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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philip" data-source="post: 2203559" data-attributes="member: 10993">While I don't have Common IMC I don't play foreign languages as they should, it's just to much of a hassle. If PCs encounter people who speak a different language, I use unknown words, weird accents and similar twists to give them the 'feel' of speaking to a person with another language. After a few conversations I slowly tone down the changes, because I find that the mood and tone is usually set by then.Properly role-playing foreign languages has a few essential problems I encountered when I tried a 'more realistic' approach.1. A player with a character that understands a particular language (by having the skill or casting tongues) tends to monopolize all role-playing in 'foreign' regions. This is just not fun for the other players.2. Its difficult to role-play foreign languages if you don't speak them yourself. You tend to speak your own language and the players of the PCs that don't understand it must play like they didn't hear anything. A difficult feat at best.3. A PC of at least moderate intelligence would pick up working knowledge of a unknown language after being a month or so in a region where they speak that language. PCs with 16 Int may pick it up after a week. There is no proper way to simulate this during play.4. Players are usually not interested by the intricacies of multiple different languages. Play time is short and infrequent enough at it is, and they rather spend it performing heroic feats, improving their haggling skills or tossing cool insults at their adversaries than wrestling with imaginary languages.Common in D&D is like transporters and universal translators in Star Trek. They spare a lot of hassle with things that aren't interesting 95% of the time.</blockquote>

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