Temporarily (per sim) change AV's Name Label

I was considering an attempt at starting up a theater group in Second Life.

With this in mind, it would be real nice if an actor could, while on stage, temporarily change the Name label that floats over the Avatar and replace it with that of the character he was portraying.

Of course, if he left that sim, or logged out, it would revert to normal. And anyone examining his profile would still get the normal information, so that would reduce any potential griefing aspect of this mod to near nil.

Theater would be real tough to do without this mod: The Chat interaction instead of Sound is tough enough, but can you imagine every line of a play looking like this:

Andurant: Romeo: But Look: what yonder light in window breaks? Tis the moon, and Juliet is the sun...

You get the idea. Sounds like a simple mod, given the current ability to add/change titles (via the group options)

I was just thinking about that. I wish that that could be done.

Hmm, I dunno, this sounds weird and would be hard to figure a good way for doing it. I suppose you could have it set per parcel, but then what if I decide to be Philip Linden? Seems like it'd be too open to abuse.

As an alternative, atleast for now, you could give everyone prims to wear on their heads with llSetText for their names of who they're portraying... and/or... have each actor talk on a channel that a prim named the character then repeats.... I.e.:

(users never see this) Oz Spade: /1 Dost thou have cheese?!

King Dwellnor: Dost thou have cheese?!

(users never see this) Oz Spade: //I would like cheese!

King Dwellnor: I would like cheese!

--

Where King Dwellnor is an objected named as such listening to only me on the specified channel, // allows you to re-say text on the previously directed channel.

This can pretty easily be scripted up. The only downfall is that then all the text will appear to be green, but this actualy may benefit also as it will allow people to distinguish between the actors and any other chatter that may occur.

I know that might not be a sound solution, but its just something you can do for now.

This could be an estate management option. It would be forbidden in Linden sims, but could be allowed by a private sim owner.

Hmmm...

You know. Oz, that SECOND idea of your's is not too bad. That might just work.

The "character" objects (listening to the alternate channels) could be easily hidden on or near the stage, and not part of the visual scene.

One problem with it: care would have to be taken to assign unique channel numbers per speaking role, to ensure that no private channel "bleed through" (scripted objects also monitoring a channel, worn by people in attendance) occurs, and the such.

and the directed conversations wouldn't appear in the chat window.

Thanks for the tip!

Care to script it on a bracelet? <grins> I'll buy it. IM me in game.
I'd want both the item and the script modifiable, for obvious reasons.

Great idea, though