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<blockquote data-quote="occam" data-source="post: 9608383" data-attributes="member: 39815">That's not really true, though. The Nûmenorean kingdoms never had much sway over Wilderland, and much of The Hobbit takes place there. Canonically, Thorin's party should've had some problems understanding others and making themselves understood after crossing the Misty Mountains, but they didn't. Every Elf they met apparently spoke perfect Westron, as did the Men of Lake-town when they should've been speaking Dalish or something like it.And there's a large portion of The Lord of the Rings that takes place in Rohan, where we encounter lots of Rohanese characters that all speak Westron instead of their native tongue, even amongst themselves, at least on the page.BTW, I'm not making the argument that everyone should play D&amp;D the way that Tolkien wrote stories for mass consumption. Personally, I like playing out occasional scenarios where language gaps exist. But Tolkien, perhaps contrary to intuition, is actually not a good example for highlighting language diversity in fantasy roleplaying. He understood that it helped the storytelling if everyone could easily understand one another.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="occam, post: 9608383, member: 39815"] That's not really true, though. The Nûmenorean kingdoms never had much sway over Wilderland, and much of [I]The Hobbit[/I] takes place there. Canonically, Thorin's party should've had some problems understanding others and making themselves understood after crossing the Misty Mountains, but they didn't. Every Elf they met apparently spoke perfect Westron, as did the Men of Lake-town when they should've been speaking Dalish or something like it. And there's a large portion of [I]The Lord of the Rings[/I] that takes place in Rohan, where we encounter lots of Rohanese characters that all speak Westron instead of their native tongue, even amongst themselves, at least on the page. BTW, I'm not making the argument that everyone should play D&D the way that Tolkien wrote stories for mass consumption. Personally, I like playing out occasional scenarios where language gaps exist. But Tolkien, perhaps contrary to intuition, is actually not a good example for highlighting language diversity in fantasy roleplaying. He understood that it helped the storytelling if everyone could easily understand one another. [/QUOTE]

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