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The changes to languages are a good start
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8848728" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Obviously everyone is different and how they run their games is different... but I would venture a guess that the reason why we have just the languages we have is NOT due to so-called "World-building"... but instead is because D&D defaults to language basically being PUZZLES IN GAMEPLAY.</p><p></p><p>Every PC speaks Common so that every player at the table can talk to one another without having to jump through hoops in real communication. It's a gameplay reason-- to make the game easier to play in a certain way (and those who wish to play it different by not having everyone speak Common is free to do so, it's just not made baseline.)</p><p></p><p>Any other language that then gets introduced or used by the DM is there to be a <em>challenge</em> for the players to overcome. The "foreign" language is not known by the players, and so as part of the <em>gameplay</em>... they have to "solve the puzzle" of figuring out what it being said.</p><p></p><p>The first and easiest step in "solving that puzzle" of course is to just check what languages each PC can speak. That might "solve" the gameplay issue right there. And in that regard... the fewer languages the game makes available, the more likely a PC does in fact have the requisite language needed to understand the hidden puzzle meaning. The second step in the process of "solving the puzzle" is having the right Spells at hand to translate the writing. This is still relatively easy if the party has the right Class available to it, but could still prove a stumbling block to the solution if it doesn't. And if it doesn't... the third step of "solving the puzzle" is to try and suss it out perhaps by using Investigation rolls and decypher checks, or going off to find a Sage or a library in hopes that they can translate it, or any other gameplay solution the players can come up with to turn the unknown information into usable known information.</p><p></p><p>Which really means that how many languages a DM wants to make available in the campaign will oftentimes just come down to the odds they want to have in that any player's PC can translate the "code" of the foreign language just by having it written on their character sheet and not having to think about some other solution. The more languages, the more likely no one will know the answer to the "code" without having to put in any work.</p><p></p><p>But <em>what</em> those languages are doesn't really matter. Whether it's other monster languages, alignment languages, sign languages, outer plane languages, weird dialects... a DM can just choose whatever they want. Because at the end of the day their one and only use is to make the players have to solve the problem of not knowing what something/someone says, and then figuring it out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8848728, member: 7006"] Obviously everyone is different and how they run their games is different... but I would venture a guess that the reason why we have just the languages we have is NOT due to so-called "World-building"... but instead is because D&D defaults to language basically being PUZZLES IN GAMEPLAY. Every PC speaks Common so that every player at the table can talk to one another without having to jump through hoops in real communication. It's a gameplay reason-- to make the game easier to play in a certain way (and those who wish to play it different by not having everyone speak Common is free to do so, it's just not made baseline.) Any other language that then gets introduced or used by the DM is there to be a [I]challenge[/I] for the players to overcome. The "foreign" language is not known by the players, and so as part of the [I]gameplay[/I]... they have to "solve the puzzle" of figuring out what it being said. The first and easiest step in "solving that puzzle" of course is to just check what languages each PC can speak. That might "solve" the gameplay issue right there. And in that regard... the fewer languages the game makes available, the more likely a PC does in fact have the requisite language needed to understand the hidden puzzle meaning. The second step in the process of "solving the puzzle" is having the right Spells at hand to translate the writing. This is still relatively easy if the party has the right Class available to it, but could still prove a stumbling block to the solution if it doesn't. And if it doesn't... the third step of "solving the puzzle" is to try and suss it out perhaps by using Investigation rolls and decypher checks, or going off to find a Sage or a library in hopes that they can translate it, or any other gameplay solution the players can come up with to turn the unknown information into usable known information. Which really means that how many languages a DM wants to make available in the campaign will oftentimes just come down to the odds they want to have in that any player's PC can translate the "code" of the foreign language just by having it written on their character sheet and not having to think about some other solution. The more languages, the more likely no one will know the answer to the "code" without having to put in any work. But [I]what[/I] those languages are doesn't really matter. Whether it's other monster languages, alignment languages, sign languages, outer plane languages, weird dialects... a DM can just choose whatever they want. Because at the end of the day their one and only use is to make the players have to solve the problem of not knowing what something/someone says, and then figuring it out. [/QUOTE]
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