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Old 02-10-2020, 06:25 AM   #1
hcobb
 
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Default Eliminate Humanish

The other humanoids call this the Human's "Curse of Babel". While Orcish is the same everywhere (Praise Rhakk!), there's a dozen different human languages to learn. French isn't humanity's "Lingua franca", instead you need to learn Latin, and Chinese, and Hindustani, and Spanish, and Malay and Rhakk knows what else just to communicate with a random human.
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Old 02-10-2020, 07:51 AM   #2
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

There has to be a balance... languages add depth to the campaign world, but they shouldn't become a barrier to playability or unreasonably frustrate the narrative flow of the game.

On Cidri, assuming you accept some default assumptions of its 'creation', a wide variety of human languages makes sense since it is implied that the Mnoren transplanted mankind from various nationalities and cultures in Earth's pre-industrial history.
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Old 02-10-2020, 08:46 AM   #3
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
The other humanoids call this the Human's "Curse of Babel". While Orcish is the same everywhere (Praise Rhakk!), there's a dozen different human languages to learn. French isn't humanity's "Lingua franca", instead you need to learn Latin, and Chinese, and Hindustani, and Spanish, and Malay and Rhakk knows what else just to communicate with a random human.
This is just what I've done in one of my current games. It is set on an isolated continent on Cidri, with almost no non-human races. The various countries have their own language, and a lingual franca is spoken by many along an important trade route. The jury is out on whether or not this will be fun.
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Old 02-10-2020, 11:25 AM   #4
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

This is not a house rule, except the part where you say non-human languages wouldn't have different versions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ITL page 44, bottom-right corner
Dwellers in a far-off or isolated place may not speak the same language as others of their species.
It's just up to the GM how they want to define the languages for their campaigns. Some may want to ignore language differences entirely. Others may want a bunch of different languages.

Language barriers can lead to some interesting situations if players and the GM are up to playing them out.

Some GMs though are not up to (or not interested in, or just don't feel like) playing them out.

Last edited by Skarg; 02-10-2020 at 11:29 AM.
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Old 02-10-2020, 11:45 AM   #5
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

When would you allow "human tongue" as the mundane talent point?
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Old 02-10-2020, 12:00 PM   #6
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

In my settings, everyone speaks the same language.

It's the dialects that will get you killed.
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Old 02-10-2020, 01:33 PM   #7
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
… to communicate with a random human.
It's not really random, though. The available language(s) will be dictated by the territory, and that's not random.

If you choose a human at random off the entire planet of Earth, sure, you might get almost any language. (Although Chinese has a better chance than most as the random person's first language, and English a very high probability of being their second language, if they have one.)

In Southern Elyntia though, there may very well be only one human language, because the place just ain't all that big. (Only about half the size of England, really.)

In the 'active map' area of my own world (which is quite a bit larger than the Southern Elyntia map), there are four human kingdoms, each with its own language — and there is a fifth (from an 'off-map' origin) that is frequently used by sailors and merchants as a trade language.

And yes, I too used the Babel Curse thing to explain why only humans have multiple languages.
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Old 02-10-2020, 02:00 PM   #8
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

I wonder how well a language-less Molly would work?

IQ 17
talents: Literacy, Streetwise, Alertness
Spells: Staff V, etc.

So that's zero memory points for three languages.
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Old 02-10-2020, 02:25 PM   #9
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shostak View Post
This is just what I've done in one of my current games. It is set on an isolated continent on Cidri, with almost no non-human races. The various countries have their own language, and a lingual franca is spoken by many along an important trade route. The jury is out on whether or not this will be fun.
I did essentially the same thing. That kind of realistic detail can easily bog things down though, if you waste time focusing on it.

To avoid that, I used a European model:
  1. I assumed that many people (at least those in border areas, or in larger towns and cities) speak more than one language anyway — just not at full fluency, and with accents.
  2. I assumed the languages are all at least somewhat related, so some basic communication is possible even between two people who don't share any common language. (Certain words will be similar, or even the same, even though the rest of the sentence is not.)
  3. I limit the degree to which it matters — it's really not much more than some modifiers to reaction rolls.

Last edited by FireHorse; 02-10-2020 at 02:30 PM.
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Old 02-10-2020, 03:11 PM   #10
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Default Re: Eliminate Humanish

Example of cross-language understanding from a guy you'll are following anyway, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2T5edAGu1s
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