What language do you play in?

[Evil Roy Slade]

I have noticed these forums have a fair number of users who are not native English speakers but who nonetheless have good to excellent English. For these , I have a question: when running a game published in another language (say, English) but not available in your native language, does your group play in English, their native language, or a mixture?

I ask because one of the groups I play in is composed almost entirely of Canadian civil service employees, and one game that I gave had in my shelf for years is in French (and has never seen an English translation). Although English is the first language of all the current players, we are all at least functionally bilingual. Although running it in French is not my first impulse, I am merely guessing at its feasibility or lack thereof. Any anecdotes?

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Evil Roy Slade

I have noticed these forums have a fair number of users who are not native English speakers but who nonetheless have good to excellent English. For these , I have a question: when running a game published in another language (say, English) but not available in your native language, does your group play in English, their native language, or a mixture?

I ask because on of the groups I play in is composed almost entirely of Canadian civil service employees, and one game that I gave had in my shelf for years is in French (and has never seen an English translation). Although English is the first language of all the current players, we are all at least functionally bilingual. Although running it in French is not my first impulse, I am merely guessing at its feasibility or lack thereof. Any anecdotes?

Oh tried running games in English - mostly because players were, well, English. Each and every time, name of a body part or a movement (combat), name of a household item, words for simple day to day interactions / things made me regret it.

Uni was in English (well, American), been working for an English company for the last 3-4 years, but (last year excluded) I haven't used English in day to day conversation. I'm guessing in a year I'd be able to run smooth games in English here but looks like I won't need to since I'm going back to Turkiye.

On the flip side, we don't have Turkish translations of RPGs in Turkiye so it should be funny, watching a Turkish group game in Turkish if you're an Anglophone. Can't really make up an example right now (believe me I tried) but think of it like hearing a familiar GURPS or gaming term here and there that really stands out like a jagged edge in a sort of 'flowing' language (or so I hear that's how Turkish sounds to Anglophones) since pronunciation of English words cause a 'stop', sort of a switch from Turkish to English.

Cheers...

[GrimGent]

Originally Posted by Evil Roy Slade

For these , I have a question: when running a game published in another language (say, English) but not available in your native language, does your group play in English, their native language, or a mixture?

Face to face, I run everything exclusively in Finnish. I try to translate as much of the material as possible in advance, which can make especially White Wolf games a bit of a hassle to prepare because of their lengthy lexicons, but original terms in English (as well as Finglish gaming slang) still tend to creep in from time to time.

Online, it's a different matter. Only once I've run a game over IRC in anything other than English, and that was Stalker, a Finnish RPG based on Roadside Picnic and the related Tarkovsky film.

[D10]

We play 50% in english, mostly small phrases by the pcs like "My lord" or questions like "But what about Vex and his bloody hounds?"

Its quite bizarre for people not accustumed to it

[Þorkell]

We game in Icelish. Mostly we game in Icelandic, but we occasionally lapse into English.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

We game in Icelish.

Or is that Englandic?

[ak_aramis]

We normally play using American, but sometimes we do slip into English...

;þ

[Agramer]

We play in Croatian but use game specific terms in english(names of maneuvers,techniques,attack options...).

[Onkl]

We play GURPS 4th and mostly talk swiss-german at the gaming table.

Since all the rules are in english, we do use a lot of english expressions and terms, eg. names of advantages and disadvantages, skills, conditions...

I as a GM would say: Würfle gäge knockdown (Roll against knockdown)

When I write adventures, the story is in german, NPC descriptions are in german... only when I have to use the rules in an aspect of the preperations, I will switch to english, eg. to create a trap.

Lastly, there is the problem that some words can not be translated to swiss-german or german. Eg. Serendipity... The meaning of the word can shift, depending on the context it is used in.

All in all, it's a challenge to play GURPS 4th for us... but we love it! :)

[Gorkamorka]

Originally Posted by Onkl

We play GURPS 4th and mostly talk swiss-german at the gaming table.

Since all the rules are in english, we do use a lot of english expressions and terms, eg. names of advantages and disadvantages, skills, conditions...

I as a GM would say: Würfle gäge knockdown (Roll against knockdown)...

This is exactly what my group does. Just exchange swiss-german with icelandic