While I gm-ed the intro scenario I started to wonder what kind of language do Beastmen use? Having checked all the books, I found no reference to any language(s). Does everyone in the Old World speak the same language? If that is not true, how would a pc learn(or try to understand) a language other than his native, would that require Education or Folklore or some other skill (specialisation)? Feedback would be most appreciated.

There are so few skill points in this system that it doesn't make sense to require PCs to spend points on languages. Most of the time, it's GM fiat anyway if the GM wants the players to understand something, he will make sure it's in a language the PCs understand. If the GM wants the players to not understand something, he will make sure it's in a language the PCs don't understand. Which languages they have written on their character sheets doesn't matter it will be one that they don't know.

In another thread, someone came up with the idea that additional fluency in languages you would not necessarily know at all could be specializations of the Education skill, and I'm using that idea in my game.

Beastmen speak Beast Tongue, a dialect of Dark Tongue combined with the local human language and spoken with animal grunts and growls.

WFRP v1 allowed PCs to make an Int test to understand unfamiliar languages. WFRP v2 RoS discussed the Prime Language theory, which states that all languages evolved from a single original language (perhaps Old One or Daemonic). This explains why language barriers are less problematic in Warhammer than IRL. There's an article on WH languages in Liber Fanatica 4.

Beastman use the Dark Tongue with some dark runes. Don't mistake it with the Dark Tongue used by Chaos Maruders - it's a little bit something else.

Skaven used Queekish - skaven tongue.

Humans use - Reikspiel (Empire), Bretonian (Bretonia), Estalian (Estalia), Tilean (Tilea), Slovenish (Kislev)

Dwars - Khazalid and Reikspiel in contact with humans from the Empire

Elves - Eltharin (Tar-eltharin for High Elves and Fan-eltharin for Wood Elves)

Halflings use Reikspiel and Halflings tongue

Greenskin often use goblin tongue but there are also Ghazhakh (Goblins), Harghazhakh (Hobgoblins), Orrakh (Orcs), Snotgob (Snotlings)

Reptilion/Lizardman use Ssissyl'k

Ogrs - Grumbarth

Treeman use Malla-room-ba-larin, Eltharin and sometimes Reikspiel

Trolls use Orgvar.

There is also the question about FReading and wrighting. I thik that all those can be learned by players with Education. The first language players get for free in case of humans but other races get 2 languages for free so they can communicate with each other. But if a hero whants to know how tu read and write he must have Education.

Yeah in the spirit of simplicity I'd just have "Linguistics" being a specialization of Education. Done.

Thanks for the list, ffgfan! This enumerates a few of the languages which I can forgotten the names for.

Necrozius said:

Agreed. This is how I intend to handle it in my games as well.

So would Linguistics automatically grant literacy in a particular language using your plan?

I can see it working for being passing conversant in the languages, but what about reading them?

There's gotta be a happy medium somewhere.

I'm thinking along the lines of you can speak 1 language/2 full INT.

If you take Educated then you can 'spend' one of those language buys for literacy in a language. Of course, you could just buy the aforementioned Linguist specialty, which allows a check to see if you follow and can communicate in whatever language is being used, but it confers no literacy. I'm not going to use the rule to hobble the players, but sometimes its good gaming to not have a Universal Translator pinned to your chest.

So charted it would look like this:

INT 1-2: speak 1 language

3-4: speak 2 languages

5-6: speak 3 languages

Educated: literate in above languages

Linguist: skill check to converse in any unknown language (boons/banes chart to follow)

Can always buy a specialization in a specific language. 1 point for speaking, 2 points for speaking/literacy.

Thoughts, issues?

Gaah, hit submit early!

I left INT capped at 6 since that's where we seem to be capping out the PC stats. Feel free to add 1 per step above that for your house rules on stat advances or NPCs.

Your language limits are incredibly low in my opinion.

One language per 2 INT is abysmal in my experience. I speak 2 languages fluently and 2 others passably and I wouldn't consider myself above the limit of human intelligence. Everyone at my school from the borderline retarded to the valedictorian spoke 3 languages (2 of them fluently). It just doesn't hold up to my world experience. My cousin who's a translator speaks and writes fluently in 4 languages.

I think inverting the ratio (2 languages per 1 INT) or leaving it 1:1 one would be best. Also bear in mind all arcane users will need at least 1 additional language (Magick) in order to read/write spells.

The rest of it seems to make sense.

Alternatively, I'd get rid of the limit altogether and just price each additional language higher, like you would characteristics in terms of advancement costs.

1st language: 0 (free at char creation)

2nd language: 1 advancement

3rd language: 2 advancements

4th language: 3 advancements

5th language: 4 advancements

etc...

That in my opinion reflects a bit better the complexity of learning multiple languages, keeping them all sorted out keeps getting harder and harder the more you learn. Of course, some people would also argue that the more languages you learn the easier it becomes to learn an additional one, since many languages share commonalities (especially in the Old World). So it might be sensible to place an upper limit to the cost of each additional language like say 4 advancements and adjusting for making learning an additional language harder, making it:

1st language: 0 (free at char creation)

2nd language: 2 advancements

3rd language: 3 advancements

4th and subsequent languages: 4 advancements

Edit: added extra bit at end.

I'm with the "the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn new ones". When I am GM'ing, I am going to "charge" a single advance for learning the basics of a new language, no matter how many they get in totalt. However, there'll be three ranks for each language:

1 rank: beginner. The speaker can scrape by in a conversation, often being ridiculed for childish grammar and ill chosen words. The character must make skill checks for each question asked or answered, with the chaos star resulting in a horrible insult being uttered without the speaker even realising it!

Reading and writing in this language is very difficult. If the language uses a similar alphabet to the speaker's own language (or any other language he is fluent in), then a fortune dice is added. A successful check (one hammer) is needed to get the gist of the written message, bur to learn something from a book or an other written source (such as a spell or a skill), three hammers are needed. However, several attempts are possible. It takes one full hour to read a single page at this rank. Getting through a complicated book could take years.

If the alphabeth is decisively dissimilar to any alphabeth the character is familiar with (such as the difference between Imperial Script and the cyrilic-like letters used in Kislev), a check must be made for each word. This mechanic cause some humourous effects, especially for GM's who prepare their handouts using a homonym thesaurus. I know I'll try just that

2 rank: proficient. The speaker has a strong and unmistakable accent, but is capable of conversing on complicated matters and even making jokes. Reading and writing is pretty easy, but still takes twice longer than for fluent readers.

3. rank: fluent. The speakers is commonly mistaken for a native speaker, although the accent is a bit hard to place. The speaker could, however, try to emulate a certain dialect. This would require a skill check, but a single success will do the trick. Reading and writing is effortless, same as for a native speaker.

I am going to try this with a handout for my players. Let's say one character in the party has a rank 1 in some obscure language, and the party uncovers a message in just ths language, on the body of a chaous cutist beoling to a cult the party's investigating. The player character must roll a skill check, and the outcome determines just which version of the handout I'll give him:

Splendid success (three hammers) yields the original message:

• "Those who remain loyal to the glorious order are hereby commanded to proptly report at the temple in the midtstadt district. Signed, Magus T."

Normal success (one hammer) reads like this:

• "Those who remained loyal to the Precious proptly directed to report to the chapel in the Mid-City. Signed, Magus T"

That's pretty easy to understand, really. I just jused Google Translator for this result, translated between a few languages and then back again to english.

A failure should be completely unintellibible:

• "Moun ki te rete lwayal presyeuz nan proptly dirije rapò finèb la nan mitan vil-la. Siyen, T maj"

This is actually haitian creole, of which I certainly don't understand anything. Perhaps someone with a basic understanding of french will do better, I think my players should be pretty gob-smacked. Or maybe it would be better to just use a symbol font, maybe something foreboding and evil-looking if I can find one.

A chaos star, however, could maybe yield something like this:

• One of our adversaries have turned to our cause. Do not harm yellow-hair. Escort him to the cathedral in Middenheim. Signert, Mag T

Heh, I am going to have a lot of fun with this

if you are going to do a language point buy system HERO SYSTEM already has a well-thought out method for doing that, they even suggest how to group languages and reduce point costs for learning a language in a family you already know. just convert every 2 hero pints to 1 advance and you are done.

yumm, hero pints...