You get what you pay for a free language

[hcobb]

Two high IQ mages meet and the only language they have in common is Sorcerers’ Tongue.
What concepts will they have difficulty communicating to each other?

[fwcain]

I would imagine they'd have problems with any and all concepts not directly involving magic. For example, the concept of "lunch" might parse out as "a recurring ritual at mid-day, involving the ingestion of edible components."

As a GM, I'd consider having the players write down what they want to say, and then I'd edit these (as needed), hand them back, and let them try again.

Franklin

[JohnPaulB]

If one (or both) have poetry, they could use simile, metaphor, symbolism, etc. creatively infer things.

It would be like someone who knows music well, might get ideas across by whistling tunes appropriate to the subject. The recipient would decide if the reference was to theme of the song, lyrics, name of the band, shows that the tune was in, and the like.

With the character's IQ so high, they might make quick connections.

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I like what Fwcain suggested too.

[TippetsTX]

I always imagined that SORCERER’S TONGUE was less like a full language (i.e. something used for day-to-day conversation) and more like math... or music.

[hcobb]

Also who other than demons have ST as their native language?

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Also who other than demons have ST as their native language?

I genuinely puzzled on how a demon has Strength as his native tongue.

[thrash]

Note that Words of Command in the Sorcerers' Tongue are effective regardless of whether one understands that language. I suspect that makes it a "philosophical" language, with potent ties to Reality (tm). That might make it difficult to express counter-factuals (without making them true somehow). This would also tie in with the idea (not from TFT, necessarily) of demons not being able to lie explicitly, however much they distort and deceive by other means.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by thrash

Note that Words of Command in the Sorcerers' Tongue are effective regardless of whether one understands that language. I suspect that makes it a "philosophical" language, with potent ties to Reality (tm).

Before Advanced Wizard and the first edition of ITL introduced the Sorcerer's Tongue, my old group's founding GM introduced our own equivalent of a language for magic (or a magical language) as backstory for our campaign world. It functionally worked like Sorcerer's Tongue but went further in that philosophical direction.

Yes, spells requiring incantation had to be intonated in it, and all scrolls and spell books had to be written in it. But the reason behind this was that it was the very language of Creation that had brought our World into existence. If one correctly said something in this language (and paid the requisite strength/mana cost to go along with it) then reality was altered to conform to the statement. If a wizard said it (and paid the ST cost) then it had to be true, or become true. "There's a gargoyle standing 3 hexes away (and I've paid the ST cost)." So voila, there stands a gargoyle. If a non-wizard said the same thing, nothing would happen, because they hadn't learned the psychic ability to pay the mana/ST cost. Had someone properly intoned "There's a mountain there," then there would be a mountain there -- of course the ST cost would be much higher for a mountain, so high only a god could afford it, but the principle was the same.

Originally Posted by thrash

That might make it difficult to express counter-factuals (without making them true somehow). This would also tie in with the idea (not from TFT, necessarily) of demons not being able to lie explicitly, however much they distort and deceive by other means.

And we ruled it as just that: no lie could be told in our version of Sorcerer's Tongue. Of course that would make for interesting character situations from time to time, but it didn't really come up very often.

In our World the magical races (which we deemed Elves, Dragons, Demons, and a few others) were created first -- so they naturally all spoke our language of Creation, our equivalent of Sorcerer's Tongue. Of course of these only Elves could be player characters. This was a minor edge for an Elf who wanted to be a wizard, as they didn't have to spend memory on their own native language, but it was usually a wash as they spent a memory point to learn Common or some other race's language to mingle in the World -- and have something they could lie in if they needed to!

In fact the written form of this language was invented long ago by the Elves, so we had them to thank for making spell books and scrolls possible. And most of the non-Elfish races thought of and called this language Elvish, when it was actually the same thing as our Sorcerer's Tongue. Elves, wizards, and magical races all knew better but seldom corrected humans, dwarfs or goblins on this point because they were tired of explaining it.

Magical races weren't restricted from learning and knowing other languages, and Dragons and Demons with their vast lifespans and high IQs were assumed to know every language in the World anyway. And being native speakers of our version of Sorcerer's Tongue, they'd automatically know whatever spell was being cast near them if they heard the invocation.