03-19-2021, 12:34 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
The Ewoks? I don't think anyone knew they existed before the Empire decided to make their moon the center of their plan to destroy the rebellion.
__________________
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
03-19-2021, 02:22 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
LUKE: Do you understand anything they're saying? THREEPIO: Oh, yes, Master Luke! Remember that I am fluent in over six million forms of communication. which certainly implies this is one of them he's got preloaded, not something he's somehow translating for the first time here.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
03-19-2021, 05:09 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
For me personally, I find [50] to be a perfect price for "I know all languages", "I can translate all languages", "I can understand all languages", "I know enough languages to easily figure out the last few I don't", etc. As a power block, it seems perfectly in line with the rest. That's a combination of Language Talent and Omnilingual 1, and I really don't get the reasoning for the 80pt version. The trait basically says "I can communicate with anybody in the setting" and that sounds like it would have a flat price with possibly an Unusual Background in certain settings.
Of course, now that I right that all out, I remember that Omnilingual is technically a type of Unusual Background. Mind, it goes against what I see UB being as an advantage, so on my personal level I think my point still stands. I also explicitly disallow Omnilingual in any setting where I know there will be at max ten languages the pcs will ever worry about, and Language Talent when there are less than five. Mind, if I were to make languages from scratch, I'd probably give "I can communicate with anyone in the setting" a flat price (say, 50pts) and then figure out what percentage of that is a given language to price that language. For instance, if Common is the assumed language and you can easily converse with 60% of people you come across (basically, anyone in cities), then you'd have a base 30pt trait for free and it would cost 20pts to cover the rest. That's simplistic and requires more work, though. If someone doesn't know Common, do they have a -30pt trait? That's not unreasonable, it's still less than Deaf+Mute and if the assumption is that there's a mental block like Dyslexia then the question of "but it's not hard to gain a language!" is avoided. But also I find the base rules to be mostly good enough so this thought experiment doesn't go anywhere. Note that I think of language as "mundane communication tools". Computing language would fall under specific skills, and exotic types of communication are exotic traits (Speak with Plants, Telesend, etc). However, as has come up with other gms I'm around, if there actually just is a language that plants use and you can learn it as you would any other language, then it's no longer exotic. Also, generally speaking, I find language to be a 'barrier' in the same way a mounting or a prison or an army or a door is. It's a tool for the GM to make things harder for the PCs. And like any barrier, it can make things more interesting or it can make things boring. |
03-19-2021, 05:35 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
Possibly they only teach above language to outsiders they trust. That is what Tolkien did with Dwarves and it would have a nice effect too.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 03-19-2021 at 05:40 PM. |
|
03-19-2021, 06:39 PM | #25 |
Custom User Title
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
When the mode of a language is not shared by one or more of the participant species in a conversation there should be some modifiers. Anyone got any thoughts on that and the intersection with Language Talent and Omnilingual?
Examples: Some of a spoken language happens at a frequency that can't be heard by the other species. The language requires the use of a sensory mode that only the native speakers have. Visual or olfactory signals, complex gestures or body motions (ASL or complex dance where every position of an appendage has a meaning), use of an object to communicate - alone or in conjunction with another mode (fans in some cultures?)
__________________
Joseph Paul |
03-19-2021, 07:18 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
|
03-19-2021, 07:27 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
|
|
03-19-2021, 08:35 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
|
|
03-19-2021, 09:11 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
Nobody reacts to the naming of "The Forrest Moon of Endor" with "Never heard of it" or "Where's that?" Endor and the Ewoks may very well be deemed to be utterly unimportant by the average galactic cosmopolitan but nothing suggests that they were utterly unknown.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
03-19-2021, 09:30 PM | #30 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
|
Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Language Talent and Omnilingual
Quote:
|
|
Tags |
advantage of the week, language talent, omnilingual |
|
|