D&D 5E Literacy and Languages in your game

[JohnLynch]

I've been working on languages for my game as I am not a fan of how D&D 4th edition and 5th edition handled languages.

Players begin play being able to speak 1 pre-determined language based on race/ethnicity (humans are split into a number of ethnicities) and 1 pre-determined language based on their homeland. If this is the same language than they automatically know how to read the language.

In addition each character gains a number of bonus languages based on their race which typically ranges from 2-4 bonus languages. They can use these bonus languages to learn how to write in a language they already know or they can choose how to speak new languages (or some combination thereof). I then have a list of (at the moment) 29 languages that are spoken in the region the campaign is taking place in. Common is not one of these languages (however the players are told what the most common language is in the region the game takes place).

Those players who don't want to mess around with learning multiple languages or being literate in some but not others can simply choose to be literate in all languages they speak and they've recreated how the character would have been made using the stock standard PHB rules. Others who want that extra flexibility can speak anywhere from 3-6 languages and be literate in 0-1 languages (or more of course by choosing to speak less languages).

This is designed to have a few effects:

If the players metagame and coordinate so they know the widest number of languages possible, that's okay. It means that different characters will be required to take the lead when they interact with different NPCs. If the players decide to just use standard PHB rules (replacing common with the homeland language) then that's fine as well. If they travel abroad or try to speak with someone who doesn't speak the native tongue then they'll need to hire interpreters or use resources to learn how to speak with that character. If they hire an interpreter than that potentially means the wrong thing will be translated or the PCs have invited someone into the party that can sell that information to other interested parties.

Essentially by having numerous regional languages and no common tongue, the players have meaningful choices to make when it comes to languages and those choices will either result in different people getting spotlighted during play and/or it will mean new plotlines or obstacles can be introduced into the adventures.

How do other people handle languages? Do you simply go straight out of the PHB with no regional languages? Or do you introduce regional languages (if so, do you give players more resources in which to learn those languages?). Do you keep a global common tongue?

 

[Draegn]

We have our own list of languages. Each character can speak one language and one regional dialect. A real world example can be German and Bavarian. If a player wants to speak additional languages, read and write, he can pick up those skills with an appropriate "background/life path" or invest skill points.

 

[JohnLynch]

If a player wants to speak additional languages, read and write, he can pick up those skills with an appropriate "background/life path" or invest skill points.

Is this for 5th edition? If so I'd definitely be interested in knowing how you're using life paths/skill points. If not, I'd still be interested in knowing the particulars and/or the game

 

[Sunseeker]

I've never found that this adds enough meat to the game to warrant the additional complexity. Nor have I found that breaking reading/writing/speech down into taking up "language slots" to be very beneficial either. I'm certainly willing to let players know fewer languages than their maximum if they so choose, and they're welcome to choose to be illiterate in a language they speak, or unable to speak a language they can read if they want. That's just role-play fluff to me.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I handle languages by removing common from the list, replacing it in each race that gets it "regional language dominant in your homeland, or it's nearest neighbor if your homeland's dominant language is your racial language, plus one standard language of your choice", and then adding a bunch of languages to the list of standard languages (26 total) and exotic languages (also 26 total), plus adding a new language list for the dozen or so languages a character technically could speak but are even more rarely known than the ones on the exotic language list (unless you are actually native to the Hollow World, in which case this category and standard get swapped).

I don't like separating literacy, though, because not being able to read means not being able to function in more than zero scenarios, and I don't find letting players potentially not have a functional character entertaining.

 

[Minigiant]

I have a whole language module.

• Common is a trade and Adventuerer language. It's an ugly shorthand like text speech or leetspeak. You can't use it for anything except trade and talking to adventurers (or those in the adventurer economy: innkeepers, bartenders, harlots, smiths, tailors, etc).
• Uncommon is the same as Common but for the Under races.
• Nobles never speak in Common or Undercommon unless they are former adventures. They speak High Speech or Dark Speech.
• Speaking to a noble or royal (one who fancies themselves as one) in Common or Undercommon is a done at disadvantage to Charisma checks.
• Humans speak Human. It uses the Common script.
• Creatures that normally speak only Common speak instead speak the closest geographical or historical language.
• You can speak in a language you are illiterate in at a basic level if you know another language that shares that language's script with a successful DC 15 Intelligence check (example: If you know Dwarven but not Goblin, you guess the Goblin word for "kill" and "man" by rolling a 20 on an Int check to recognize the words)
• Theives Cant and Druidic are learnable provided you find a willing tutor.
• When learning a langauge that has a dialect, you must learn it as a dialect unless you pay double.
• You sound robotic when speaking a language you don't know while under the tongues spell. You have disadvantage on Charisma checks when doing so.

Basically, a bunch of rules to encourage translators and letting the half orc who speaks Abyssal the lead.

 

[Imaculata]

I've kept it pretty simple in my pirate campaign. These are the languages that my players encounter most in my campaign:

Common - Is the local language in the Emerald Coast, and around St Valenz, and is obviously not called that by the locals. The common language is Valensian, which most people in the region understand. If the players wish to talk to nobles, they can do so, but must make a diplomacy check while doing it. I assume that even those who speak the common tongue can at least make a decent effort to speak 'proper'.

Nimaehan - Common language of a distant continent, but not so common in the region in which my adventure takes place.

Cyrian - An eastern language, like Chinese.

Kooghan - A sort of African language that all of the Kooghan pirates in my campaign speak.

Kturgian - A sort of Turkish, spoken by the pirates of a country called Kturgia, that is at war with St Valenz.

Barulean - The old language spoken by the Oarsmen, a group of dwarven pirates.

 

[Lanefan]

In my world there's lots of languages. Hundreds. Maybe a thousand. Just about anything intelligent enough to speak has a language, with some species (most notably Humans) having many.

Needless to say, some are encountered more often than others.

Your Intelligence, race, and a die roll determines how many languages you know. You always start with whatever language is native to your race e.g all Elves speak Elvish. Common is native to no race at all. For each of the rest of your languages-known you can either roll on a large randomized table (if you want a chance at weird stuff) or choose from some basic ones such as Common, Dwarvish, Orcish, etc. Most players (but not all) tend to give their characters Common if they can; but characters of very limited Intelligence might only know their native tongue.

Your class and Intelligence then determine your chance of being literate in each language that you know that has a written form (many do not). Arcane casters have to be literate in their native language; some past professions or secondary skills give auto-literacy (e.g. if you roll "scribe" as your past profession it becomes immediately obvious that you are literate), and nobody else is guaranteed literacy at all.

EDIT: look here http://www.friendsofgravity.com/gam.../decast-blue-book-in-html/4-13_languages.html for details on how we do this.

Lan-"and you can always learn one more language later if you're willing to spend the time"-efan

 

[delericho]

I've gone in the other direction - unless I have a very good reason otherwise, everyone and everything speaks Common. I've found very few situations that are improved by the PCs not being able to talk to creatures they encounter.

Which isn't remotely realistic, of course, but then neither is D&D's binary choice between knowing or not knowing a language.

 

[dracomilan]

I started with a really complex language tree back in the AD&D days, but now I streamline it a bit: there is no Common, there are three regional languages and some "secret/racial" languages. Reading/Writing takes the place of a language slot (Nobles get it for free).