Languages

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:43 pm

How about People just Roleplay.

You know if you implemented this, every PC will take Elven as their second language just to nullify it's only use. All the elves will have to go about talking in goblin just to be able to exclude anyone not elven from their conversations.

PWNed!

Orcpaladin · Post by **Orcpaladin** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:01 am

ballonger wrote:On the other hand, if this could be done to make the "gibberish" sound like a language and not just a drunk person with the flu, I might be for it.

Why not just set it to say "Speaks in Dwarven" or "Speaks in Elven" for those who can't understand the language? No more immersion breaking than what we currently emote.

ballonger · Post by **ballonger** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:04 am

That is a good idea, Orcpaladin.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:28 am

Whatever happens I'm learning elven

Mulu · Post by **Mulu** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:32 am

I've used it in it's old DMFI voice widget format. It works fine. The gameworld that used it had beast and fey, burrowing mammals, demonic, etc., all included. It did give an incentive to have a high intelligence score so you could learn more languages.

Now, ALFA's system of just using an OOC prefix [e] [ch] works fine too. I honestly can't say that I prefer one over the other. Prefix has the advantages that it includes all possible languages without any tech implementation required and players aren't shut out of conversations (though their PC's still are); widget has the advantages of immersion, meta-blocking, and a stronger motivation to actually learn other languages.

One interesting use of the coded languages would be a comprehend languages spell that allows you to understand all languages as a DM would for the spell duration. You could use an rp spell holder under ALFA's current system, but with a coded implementation other players don't necessarily know you have it up, so again a meta-blocker.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:33 pm

Personally I like the [e], [d], [h], style prefixes for RPing that you are talking in a specific language. It works nice and i've had some fun being the human sat about whislt all the elves are ridiculing me without my IC knoledge. Therre is a general amount of humour and fun asscociated with just OOCly knowing what they are talking about.

I have no objection to the other system but i think it's a lot of extra scripting and additions to the game that would not actually offer anything to compensate for what was lost.

To be honest when you have something secret to say you go away from the group and you talk in whispers or you go away somewhere really private and lock a door and talk in whispers and use the [] stuff.

Metagaming of what people said in other languages was not really a problem as far as I can remember. Does anyone have any bad memories of them saying something deeply private in another language infront of a dozen other PC's that they didn't want to hear it and it got used as meta against them?

psycho_leo · Post by **psycho_leo** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:41 pm

Cynon wrote:Therre is a general amount of humour and fun asscociated with just OOCly knowing what they are talking about.

+1

Speaking in other languages just to tell a secret to someone in a full bar is not very smart on the first place. If you really don't want other people to hear you go to some place where you can be alone. I've done it before. Most times I ever used a language other than common was just to tell jokes stuff like that. Stuff that IC my PC didn't want other PCs to understand, but OOC I wanted other players to hear.

Using prefixes have always worked really well fo me so far and I don't see any reason for that to change.

ballonger · Post by **ballonger** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:42 pm

I have only got good experiences from using the prefixes too. But if OPs idea can be made to work that could possibly be nice. But like you say, it can be fun to overhear the conversation OOC.

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:21 pm

Mulu wrote:It did give an incentive to have a high intelligence score so you could learn more languages.

I don't think intelligence is a limit to how many languages you can learn. You automatically get a number of bonus languages equal to your intelligence modifier at first level, and after that you can learn a new language for every skill point you put in Speak Languages (which doesn't seem like much of a cost to learn an entirely new language to me). ...Unless things have changed in 3.5...?

HEEGZ · Post by **HEEGZ** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:23 am

Cynon wrote:Personally I like the [e], [d], [h], style prefixes for RPing that you are talking in a specific language. It works nice and i've had some fun being the human sat about whislt all the elves are ridiculing me without my IC knoledge. Therre is a general amount of humour and fun asscociated with just OOCly knowing what they are talking about.

+1

This is my strong preference as well.

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:41 am

Agreed. Keep the fun in. It's up to the players to ensure they don't act with OOC knowledge.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:24 am

Yet on the flip side, there's a great deal of fun in just wondering what's being said. Reality pales against the imagination.

And let's not forget, OOC knowledge can be very hard to separate from IC knowledge if there's a vast pool of OOC/IC information to organize. So while the ridiculing can be entertaining in a comic relief sort of way, the revelation of more sinister or nefarious knowledge may be plot breaking. There's really no fun in spoiling the fun.

White Warlock · Post by **White Warlock** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:53 am

Agreed there as well Cipher. We must consider that not everyone is ironclad in their dedication to keeping OOC information from bleeding into their IC actions.

NickD wrote:
Mulu wrote:It did give an incentive to have a high intelligence score so you could learn more languages.
I don't think intelligence is a limit to how many languages you can learn. You automatically get a number of bonus languages equal to your intelligence modifier at first level, and after that you can learn a new language for every skill point you put in Speak Languages (which doesn't seem like much of a cost to learn an entirely new language to me). ...Unless things have changed in 3.5...?

That changed sometime ago, yes. It doesn't apply to the amount of languages you know, and you no longer automatically receive a number of bonus languages equal to your intelligence modifier.

psycho_leo · Post by **psycho_leo** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:13 am

ç i p h é r wrote:Yet on the flip side, there's a great deal of fun in just wondering what's being said. Reality pales against the imagination.

No. Its boring. If I can't understand what's being said around me I go away and possibly log off. What fun can you possibly find from reading stuff that makes no sense at all? Like I said said before. If you have a secret to share with one or a few PCs but doesn't want others to hear you go to somewhere private. You don't shout it in elven in a full tavern. You can't always tell what language a PC speaks just by its race. I met plenty of humans that speak elven, hins that speak dwarven, etc.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:06 am

Hell yeah.. play a human that secretly speaks elven and you can learn all kinds of interesting stuff