Just because he's a PC?

Ha! Does he have midgets dancing around him?

Please refer to the movie Spinal Tap if this joke is not understood. Thank you.
 

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I once played a character who could not speak the Common language, and no one in the group could communicate with him. But I was also taking Norwegian language lessons at the time, so I spoke really bad Norwegian when I was in character, and put my fingers in my ears and hummed annoyingly when other PCs tried communicating with mine. It was lots of fun at first, but eventually it became EXTREMELY tedious...and then I learned Common as fast as I could.

In another game (where we had rules for Advantages and Disadvantages) someone ran a character who was a mute--and also "hideous" and "a wanderer." That character could understand us, though. But the player wasn't allowed to speak. :) Some good times were had at his expense. "Hey, bring the Hideous Wandering Mute over here for a minute, I can't get this door open!" Hee hee hee...! The character had a name, but we never heard it or cared what it was.
 

I don't think you're under any obligation to accept him in the party.

On a similar vein I was once starting a campaign and the party was all assembled except for the fighter. So they go into a bar to hire some muscle the first thing they encouter was a rude moron of an ogre I stuck in to make the PC look good. So they moved on and found the PC. The player had her come off as such an obnoxious *itch that they went back, hired the ogre and left. I had to have her make another character.

BTW Having no common can be a lot of fun. I ran a game like that once and it turned out the party had no single language they all spoke. They could all communicate but they might have had to go through two people to do it. It took them 3 hours to order drinks in a bar and a good time was had by all. Except the barmaid who was in tears before they got done.
 
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I have to ask...


Why exactly can't the Goliath speak to you? Goliaths get Gol-Kaa and Common as Automatic languages. Is "Tradespeak" in your game different from Common? And if so, why not just have the DM switch the language proficiency from Common to this "Tradespeak" you mentioned?

I must be missing a complication here.
 
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Blood Jester said:
I have to ask...
...
I must be missing a complication here.

In this campaign there is no "free" common. A character can start with either the language of his home region OR his racial language for free. Tradespeak isn't a real language as such, and no character gets it for free. I don't own RoS so i'm not certain of the specifics of goliaths as written.

As someone else has already noticed, this requires an investment into speak language at least once for almost every <11 INT character, just to be able to communicate.
 

jaded said:
In this campaign there is no "free" common. A character can start with either the language of his home region OR his racial language for free. Tradespeak isn't a real language as such, and no character gets it for free. I don't own RoS so i'm not certain of the specifics of goliaths as written.

As someone else has already noticed, this requires an investment into speak language at least once for almost every <11 INT character, just to be able to communicate.
Ah, the change to core rules about known languages is what I missed. If the DM is going to take away something from a race, sometimes you might have to bend. (and sometimes not ;))

I am a little on the fence on this, but I have to lean towards the player here. If the DM set the language rules, and the DM approved the character, I think it is unfair to blame the player.
 

I tend to point out that this is a game for folks to have fun together, and I don't allow players to spoil the group's fun just because of "behaving in-character".

In this case, since the players *want* to have fun together playing the game (everyone is friends), I'd simply rule "you all will eventually accept the big Lurch. 'Why' is up to you." Much like paramount loner Wolverine has opted to stay with the X-Men, even though it'd be "out of character" for him (ditto Batman and the JLA and the Batsquad).

If the Goliath doesn't have skill points to spare, maybe someone else in the party (or even an NPC translator) can invest 2 skill points to get the Goliath language. Or maybe spend 1 skill point to learn a "pidgin" version of the language (this goes for the goliath and tradespeak), and eventually spending the second point later on and mastering the language.
 

I don't see why this character would be useless. You don't really look for brilliant ideas from barbarians do you? ;) Alos, he is not the first mute character in the history of fiction.

And you can still comunicate in sign languages, if you keep it simple. Also a character with a high enough sense motiv could understand him somehow. Just enforce the fact that he has no understanding of what is being said or discussed.

But the DM should have found a better way to hook him up with the party than have him be in the same inn. The party been saved or saving him would make a lot more sense.
 

I think there is a collective duty on everyone's part, the GM's and all the players' to make sure that people's suspension of disbelief is maintained. It sounds like recruiting a new party member without being able to communicate with him may be one of those things for which people cannot suspend disbelief. I know I would have trouble.

If we look at who can actually do something about this problem, we can see that all the party can do is play their characters in as welcoming a way as possible. Ensuring that the PCs can actually communicate with the individual they are recruiting is up to the GM and the new player.
 

I find myself on the side of verisimilitude, would your party accept into it's midst a giant run by the DM?

Sure, you can use player knowledge just to keep all the players happy and included but I think that promotes a rather cartoony campaign. Which can be fun as a lark.

If there is a more serious feel then no, definitely boot the mongrel out, by force if necessary.

Btw, if I was a player I would put my hand up and say that there is a problem. D&D is cooperative play centred around a party but this guy is wanting to bend me to suit his new character. As the DM I would respond to this by saying that the new character has to meet the party members half way and that means proving that he is friendly and having good cause to join a band of people who are very alien to him.

I.e. roll up a realistic character.
 

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