What did you say?
Using language as a ttrpg problem.
This article contains affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you make purchases using these links, at no cost to you.Dungeonfruit dropped this neat article on languages and it got me thinking. They made languages interesting by having languages grant character abilities and bonuses to reaction rolls.
That’s cool, but as usual I want to frame this into a problem solving situation. Plus a lot of games I like (Mork Borg, Death in Space, Into the Odd, Salvage Union) don’t have language rules, and I want to figure out what to add in!
Why languages?
Languages are interesting in a problem solving context because being able to read or speak a language may be helpful or even required for communication or accessing information. The ‘optimal’ situation is that the characters can speak the languages of NPCs they come across, and that they can read whatever text they come across.
This isn’t really interesting. You can read or speak what is required, pass go, collect £200. Instead, there are two broad scenarios that present challenges to the player characters which are interesting to me.
Case 1: PCs are attempting to communicate with NPCs but there is a language barrier.
Case 2: PCs are attempting to read or write text and there is a language barrier.
Talking
If PCs and NPCs do not perfectly share a language, then communicating becomes a problem for the players to tackle. This can involve describing different ways of communicating with NPCs, using gestures, drawings, or communicating in ‘broken’ speech if languages are partially shared.
How else can this become a problem solving situation? We give players more of an ability to influence reaction rolls. Dungeonfruit’s article uses the case of giving a +2 to reaction rolls for speaking a shared language. I suggest getting a bit more granular.
Certain languages can provoke bad, neutral, or good responses from NPCs. This can be based on world lore. In Tolkien terms, speaking Dwarvish around Elves might be a bad call. You might not speak Elvish but speak Common, and you’re doing yourself a favour. You can provide a bonus or penalty for a reaction roll if speech is relevant.
Reading
If you can’t read the book because it’s in eldritch runes you don’t recognise, what do you do? You have to find a way to translate it. Find someone who can read the tongue and pay them, or get a book that enables you to translate it (which would take time). Perhaps try to infer meaning from symbology or art in the book instead.
This is another puzzle. Not being able to read or speak a language is the interesting situation here, since it actually promotes interaction with the game world.
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Learning
I like a bit of ‘realism’ in my games. To learn a language effectively, you need to be able to consistently practice with a fluent speaker. That means either having a party member who is fluent or spending time consistently talking to people who are fluent.
I like Dungeonfruit’s breakdown of three ‘levels of language’, and mine is quite similar.
Basic (spoken/written): Can engage in basic conversation or read and write basic sentences and vocabulary. 3 months learning.
Advanced (spoken/written): Can engage in more complex conversation or read and write more complex script, whilst still lacking the ability to detect nuance or specialist vocabulary. 1 year learning.
Fluent: Requires advanced spoken AND written. Can speak, read and write to the degree that a native speaker can. 2 years learning.
You can learn multiple languages simultaneously. But additional time needs to made per day to make that happen. Characters could in theory also pay tutors to accelerate their progress or spend more time with fluent speakers. Practicing everyday with a good teacher might enable fluency in a year for example.
Wrap up
Languages are an interesting source of problems which are a neat spanner in your GM tool kit. Throw language barriers at players, it’s a great challenge.
as a paramedic in a midsize city, language is a factor. In real life we use small kids who kind of know both languages, pointing and making faces, or just speaking very slowly and saying each word one at a time. The smartphone translation is a clumsy comprehend language spell- more like “kind of understand” can trip with a two action casting time each round
I am less familiar with the systems you mentioned - do they work on that timescale? For games such as D&D a few months of practicing one thing feels like an extremely large time sink to accomplish. I wonder if there are alternate ways to speed up the process in a way that feels rewarding.