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<blockquote data-quote="amerigoV" data-source="post: 4993629">I am 'Merican, but I agree that there is likely a 'Mercian bias. However, didn't Tolkien have the concept of Common Speech? That probably has as much influence on RPGs as anything (elves, orcs, hobbits (I mean halflings), dwarves, Common, etc). Also, it there is a game play/mechanic issue. If you enforce languages and use them extensively,&nbsp; the PCs will eventually pick up the languages and you are &quot;back to english&quot; since the issue will fade in the background. If you use them some, then there is a lot of stop/start in a session if you make the players &quot;translate&quot; to the other players (otherwise it is just handwaved). Finally, if not used much, no one will pick them other than whatever the baseline system provides.IMO, Its just one of those things where a &quot;language system&quot; looks nice on paper but becomes a hassle in play unless the campaign is fairly local (ie, the players have an idea of where they will be and for how long).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="amerigoV, post: 4993629"] I am 'Merican, but I agree that there is likely a 'Mercian bias. However, didn't Tolkien have the concept of Common Speech? That probably has as much influence on RPGs as anything (elves, orcs, hobbits (I mean halflings), dwarves, Common, etc). Also, it there is a game play/mechanic issue. If you enforce languages and use them extensively, the PCs will eventually pick up the languages and you are "back to english" since the issue will fade in the background. If you use them some, then there is a lot of stop/start in a session if you make the players "translate" to the other players (otherwise it is just handwaved). Finally, if not used much, no one will pick them other than whatever the baseline system provides. IMO, Its just one of those things where a "language system" looks nice on paper but becomes a hassle in play unless the campaign is fairly local (ie, the players have an idea of where they will be and for how long). [/QUOTE]

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