Re: [BNW] Languages (was Weak Powers)

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>     If the players don't specifically buy the language, which is their 
>choice of
>course, they don't have the language. Very simple. Some players are gonna 
>go off
>the hook role playing languages and spy type stuff. Some players are gonna 
>say,

But...that's the problem with languages in a RPG.  You can't buy every 
language that may possibly prove useful for every adventure your GM writes. 
A GM is going to either A) build an adventure around the languages the 
players take (doesn't make much sense sending the PCs into an infiltration 
mission deep into German territory if none of them except the Translator 
speak German), or B) ignore the limitations and send them into (for this 
example) Germany anyway, and assume they have a working knowledge of German. 
  Neither one requires a Translator.

Unless the GM forces them to take languages, the players have the final say 
in what languages they speak and (to a varying degree) what adventures they 
participate in.  Most GMs that I am aware of don't cede this level of 
control ("Hah, we're not going to take Japanese so you can never send us on 
Japanese-type adventures during world war II!").  So usually they rely on 
the convenience of "transparent" language translation.

>I were running a WW2 campaign... I'd tell anyone whose an American (and 
>most
>players in America play Americans) that they can't have foreign languages 
>unless
>they justify it. It is okay to say this kind of thing to your players. It 
>IS
>okay to say, 'No you can't'. I promise, most of them won't mind.

The problem isn't limiting their ability to take languages:  it'll be making 
sure they have the languages they need to go on the adventures you design.  
Alternately, if they don't need different languages to get by in your 
campaign...what good is a Translator?

>     A hyper cinema movie is more like... Hong Kong action flicks or your
>American action movies rather than say... Red October. Movies where the 
>heroes
>always know the language, always know who to talk to and stuff like that.
>Basically, mindless action flicks where the outcome is never in doubt. A
>perfectly fine genre, everyone needs some mindlessness.
>

I understood what you mean, but it has nothing to do with the convention of 
translation in a movie, and how it functions compared to the awkwardness of 
translation mechanisms in an RPG.  Translation in _any_ kind of movie is a 
smooth, invisible effect.  Like 99% of Star Trek episodes, or a movie that 
has someone with sign language being translated for the audience's benefit, 
or subtitles.

Translation in a RPG is a long, laborious procedure that slows down game 
play and enjoyability. You can make it invisible, but if you do there is no 
reason to have a Translator as a PC.

The question here is what value does a Translator bring to your gaming 
session, both for himself and for the other players?  If he has to translate 
between players, then he slows down game play and restricts other players' 
ability to talk to each other (and in every group I've ever seen, players 
want to interact among themselves as freely as possible).

If the group is in a setting where knowledge of a language is required, 
they'll either have the language themselves (rendering the Translator 
unnecessary), or will be unable to interact for a large part with that 
environment because they don't know the language.

If the group is in setting where they don't know the language and it is 
required, but only for a single person, then they will be forced to sit 
around and listen to the Translator not just make a single die roll (like a 
Hacker or Charmer or Sneak), but role-play out conversations.

There are certainly small instances where a Translator can be played in an 
interesting manner (as noted previously, such as getting bonuses to 
Persuasion: Bluff). And certainly, if your player enjoys this role and you 
can make it work, more power to them and you.  But this hardly seems to 
warrant devoting a Power Package to them.

Hope that clarifies things.

---

Steve Crow

"Logic merely enables one to be wrong with authority."

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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