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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8740969" data-attributes="member: 6779196">So, first of all, I want to say that I think your premise is right on the money, and I love this thread. With that out of the way, I want to add that I think there is a tad more nuance to why languages are a thing in D&amp;D and what their utility in gameplay is.To the first point, yes, we can thank Tolkien for the notion that languages are a thing that should be important in the fantasy genre. But I think when it comes to D&amp;D and its specific expression of fantasy languages, we need to recognize that D&amp;D is fundamentally a game of lists. Lists of races, lists of classes, lists of weapons, lists of monsters, lists of abilities… lists of languages. They’re there to give players another menu of options to choose from, and in so choosing, exclude themselves from whatever else is on the list that they didn’t choose. And this leads us to the utility of languages as a game mechanic.What is the gameplay utility of languages in D&amp;D? There’s the “Indiana Jones” factor of having to translate some ancient text you find in the dungeon, yes. But it’s also so the&nbsp; monsters can coordinate their tactics without the PCs understanding them. D&amp;D started out as a wargame after all. Alignment languages were a thing not because Gary and Co. were trying to simulate a world where people who followed the rules automatically learned a secret language and people who broke the rules so people who didn’t follow the rules learned a different secret language. They were a thing because Lawful and Chaotic were playable factions, and they wanted it to be possible for the general to shout orders to their units across the battlefield without the other faction being able to understand them. And to this day, that’s the most effective way to use languages in D&amp;D: you make sure everyone in your party has at least one non-Common language in common so you can talk to each other in code.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8740969, member: 6779196"] So, first of all, I want to say that I think your premise is right on the money, and I love this thread. With that out of the way, I want to add that I think there is a tad more nuance to why languages are a thing in D&D and what their utility in gameplay is. To the first point, yes, we can thank Tolkien for the notion that languages are a thing that should be important in the fantasy genre. But I think when it comes to D&D and its specific expression of fantasy languages, we need to recognize that D&D is fundamentally [I]a game of lists[/I]. Lists of races, lists of classes, lists of weapons, lists of monsters, lists of abilities… lists of languages. They’re there to give players another menu of options to choose from, and in so choosing, exclude themselves from whatever else is on the list that they didn’t choose. And this leads us to the utility of languages as a game mechanic. What is the gameplay utility of languages in D&D? There’s the “Indiana Jones” factor of having to translate some ancient text you find in the dungeon, yes. But it’s also so the monsters can coordinate their tactics without the PCs understanding them. D&D started out as a wargame after all. Alignment languages were a thing not because Gary and Co. were trying to simulate a world where people who followed the rules automatically learned a secret language and people who broke the rules so people who didn’t follow the rules learned a different secret language. They were a thing because Lawful and Chaotic were playable factions, and they wanted it to be possible for the general to shout orders to their units across the battlefield without the other faction being able to understand them. And to this day, that’s the most effective way to use languages in D&D: you make sure everyone in your party has at least one non-Common language in common so you can talk to each other in code. [/QUOTE]

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