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General Tabletop Discussion
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Literacy and Languages in your game
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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6743377" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>It obviously depends on the campaign setting...</p><p></p><p>In the past in our collaborative semi-homebrew fantasy setting we used a fairly simple (but still more complex than the standard rules) system for language proficiencies.</p><p></p><p>I don't even remember the details exactly right now, but basically you would spend skill points (3e) in languages, but you had separate proficiency in speaking and in literacy (reading/writing) each language, and IIRC there were <em>two levels</em> of proficiency (something like 'basic' and 'expert'). There were some occasional overlapping in literacy proficiency, whenever two languages used the same ideographic alphabet for instance, so their written forms were identical, while speaking required separate proficiency. Ancient or arcane books and texts in the setting were often written in strange languages, so it made sense to learn only literacy without speaking, but also the opposite for living tongues.</p><p></p><p>Basic/Expert was very simple: with Basic proficiency you would be fully able to conversate about anything, but with Expert proficiency you would be also able to <em>pass as a native</em>. This was used often by some characters in order to improve their chances as diplomacy/gather information, or the general attitude of the people in a certain region.</p><p></p><p>I don't remember if we even had 'Common' in that setting... I think we all started playing in a region and 'Common' was essentially the language of that region.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>Normally however I don't use any rules addition for languages. I just assume every civilized race knows common, but speak their racial language (if any) amongst themselves. So monster languages proficiency is still very useful if you want to eavesdrop or intercept messages, and ancient/otherworldly languages proficiency if you want to understand the occasional inscription, both these typically resulting in story or tactical clues. I rarely forget to award players who pick language proficiencies <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 6743377, member: 1465"] It obviously depends on the campaign setting... In the past in our collaborative semi-homebrew fantasy setting we used a fairly simple (but still more complex than the standard rules) system for language proficiencies. I don't even remember the details exactly right now, but basically you would spend skill points (3e) in languages, but you had separate proficiency in speaking and in literacy (reading/writing) each language, and IIRC there were [I]two levels[/I] of proficiency (something like 'basic' and 'expert'). There were some occasional overlapping in literacy proficiency, whenever two languages used the same ideographic alphabet for instance, so their written forms were identical, while speaking required separate proficiency. Ancient or arcane books and texts in the setting were often written in strange languages, so it made sense to learn only literacy without speaking, but also the opposite for living tongues. Basic/Expert was very simple: with Basic proficiency you would be fully able to conversate about anything, but with Expert proficiency you would be also able to [I]pass as a native[/I]. This was used often by some characters in order to improve their chances as diplomacy/gather information, or the general attitude of the people in a certain region. I don't remember if we even had 'Common' in that setting... I think we all started playing in a region and 'Common' was essentially the language of that region. --- Normally however I don't use any rules addition for languages. I just assume every civilized race knows common, but speak their racial language (if any) amongst themselves. So monster languages proficiency is still very useful if you want to eavesdrop or intercept messages, and ancient/otherworldly languages proficiency if you want to understand the occasional inscription, both these typically resulting in story or tactical clues. I rarely forget to award players who pick language proficiencies :) [/QUOTE]
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