Unpopular opinions go here

[Thomas Shey]

You are positing an extreme scenario where no one the PCs want to talk to speaks any of the languages they do. Not very realistic. Also, I mentioned the interpreter option, which you conveniently ignored in favor of nothing but hand signals. I reject your man of straw.

All it requires is having a group with limited languages who travel to an area where they're not commonly spoken. At that point it can come up constantly.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Some react to the fact that my game has modifiers for 1d20 rolls that climb to 30+ with incredulity, and its understandable why as conventional wisdom is that the value of rolling a die shouldn't be eclipsed by fixed numbers.

Colour me unpopular. I've long been in the (seemingly small) camp of let the modifiers override the dice roll. As I played a lot of GURPS and HERO, with their skill checks made on 3d6, I got very used to most rolls falling into a small range that was easily overshadowed by modifiers.

In a similar vein, I immediately loved the Take10 and Take 20 rules from 3e DnD. Dice rolls are for schmucks.

 

[Micah Sweet]

All it requires is having a group with limited languages who travel to an area where they're not commonly spoken. At that point it can come up constantly.

For the next five sessions, unrelenting? Because that's the scenario @Hussar seemed to think was reasonable. Also, if you're going somewhere where you can't speak to the locals, how about a little prep?

 

[Campbell]

Not every GM is into world building for its own sake. Some of us view it as necessary evil to be done only as needed. Not all GMs want the same things.

 

[Hussar]

For the next five sessions, unrelenting? Because that's the scenario @Hussar seemed to think was reasonable. Also, if you're going somewhere where you can't speak to the locals, how about a little prep?

Umm, any dungeon crawl? Remember, speaking "Undercommon" doesn't exist. Every group of goblins, orcs, and whatever speaks a different language. Heck, think about something like Keep on the Borderlands. There'S a dozen or so different tribes in the Caves, plus the Lizardfolk. There's pretty much zero chance the PC's will speak even a majority of the languages.

So, no, it's not an unreasonable scenario. Any travel scenario should feature not being able to speak the language. If your characters are from Waterdeep, you should not be able to speak to anyone in Neverwinter or Baldur's Gate. Cormyr? Nope.

When you start trying to be "realistic" about languages, that means that every couple of days travel you go, you encounter new languages.

Heck, it wasn't that long ago that even a fairly geographically small area like England would have several different languages spoken, none of which can communicate with each other. French, English, Celtic, Latin and I'm sure there were more. Documents would be in French, Latin or English and, again, probably more. "Speak to the locals"? Locals means "someone who lives within about a hundred mile diameter circle". Anyone outside of that circle? New language time.

And that's with everyone being human. Imagine adding in a couple of dozen intelligent races as well. Why would elves all speak the same language? Or orcs? Or Giants? In a fairly small geographical area - say about a hundred mile across circle, you could easily have a dozen or more languages being spoken.

So, no, it's not unreasonable at all. But, again, we slam upside against, "I want my D&D to be realistic, but, only to the level of realism that I want".

 

[Scribe]

When you start trying to be "realistic" about languages, that means that every couple of days travel you go, you encounter new languages.

Heck, it wasn't that long ago that even a fairly geographically small area like England would have several different languages spoken, none of which can communicate with each other. "Speak to the locals"? Locals means "someone who lives within about a hundred mile diameter circle". Anyone outside of that circle? New language time.

And that's with everyone being human. Imagine adding in a couple of dozen intelligent races as well. Why would elves all speak the same language? Or orcs? Or Giants? In a fairly small geographical area - say about a hundred mile across circle, you could easily have a dozen or more languages being spoken.

So, no, it's not unreasonable at all. But, again, we slam upside against, "I want my D&D to be realistic, but, only to the level of realism that I want".

So many things like this, if people actually thought about, would just fly apart. The game (unpopular opinion, yes D&D is a game) just doesnt exist under this level of scrutiny.

 

[MGibster]

I already explained this. Doing charades for one or two sessions might be fun. Miming every single session in a game where you're supposed to be talking a lot, is frustrating and boring. It's one of those things that sounds like a blast on paper, but, when the rubber meets the road, it just doesn'T work.

Bingo. There's a reason they have the universal translator in Star Trek, it because we don't want to spend 10 minutes every episode showing the Federation trying to communicate with a new species.

Not every GM is into world building for its own sake. Some of us view it as necessary evil to be done only as needed. Not all GMs want the same things.

While I don't view it as a necessary evil, I pretty much just stick to the parts of the world I think players will find interesting. Does it really matter what the main import is for the kingdom? No. Not unless it has something to do with an adventure.

 

[Hussar]

So many things like this, if people actually thought about, would just fly apart. The game (unpopular opinion, yes D&D is a game) just doesnt exist under this level of scrutiny.

Basically, yes. The game works precisely because we don't subject it to this level of scrutiny. It's all about suspension of disbelief.

There's effectively two issues.

1. This is a game and we want it to be fun. Constantly having to play charades isn't anyone's idea of fun, so, let's not do that.

2. We want the game to be believable. Fair enough. But, again, that level of believability is really subjective. And it gets rather frustrating when people will believe 6 impossible things, but, man, that's 7th. That's just too much. And the counter argument is, "well, you don't have a problem with these other six things, so, howzabout you let this one go too?" But, nope, we're going to use that "it's not realistic" as a huge bludgeoning tool to try to justify personal preferences as some sort of objective criticism.

These two issues are always pulling in different directions.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Bingo. There's a reason they have the universal translator in Star Trek, it because we don't want to spend 10 minutes every episode showing the Federation trying to communicate with a new species.

While I don't view it as a necessary evil, I pretty much just stick to the parts of the world I think players will find interesting. Does it really matter what the main import is for the kingdom? No. Not unless it has something to do with an adventure.

What if the PCs ask about the economy? I want an answer, and I don't want to make it up on the spot, because that means the answer is meaningless, and the players lose agency.

 

[Scribe]

What if the PCs ask about the economy? I want an answer, and I don't want to make it up on the spot, because that means the answer is meaningless, and the players lose agency.

You'll need to have prepped that. Wizards sure as hell isnt going to do it lol!