Maidhc O Casain
Na Bith Mo Riocht Tá!
I'm a little rushed as I've got to pack to go out of town for a couple of days so I probably won't get everything I want to in this post, but I wanted to kick this off as it impacts a character I've got up for review.
I've always liked my characters to speak the language of the region from whence they hail, and so I added "Irthian" to Breninyr's list (spending a Linguistics point on it).
~~ As I think about this, I also recognized that although Kalinn doesn't specifically list her tribal language, I've begun sprinkling HaGruut words liberally into her posts. Hmmm. ~~
However, jkason made a few points in his review that I agree bear looking at.
The presence of a "Common Tongue" is a very handy conceit and gets around a lot of (often tedious) communication difficulties. And I think it makes good sense from an ease of use standpoint for at least all PCs to speak Common. However, from a realism/immersion perspective, it doesn't make nearly as much sense for NPCs - especially those from isolated communities - to speak Common. If regional languages exist, those NPCs would realistically speak only their local tongue.
I guess my preferred way of handling this would be to give PCs an additional language, with the requirement that they speak both Common and their regional language. It would be left to the GM of the particular game as to whether or not encountered NPCs speak Common. There will be a few cases where this grants some small communication advantage to two PCs from the same area, or to PCs adventuring in their home region, but I really don't see this as a game breaker.
I've always liked my characters to speak the language of the region from whence they hail, and so I added "Irthian" to Breninyr's list (spending a Linguistics point on it).
~~ As I think about this, I also recognized that although Kalinn doesn't specifically list her tribal language, I've begun sprinkling HaGruut words liberally into her posts. Hmmm. ~~
However, jkason made a few points in his review that I agree bear looking at.
The presence of a "Common Tongue" is a very handy conceit and gets around a lot of (often tedious) communication difficulties. And I think it makes good sense from an ease of use standpoint for at least all PCs to speak Common. However, from a realism/immersion perspective, it doesn't make nearly as much sense for NPCs - especially those from isolated communities - to speak Common. If regional languages exist, those NPCs would realistically speak only their local tongue.
I guess my preferred way of handling this would be to give PCs an additional language, with the requirement that they speak both Common and their regional language. It would be left to the GM of the particular game as to whether or not encountered NPCs speak Common. There will be a few cases where this grants some small communication advantage to two PCs from the same area, or to PCs adventuring in their home region, but I really don't see this as a game breaker.