How often does language come up in your game?

[Davelozzi]

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....

Easy fix, let rangers or any other character with a Favored Enemy ability add their class level and Int bonus to a d20 roll to function as a Knowledge check for info related to the enemey.

Alternately, instead of adding class level make it a +1 for every level since they took that favored enemy. That way when the character takes a new favored enemy he doesn't become an instant expert. Of course, this involves more bookkeeping and might not be worth the effort.

Or, for the easiest way, just give them a a +2 bonus like they'd get on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks against creatures of this type.


Now, back to the main topic at hand, yes language plays a role in my games. Like many other folks, I've ditched the common tongue in favor of regional or local languages. Several characters know an extra language, the smart ones know a few more. Most of the languages known have come up at least once in play, if not more.

 

[Henry]

I would normally say it doesn't come up often, but it really depends on the situation the characters are in. If they don't travel away from lands where certain languages are prominent, then there's little need for them, save for hidden notes or ancient texts. But recently, a foray into the underdark (a totally alien environment to all of them) has made language, communication, and trying to find safety the foremost thing on their minds...

Cross-posted from the "funny RP moments" thread:

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This one happened just yesterday...

...The Forgotten Realms Party is travelling through the underdark, when they free a Duergar Dwarf from captivity by a Mind Flayer. Cut off from the surface, and desperate for a guide, they pantomime to the Duergar that if they rest and recover spells, they can speak with him. They pantomime sleeping, casting, and talking.

The Dwarf, concerned that these strangers will kill him in his sleep, pantomimes himself sleeping, and then points to them and then imitates slitting his throat.

The speaker, seriously misunderstanding, nods his head yes.

They had to REALLY go through some pantomime to keep him from attacking in desperation.

He later said he thought he was saying they WOULDN'T kill him in his sleep - it made for some fun roleplay, though.

 

[Thimble the Squit]

Language has had a very varied effect in my games; while it's not usually that important in my Forgotten Realms D&D stuff, I did once run a Gloranthan RuneQuest game wherein the PC party were sent out by their tribe's shaman to find out about the world, and why it had apparently changed overnight.

According to the setting (which is truly excellent, by the way, and far superior to anything produced for D&D, including Planescape), the Fronelan spirit of communication, the God of the Silver Feet, was murdered 200 years ago and the other gods punished the peoples of Fronela by placing them under a Ban, separating them off from one another. The Hsunchen barbarian tribes weren't guilty of this god's murder so they were sent to sleep for several generations. When they awoke, as the Ban started to get lifted, their clan shaman looked up at the sky and saw that the stars had moved. Their world had changed and the clan needed now to learn what was what in this new time.

The shaman chose his cleverest and strongest warriors to go forth and learn about their new world, instructing them to report back regularly through the Spirit Plane. To help the brave adventurers deal with the various people they would encounter, the shaman gave each a Gourd of Godspeech, powerful magical items that would allow them to speak with whomever they shared water.

It got quite amusing when the party tried to mime offering trolls and dwarfs a drink...

The campaign was probably one of my most successful ever, mostly because the players were required to deal with most situations through negotiation and diplomacy rather than violence.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I tend to ignore the issue. That tendency is reinforced by the premise of Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. That the very existance of magic affects society and lessenes the impact of certain nuisances. It follows that if a wizard can make a ring of comprehend languages, it will probably be one of the more common items found among the gear of wealthy traders and explorers. I can even imagine at least one person in a larger town having some effect like it. That person would be the one who deals with outsiders, and thus holds power (which ironically, makes knowing a different language all the more important...hmmmmm)

Anyhow, my players tend to be very suspicious when I say, "You hear a voice speaking in a language you don't understand." I guess they assume it's speaking Infernal or Abyssal.

I guess I'm getting predictable.

A funny language that has come up as part of our group folklore is Undercommon. I don't know how it started, but Undercommon is like Common except that all the spoken vowels are replced with the "AY" sound.

Ayt saynds vayray maych layke thays.

Never fails to get a laugh.

 

[Steverooo]

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?

Scout sneaks up and hides. Listens to enemies talk... GM checks notes and sees what they are, and the PC's character sheet, to see what he speaks. If he knows the language, he makes a Listen roll, and if it succeeds, he overhears what was said. If he doesn't speak the language, he hears "Blarg, blarg, blarg!", or whatever.

The mechanic is simple enough... Either you speak the language, or you don't. For Non-Bards (who pay two skill points per language), you might want to include a "half literate" group, for folks who have only acquired one rank, so far.

As for making languages more useful, read the section on the Common tongue... Common is spoken by merchants and traders, and probably Innkeepers, etc. The common folk probably find Common uncommon. So, create various languages that the common folk speak, and have most of them use that, with only the trader types speaking Common. Then the PCs will either have to learn the new language, or speak through an interpreter to gather information, etc.

Someone's already mentioned RuneQuest, which has Tradetalk as its Common tongue. In that setting, only Traders, and Priests of Issaries (god of trade) regularly use it. You could do the same in 3.xe.

In one game I played a PC in, our group had some trouble, and needed help. We ran into an Elf who claimed to be a Ranger, but didn't seem to like Humans too much... He offered to take us back to his village, and we followed him, but along the way we ran into some of his "Ranger" buddies. He told us to "Wait here!", then went off and talked to them, in Elvish. When he got back, I asked him what they said, but he refused to translate... This sort of thing went on for a while, until I revealed to the GM that my PC spoke Elven, and I understood every word that they'd said. He laughed, and told us what was going on, then accused me of being sneaky.

In any case, we didn't know if the "Rangers" were good guys or not, or whether they were setting us up for an ambush. If one of us hadn't known Elven, we could have found ourselves in an enemy village, before we even knew what was what... Just because our enemies COULD have spoken Common doesn't mean that they would!

Also, I assume that Dragons would react a little better to non-hostiles who address them in Draconic, and Lilends prefer speakers of Celestial. Summoned elemental probably only speak their native tongues, and cannot be commanded by non-speakers.

There are PLENTY of ways that you could work languages in (assuming you're the GM). How do you want to do it?

 

[Steverooo]

Easy fix, let rangers or any other character with a Favored Enemy ability add their class level and Int bonus to a d20 roll to function as a Knowledge check for info related to the enemey.

Alternately, instead of adding class level make it a +1 for every level since they took that favored enemy. That way when the character takes a new favored enemy he doesn't become an instant expert. Of course, this involves more bookkeeping and might not be worth the effort.

Or, for the easiest way, just give them a a +2 bonus like they'd get on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks against creatures of this type.

Nope, not me, babe! (Send those ideas to WotC, though!) I'm just a simple PC/Player; I caint cast them-thar tenth-level, GM-only spells...

There oughta be a RULE, though!

 

[Altalazar]

In terms of speaking, it never really has come up much in my games. Back in 1E days, I remember players going down a long list of "monster" languages whenever there was something they didn't understand (the list coming from their character sheets under their INT score).

But really, it has only been an issue for things like ancient texts and books and such. It generally hasn't been a social/interaction issue - everyone has spoken common. I could see it mattering more, depending on the campaign - but I tend to like the ancient text language issues more than the "he's dancing on his head - what does that mean?" issues.

 

[WanderingMonster]

In terms of speaking, it never really has come up much in my games. Back in 1E days, I remember players going down a long list of "monster" languages whenever there was something they didn't understand

"Ooh! Are they speaking the chaotic good alignment tongue?"

 

[Arnwyn]

It certainly comes up occasionally in my game - usually because the characters are changing locales somewhat often.

 

[Liolel]

Its come up several times. Once our party captured a gnoll and we had to use a tongues spell to comunicate.

Another time my druid pc relized the troll we met was a druid when the troll greeted me in drudic.

Also knowing a langague that only 1 other pc knows is fun for making little jokes about other characters among the two of you. This doesn't see a much use anymore but in the begining of our group it was used a lot.