Do You Use Different Languages In Your Campaign?

[HellHound]

Our games are set on a near-future earth with the "common" tongue for the PCs being the "streetslang" that has evolved in many major sprawls in North America, Japan and China.

However, since we are playing a very globe-trotting game, the characters routinely deal with people speaking spanish (last two games were in Colombia) and a plethora of other languages (games in Jakarta, Malaysia, and a few other venues).

We have people in the party that speak French, English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Czech and a few other languages.

 

[green slime]

I just looked at the language spells, with an eye towards duration-nerfing them instead of level-fiddling them, but they only last 10 minutes per level, so even with a 20th-level mage you're looking at universal fluency for the duration of a long meeting or a bad party. But so make them 1 minute per caster level if that's too long. I think that works and is easier than fiddling with spell levels.

quick, read the ancient inscription! Boring.. unimportant... long-winded...sweet Pelor will they get to the point...ooh! This looks important...am I running out of time here? The demon will rise if the Tongue of Yorbu and the gib spib blurg dif crap! crap! crap!

Trouble is, a 1st level spell costs next to nothing. It entirely removes the effort with which scholars study foreign languages for decades.

Its only 2 measily skill points, for goodness sake. Invest and read at your heart's desire!

 

[Kaodi]

If you look at the number of languages in D&D compared to the real world, the number is ridiculous. Ridiculously low, that is.

 

[Drakmar]

it really depends on what you want your gameplay to be like. Some players/dms get frustrated by encounters where the challenge is language. Others enjoy it. You really have to find the balance that works for your players.

IF the party has no way to work around a language based issue, and didn't realise that they needed to, they can get annoyed/frustrated/angry etc.

I like it. My gaming group enjoys it. We have a tendancy to pick languages that fit our characters background, rather than to maximise our parties ability to communicate with outsiders. WE do make sure that there is one common language in the party.

D.

 

[Driddle]

If the PC can't speak common, he can't access any of the party benefits like life insurance spells, treasure shares, etc. Common is the official language; we don't provide translators for minorities.

 

[green slime]

With a first level spell, comprehend languages, the DM is unable to have a mundane script in an obscure language be unreadable to even low level characters.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you look at the number of languages in D&D compared to the real world, the number is ridiculous. Ridiculously low, that is.

It depends on the geographical area covered. If the campaign is a globe-trotting one, it's low. If it takes place in the equivalent of one county -- which is not uncommmon -- it's ridiculously high.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

If you look at the number of languages in D&D compared to the real world, the number is ridiculous. Ridiculously low, that is.

No kidding. There's like 3 different local languages within 10 kilometres of here.

 

[Kaodi]

I have to disagree, Whizbang. The implied setting of D&D is very cosmopolitan. The " average " city is going to speak at least Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling and Orc, without even modelling regional languages.

Also, what you're suggesting is that just because the campaign takes place in the region the size of a single country, somehow means that all those places outside of that country do not exist. The number of languages in D&D is not supposed to be the number spoken in a single country, its the number spoken everywhere.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I think that problem is more a problem of individual character creation than anything else. A group can go ahead and say 'ok, everyone needs to speak at least one language 2 other player characters know, or must have something that will compensate for their natural lack, and render them capable of being understood by the others in the party' which allows for that sort of mish-mash of languages as a group, while maintaining interparty communication. They can even say "Ok, this is a comedic campaign, so we can have Dave play the 'gnome fighter that can't speak to anyone else in the party, but can apparently speak with any NPC' he's wanted to do." Essentially, it's a matter of getting everyone on the same page, or at least providing them some.

Oh, we had fun with it. This was in 1E, so there was a lot of role playing involved. (There was also a lot of "Oops, I didn't say that, because I didn't understand what you just said.")