Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Aerandir 04-27-05, 10:51 AM	I think that a great way to add a little flavor to role-playing, especially in a campaign setting as rich as the Forgotten Realms, is to spice up the language. What I mean is, that in the real world, there are many things about our speech that provide more information beside just what we are saying. Accents, jargon, slang, sentence and speak structure, all add up to make unique regional twist on a language. Lets face it, a person from Great Britain sounds different than someone from Canada, Australia, or the United States. Heck, people from within the United States sound different, even though we all speak English (predominantly). I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; a city known for it’s unique slang, dubbed ‘pittsburghesse’. If you know what to listen for, you can tell if someone was born and raised in Pittsburgh, or just moved there (like I did), based entirely from their speech. What I would like to see is more role-playing of the languages. If you are playing an Elf, you should sound just like your friend across the table playing a Dwarf, and vice-versa. Think about what you say in real life, especially slang (try to avoid using your slang in a game session). I think that use of Forgotten Realms styled slang can be a great way to add a little flavor to an encounter. Think about what your character might say. Where did he/she grow up? What race are they? What would they use as a reference? Are they in a remote area with little exposure to other languages, are do they live in a more metropolotin area with a greater exposure to other languages (such as Waterdeep). Are they more inclined to use bits of other languages (such as humans), or stick strictly to their own language (such as Elves)? For example, someone from Icewind Dale might make references to snow, ice, and the local creatures and animals. So if they say to you, “Ya’ smell worse than a wet Tundra Yeti!” Trust me, it’s not a compliment. But it sound a lot better than just saying that you smell bad. They might also say, “This is nuthin’! Ya’ shad see the great blizzards of the Tundra, now THAT’s a snowstorm!” in reference to a light snowfall. Once again, that was a bit more interesting than normal. Someone from the Underdark would probably comment about the brightness of the light, and lack of darkness on the surface world. Once nighttime comes around, they will probably let you know how much better they like it now. Someone from the Dalelands might complain about the Cult of the Dragon. Someone from Nesme, would complain about the trolls. Someone from Baulder’s Gate, the recent violence caused by the thieves’ guide. Someone from Amn, the restriction on magic-users. Someone from Icewind Dale, the feuding caused by the knucklehead trout harvest. Someone from Mithrill Hall, the progress of the ore mining and goods production. What I’m trying to do, and would encourage other to do the same, is to come up with a small list of things that my character might say in a given situation. Since I’m not that skilled at making this stuff up on the fly, I like to write them down ahead of time. This is so that if I’m put in a situation where one would expect a reply (such as a curse), they’ll get a styled one that shows my character’s heritage. However you have to be careful not to use them too often, or else they become clichéd, much like in real life. So if you have any ‘catch-phrases’ of your own, please post them. When I finish my list, I’ll post mine as well.
Thig 04-29-05, 10:43 AM	It's very encouraging to see a post like this representing a feeling that roleplayers should - gasp! - ROLEplay. What you're asking for here is that more people actually think about the viewpoints of their characters, rather than coming to the table as 21st century Earthlings. I commend you strongly for that. A lot of players, though, just aren't going to make that kind of intellectual investment. The homeland of a character, in many players' minds, is just a recommended feat and equipment selection. It's unfortunate, but a reality of the difference between people who take the game very seriously (knowing that the game is much more entertaining for EVERYONE when people let go of their inhibitions and really dive headfirst into their ROLES) and those who see it as "nothing but a game." A recommendation I can make for you outside the request you have made is this: Roleplaying XP rewards. I have ALWAYS made it a practice to give XP bonuses in return for things like: elaborate story setups on character history, speaking in first person voice as your character rather than third person as yourself speaking on behalf of your character, using appropriate slang or colloquialisms from your character's culture, reacting to frightening situations with fear, ignoring the dimwad antics of the other players and reacting only to the characters' actions and remarks, extolling the virtues of the god your character venerates, giving warcries and death monologues, and the like. Further, consider these suggestions that slow down the game substantially - thou hast been warned! - : Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Perform are all major skill checks, very important to characters and the missions they find themselves embroiled in. They are also skills that every roleplaying gamer can demonstrate at the table (to an extent). Assign bonuses to players that take the initiative in demonstrating these skills. Players know when they're asking the impossible. Assign what I like to call "panache" bonuses when a player is willing to show you what his character is doing. (A side tip on this one: Which one sounds like the DM being more of a jerk - Assigning a DC of 30, or assigning a DC of 35 and giving the player a +5 bonus? Players always love bonuses, no matter why or when or from where. Show them that you'll reward their intellectual investments and they'll make those investments more often.) If a player gives you information about his character, USE it. In my homebrew world, if a character wants to play a priestlike character, I don't tell him a single thing about the deities that are available (mostly because there ARE no deities available, but that's a different story). I tell the player to define what his character believes. How did man come to be, how did he come to be in this mess, what does his deity want him to believe, where are his dead ancestors, are his dead ancestors happy or sad or ecstatic or tortured, etc. I then offer the character the opportunity to search for these Nirvanas. I have him interact (rarely) with his dead ancestors. I show him (false) omens and portents (or ARE they false? They usually lead him somewhere...) One truly invested player is worth three die rollers, and with a little creativity on YOUR part, you can inspire a LOT of creativity on THEIR parts. Best of luck to you, friend. Oh yeah, and by the way: In my Realms campaign, there is no Common language. That promotes some interesting roleplay, too: Tell the players they can't talk unless someone else shares a common language with them. Sign language goes CRAZY. :D Have a good time.
starkey 04-30-05, 07:47 PM	what drives me nuts is that all languages used the same words and structure just different alphabets. I have considered using a language translator to change the sentences then do the substitution. This would make it more difficult, but languages, for those of us that did not learn them early can be quite difficult.
ArnimThayer 05-01-05, 09:31 PM	Normally, I don't worry have to worry about these things, since I have some phenominal role-players in my group. in my present campaign, set in Cormyr. the player whose character hailed form Sembia has taken to affecting a French accent (since no one in the Dales or Cormyr likes the Sembians!). My half-orc player has chosen to use Klingon sentence structure (I can not allow this... instead of can't). The elf speaks rarely and always with a slight musical lilt in his voice. And the dwarf sounds like Wolverine, form X-men fame. Recently, they helped a dwarven delve with a duegar problem. Since some of my players still had unspent skill points, they wanted to learn dwarven. I imposed a four step INT check with a starting DC of 20, and lowering it by 5 with every success. As the bard is the only class with Speak Language as a class skill, I started his DC at 15. The half-orc also started at DC 15 since orc and dwarven share the same alphabet (Dethek), and he could already speak and write that. It had the players paying attention to the dwarves when they spoke in their own language, trying to piece out what was being said, and we all enjoyed the role-playing experience.
Laszlo Koller 05-03-05, 04:31 PM	A few follow-up questions for ArnimThayer. Would you please expand on this concept... what do you mean by a "four step INT check"? When are these checks made? And what specifically happens on a on a success/failure? Your idea sounds intriguing. Looking forward to reading more about it. ----- To address the initial post. In the campaign that I'm DM-ing, we do not use "Common" or "Undercommon" either. However, we do not use accents during play. ...I imposed a four step INT check with a starting DC of 20, and lowering it by 5 with every success. As the bard is the only class with Speak Language as a class skill, I started his DC at 15. The half-orc also started at DC 15 since orc and dwarven share the same alphabet (Dethek), and he could already speak and write that...
Bocklin 05-17-05, 06:57 AM	The way we have dealt with languages in our group is quite specific and is tied to the origins of my players. I found it quite challenging and interesting: Since we are all from different countries and speak all type of languages I tried to have a system by which hand-outs and roleplay in one FR language would always be in one real-world language that was understood by the players whose character could understand the FR language. Our campaign is (no actually "was" it finished two weeks ago, after two years) set in the Silver Marshes; and I ruled that Illuskan was the main language of the whole region (i.e. I removed Chondathan as second main language for the region). The DMing and the out-of-character discussions were done in German (although we were using English rule books; it was a funny mess) I had three players: - A German guy speaking only German and playing a ranger from the Silver Marshes - A British guy speaking both English and German and playing a Halfling from the Dragon Coast - A girl born in Germany and playing a half-elf monk from the Silver Marshes. She could speak German, English and French. Her character had learned Chondathan. Based on that, all the documents (maps, hand-outs, found or received letters, etc.) were written in the following languages: Illuskan -> German Common -> German Chondathan -> English Elven -> French If character1 had learned Chondathan, I would have started writing the Chondathan document in German. Oh, and of course we also roleplayed in the appropriate languages. If they were to meet some Elves from the High Forest the whole conversation would be led in French by the Monk with some short words being uttered in German here and then (representing the Elves' effort to also communication with the "non-People" member of the group). But I guess that such a system was enabled by the specific nature of our group and is not easily replicable. Bocklin