Is there a way to make "alternative speech" not obnoxious?

[SangoProduction]

I am currently playing Legendary Planets, which features the characters being captured from different fantasy worlds. So, unless you by some coincidence shared some universal languages (not Common) between you, then complex communication is out of the question.
We then got a universal translator NPC. Strange, but OK.
It was relieving to get to actually talk to the other party members... The first time. Still kind of interesting the second time. By the third time it was already at "just assume we're translating this through her."

Yeah. Simply talking indirectly, and then having the GM repeat what was said... doesn't really add anything to the conversation. Unless the translator was not completely compliant, or is occasionally not there to translate, perhaps. I do sort of like the concept that such a simple mechanic as communication could be targeted and taken out. Conceptually at least.

Anyway, yes. Point being: Obviously the translation deal is going to be obnoxious, and soak more Real time than it contributes to fun. Sort of like how a 5 mile trek only takes maybe a minute of real time, unless something eventful happens.... which is... I guess... is actually a pretty good analogy for the translator... STAY ON TOPIC! BRAIN! STOP!

But it not contributing anything is not necessarily always true for other "alternative speech," like using illusions or quirks of speech. At least when it's occasional. If you're talking all the time, and preface every single sentence...

OK. I think I answered my own question. Should I still post it? I dunno. If you're seeing this, then I've decided I will.

[False God]

The answer is no, there really isn't.

You either get a Universal Translator of some form (a person, a device, nanobots, whatever), or you say "somehow these alien worlds all have at least one common language!"(A and B share Dwarvish, C & A share elvish, etc...) and make a translation chain or you just ignore it.

It's interesting to have language barriers, but it's difficult in play.

[RandomPeasant]

There's a reason Sci Fi TV shows always have people speaking a shared language and gloss over translation problems. It can be fun as a one-off if you do something cool with the language issue (like Darmok in TNG), but in general it's going to be more hassle than it's worth.

[Psyren]

It was relieving to get to actually talk to the other party members... The first time. Still kind of interesting the second time. By the third time it was already at "just assume we're translating this through her."

Genuinely not sure what else you were expecting to happen :smallconfused: most games have a "Common" tongue for a reason.

With that said, and to answer your topic question directly - language barriers can indeed be important in play without slowing the game down to the point where they are instantly set aside.

One common example is where only the PC who can actually speak X, gets to interact with the NPC who only speaks X - regardless of whether that PC is the designated "face" or not. Our orc barbarian has caused diplomatic negotiations with the goblin king to break down more than once, because only they speak Goblin/Orc.

Another example is where the only PC who can speak or read X has their own agenda. Say our Tiefling warlock negotiates with a devil on behalf of the party, but wrangles himself a slightly sweeter deal than everyone else, while we are none the wiser. Sure we were suspicious at that guy and the GM rapidly passing a flurry of notes back and forth, but we couldn't prove anything...!

[JoeNapalm]

There are some multi-planar languages.

Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial, probably Draconic, etc...

Also Ignan, Aquan, Auran, Terran probably a bit less so, but still cross-planar.


-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[tomandtish]

There's a reason Sci Fi TV shows always have people speaking a shared language and gloss over translation problems. It can be fun as a one-off if you do something cool with the language issue (like Darmok in TNG), but in general it's going to be more hassle than it's worth.

Yeah, remember Stargate? Everyone spoke English despite the fact that human slaves stopped being taken from earth by the Goa'uld a couple thousand years before English was even a gleam in anyone's eye.

I believe they started theorizing at one point that the Stargate provided translation ability when passed through.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If everyone has a chat program available and the DM has multiple chats open for information segregation, this could be somewhat doable, but doing so through hand-written notes? No, thank you.

Of course, this is a given for online games, but it's less sure for RL games.

[RandomPeasant]

Yeah, remember Stargate?

Exactly. No one wants ever episode to have a "Daniel works out a pidgin language with the natives" montage before the actual plot can happen. Doing translation difficulties once can be fun, but it's really hard to make it exciting and different enough to justify doing it for every new culture. Especially since you can get most of the good plots for it from just differences in dialect or colloquial usage between cultures.

[Toliudar]

Another example is where the only PC who can speak or read X has their own agenda. Say our Tiefling warlock negotiates with a devil on behalf of the party, but wrangles himself a slightly sweeter deal than everyone else, while we are none the wiser. Sure we were suspicious at that guy and the GM rapidly passing a flurry of notes back and forth, but we couldn't prove anything...!

C'mon Psyren, admit it: you were the warlock, weren't you?

[RexDart]

Exactly. No one wants ever episode to have a "Daniel works out a pidgin language with the natives" montage before the actual plot can happen. Doing translation difficulties once can be fun, but it's really hard to make it exciting and different enough to justify doing it for every new culture. Especially since you can get most of the good plots for it from just differences in dialect or colloquial usage between cultures.

That was also a problem on Enterprise, where Hoshi, one of the main characters, was a linguist in a specifically pre-Universal Translator time period. So language difficulties, etc. would presumably be great sources for dramatic stories, etc. IIRC, about 10 episodes in, everybody was just speaking English like they do in every other Star Trek show.

I think you can have a maximum of about 2 hours of linguistics-based drama before a general audience gets tired of it. The movie Arrival is probably about as far as you can go down that road.

[RandomPeasant]

I think you can have a maximum of about 2 hours of linguistics-based drama before a general audience gets tired of it. The movie Arrival is probably about as far as you can go down that road.

I would say that it's more that it's hard to come up with multiple linguistics-based scenarios that feel compellingly different. There's a thousand different versions of "we've arrived at the planet and there's a moral conundrum" or "there's a monster terrorizing the town" or "someone committed a crime", and you can run a TV show that does each of those once a week for a decade. It's much harder to think of multiple scenarios based off "we speak a different language from them". There are some you can do, like Darmok or Arrival, but it's just not a deep enough area to support that many stories.

[Bohandas]

It makes it easier to write poetry used in the game. You can just write anything and say that it rhymes or has meter in it's original language