03-19-2021, 09:00 AM | #11 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
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There is the question of "is there any kind of roll needed for language interpretation?" I've tended to assume not, for "consecutive interpretation", where only one person speaks at a time, and conversation is much slower. All that seems to need is an interpreter with good command of both languages, and a basic understanding of the subject matter. From personal experience, trying to teach computer programming via an interpreter who doesn't understand the basic concept is futile. "Simultaneous interpretation" is comparatively new, invented in the 1930s and first used on a large scale in 1945. It needs technological assistance, in the forms of microphones, headphones, amplifiers, switchgear and cabling, and does require training. I think that's just a Professional Skill.
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03-19-2021, 09:24 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
A quick thought on language in ultra-tech settings. The existence of advanced language translation software also implies the existence of advanced language teaching software.
Since people are far from uniform, I imagine that those disinclined to learn new languages would happily rely on the software, while those who want to learn more languages could very easily wind up with dozens. Omnilingual might be the cheaper option compared to Language Talent + Languages for such folks. This applies to measurement systems too, software easily translating metric to imperial to traditional Chinese to hyper-cubits or whatever the user desires. Would be quite the headache for Infinity until they got their hands on the software.
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03-19-2021, 09:32 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
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I've written my share of complex language rules too, and honestly they've never really added anything to a *game*. They're theoretical simulationist exercises, not aids to play. For spoken languages the standard rules (language cost 1, 2 or 3 points and anything related enough you can tell defaults at 1 level lower) play fairly well. Even most of the "too expensive" complaints come from buying literacy separately for each one, though if we were still using the 3e half points knocking the cost down to 1/2, 1, 2 would've been reasonable. I do increasingly think Omnilingual is way too expensive. I suspect the problem is the same as the original pricing of Unaging - it seems fair relative to other stuff for the real world, but ends up overcharging for a game because the conditions where it would matter rarely turn up, since having them come up all the time would make the game unfun or unplayable. I wouldn't go all the way to [5] like Unaging, but I can easily see cutting it to [15]. You rarely actually need anything better than accented, so 15 points is effectively more than 7 languages if you are just considering speaking, and the 7 most important languages are usually enough talk to "everybody", at least to the extent someone in any given village or mob can reasonably know one of them well enough for you to issue those threats or offer to surrender.
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03-19-2021, 09:50 AM | #14 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
By now I'm no longer confident this is a solid reason anymore, since the hours-to-points ratio is not meant to represent actual realistic correlation, but rather a playable arbitrary number to have some kind of answer when a PC decides to start studying a skill.
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03-19-2021, 10:06 AM | #15 | ||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
In my current game, I laid out three languages the players might want to have: The language of the settled folk they (jungle hunters) trade with, the language of their bitter enemies, and the ancient written language (a sort of hieroglyphics). So far things have gone pretty well, and the languages were bought with an eye to character background, with different characters having different option in who they talk to. As Malloyd mentions, only taken spoken literacy does wonders for affordability. As does offering discounts for close languages.
I find that languages add a lot more to the game in less cosmopolitan societies and settings. When communities have greater distinctiveness and hostility to others, languages play in the game more naturally. Quote:
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03-19-2021, 11:00 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
I liked Roger's article a lot, and would integrate it (possibly with personal tweaks) into my never-will-be-written personal GURPS 4.5.
I'm afraid that Omnilingual is priced at a prohibitive level for most campaigns, where players will just mutter a rude word and drop a couple of points into half-a-dozen languages that they think will be useful if they want to play the team talker-to-foreigners. My own stab at the subject is in Discworld, which has Multilingual at 20 points for "the character who knows at least a few words of every language you happen to encounter", and Universal Translator at 30 points for a true "gift of tongues". The justification for those costs is given in my "Under the Bonnet" notes.
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03-19-2021, 11:32 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Omnilingual is suited for a cosmic scale superhero campaign, or as a feature of an otherwise pretty useless ally. I'm looking at YOU C-3P0!
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03-19-2021, 11:38 AM | #18 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
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I don't know what campaign it is that Omnilingual is actually suited for. A Powers heavy high cp one would use either the Modular Abilities or Telepathy with universal solutions.
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Fred Brackin |
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03-19-2021, 11:50 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
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03-19-2021, 12:19 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
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I don't think we saw him translate something that clearly had no prior contact with Republic/Imperial society. Indeed I'm a little skeptical with the scale and time depths cited for the Republic that it's even possible for something to exist in the galaxy that was clearly that isolated. A few months of contact with one speaker every few centuries is probably enough to keep a language data set usefully current after all.
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advantage of the week, language talent, omnilingual |
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