Languages in your game

[Janx]

Yeah, well, once I said, I'll kill you all (in OC)my friend embarrassed me,)) and I didn't say OC, so my DM thought I said it to a priest and his clergy, ... that was bad

1) I agree, and I can't think of a good reason, unless to tell them something that only they would know, and its hard to explain.

2) Like in 1).

3) yes well, if they're one of the base races, they do ...

4) ... I don't understand ...

5) ... Yes well, ... I do (mostly).

Kinda have 2 topics going, so my last on OC/IC. If you're friend just razzed you out of character, and you then say "I'll kill you all", I'm pretty certain I'd know you were responding OC, because you're PC saying it in the middle of a friendly scene would make no sense.

Now back to 1-5, namely 4, which I wasn't clear enough on.

Firstly, in all rules and procesess, always have a rule 0, which is "follow the process, except when it makes sense not to. Rule 4 is basically trying to explain when you should use private conversations (a declared exception).

The real gist of it is, if the PCs are trying to enter a foreign city, and only 1 PC knows the local language at the gate. The conversation isn't special. He's negotiating access, probably paying a bribe.

Conversely, when the PC is meeting with a member of his own race, with his party beside him, the contents of the conversation MIGHT matter. If you want to have the party be suspicious of what was said, do it privately. If you don't want to create friction and suspicion, either use common, or declare that the NPC and PC are talking in elven, and the party doesn't actually know what was said, or that the PC will summarize afterwards.

Good reasons for private/foreign language conversations:
the NPC only trusts the 1 PC (same race/nationality perhaps)
the NPC wants to insult the others by using a private language (real life, it is very insulting to speak in a foreign language in front of friends to another person, except to act as a translator)
the NPC is trying to create a rift of mistrust in the party
the NPC is conveying secret data to 1 PC, because the PC is also a member of a secret group
the PC is trying to withold information from the party


on #3, you're the GM. NPCs can do anything you NEED them to be able to do. Monsters are also NPCs, just with different stats. This is the same reason that the Enterprise travels at the speed of plot. It takes as long is it needs to, based on what you need to move the game along, and provide challenge. Thus, if having most NPCs be able to speak common solves a problem, good. The players aren't allowed to read the GM notes and check his math. The way you know you haven't abused this is that your good players keep coming back.

 

[RFisher]

Still doesn't help stop 'em talking about real-world politics or the latest internet craze during what's supposed to be a game session...

(they're not all bad; but some nights it takes us far too long to get going...)

Lanefan

Sorry, Lanefan. No sympathy. (^_^) My games are just an excuse to hang out with friends. If we do more yaking than gaming in a session, it’s because yaking was more important than gaming to us that day. No harm; no foul. (If we have several sessions in a row with next-to-no-gaming, though, it’s a sign that we just need to retire the current campaign.)

OK, politics actually is a subject we try to keep a lid on. Only because it’s something me and one of the other guys can always waste any amount of time on. (^_^)

I think you & I simply have different priorities here.