anachronistic language in games

[Kilmore]

Actually, I can't say anachronistic language would bother me too much in a game. First off, my players don't usually speak in modern vernacular. And besides that, I'd rather have players speaking modern so I understand them better and if I really do have a character from archaic times speaking for whatever reason, I can use archaic language and get the point across.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Is that Nadsat?

Yup.

 

[Deadguy]

I have to say that it depends on the game. A typical D&D-type romp, and we might as well speak as we speak. But I also play in (and run) Ars Magica and there I find that people saying 'cool and 'okay' just don't jibe with the other details of the setting.

I think the trick is to set a normal tone that's understandable and easy to use. then vary it according to the characters involved. I wouldn't advise flowery pseudo-Shakespeare most of the time, but it can be effective when you want to convey that soneone's speech is old-fashioned and ornate. I recally using Elves in one game that were all 'thees' and 'thous' and 'hast' and 'wert'. It brought home to the players the sheer age of the race and its members.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Heh. One of my players and I actually do the opposite. We have a tendency to talk like it's the middle ages in real life.

(Blackleaf, Nooooo! )

My players all tend to speak in character, though I'm still bugged by my friends 12 intelligence barbarian from the prehistoric era of my campaign (He talks like an English gentlemen half the time, and in broken english the other half. Kill me. )

 

[Drawmack]

A quote that fits is okay. Maybe it makes the players laugh when it wouldn't make the characters laugh but that it okay. Here is how I rule it.

Any anacronism that is not reasonably in character means drop character and all my PCs no that every minute OOC = -1 XP. It even rymes for them.

 

[InShambles]

I react to it the same way I react to the people who didn't know what "age of majority" means in the first printing PH. GET A VOCABULARY!!!

 

[tleilaxu]

My players all tend to speak in character, though I'm still bugged by my friends 12 intelligence barbarian from the prehistoric era of my campaign (He talks like an English gentlemen half the time, and in broken english the other half. Kill me. )

I say, there appears to be a large ogre over yonder hill THRAG SMASH!!!!

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I forgot to mention, NPCs in my campaign have a tendency to make He-man referrences about the barbarian (he's over-muscled and runs around in steel underwear.). The best part is, that since my campaign has TV there is a he-man cartoon.

 

[Sixchan]

If my players started talking like that in character I'd have some God of language Smite them pretty quickly...

 

[shadow]

Being a linguophile, I would love to use archaic language in the game. Thee, thou, ye, hast, etc. would really add to the mythic atmosphere of the the game. Unfortunately, most players don't talk that way naturally, so unless all the rest of the players would be willing to use such language, it would be a little silly if I would use archaic English and the rest of the party used modern vernacular English.