Fantasy Languages

Post by **jhr4n** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:50 am

I have added 3 fantasy languages to the module, Elvish, Dwarven, and Orcish.

To use them, you speak commands into either party chat or the DM channel. Which channel you pick is up to you. To attempt to speak a langauge you say a command followed by a space and then the text you wish to speak. The commands are "!elvish" "!dwarven", and "!orcish" (all commands begin with a "!".

For example, you could type:
/dm !elvish Hello, I am an elf.
/dm !dwarven Damn another one of those snooty elves
/dm !orcish Yummy, elf and fwarf for lunch again.

When you use it you will say a line of gibberish. People near you who understand the language will get translations sent to them.

Mechanics: You have a number (0-100) which respresents you skill:
0 - All gibberish to you
10 Recognize the language, but can't speak or understand
30 You can understand pieces but not the whole thing
50 You can attempt to speak it
70 Perfect comprehension but people will know it isn't your 1st language
90 You are fluent and can speak it as easily as a native

Races start with their starting languages at 90 (Elves speak elvish and so on). Half-elves get elvish at 70. Half-orcs get a full 90, but I will probably change that to 70, I don't know.

Currently you can not learn new languages but something is in the works. If you have any great ideas post them. Right now I am thinking of putting books into chests, maybe some quest rewards, etc. I thought it better to let people play with it even though there is room for improvement. If you have any languages you would like to see added, post them (Drudic is allready in the works)

Post any problems, ideas, or suggestions here.

Kell · Post by **Kell** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:01 am

In D&D, the number of languages known at lvl 1 depends on the intelligence modifier. Couldn't something like that happen too?

Peregrinus · Post by **Peregrinus** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:02 pm

I'd like to see draconic, give it to wiz and sorcs to use as the magic language (as it commonly is).

I'd also suggest setting everyone's knowledge of a language at 10, most people can at least recognize different languages by ear if they are common languages (which these are)...

Vahene · Post by **Vahene** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:17 pm

If you were to type !elvish, do you type it again to switch back to regular speech?

-K

Kell · Post by **Kell** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:19 pm

Well, Japanese and Chinese all sound the same to me. I can recognise them both as odd languages, but can't tell the difference.

So for an untrained ear, it often sounds the same.

Brigadier Syndir Isendur · Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:22 pm

Dang that's sweet!

I have a couple suggestions. First would it be possible to have an on/off switch, so you do not have to preface everything with !language? And secondly, it would be nice if actions between *'s did not get translated.

For example:

Tura Celairistannen speaks...
!elvish
I understand he is a Kingseeker initiate, Shalandra.
*looks at Falson*
But, I do not trust the man.
I've heard rumors that has dealings with Kell.

Shalandra Velvax speaks...
!elvish
I have no reason to be suspecious of him.
But, keep an eye on him.

Tura Celairistannen speaks...
!common
As you wish.

Falson hears...
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah.
*looks at Falson*
Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

As you wish.

Brigadier Syndir Isendur · Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:38 pm

Sweet Jesus, this is golden!

I just spent 1/2 hour running around the village talking to myself in different languages.

J's the man!

Kell · Post by **Kell** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:46 pm

Brigadier Syndir Isendur wrote:Sweet Jesus, this is golden!

I just spent 1/2 hour running around the village talking to myself in different languages.

J's the man!

How to entertain Rob

Do you always talk with yourself?

Brigadier Syndir Isendur · Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:55 pm

Ooops, Borf broke it. It's not working anymore.

And no, I do not always talk to myself.

Yes you do.
Hey, mind your own business.
Geez, don't get all defensive. Plus, this is my business.
Can't argue with that logic.
Friends?
Friends.

*self hug*

Peregrinus · Post by **Peregrinus** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:06 pm

Kell wrote:Well, Japanese and Chinese all sound the same to me. I can recognise them both as odd languages, but can't tell the difference.

So for an untrained ear, it often sounds the same.

Well, yes, but those two languages are related. But could you tell the difference between Chinese and Italian and Swahili?

Kell · Post by **Kell** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:09 pm

Probably yeah, you're right.

Crimson Knightmare · Post by **Crimson Knightmare** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:29 pm

Damn i guess Delador has to be careful when he insults those who think they are a true elf but to much human rubbed off dem...

Post by **jhr4n** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:53 pm

Kell wrote:In D&D, the number of languages known at lvl 1 depends on the intelligence modifier. Couldn't something like that happen too?

I do want to tie in INT, I am just not sure that is the way to go. I would need more languages for that to be a good option. Also, I would like learning a new language to be a cool thing, not -quite- so easy. I'm still brainstroming though and I appriciate the ideas so keep them coming.

I was thinking maybe your max number of languages could be tied to INT instead, or maybe, in order to level-up in a new language you have to make a INT check to level up in a language.

Peregrinus wrote:I'd also suggest setting everyone's knowledge of a language at 10, most people can at least recognize different languages by ear if they are common languages (which these are)...

Hm. Yeah ok. How about, if your int is 10 or better, you get 10 points in the "common languages" such as elf, dwarf, and orc.

Brigadier Syndir Isendur wrote:First would it be possible to have an on/off switch, so you do not have to preface everything with !language?

I don't think so. Right now I am using the ! notation on every line because it's something like 20x faster to pattern match in the engine than it would be to match in the script. I know what you are gettting at though. I'm kinda waiting to see how much of a pain it is once we all get used to it. If it is still annoying maybe we can have it toggle into translation mode for 5 min (and then toggle off on a timer to save CPU). But I'm kinda hoping that people won't mind too much after a while.

Oh, and thanks for you kind words :) I'm glad you enjoy it. This is the kind of silly stuff I love ;p

Peregrinus wrote:I'd like to see draconic, give it to wiz and sorcs to use as the magic language (as it commonly is).

Hm, thats another good idea. (Pointless aside, standard D&D I think only wizards get it as a bonus language though, not sorc). I'm kinda leaning away from using standard PHB rules for this, because I think it would be cooler as a chest item or quest reward type thing.

I would kinda like to making speaking Draconic a bit of a accomplishment, maybe a quest reward or something, because Draconic is too cool to just pick from a menu.

Any other ideas just keep them coming. I'll take anything I can get.

Kell · Post by **Kell** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:05 pm

How about you find a book in a chest and you can make an int check to see if you can try to learn from it yourself? Afterall, that's how you can learn from libraries and all. You sit down and study it.

I'm thinking some wisdom should come into it too really, because no matter how smart you are, if you're too thick to see the connection between words, you'll always speak with an accent or some other problem, heheh.

JaeEleutheria · Post by **JaeEleutheria** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:47 pm

What exactly could be done if i have created one character to be semi-fluent in dwarven and elvish because she's a merchants daughter, but since she's a human so that may not exactly work as well?

I mean I created Jae with knowledge in those languages for more of a roleplay flavor, and i guess this new addition may make that roleplay a little difficult.

I will gladly figure out a way to work with that of course, it was definately neat walking around with my dwarf and talking in dwarven.