Do you use them?
I love them and include them whenever practical. I have a Latin primer in Roma and I think it helps out. I ask because I am thinking of a Gaelic primer for Britannia and/or a Yucatec primer for Atlantis Rising.
So, waste of space you do you want to know how to pronounce that word with too many consonants and not nearly enough vowels?
Thanks,
Bill
I like them. I don't want to learn a new language just to play a game, but if you can keep a language primer on a single page, I'll probably read it and use it.
I wouldn't really know how to write one even if I wanted to. I do have an alphabet for the Aralia language used in A Song in the Dark, but mostly it was created for graphics purposes. The language itself is just Sumerian, but with an ad-hoc grammar, basically the equivalent to "Dog Latin".
It would be a handy resource but, I don't really feel qualified to write the language, or even a decent grammar that could be grafted onto the existing lexicon.
I use a German/English dictionary for a bit of added flavour in WFRP, and am planning on buying a Russian/English one for my forthcoming slavic dark age campaign.
I like 'em. Idealy I'm looking for four features:
- Forign language words that that can be sprinkled into conversations to remind everyone what language the characters are speaking. Usualy a greeting, a farwell and the words "is" and "and" are sufficient.
- Shiboleths that identify the speaker's origin, class, race etc....
- Defiant jingoisms. Fight'n words. Something like "You'll never take OUR FREEDOM!" "Death to the false Emporor!" or "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!"
- Cuss words: "Frag!" "Shiver me timbers!" "Roleplay not rollplay" or "Highly illogical."
I love that stuff.
If I can I like to include what I know. As someone else said. I'm not going to learn a new language. But I like using words, phrases. Stuff like the slang in shadow run I love. So ka omae.
Quote from: DagobahDaveI like them. I don't want to learn a new language just to play a game, but if you can keep a language primer on a single page, I'll probably read it and use it.
I should have said, yes, this is always my goal and really the only version I find useful (besides dictionaries). The primer in Roma is one page. Much as others in the thread have mentioned, ways to cuss, some phrases and a pronounciation guide.
I just wondered if I was weird for liking this kind of flavor in my games.
Thanks,
Bill
I haven't seen much language primers, but most of the time they were about a certain English or faux-English dialect (hard-boiled detective slang, Dickensian almost-Cockney etc.), which obviously doesn't really work that well at a German gaming table ;)
If I'd play a game set in ancient Rome, of course the occasional Latin phrase would find their way to the table. Although my fury would be limitless if some smart-ass player insist on correct declination.
Generally, language is a different part for most games, due to the fact that we're usually not speaking the same native language as the designers. I have no problems with English rule terms. Playing D20, although some people have the German versions, we generally use "Move Silently" instead of "Leise bewegen" or something similar -- unless we don't paraphrase it anyways. This might be influenced by the fact that I as the DM only have the English books and generally abhor most translations done past the 60s...
It does get kinda annoying when you've got too many English terms in the names of places or weird titles. That's one of the nice facts about Kalamar, where everything sounds weird, but at least it sounds weird to the whole world... Strangely enough this doesn't matter that much for some settings. I don't have any problems with English names in the Iron Kingdoms, as it's a bit more modern, but for Generic Fantasylands, I avoid Joe the farmer, living in Shitshoveler Village.
I like them in small doses. The Chinese slang in the back of the Serenity book was too much. The naming references in many of the L5R products are cool, and definitely add flavor to the game.
Also, if a game includes a particularly foreign/alien name or made up word, I like a phonetic spelling to be included to avoid needless pronunciation arguments.
Tricky business, glossaries and primers. Actually using a foreign/fantasy language to any extant in the game beyond handwaving requires a touch of foresight.
For example, Shadowrun has been fairly consistent in its use of Sperethiel (Elvish), despite changes in writers, editions, and companies, but a glossary for the language has only been printed once in SR (and another instance in ED), and all future developments have been based off that original material.
As opposed to D&D, which for various reasons-not least having a truly massive number of books, writers, editors, editions, gameworlds, etc.-has several different versions of various fantasy languages, none of which see widespread use in the product (i.e. people write Draconic down on their character speech but rarely try to pepper their speech with any of it).
But again, you have to look at what people are trying to do: the makers of D&D are not interested in creating a single cohesive setting, so the responsibility for keep fantasy languages consistent within any given gameworld falls on the writers for that setting; whereas the authors of Warhammer are very interested in keeping a cohesive, well-defined and self-referencing setting.
I generally drop a few bonuses on players brave enough to try a good accent or Victorian slang or Ewok utterances, or whatever. It's fun.