Languages in your game

[Wik]

Another way to do it is if you find some of these options don't really work (for the record, I prefer the "Spoken and ignore" method, or the "Write it down" method) is to try to engineer your encounters so that languages don't come up as often. Your orcs speak common. Your elves in the elven forest? Speak common. That dragon who hates humans? Speaks common.

It may seem stupid or unrealistic to you, but I'd almost guarantee no one will notice it. Trust me, I have players at my table who are rather smart in real life, and not a single one of them would notice something like that.

 

[Stormborn]

I always ask the players of the characters who speak the language if they are going to translate right away for the others.

This, but no one has has ever said no. If its something that I want the details to remain a secret (say a Druid master speaking to a druid PC) I just write it down. It rarely is a problem.

 

[RFisher]

I figured thjats what people would say, (thats not bad) but once in 6th grade, (I started playing around 5th) I tried that and some of the people reall coulldn't undertand the fact that if they heard it, there character didn't. I guess we're mor mature now, maybe it'll work. *Looks at who posted* Hey look, another Buckeye!

These days, I carry it even farther. I think players should be encouraged to give each other advice on playing their characters. e.g. Just because a character isn’t present or is dead doesn’t mean the player must be muzzled. It only means that player can’t speak or act in-character at the moment.

 

[jgbrowning]

*Looks at who posted* Hey look, another Buckeye!

But just barely...

Moved to Ohio only 18 or so months ago, so I'm but a wee buckeye.

joe b.

 

[Dragon Snack]

I usually just say it and tell them that they can't understand if they don't have the language. It's not just maturity level, it's usually obvious if the character is acting on information they shouldn't know (it's usually only important if it's communication between enemies in combat). However, I will employ notes if I think it's important and the player may act a certain way even if they don't have the information (it keeps everybody honest). Sometimes players will pass notes between themselves when talking in a language that other PCs don't understand, but this is rare (and I swear it's done mostly to annoy me).

I have had players deliberately obfuscate what an NPC (or talkative monster) has said. That makes for some interesting roleplaying, when a player knows that the interpreter is putting their own spin on the words.

FWIW, if nobody has the language (which has happened), I just speak in gibberish.

 

[Don Ventresca]

*Smacks head* Why didn't I think if righting it down ..., Another question, 2 games a go, I thought a half-fiend spoke Abyssal, but he didn't, and it was key someone spoke Abyssal, that kind of threw the party off, so they had to find some translator. I'm afraid this may happen again, has this ever happened to anybody?

 

[Gilladian]

I guess, in your campaign world, half-fiends speak abyssal. Or if not, then THAT particular half-fiend had some nefarious reason for doing so in the circumstances.

Or the PCs only thought it was abyssal, it was really some other language. After all, they're not native to the region, what do they know if they called it the wrong thing?

 

[evilgenius8000]

In my games, almost everybody on a given continentn speaks that continent's Common (Undercommon, for the Underdark), so translations of typical conversations aren't necessary. Common, however, is a trade language and thus cannot express very complex ideas and such. So, that usually means that books, scrolls, and the like need to get translated by a PC, who usually tells the others. Usually, I'll have a printout of whatever is written (well, the important parts, at least) and hand it to the player, who can tell the others or not. Declining to share information will usually result in intra-party strife - not a good prospect for any adventurer.

Sometimes, NPCs do speak in other languages besides common - usually in the form of swearing or battlecries. When an NPC speaks in another language, I first ask if anyone speaks said language. If so, I say the translated speech, and the players whose characters don't speak the langauge play ignorant.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Passed notes or, if your group is elite enough to all bring laptops, a quick IM.

Hope that they don't have it set to make loud moo-ing noises. That gets old fast.

Or, well, the player can just say "I act as a translator" and you can assume he's translating everything. Unless he passes you a note that says he isn't, which is delicious.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I always ask the players of the characters who speak the language if they are going to translate right away for the others.

My current crew is pretty good about this overall problem, and actually don't act on the things they hear that their PCs wouldn't understand. Instead, the players act as if they were part of the PC.

????

By that I mean that it is not uncommon for someone to remind the player that his PC heard "X" or was told "Y" by some NPC instead of acting on it themselves. That way, the PC is unlikely to "forget" things he shouldn't.

However, if players are acting on knowledge gained from conversations they couldn't understand and weren't translated, there are all of the aforementioned techniques.

When I had that problem, I used to add something like the following template to preface conversations in other languages:

"The <NPC> and the <the PC> have a long/short (choose 1) conversation in a language you don't understand."

If players still insist on acting on knowledge their PCs can't possibly have, I do what my first DM used to do: dock XP. The rationale- XP is given for playing your PC in character. Actions taken dependent upon knowledge outside of the PC's experience is play outside of character, and thus cannot be the basis for gaining XP.