Utilizing The Power of Language Within Your RPG

In a recent article on Campaign Mastery, Johnn speaks to Mike about languages in your role-playing game, and their importance. You really should read it. It’s very in-depth and fascinating.

In general, I don’t put too much emphasis on languages. I’ll occasionally throw in a character who only speaks Elvish so only a few characters can speak to them, but everyone else around the table is able to hear what I’m saying, so what’s the point?

I have, however, used it in some interesting situations.

For example, the Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons supplement for 4e has a small draconic dictionary, including an alphabet. There was a creature the heroes were hunting down, which could only be killed if you spoke its true name. So I took the dictionary, translated a phrase over to draconic explaining where the creature was located and naming it (Turon, I believe). Then, I wrote it out on a piece of paper using the draconic alphabet. Dirtying up the paper to make it look old, the heroes had to translate the text to English letters, then from draconic to English.

When they weren’t able to translate the one word “Turon”, they realized they discovered the secret name of the creature they were hunting.

You can read my original post on this here. You can see pictures of the paper, as well as Bridget and Lindsay trying to translate it.

In another instance, I recently, in my online Star Wars game I’m running, had a Hutt speak to the heroes. Searching online, I discovered a Huttese dictionary, which I translated every line the Hutt spoke. The  Hutt’s translator explained what he was saying, so the heroes weren’t confused, but I think it added depth to the game. Admittedly, this is only really an option in an online game where you’re able to type, but it’s worth trying.

In one last instance, I had run a Firefly game for a little while. Only one of the players had seen the show or movie, and the rest didn’t know what they were getting into. As I explained how the language of the show worked, as well as insults and curses (“Humped, gorram, etc”) they wrote them down on the backs of their sheets. They also went through the Chinese language dictionary in the back of the Serenity RPG and wrote some words they thought they’d like to use as well. Before you knew it, two weeks into the game, they were masters, throwing out snappy one-liners in old west style language, and shouting “Ta ma dah!” at the top of their lungs.

I don’t think you have to fully get into the intricacies of the language to have a good time with it, but I do think mixing it in a little can have some great RP opportunities.