Lessons from TV: Languages

D&D handles language in about the worst way possible. Characters either speak a language or they don't, which means that whenever a communication-based challenge comes up it is either trivial or impossible. Either way, it's dull - to the point where everyone who speaks should just speak Common. Seriously.

The way that languages should be handled is shown, again, in "Stargate". This time, it is the movie that is the best example, although the TV series provides some significant advice also.

In Stargate, one of the key PCs is Daniel Jackson, an expert on Egyptology. When the party pass through the gate, they find themselves in an alien world, with few points of reference. And, of course, when they meet the natives, they can't communicate.

Except...

The language that is spoken is derived from the same source as the heiroglyphics, which which Jackson is familiar. And so, right at the outset he is sort-of-but-not-quite able to make out the words. He is thus able to master basic communication from the outset.

However, the key comes later, when Daniel's wife shows him to her people's forbidden writings, which are in essentially the same heiroglyphics. And, working from that, Jackson is able to learn the language, and thus communicate. (Of course, this is unrealistically quick, but otherwise it would be a crap film.)

And I'm pretty sure that that's the way that languages should work - when characters are operating in their 'home' region, they should basically be able to communicate - speaking, reading and writing. (And, in the case of elves, they should just know Elvish, or whatever.)

Occasionally however, whether due to them moving to another land or meeting another people, the party should encounter a group (or writing, whatever) with whom they can't communicate easily. In this case, communication should be done using the Linguistics skill, initially allowing only basic communication.

Finally, once enough time has passed (basically, once the language-based challenge has ceased to be fun), the various characters should just be assumed to have learned enough of each other's languages to communicate reasonably well - and then you stop worrying about it until next time.

(This also allows for ancient languages to be a key factor in the game, where the difficulty of the language sets the DC of the Linguistics check, and the text can then be translated over time. That doesn't work with D&D as-is, since characters can either read the text straight off, or they can't read it at all. And it's a good thing if PCs can sometimes read those ancient scrawlings in the dungeon - it ties nicely into the three-clue rule if the password for the trap is written beside the trap in a foreign language.)

Now, the SG-1 series very rarely brings up the issue of languages, at least in a spoken form. This highlights a very important factor: language challenges should be rare, at least where they concern communicating with NPCs. The reason for this is that it cuts down on options - if the PCs and the orcs have a common language, then they can talk or they can fight. If they don't share a common language, that just makes the fight that much more likely.

So, in short:

• Specific languages should be replaced with a Linguistics skill.
• Unless there is a good reason otherwise, most creatures that speak should speak Common.
• All manner of clues can then be hidden away in foreign languages, allowing for an actual challenge in finding them, rewarding PCs who specialise in languages, without rendering them down to a trivial/impossible dichotomy.