Have you played D&D in a foreign language?

[Ylis]

I am an Italian who lives in Finland and I play D&D in English.

Yikes! That sounds confusing!

That said, I was recently pondering about what D&D has given me in terms of the language, and I have to say that it gave me a big improvement! In a few years of reading many 3ed books all written in English plus gaming in that language (although the English we talk is not really accurate, more like an "international English for strangers" ) at least I noticed I have gathered a load of new words and expressions. Ok, maybe knowing all the animals and critters and dozens synonims of "hit" and "kill" could not be that useful IRL... but I really thank D&D to have found me an excuse to let my mother understand that there IS a good point in playing a game even when you are getting close to your 30s

On the other hand, D&D hasn't been able to prevent me still make a lot of mistakes, among which some memorable ones including trying to tell the friends that I spent the night before in my garage killing scarecrows with a broom (instead of cockroaches), or that I love listening to music with handcuffs (instead of headphones)

...just wondering if other gamers have tried to play in a language different than their own, and how they feel about it...

Well, I lived in Sardinia, Italy for a year when I was 9 and had to do EVERYTHING in Italian since there weren't any Americans (or English-speakers) around me (this was 17 years ago - ack! I've forgotten Italian since then....but am hoping to re-learn it sometime soon!). Alas, I didn't RPG until about 4 years after this.

I also lived in Heidelberg, Germany from 1989-1996, but (unlike Sardinia) everyone spoke English there, and they wanted to RPG in English. So, yet again, I missed my opportunity to RPG in a foreign language (not that I spoke German, lol).

About 7 years ago I was learning Russian as an Army Linguist (Military Intelligence....I know, I know...the King of Oxymorons...). I DID try to run a game in Russian, but failed miserably. Not due to the language, but due to the fact that I was attempting to run RIFTS (which I was unfamiliar with...but it kind of fit what the Army was teaching us, language-wise). But, technically, that wasn't *playing* in a different language. I know, at one point, though I did make the comment that translated roughly to "In the window, previously, was a brave choir." But that was because the pronunciation sounded similar to "F**k, no, raunchy, smelly wh*re". That was about as interesting as it got, though, I'm afraid....

 

[Viehl]

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

There's an unofficial Swedish translation of the 3E SRD, made by a fan. I respect the time and effort put down into it, although some of the translated terms...let's just say I'd never use them in any game of mine.

 

[Snapdragyn]

OTOH, Croatian has a number of words for a witch (vjestica,striga, coprnica, and their male counterparts vjestac, strigun, coprnjak)

I was interested to note that one of the words you list, coprnica/coprnjak, looks very similar to the name of the ancient astronomer, Copernicus. Was his name perhaps a Latinized translation of a Croation word for witch, or could the two have derived from a common stem?

On converting Fahrenheit to Celsius:

C=(F-32)X5/9

&

F=(9/5XC)+32

I would normally write the second equation as F=1.8C+32, but I know that in some countries that would be read as '1 times 8 C plus 32' instead of '1 point 8 C plus 32' -- isn't it fun how math is NOT the universal language? hehe

 

[Zander]

I've played in French a few times (with English rules). Normally, I game in English.

I've got rulebooks and other D&D products in English, French and Japanese.

One thing that might be interesting would be to play in a group where RL languages corresponded to fantasy ones. For example, English could be Common, Finnish would be Elvish and Hebrew could be Dwarvish (after Tolkien). So all the players with elven PCs would have to speak Finnish, those with human PCs English, and those with dwarven PCs Hebrew. The people playing dwarves might not be able to talk with those playing elves etc. Of course, you'd need a DM who spoke all three - and there probably aren't too many who can.

 

[mmadsen]

On converting Fahrenheit to Celsius: C=(F-32)X5/9 & F=(9/5XC)+32

Although I enjoy performing those calculations in my head, I'm sure plenty of people don't. A nice rule of thumb is that 0 degrees Fahrenheit is about as cold as the weather ever gets (-18 degrees Celsius), and 100 degrees Fahrenheit is about as hot as the weather ever gets (38 degrees Celsius) -- in most parts of Europe and the US.

 

[yangnome]

Thoguh we mostly play in English, I have used Korean in my games, both as a language (when I have a player or players who speak Korean and a fantasy language and the others don't). I've also played with Koreans and though we game in English, I've had to translate/explain a number of concepts to them in Korean throughout the game.

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

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).

there was a great improvement in the quality of translation thanks to the efforts of 25 ed (and a little help from some die hard dnd fan ()
but still we had some restrain (previous translation and other considerations)

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.

the original term came from red box dnd that was translated in 1985 by Editrice Giochi, I think that the idea was the ieana are carrion eater so....
if you think of it even the Giochi di Ruolo is strange since they translated Roleplaying with Ruolo, ok Ruolare is not an italian world but it should be something like Giochi di Interpretazione or whatever (there were flame war on this one

PS: and yes I played both in english and italian

 

[RFisher]

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."

Of course, you French speakers do realize that us 'Mericans read that as...

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

...Right?

 

[Trainz]

Of course, you French speakers do realize that us 'Mericans read that as...

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

...Right?

Oh... right. That HAS escaped me... so, in Montreal, it would be like:

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

Well, actually, that's not exactly true... the way Quebecers speak french, it would sound more like:

"Mon fighter viens d'monter d'niveau. Y monte sa Dex, faque son AC passe à vingt-trois. Pour son feat y va prendre improved init, parce-qu'y attaque toujours en dernier avec sa sword."

 

[Snoweel]

Min fighter når den nästa nivån. Han höjer sin Dex, så går hans Armour Class upp till tjugotre. För sin feat tar han improved init, för att han anfaller alltid sist med svärden.