Other languages.

Elijah · Post by **Elijah** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:01 pm

Not really sure where else to put this, so I guess this is the best place.

Is there anyway for a character to learn other languages IG other then the two you start out with? Specially if the character in question has high intelligence?

Triton · Post by **Triton** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:20 pm

I love ya...good luck

Kranek · Post by **Kranek** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:28 pm

If yer char has the right background, amybe a GM could help ya

Flux · Post by **Flux** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:32 pm

And that does not mean

"My human was brought up by elves, can I know elvish too?"

Joris X · Post by **Joris X** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:12 am

Well, what then would be the definition of "good background?" He was abandoned as a child and was led into an elfish camp, the guide who'm was used to tourism from time to time was able to help the poor human learn scraps of elvish, yet when the poor child was out hunting for his orphan-taking family, the camp vanished with traces of violence...?

...Or...

He was a merchant's kid, having to appeal to mainly an elvish crowd in their large city of *BLANK*, however the father found an elvish book containing the grammar and proper sentence structure of their language, and after learning a bit the father found that elves are more comfortable with traders speaking their own language, thus he taught his child some in order to increase sales and double his revenue. However, hard times struck the trader and his son and they set off for Gobaith. Tragedy struck later as the father slipped and went overboard during a harsh storm to the island itself, and the poor boy (or man, now) is left to fend for himself with little more than tools and scraps of merchanting goods that weren't thrown overboard along with his father during the storm???

Would those work... or am I over / undershooting here?

Elijah · Post by **Elijah** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:17 am

I was thinking more along the lines of current IG circumstances forcing a character to learn the language, not already knowing it based on background.

But alright. If that's not plausible, then it's fine.

Flux · Post by **Flux** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:28 am

Noone who isn't some kind of questchar can't just get a language for free based on their backgronud.

1d20 · Post by **1d20** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:55 am

Flux wrote:get a language for free

What if a character pays a fair amount of money to be taught?

Nalzaxx · Post by **Nalzaxx** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:30 am

How's this for backstory:

"A long time ago on the island of Gobaith, Bob came across a mysterious book that taught him the language of another race. Bob was pleased with this and spend long and hard learning the intricacies of the language. Life was good, and Bob was happy with his new found abilities. One day a mage called William Elderberry came to the island. William was a very enthusiastic mage and had many adventures with his friend Dominic. After having slain 40 dragons in one day Will and Dom found themselves tired and decided to take a rest. As they made their way back to town one of them mentioned something about these strange books which allowed a person to learn the languages of other races. William thought this was an excellent idea and so decided to purchase a copy of every kind (with his giant bag of gold from all those Dragons). Over the course of a week, Will proceeded to learn every single language the island had to offer, and then he shared his books with all his friends!

Well, needless to say, these acts did not please the Gods, and so the Gods smited them and took away all the language books. They also cursed the people of Gobaith so that they could never again learn another race's language (except with their specific blessing). Thus the lands of Gobaith, after a time, reverted to the ways of old, and the balance was restored. The Gods smiled once more and all was at peace in the land. (Although the Dragons never quite recovered from their ordeal.)

The End."

Post by **CJK** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:39 am

I seem to remember the orcs had a goblin shaman that the GM's gave the orcish language to so he could be a member of the clan.... so yeah, its your IG status that ocunts, not some back-ground story.

Post by **Estralis Seborian** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:52 am

If you want to be able to understand the language of another race with your character, ask your local druid for support. Druids can do wonders...

Llama · Post by **Llama** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:57 am

But that's only temporary

I would think.

While learning other languages was possible (and relativly easy) before - it was abused to such a degree - having people knowing all the languages in a week - that they were removed.

The idea is that [language] is for [race] to talk to each other with. While the concept of knowing multiple languages is pretty cool - I don't think its really necessary at all - unless you want to eavesdrop or something

Anyway if you have a brilliant reason , talk to your local GM. But I had a char who used to speak elvish before (bards started with it - then it was removed) - and I was told if I wanted to learn elvish again, I needed to RP a few hours of 'lessons' with another character.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:52 pm

It was extremely annoying that every orc knew the elven languague. And even worse, all the humans too ! There was, at a point, no private chatter possible amongst the races. If you make languagues learnable like that, it doesn't make sense to even HAVE different languagues at all.