Have you played D&D in a foreign language?

[Li Shenron]

As a bit of a side note to this, how bad are the translations to other languages?

All my own books are the English versions, and I never considered buying the italian ones for myself. However I did buy the italian PHB to a friend as a birthday present, and although I have only taken a quick look at it, my friend says that the book was extremely well written (at least he didn't expect it to be so well done, but he had not seen anything of 3rd edition before).

Strictly speaking of translation of terms, I have the italian/english D&D translation guide from an italian RPG website, and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about it. If I was playing in Italian, I would try to use the italian words as much as possible, but a few of them sound quite lame to be honest... what the heck is the idea behind translating carrion crawler to verme-iena (hyena-worm)? Also the spells still sound more cool in english to me.

 

[StalkingBlue]

In Germany, I played and GMed in German (my native language). We used the English books and English game terms in one group, but German books, terms and metric distances in another.

That could be a bit confusing for me because the German translation isn't always very close to the original, nor necessarily very appealing. Also, the German translation converts distances to metric - and they did it thoroughly converting 10 feet to 3 metres. So when you use the German rules, you get movement rates of 9 metres (30'), 6 metres (20') and (oh joy) 4.5 metres (15').

In some ways it's a relief to be in the UK now where at least everyone uses the same set of books and the same system of defining distances ...
Gaming in English is great fun for me. Though I've started running a game here recently and I tend to find myself hanging in a word-less vacuum between languages at the worst moments - especially when I want to convey a mood or evoke an image. I don't have that problem when I'm a player and I don't seem to have it anywhere else in my life, whether in business or writing or whatever. Somehow the fact that I've always GMed in German before proves a stumbling block, dunno why.

 

[StalkingBlue]

And no, I don't particularly like the German translations of the core rulebooks (if they've translated anything else, I haven't seen it).

I have to admit that as far as I can see the translations are consistent, meaning they don't change terminology midway without reason - a far too common problem with translations in general.

But I'm unhappy with too many of the terms they use. "Rogue" is rendered as "Schurke", for example, which is really closer to "villain" than anything else - so it has even worse connotations than the old term "thief", which 3ed got rid of specifically in order to drag the class out of its underworld niche.

"Tumble" is rendered as "Turnen", which means "gymnastics". Sorry, but no. My monk didn't engage in gymnastics.

And it goes on.

Not to mention someone ought to be punished for a conversion of distances into figures you need a calculator to use.

 

[handforged]

As someone who has never played in anything but English, I may be out of place here, but I have noticed in this thread that most people who play in another language still use the English names for spells, etc. To me this would make roleplaying that much cooler. It makes arcane things and mystic powers seem more mystical to have them in another language. I mean sure I imagine that when arcane spells are cast that they are cast in draconic or some-such, but just looking at the Spanish translation site, I was inspired by the foreign-ness of the words, despite the fact that I have some knowledge of Spanish and Italian.

For those of you who have done this, are my thoughts ringing true?

~hf

 

[Turjan]

I also DM in a foreign language, English . This is a bit of a problem, as I still have difficulties to set the proper mood in certain places. As a DM, you have to display at least some rhetorical qualities, and that's a challenging task in a foreign language. I just hope I'm not too bad .

Furthermore, we have a mixed group, and unfortunately the players' and my vocabularies are not always overlapping. Sometimes I have to explain one thing or the other to a player in German.

I've never played 3E in German, so there's not much confusion in this regard, although there are some game experiences in AD&D. But let the ETW0 (German for THAC0) rest in peace !

@handforged: Yes, I think that's true. I take many things for granted if its expressed in English, although a proper translation into German would sound incredibly bland . This helps very much to keep up the mood, as I even don't hesitate to boast or lie in English (if appropriate ), because for me speaking English always has the feeling of acting to it .

 

[Chacal]

I play in french, but use books in english and terms in english.

"Mon fighter viens de monter de niveau. Il monte sa Dex, alors son AC est rendu à 23. Pour son feat il va prendre improved init, car il attaque toujours en dernier avec sa sword."

Jeez, How can you butcher french like this !
Here's the correct version used in my group :

"Mon fighter viens de monter de niveau. Il monte sa Dex, alors son AC passe à 23. Pour son feat il va prendre improved init, car il attaque toujours en dernier avec son épée."



Chacal

 

[Gez]

Jeez, How can you butcher french like this !
Here's the correct version used in my group :

"Mon fighter viens de monter de niveau. Il monte sa Dex, alors son AC passe à 23. Pour son feat il va prendre improved init, car il attaque toujours en dernier avec son épée."



Chacal

It would rather be:
"Mon guerrier viens de monter de niveau. Il monte sa Dex, alors son AC passe à 23. Pour son feat il va prendre improved init, car il attaque toujours en dernier avec son épée."

However, if said sword is magical, it depends.

"avec son épée vorpale"
"avec sa dancing longsword"

Morningstar is always in English. Except when I'm feeling facetious. Then it's Morgenstern.

 

[Perun]

Don't be so sure it's the translation at fault...

Oh, it's the translation all-right. I presume you're referring to the FR here, and all the luggage going with it. While not a fan of FR, it's definitely the translators' lack of knowledge of their own mother language here.

They did not bother to find a translation for 'monk', and we've got both redovnik (which would literally translates as 'the one belonging to an order') or monah, which has the same word root as the English monk. One would use 'redovnik' when talking about Catholic monks, and 'monah' (olural: monasi) is usually used to refer to Buddhist monks, for example. There's also kaludjer, used exclusively to describe (usually Serbian) Orthodox monks.

Other terms that have not been translated, that I'm aware of, include 'plane of existence' (although Croatian does not use 'plane' (ravnina) in the same way English does, appropriate equivalents (i.e. dimesnion) are not that hard to find.

My favourite is 'wolverine', it's "translated" as vulverin -- or 'wolverine', just spelled phonetically (as Croatian uses mostly phonetic spelling).

I do not even want to imagine how rulebooks would look like, if they were translated by the same group of people...

Although, to be honest, the situation could have improved. I went only through the first book in the Clerical Quintet (?) (Salvatore), and it was, well, tragic. It's possible later books were more successfully translated.

Regards.

 

[Gez]

You dare write "vulverin" ? Beware of Eric's grandma!

 

[Trainz]

Jeez, How can you butcher french like this !
Here's the correct version used in my group :

"Mon fighter viens de monter de niveau. Il monte sa Dex, alors son AC passe à 23. Pour son feat il va prendre improved init, car il attaque toujours en dernier avec son épée."



Chacal

Heh. God one.

Often I role-play my NPC's in english, but switch to french for the game mechanics...

"This will simply not do puny mortals. You'll be dining in hell tonight ! OK... que faites vous ? La lich pointe sa staff vers vous, et dit Who wants to be the first ? Roulez l'init..."