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View Full Version : Problem about spell translations...



Maralais
2011-01-31, 07:23 AM
So you see, I live in Turkey and I have a small party where I DM a pathfinder game. We've got a cleric, a wizard, a ranger and a barbarian. All seems fine, except for one thing: I am the only one who understands the core rulebook. Everyone else? Their English is terrible, and they don't even try to understand ability descriptions etc.

Well, that's not much of a problem for the ranger and the barbarian(as I can translate their low amount of abilities), but things get cheesy when it gets to the cleric and the wizard.

They've got tons of spells. TONS OF IT. Especially the cleric. So if I try to translate every single cleric spell that the cleric will learn... It will be quite a drag.

Is there any other way to play with this English-disabled party except for "translate every bloody thing they will use, and in the end create a Turkish Player's Handbook"?

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-31, 07:25 AM
Institute a house rule that you can't play full casters unless you can read English.

Maralais
2011-01-31, 07:31 AM
That seems... Interesting. And I actually think they might start to improve their English, just for the challenge :D

But in that case, what about the need of a healer?

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-31, 07:33 AM
Rangers can use Wands of Lesser Vigor. This is all you need for a healer.

Analytica
2011-01-31, 07:33 AM
Automatic translations like google translate are never even close to perfect, but perhaps they can at least speed the work up for you?

PersonMan
2011-01-31, 08:20 AM
Automatic translations like google translate are never even close to perfect, but perhaps they can at least speed the work up for you?

+1.

Slightly different problem for me, German rather than Turkish, but if you use an online SRD you can auto-translate stuff. It'll be weird, but you'll answer some questions rather than having to do the whole thing.

Kaww
2011-01-31, 08:24 AM
This is basically a rip of of Yuki_Akuma's post.

This is not a part of your job. You shouldn't lose half a session or half your day translating things for them. Tell them to pick up a dictionary and do it themselves. If they are not willing to do this tell them to play fighters classes with most abilities predefined.

Maralais
2011-01-31, 09:00 AM
This is basically a rip of of Yuki_Akuma's post.
If they are not willing to do this tell them to play fighters classes with most abilities predefined.
oooh boy, I think fighters are the fourth(after tier 1 classes) hardest class to translate due to the huge number of feats:smallbiggrin:

Did tell the folks to either be prepared to read descriptions or play something else though, am waiting for a response.

Kaww
2011-01-31, 09:04 AM
oooh boy, I think fighters are the fourth(after tier 1 classes) hardest class to translate due to the huge number of feats:smallbiggrin:

Did tell the folks to either be prepared to read descriptions or play something else though, am waiting for a response.

That's why I scratched it. First thought was fighter and then 1000 feats hit me in the head...

kme
2011-01-31, 09:07 AM
There is also another option, but it is not short term. Convince them to play D&D based video games such as Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate etc. If the game picks their interest, they will find themselves slowly learning both rules and English :smallbiggrin:.