How often does language come up in your game?

[tarchon]

Why, every stinking time I go to spy on someone, of course! That Favored Enemy Bonus to Spot & Listen doesn't do a whole lot of good, unless you can speak the language of whatever you're trying to spy on!

Yeah, that came up in one of our games. It did seem like Favored Enemy Giant should give you some kind of basic Giantish proficiency or at least make the langauge a class skill.

 

[green slime]

Yeah, that came up in one of our games. It did seem like Favored Enemy Giant should give you some kind of basic Giantish proficiency or at least make the langauge a class skill.

This is why you grab it with one of your free language slots at character creation....

 

[Steverooo]

This is why you grab it with one of your free language slots at character creation....

Pretty well impossible to do, with all five Favored Enemies, eh?

What bother me worse, however, is the lack of a bonus to the appropriate can't-be-used-sans-one-rank Knowledge skills... Favored Enemy: Dragons doesn't give the ability to use Knowledge (Arcana) to attempt to know the strengths and weaknesses of individual dragons! Favored Enemy: Humanoids (Evil) doesn't allow for Knowledge (Local) checks, etc....

"Yep! I been fightin' Dragons fer years," said the ancient Elf, "can even do an extra 10 HP on every hit 'gainst'em, but I caint nary tellya what they's gonna breathe, or what spells hurt'em... I always hafta ask the Mage!"

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you find the languages a PC speaks to be superficial? Or does language play a role in your game occasionally?

In other DMs' games I have played in languages played mostly no role at all.

When I am DMing a campaign, language issues come up only occasionally, not often enough to require a fine system such as the one in Kalamar. Almost all the sentient creatures in the MM speak Common however, and therefore there are no problems when the party wants to setup a conversation, but since instead creatures of the same race usually speak there own language with each other, it has happened many times that knowing a "foreign" language gave the PCs a chance to eavesdrop on important written or spoken information.

 

[shilsen]

IMC, it's been coming up pretty regularly recently. Recently the PCs had to negotiate with some tribes of orcs and if a couple of them hadn't been able to speak orc, it would have gone very differently.

There was a funny moment in our last campaign (I wasn't DM-ing) where the PC party was heavily disguised with magic to sneak into a certain guarded area and discovered to their surprise that the guardian was a large red dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon decided to talk to the guy polymorphed into a hill giant, and that's when we realized that he couldn't speak Giant. Luckily the mage fired off a disintegrate (3.0) and the DM rolled a 2 on the dragon's save, but that's a story for the "auto-kill spells and effects" thread.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Languages are somewhat important in my game, but that's probably because I introduced the separate human tongues rather than simply relying on Common. While Common does see a lot of use (particularly because the party campaigns in something of a "melting pot" of cultures) my party has encountered quite a few isolated enclaves of native tongue speakers, and a party member's ability to speak that tongue has helped the group on more than one occasion.

 

[darkbard]

for those of you who have responded that language does indeed play an important role in your game, can you further elaborate on how you foster such an effect? do your players change locales frequently or truly try to talk with every monster they run across?

and, more importantly, how do you roleplay this mechanic?

 

[diaglo]

Do you find the languages a PC speaks to be superficial? Or does language play a role in your game occasionally?

it should play a role. but many times it doesn't.

1) partly due to time limitations...players or DMs get bored and don't want to roleplay.

2) metagaming. many times players can't help but metagame. they know they didn't understand the conversation that took place. but they can't help but act like someone told them word for word what just took place..or maybe took place while they weren't even awake or around.

3) campaign specific. i've seen players make a character with languages as part of their build...and then the other players and the DM make the build useless.

 

[Wombat]

Language is massively important in my games, for several reasons.

First of all "Common" is only a pidgin language in my world -- it can be used for "Where is gaderobe?" or "How much for beer?", but not much more.

Secondly, scrolls are written in a variety of languages (not just "Draconic"), so wizards, etc., find it quite necessary to know multiple tongues.

Third, my characters often find themselves engaged in diplomacy and multi-group negotiations. Finding the "right" language is speak at a given moment (not necessarily the listener's native tongue) can be quite important.

So, yes, language is very important in my game; this also means that the players have to decide on a "use language" they all know during character development, otherwise the party cannot even communicate with itself...

 

[WayneLigon]

Sometimes. Usually, enough of the party speaks enough languages that they can translate as needed and we just ignore it until some situation comes up when the party has to split and then we need to know the location of the guy who speaks Elvish.

In the new campaign I'm working on, the two major human groups in conflict are 'divided by a common language'; they once had a common trade tongue (which is really only useful for 'how much is that?' and 'Where is the bathroom?') that was mostly incorporated into both languages. Now they've been apart from each other long enough that idiom and slang have corrupted both tongues so that 'Hilos! Aeuta com fel auti!' to an Imperial means 'Sturdy Native! We have come to drink beer together!' while to a Greatwood native hears 'Hey, stupid! We've come to take your beer and enjoy your women!'.