesser task of simply sounding like "somebody from around here." (Do you know the scene in one of the Gospels where Peter is trying to deny any connection with Jesus, and the people in a tavern point out that he has the same back-country accent that Jesus does?)

In terms of play, some conversations get played out utterance by utterance or speech by speech. Others get summed up: "I'm going to try to flimflam the counter clerk into giving me too much change." "Oh, okay, roll vs. Fast-Talk." If you're making one Influence roll, you get one penalty for accent, which means you benefit once (if at all) from Mimicry, which means you roll once against Mimicry, I think (conceivably you could require several rolls against Mimicry to bring off a pretense). It might be unbalanced to require multiple rolls when there's NOT an Influence roll at stake.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

They would come across as someone who had a lower IQ or who has some other 'impaired IQ mimicking disadvantage'. Like Illiteracy.

It depends on the content of what they're saying. I was thinking of well-educated non-natives, who can perhaps easily talk about their field of expertise, but who have a few gaps in their general English vocabulary because they happened to never be exposed to the word, whereas native speakers would learn it as children but then not use it so often in everyday speech.

This would only expose them as non-native speakers, I think.