RPG linguistics hack
Jan. 25th, 2009 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberSo, the trouble with all RPGs that have "linguistics" skills/feats is that you pay the points that you would pay for something nifty, but in game, it's really boring to have the PCs stuck around a bunch of people who they can't talk to. (Mike S puts this well.) So having useful info in the possession of someone who doesn't speak the PC language happens maybe once or twice a campaign, if the GM remembers that Bob over there could use a bone thrown to him. "Linguistics" turns out to be as useful as "Glassblowing" but it's usually charged at the rate of "Doing spinning jump kicks".
I'm considering running a game where the PCs are international troubleshooters for something like the Carter Center, where they're going to be dealing with the hundreds of obscure languages of Africa or Asia. It occurs to me: perhaps this trouble could be fixed if you had the PCs divide up "linguistics" between them, say 60% to Bob who studied languages with the CIA, 20% to Martha who was raised by ambassadors, 10% to Jin who bounced around Asia on a merchant ship, 5% each to Sasha and Palana who will have to explain their knowledge of Yoruba if it ever comes up. Then when they're faced with a guy who's frantically explaining something in Bambara, roll a d20 and see who gets it.
Maybe have the option of someone paying a fate point to whoever wins, getting the language, and also another 5% of the spectrum from the winner's chunk to represent the buyer's bettered odds of knowing obscure languages. Or paying a fate point to the pot to get the language at a crummy me tarzan you jane level, in addition to Bob's fluency. If the PCs weren't going to agree about how to split up the linguist niche at the beginning, probably an auction would sort it fairly. And everyone gets the languages they list at the beginning which are part of their character concept.
I'm considering running a game where the PCs are international troubleshooters for something like the Carter Center, where they're going to be dealing with the hundreds of obscure languages of Africa or Asia. It occurs to me: perhaps this trouble could be fixed if you had the PCs divide up "linguistics" between them, say 60% to Bob who studied languages with the CIA, 20% to Martha who was raised by ambassadors, 10% to Jin who bounced around Asia on a merchant ship, 5% each to Sasha and Palana who will have to explain their knowledge of Yoruba if it ever comes up. Then when they're faced with a guy who's frantically explaining something in Bambara, roll a d20 and see who gets it.
Maybe have the option of someone paying a fate point to whoever wins, getting the language, and also another 5% of the spectrum from the winner's chunk to represent the buyer's bettered odds of knowing obscure languages. Or paying a fate point to the pot to get the language at a crummy me tarzan you jane level, in addition to Bob's fluency. If the PCs weren't going to agree about how to split up the linguist niche at the beginning, probably an auction would sort it fairly. And everyone gets the languages they list at the beginning which are part of their character concept.