Language as skill?

[Gez]

I expanded on languages to become culture skills. After all, what's good is it to know how to say "hello, I'm friendly" in Strukarquian if you do not know how to perform the proper introduction ceremony to avoid being put to death for irreverencious behaviour?

When you have classes teaching you foreign languages, you also learn about the associated culture, its quirks and its weirdnesses. Unique concepts that may be an integral part of a culture may be totally alien and hard to grasp in another, and thus not have translations.

With that reasonning, I wrote this.

Also, I give automatic knowledge of some languages to some classes. Druids have druidic (you can look here to see what I made of it), wizards (and anyone with the Scribe Scroll feat, actually) have draconic, paladins have Celestial, clerics have Celestial, Infernal or Abyssal, depending on deity... It's just part of the training of the class.

 

[doghead]

I was thinking about this just the other night. One skill point (rank) gives you an almost insignificant improvement in your ability to ride, tie a knot, climb a wall etc. But it buys you complete fluency in a language.

A simple way to make this matter is to eliminate Common. A less drastic measure may be to limit it to simple noun verb combinations. A kind of basic multicultureal/racial pigin language that has come into being over time to meet elimentary needs.

Hoegor turns to the halfling. "Orcs?" he says, dredging the word up from his memory. He shugs his shoulders and holds up his hands in a questioning gesture, looking round and gesturing in various directions.​

Perhaps you could allow the "wh" questions as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

I was thinking about this just the other night. One skill point (rank) gives you an almost insignificant improvement in your ability to ride, tie a knot, climb a wall etc. But it buys you complete fluency in a language.

Well first of all, it costs 2sp unless you're a Bard

Ok, beside jokes, I just think that if one wants to make languages more interesting, it's still important to keep it simple. A complicated system (even as complicated as another skill) would be more useful in a language-complex setting, but it would also be very boring to roll a check at every sentence you hear or speech; OTOH, the same system would be less necessary in a language-light setting, where you would have to spend lots of sp just for a few occasional rolls...

A possible compromise is NOT to roll language checks, but still use ranks in a language skill to determine your general proficiency. It would be like assuming that characters are always taking 10 on that skill.

 

[Gez]

Or a loremaster. Or of the Changeling race.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Language System..

I have been looking for a decent language house rule, as the normal DnD response of 'everyone speaks common' gets annoying to me. Its hard to emulate eclectic cultures when someone in the party can talk to anything they meet.

I like the rules Gez propose.. with a couple changes.
I added the concept of language trees, with related, distant, and archaic links to other languages. Each step down the tree incurs a -4 rank modifier. In this manner, Joe, who speaks Brelandish, a human tongue, at 5 ranks can converse with a Cryian merchant as if he has 1 rank in Cyrian.
I also added a modifer to Social Skills and Disguise based on your ranks. This means that Joe suffers a -2 to his Diplomancy rolls and will probably end up paying a bit more for the bolt of cloth than he would if he was fluent in Cryian. Someone with higher ranks enjoys a bonus to these skills, and can literally talk circles around the unaware..
Reading requires a skill check, but only if the text was written above your level. So if Joe runs across a term paper on economics, he would need to roll to see if he understands it due to the advanced grammer and verbage used.

These changes mean I have to have a listing of all the languages available in the world setting, and add on to any important written text a number denoting at which rank it was written in.
My world also has a Trade language, which is related to most of the civilized tongues, but based on the Human tongues. This allows for a trade to exist without the need for everyone to learn each others language, but it is still a poor way to communicate. Some countries based in non-human stock must spend the time learning Trade itself.. making those countries a bit more exotic.
In Eberron, with these rules, you initially learn the language of your home country and must have exposure to other languages before learning them. It is very possible for a Dwarven PC to not know the language of the Dwarves!

I also changed the Magic portions that make these rules pointless.. No more 'Comprehend Languages'.. instead I use TEOM rules and the Translate spell is changed to be able to temporarily grant ranks in a given language.

Anyway.. Gez, good system! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Quickleaf]

Likewise, Gez. Your system is simple and clear. I like it alot!

 

[Terath Ninir]

Heh. Gez and I independantly came up with the same idea. Cool. Must be a good one then.