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Anyone had any success with class, profession, or organization secret signs/runes,cant?
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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9058211" data-attributes="member: 6779310"><p>I've used them in both WFRP and D&D... the thing is, they're just codes.</p><p></p><p>The secret signs mark relevant places. Ranger signs tell of good hunting, bad hunting, good camping, bad camping, bandit hideouts... and I mention signs but not their meanings if no one knows them. Thief's Signs? mark areas of low observability, direction of a sewer access, direction to the city gates and guardhouses, and marking which capo owns the local turf. Likewise, certain signs worn mark a thief as "undercover" or as "casing a joint" - two situations to avoid contact, while others indicate certain other professional situations. </p><p></p><p>The secret languages come in several flavors... </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Thieves' Cant is, much like modern gang slang, normal words used in unusual ways to avoid comprehension by outsiders. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">professional jargon - like modern police Ten-codes or fire-departmental casualty descriptors (Stay-puffed, Crispy.... ), or specific tool names (Fire: Pulaski, SCBA, pike, hook, ay-tripple-eff; Medical: 3-oh silk, 3-oh nylon, 10-blade, Vee-fib), but in an era where guilds forbid using the jargon when outsiders can hear, they are a code.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">alienated languages - such as a Jewish community using Hebrew, or a Polish community using Latin or Polish, to avoid "outsiders" understanding. It's not that the language is a secret so much as they use it to exclude others.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pidgins and Creoles... languages derived from mixing two languages, but which have become unintelligible to outsiders of either... Jamaican Patois, Hawaiian Pigin, Yiddish.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Religious languages: many who use them don't understand them. Those who do understand them can use them for privileged communication...</li> </ul><p>In game, ouside WFRP and Ars Magica, I avoid religious languages.</p><p>Traveller had a table for pidgins/creoles intelligibility in a JTAS Article. I used it a few times, but it breaks the Space Opera feel I want.</p><p></p><p>The Guild Tongue for the Engineers is just engineering jargon - renaming things to keep the guild's secrets secret. </p><p>The wizards' guild tongue is their language of annotation of spellbooks... etc.</p><p></p><p>It usually is best to treat it as a key & lock kind of thing, IME.</p><p>A: I'm looking for any secret signs...</p><p>GM: you spot 3 groups on the building.</p><p>A: Do any of them make sense in Merchant Guilder?</p><p>GM: No, not really. Unless the guild has started marketing Mayoral Entrails...</p><p>B: How 'bout Physiker's guild? </p><p>GM: Surgery Forbidden - that's the middle group</p><p>C: Thief's Signs? </p><p>GM: Watchmen not bribable. And the other group, Sewer access in alley.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 9058211, member: 6779310"] I've used them in both WFRP and D&D... the thing is, they're just codes. The secret signs mark relevant places. Ranger signs tell of good hunting, bad hunting, good camping, bad camping, bandit hideouts... and I mention signs but not their meanings if no one knows them. Thief's Signs? mark areas of low observability, direction of a sewer access, direction to the city gates and guardhouses, and marking which capo owns the local turf. Likewise, certain signs worn mark a thief as "undercover" or as "casing a joint" - two situations to avoid contact, while others indicate certain other professional situations. The secret languages come in several flavors... [LIST] [*]Thieves' Cant is, much like modern gang slang, normal words used in unusual ways to avoid comprehension by outsiders. [*]professional jargon - like modern police Ten-codes or fire-departmental casualty descriptors (Stay-puffed, Crispy.... ), or specific tool names (Fire: Pulaski, SCBA, pike, hook, ay-tripple-eff; Medical: 3-oh silk, 3-oh nylon, 10-blade, Vee-fib), but in an era where guilds forbid using the jargon when outsiders can hear, they are a code. [*]alienated languages - such as a Jewish community using Hebrew, or a Polish community using Latin or Polish, to avoid "outsiders" understanding. It's not that the language is a secret so much as they use it to exclude others. [*]Pidgins and Creoles... languages derived from mixing two languages, but which have become unintelligible to outsiders of either... Jamaican Patois, Hawaiian Pigin, Yiddish. [*]Religious languages: many who use them don't understand them. Those who do understand them can use them for privileged communication... [/LIST] In game, ouside WFRP and Ars Magica, I avoid religious languages. Traveller had a table for pidgins/creoles intelligibility in a JTAS Article. I used it a few times, but it breaks the Space Opera feel I want. The Guild Tongue for the Engineers is just engineering jargon - renaming things to keep the guild's secrets secret. The wizards' guild tongue is their language of annotation of spellbooks... etc. It usually is best to treat it as a key & lock kind of thing, IME. A: I'm looking for any secret signs... GM: you spot 3 groups on the building. A: Do any of them make sense in Merchant Guilder? GM: No, not really. Unless the guild has started marketing Mayoral Entrails... B: How 'bout Physiker's guild? GM: Surgery Forbidden - that's the middle group C: Thief's Signs? GM: Watchmen not bribable. And the other group, Sewer access in alley. [/QUOTE]
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Anyone had any success with class, profession, or organization secret signs/runes,cant?
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