In reviewing the rebuttals to my latest post, I have to apologize.

I used some pretty big words in there and it's obvious that I lost all of you.

Merriam Webster's Dictionary might help you with that.

Pretentious douchebaggery.

On 2/25/2020 at 5:47 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

Whether you like a given movie, or show or not, it's all still canon , and therefore 100% relevant. Disliking something does not make it non-canon.

so the fact that per Canon Fett is not Mandalorian and your disliking that does not make that non canon....

On 2/19/2020 at 1:01 PM, DanteRotterdam said:

Yet I cannot recall any character in any of the movies or shows ever not understanding R2.

The people who understand R2 in the movies are C-3PO and possibly Anakin. Every time in the OT that Luke is talking to him he's obviously having a one-way conversation, just guessing at what he's asking about, or explicitly reading what he's saying on a cockpit display.

On 2/18/2020 at 2:02 PM, NokDrayen said:

Appreciate all the perspectives on this. The movies take an interesting approach. Han Solo apparently understands Shyriiwook, Huttese and whatever language Greedo speaks. But Jabba uses a translator (C-3PO) when talking to others. Luke clearly knows binary/droidspeak. And his uncle Owen seems to make sense of Jawaese.

Have you ever had players speak in an alien language (Shyriiwook, for instance) at the table?

Luke clearly does not know Binary in the OT.

On 2/26/2020 at 9:59 PM, Daeglan said:

so the fact that per Canon Fett is not Mandalorian and your disliking that does not make that non canon....

The one throw-away line that seems to indicate that is pretty obviously a "no true Scotsman" type of thing where they are desperately trying to distance themselves from the criminal/heretic.

On 6/26/2020 at 3:36 PM, arnoldrew said:

Every time in the OT that Luke is talking to him he's obviously having a one-way conversation

Strong disagree.

edit: Actually I don’t. You might be right.
Luke does end up learning to understand r2 in the sequel trilogy.

I tend to agree with @DanteRotterdam here (and not just because I live in the city of Rotterdam...). Just look at the conversation Luke is having with R2-D2 when they just made camp on Dagobah (so well within the OT). I may not be an expert on Binary, and the toots and bleeps of R2, but the sound design department, in my opinion of course, really did their best to make R2 sound different under different circumstances. The stalwart droid really does give off (the illusion of) emotions in his sound rambles.

That at the very least made the conversation seem like a two-way communication, where they both agree coming to Dagobah was not the best of ideas at that time.

On 6/26/2020 at 3:36 PM, arnoldrew said:

The one throw-away line that seems to indicate that is pretty obviously a "no true Scotsman" type of thing where they are desperately trying to distance themselves from the criminal/heretic.

Well, Boba Fett was working for Darth Vader at the same time the Empire was purging Mandalore and doing its best to make Mandalorians extinct.

47 minutes ago, Xcapobl said:

not just because I live in the city of Rotterdam

Now this is a pleasant surprise.

The best way I've seen language handled was a who GM portrayed an Ugnaught's speech as porcine squeals, while simultaneously using a text-to-voice app for his translator.

I've tried to pull it off myself, but sadly I'm not that good enough at multitasking to pull it off quick enough in a running conversation, but it works for the odd line.

4 hours ago, micheldebruyn said:

Well, Boba Fett was working for Darth Vader at the same time the Empire was purging Mandalore and doing its best to make Mandalorians extinct.

Boba = not Jango. Generally pretty hard to use a descendant of someone to argue that someone's beliefs.

For my headcanon (and this isn't really contradicted in-universe), Jango was a Mandalorian, but Boba was Dar'Manda, clearly more interested in himself than in Mandalore or his heritage, using the armor more as a prop than for its actual significance.

You could argue the same thing about Jango, but Mandalore didn't have a cause for Jango to rally to in the timeline of the movies, so that's out the windu. With Jango having died while Boba was so young, never having been to Mandalore, and then growing up in the presence of scum who kicked all the "honor" out of him, the case is fairly strong that he wouldn't really care about Mandalore or Mandalorians.

Going back to the original question, WEG actually had a Languages skill, and if I were running Star Wars under that system, I would use that skill, but under FFG, it would use either Kno: Core Worlds or Kno: Outer Rim for species that the characters might have come across while traveling. Kno: Xenology or Kno: Education for languages that the characters might have picked up through study, and Kno: Xenology for languages that has to picked up entirely by practice, and I would modify the die roll based on the characters' background and what I actually need for the story.

it's probably not something most care about, but there is a difference between translation and interpreting. I don't think Wookiees or the rest have any trouble reading/writing in Basic, so they likely don't need translators. OTOH, the X-wing seems to have Binary-to-Basic speech-to-text capability, and any datapad can likely do the same. In fact, if you're willing to "read the subtitles" then a datapad can probably be the answer to any language issue in Star Wars, not that all situations will accommodate it.

When it comes to Languages. I let players pick what languages their Characters know at character creation equal to what their Intelligence rating is.

So if you're an average 2 Intelligence. You can have your Mother Tongue and Basic. If your Mother Tongue is Basic, then you get to pick another. Etc.

Then usually in game, if they meet a NPC that speaks only... Huttese for example. (Normally I make everyone know basic, but it can be flavorful to have NPCs that only speak one language or perhaps flatly refuse to speak basic, due to prejudice.) Then the player can translate for the rest of the party, or there will be some way to translate either by droid or tool.

It can be fun however to have an NPC that they cannot understand, and have it a problem or issue that they have to work around to accomplish something in the moment.

If it's a party member, they would have had time between adventures to learn how to communicate with each other. Otherwise, there - has - to be some kind of wearable translator that can be purchased on any system with a good tech level.

11 minutes ago, SuperWookie said:

If it's a party member, they would have had time between adventures to learn how to communicate with each other. Otherwise, there - has - to be some kind of wearable translator that can be purchased on any system with a good tech level.

That's something I handwave. Allowing the character to possess a translator if they only officially speak one language but want to be understood. Often narratively built into a breath mask or something.

But if they don't want to be understood...

Lots of wild gesticulating.

26 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

That's something I handwave. Allowing the character to possess a translator if they only officially speak one language but want to be understood. Often narratively built into a breath mask or something.

But if they don't want to be understood...

Lots of wild gesticulating.

If I ever get to run a Star Wars game again, I will just have the people that tend to the Roll-play the species that can't speak, so there is a reason for them to not RP as much LOL

11 hours ago, SuperWookie said:

If it's a party member, they would have had time between adventures to learn how to communicate with each other. Otherwise, there - has - to be some kind of wearable translator that can be purchased on any system with a good tech level.

Chewbacca never bothered with a wearable translator. Neither did Jabba.

54 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Chewbacca never bothered with a wearable translator. Neither did Jabba.

Nor did Greedo.

If you want language to be an issue in games a good rule of thumb is you can speak and understand all members of your party, languages from your home world, and major galactic spoken languages. If you want to get real specific you can also know additional languages equal to your intellect.

GMs you can add 1 to 3 setback dice base in the rarity or complexity of unspoken languages to all social checks.

A player can also make a knowledge Xenology check to reduce difficulty.

GMs in the case where it is easy to insult based on language issues consider an upgrade of difficulty once.

Also consider giving protocol droids boost dice on checks as they are made for translation and protocol.

Hope this guide is helpful.

On 7/14/2020 at 1:46 AM, HappyDaze said:

Chewbacca never bothered with a wearable translator. Neither did Jabba.

Jabba is above such things... all species SHOULD LEARN HUTTESE....end of! Kapeesh? 😁

On 7/12/2020 at 2:01 PM, CloudyLemonade92 said:

When it comes to Languages. I let players pick what languages their Characters know at character creation equal to what their Intelligence rating is.

So if you're an average 2 Intelligence. You can have your Mother Tongue and Basic. If your Mother Tongue is Basic, then you get to pick another. Etc.

Tracking languages is one of those things that can lead to interesting situations when I bother with it, but that I generally don’t bother with. When I do, though, I use what you’re suggesting as my starting point.

I go a little farther, though, because Star Wars characters seem to be impressively multi-lingual, and give one language per rank in any knowledge skill. I prefer that the language each point gives to be at least loosely related to what skill, but even that’s loose, and Xenology or Education could justify nearly any language.

This is pretty much my entire rule of thumb when it comes to languages. If you couldn't tell I like writing, so enjoy all those who read my textbook.

If I have a PC who cannot speak basic, I hand wave it and say that all the PC's can understand the one who can't speak basic (unless asked otherwise, and assuming it wouldn't slow the pace of the game or hurt it in general). If a PC joins later into the campaign, and its been established that they only speak in Talz or something the party has failed to understand in the past, I would first off encourage the PC to find a way to make them understandable if you feel that it could be a problem, and if that doesn't work, give the PC's downtime to learn to understand each other (alternatively, in the name of fun, you could just say, "you all understand that language now, don't worry," assuming your PC's won't throw a riot over any inconsistencies). I also tend to allow my PC's to know maybe one or two extra languages based on their backstory though maybe not to their full extent. The gunslinging Devaronian smuggler might know at least a few buzzwords in Huttese from their various smuggling runs, which might just be enough to get by, but not enough to carry a full fledged conversation. On the other hand, the former Nightsister in your party probably understands any Dathomirian chants just perfectly fine having grown up with it.

As for NPC interactions, if PC's don't understand the language, then they probably don't understand what the NPC is saying unless they make it very clear what they need. On the flip side, if a PC speaks anything other than basic, well the same rules apply if they don't understand them. I generally rule that most of the more intelligent NPC's have at least a basic understanding of the language, and it's coin toss as to whether or not your common thug will speak Rodian or Jawanese or even binary.

If a PC asks, "can I make a check to understand them," and you allow it, I would recommend the following checks.

• Xenology: Maybe the character has done research on aliens and different cultures for a long time (or simply has been around them enough), and might have a chance at understanding the basics of what another species is saying.
• Education: I'd use this in the same way Xenology is used, except almost solely for droids. You could probably also use Mechanics or Computers, but I consider those are more "hands on" skills while Education is ones actual knowledge. You could also use this for biological languages as well, but again it's just my preference.
• Perception: Maybe the characters understand the gestures and non-verbal communication aspects of the person speaking more than their actual words. Or perhaps you smell the pheromones given off by a Zeltron trying to tell you to relax, or notice the fur spiking up on a not-entirely-sober Bothan.
• Streetwise: Almost the same as Perception, but I would use it more for interactions with the shadier side of the galaxy. Maybe the PC's run into a gang of Nikto thugs speaking in Huttese, and while they can't understand the language, they understand the gestures and hints they're unknowingly giving to the location of their storehouse.
• Skullduggery: This is also like Streetwise and Perception, more so the former, in which you notice a very specific detail (or details) giving the character key information they need.
• I'd also rule that Charm, Negotiation, and sometimes Leadership (if they're leading a group of people who can't understand them) could sometimes be used to give off a general idea of what they wanted to say to others, but I'd allow this sparingly, as ones charisma can only go so far when you're speaking to a tribe leader on a backwater planet.

And if you do decide to do this, know that a successful check doesn't mean that they then entirely understand the language, rather, they just understand what they were saying in the moment (if you feel like being generous, if they get a handful of triumph then they can understand it just fine, at least for a little bit). Otherwise, I would have them spend in game downtime trying to learn new languages. Huttese and Binary are fairly common in the galaxy, next to basic, or maybe they spend alot of time near the Unknown Regions and knowing just a tad bit of Sy Bisti might be enough to keep the Chiss from blowing them away if they can explain themselves. Despite all of this though, if a character doesn't understand a language, for me that's that, as one can't just make a skill check to speak a language they haven't heard or practiced before, and any check I allow for these is usually because the character making the check has had some sort of experience and knowledge of the language.

Lastly, if you ever feel that a PC's language barrier is slowing or otherwise hurting your game, you can always give them some sort of translating device. It could be as simple as attaching a somewhat functioning protocol droid to their back, or as complex and expensive as the helmet seen on Bad Batch member Tech. It also makes for a great reward for a PC to suddenly be able to bypass a major language barrier, so there's that.

On 2/25/2020 at 9:01 AM, DaverWattra said:

I do... That's how I feel myself, with some caveats about the weird portrayal of the Force in CW and Rebels. But I think in that case you ought to also appreciate at least one of the Disney movies.

I like Solo and Rogue One. Do those count?

On 9/1/2020 at 12:26 AM, bradknowles said:

I like Solo and Rogue One. Do those count?

Rogue One is indeed the one I was thinking of

I think if I were to insist on players listing the languages they know, I'd go with the following formula; Intellect + Ranks in Xenology and Education.

Encourage some buy in to those knowledge skills.