POL Setting: Literacy automatic or no?

[WhatGravitas]

PC's should be literate.

NPC's should be literate or not on a case by case basis.

Miserable human dirt farmer covered in mud? Illiterate

Cultured Eladrin Knight from the depths of Fey? Literate

I'm also in favor of some form of "common language." IMC, such languages are more or less understood on a continent-wide basis. Moving from one continent to another might cause a language problem, moving from one country to another usually does not.

I hope that Comprehend Languages is out altogether.

Same position here. I know it's sometimes strange and "unrealistic"... but hey, TV does it all the time. And too widespread illiteracy means no handouts, less riddles, less clues. Which makes me sad. So people who are important are generally literate.

And widespread "common" - I can live with it. Like many sci-fi series. A trade language is not that far-fetched, though it would have many common dialects that bear less resemblance.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

In theory, I support no literacy in a PoL campaign. But in practice, the convenience of having everyone be able to read just makes play so much easier. So I chose 'other."

It's a lot like having just one language, Common - it just makes things easier. In the PoL game this common tongue is explained by Nerath, a vast, cosmopolitan human empire, and it makes sense.

I suspect the PoL setting will assume everyone can read, and this may also be attributed to Nerath. If that's the case, then the catastrophe that lead to Nerath's demise did not necessarily happen overnight - it is a slow decline, with enclaves of civilization still surviving. After 100 years, I think the knowledge and values of that civilization (such as being able to read) might still survive, so long as there has been no complete dissolution of the culture.

 

[FadedC]

I don't even like the idea of NPCs not being able to read. It means you can't justify having signs over the inn, wanted posters in town, or any number of other things because they wouldn't be worth the effort without people being able to read them. Some people may be fine with this, but it doesn't really work for me. POL is still potentially a high fantasy setting, it's just one with lots of dark and unexplored parts of the map.

I have no problem with having multiple human languages though, but that doesn't necesarily mean you can't still have common. In this case I'd think of common kind of like English....it's far from a unniversal language but in any major city your likely to find many people who speak it well enough to communicate with you.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

I will not that litteracy % where supriringly different, and often high, in some historical cultures...

I am told the Tokugawa Shogunate Japan had anormaly high % of litteracy - and this is Nihongo that we speak of, the language with Kanji of two kjinds and Kana. Also, this is the country of increasing pauverty bythe later era, and civil unrest, and a closed land.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm voting yes. Although from a strictly simulationist point of view, literacy and Common are both inherently unlikely in a POL setting, in reality having a whole bunch of geographically constrained regional dialects and languages and low literacy is an annoying roleplaying hurdle rather than something that's fun.

IME, anyway. As a bit of a linguistics nerd, I've tried to play around with this a bit, and the results are not very satisfactory. Unless the entire group happens to be made up of linguistics nerd simulationists who enjoy that kinda thing.

 

[Raduin711]

As PoL is really just the basic assumptions that D&D makes, I expect that literacy will be the rule, and illiteracy will be the exception.

 

[Mirtek]

I voted illiteracy and I also agree with the people who dislike the automatic common language. This actually bothered me the most in Living Greyhawk, where any race could speak at least common and it's own language except my poor oerdian human who could only speak common and had to spend a bonus langue slot to learn speaking oerdian.

For LFR I hope that the languages of the different human subcultures will matter and that humans are no longer discriminated by having to learn their own language as a bonus language while elves and dwarves and whatever else get theirs for free

Similar issues could be made with currency (in a "real" PoL, every fiefdom would coin it's own currency and travelers would/should be shorthanded in exchanges two-times aday at least)

Currency wouldn't matter often. Coins are not valuable because they bear the stamp of government XY (because no one outside the immediate reach of government XY considers their promise to honor their debt valuable), but because they are made from valuable things.

So the worst thing would be that you goldcoins from country X weight 0.8/50 pound while the coins of kingdom Y (where you currently are) weigh 1/50 pounds. Thus 10 of your coins buy you as much as 8 of theirs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm okay with the PCs being literate, but I sincerely hope they don't, as 3E sometimes seemed to, portray the majority of the populace as being literate in all their supplements and adventures.

I too could live without the common language, but for the "Make it super-playable!" deal WotC are going for, Common as a default is a certainty.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I voted "other" which means: Literacy for PCs yes, for NPCs no.

Ditto. I hate played the "and I tell the other PC's what it says" game.

 

[Warbringer]

Well, given I like a sim approach I'd have to say default not literate, but if you want yur PC to have it, go for it, just put it in his background.

Strangely, I'm struggling with common in a POL campaign, though it could simply be a merc tongue rather than a trade tongue