Post/Author/DateTime	Post
KaGe_IVXX 01-02-08, 06:46 PM	In the games I DM lately things have gone a little stale with the whole "yes you know that language and understand what's being said". I've introduced players to abyssal, fiendish and celestial characters who have a very different speech patter than Common. What I'm wondering is if anyone knows a place where I can get symbols of the above languages that have been created by others. I've found drow translation tools but nothing in it's own text or symbology. Additionally I've teamed up with a friend who agrees there should be certain prerequisites to speaking certain languages. For instance, the Abyssal or Fiendish language would almost certainly require a precise rumbling, throaty evil sound. Certain spells cast in these languages may even have the effect of making a persons throat bleed or create a type of earpiercing pitch no mortal would normally be able to endure. Therefore, players walking around town talking in these languages would immediately be noticed and singled out, even to the point of panic and mass hysteria. What are some others thoughts on this? Would you incorperate these language traits into your games? Is there precidence of this discussion elsewhere I could research? Again, specifically I'm looking for symbols of Abyssal, Fiendish, Celestial, and any other fantasy languages. If anyone could help me find these I'd be grateful. Adding those symbols to maps and other trinkets introduced throughout the game make for great roleplaying tools and I'm eager to use them. Thanks, KaGe
Red_Wizards_Rock 01-02-08, 08:35 PM	I have a book that has dragon runes. I was doing a dungeon with dragon runes around it so the party started writing some of them down about halfway through, but they don't know what most of them mean so it's not doing so good for them right now. LOL In another game I used Pig Latin in town so if they couldn't understand what I was saying than they didn't know what was going on. I would roll a percent there was someone who spoke common every now and than. Needless to say everyone was doing alot of pointing and slow talking as if that was helping anything. I'm in the process of making beholder runes for a distant distant game. I'm just writing out the alphabet and than certain letter sounds like (th, sh, kh, gh) and put symbols for them. I try to keep the runes simple between 25-30 symbols. This Dragon book I bought alongtime ago had openned my mind to new ideas for language barriers so it's not so easy for my players all the time. Try this and google Anglo-saxon runes 1 = Feo ........ f 2 = Ur ......... u 3 = Thorn .... th 4 = Os ......... short a 5 = Rad ....... r 6 = Ken ....... k 7 = Geofu .... g 8 = Wynn .... w 9 = Hagall .... h 10 = Nied ..... n 11 = Is ......... i 12 = Jara ...... j 13 = Yr ........ e` 14 = Pertra ... p 15 = Eolh ...... r 16 = Sigel ...... s 17 = Tir ........ t 18 = Beroc .... b 19 = Eoh ....... e 20 = Mann ..... m 21 = Lagu ...... l 22 = Ing ........ ng 23 = Daeg ...... d 24 = Otael ...... o 25 = Ac .......... long a 26 = Asec ....... short a 27 = Yr .......... y 28 = Ior .......... io 29 = Ear ......... ea 30 = Cweorp ... qu 31 = Calk ........ k 32 = Stan ........ st 33 = Gar ......... hard g That should give you a good start on something new and an idea of how you might want to do your own runes for future.
Shadowfax7 01-02-08, 08:56 PM	Can't help with the symbols, but IMC this is how I handle speaking Celestial/Infernal. Celestial (If evil aligned, DC 15 Will save to speak or stunned) Infernal a/k/a Mabrahoring (If good aligned, DC 15 Will save to speak or in wracking pain) I don't use Abyssal, but it can have the same effect as Infernal.
Red_Wizards_Rock 01-03-08, 06:37 PM	Can't help with the symbols, but IMC this is how I handle speaking Celestial/Infernal. Celestial (If evil aligned, DC 15 Will save to speak or stunned) Infernal a/k/a Mabrahoring (If good aligned, DC 15 Will save to speak or in wracking pain) I don't use Abyssal, but it can have the same effect as Infernal. I disagree with this because those are not magical languages. The good and evil aligned magical languages are in the Book of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness. I just think of these as the broken version such as the way a high school kid speaks Spanish to someone who is fluent in Spanish
KaGe_IVXX 01-11-08, 06:24 PM	Thanks for the tips, I'll use some of those ideas in my game. About the "magical content" of certain languages (i.e. celestial/infernal) I would have to say there is some type of magic at work for use of those languages. The beings who use these languages as their primary are either born into or raised around a vast environment of magic and thus using the speech might intertwine the magical aura of the realm itself. I don't know, I could be reaching now... I do remember the section in Vile Darkness about the Dark Speech. That itself though is a purely evil speech and all rules for usage and such are posted in the book. As for the Exalted Deeds counterpart, well I haven't read thru that book so I don't know much about that one. By the way, what was the name of that Dragon Rune book you got RWR? Think I'd be able to find a copy on ebay or something? Later, Kage
ragoftag 01-13-08, 10:18 AM	Hit the library or surf the net for some off the path languages. Hawaiian uses about 2/3 the letters of English, but the words are longer (Some of the longest place names on earth are Hawaiian.) and most composed of vowels. A friend used Hebrew for taking notes in college and I know someone who is converting to Eastern Orthodox, Greek! Ban certain 'letter sounds' (no 'ch' or 'sh' sounds, or they might get their own letter) or create new sets, the 'ssss' that is often added to snake or dragonic speech might or might not be an integral part of the language. 'Yes, my Precious' might by written that way or 'Ye, my Preciou' or 'Yesssss, my Preciousss' with the excess 's's actually mattering. create extra letters to cover all possible sounds and add a few linguistic oddities like 'I before E' or the 'Q followed by U' ones. An annoying, but effective ploy (to my taste), is to shift the accented syllables within a word or sentence. 'HOW do you do?', How do YOU do?' or 'How do you DO?' can be a bit jarring, especially if the emphasis is random. This could also be the key to employing magical possibilities of the language. Just some random thoughts...
WilwarinAndamar 01-14-08, 12:49 AM	I created a homebrew villiage of Barovia (no relation to Ravenloft, except the name). 50 years before the PCs arrive, a nearby mining town had died out, and the inhabitants had to relocate. Because they were a mix of dwarves, gnomes, and humans, when they moved to Barovia, their homes/shops had their names and professions written in their respective tounges. Only those who understood the Dwarven or Gnomish languages could read it. Otherwise, the Dwarvish looked like "a string of random rune-like letters" and Gnomish was "writting that resembled chicken-scratches." If you want to use runes/symbols for maps, try looking at the alphabets of already existing languages. I've found that Japanese kanji and Chinese characters work great, because most of them are pictograms (they look like what they describe). Being a huge Tolkien/LOTR fan, I will often use the Tengwar (Elvish) letters or the Dwarven runes (found in the appendix of my copy of Reurn of the King.) Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew - all are easily found and can be used for different D&D languages.