Potential idea of mine for a campaign I am running, please comment.

[vampire2948]

Hey all,

I'm running a short-ish (though it might be quite lengthy if the next DM in the line doesn't try very hard on getting his setting finished) campaign for 5 or 6 members of my D&D group.
The setting will be centered around an oriental part of my world, with a lot of things drawn from the Oriental Adventures supplement.

Anyway, one of the characters is not from the Orient, so I had the following idea:

Since I will be giving knowledge to characters in the form of notes (when only their character learns of something), I thought I might write some of the notes in Japanese, or partial japanese.
No one in my group has any knowledge of japanese (beyond basic terms that were gleaned from anime).

I would, of course, lower the amount of japanese as the campaign progresses - to show that the character is picking up the language as he spends time amongst native speakers.

So, interesting roleplaying device? infinitely annoying jerky DM thing? something inbetween?


Thanks for your time,

Vampire2948,

[valadil]

Depends on your player. I'd enjoy something like that. Others would be frustrated.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

I think it's a good idea. It certainly stops pplayers casually reading things that they shouldn't.

Are you planning to use the ideographic characters, or the transliterating ones? (I forget what they're called - my wife speaks Japanese, not me.)

If you're just transliterating, the characters could be effectively decrypted, by checking character frequency and so on. The ideographic characters would be really hard to use without knowing them properly, as far as I am aware.

[The Neoclassic]

Depends on your player. I'd enjoy something like that. Others would be frustrated.

Agreed. If the player is a roleplaying-oriented, new-info-finding sort, he'll probably like the creativity behind it.

[vampire2948]

The sole non-oriental character's player isn't very good at roleplaying. He doesn't try, at all.
I intended to use this as a means to maybe make him try a bit harder?

I'd probably use the Kanji symbols to substitute certain words.
The idea is that it will not be possible for his character to learn some things from others, due to his lack of ability with the language, which will go away with time.

The intent is to tell him some plot moving stuff, but 'encrypt' certain parts of it. So that he can either try to work out the gaps for himself, or I can reveal the meaning of the characters as the plot goes on, if they're not making much progress.


Vampire2948,

[Tiki Snakes]

The sole non-oriental character's player isn't very good at roleplaying. He doesn't try, at all.
I intended to use this as a means to maybe make him try a bit harder?

I'd probably use the Kanji symbols to substitute certain words.
The idea is that it will not be possible for his character to learn some things from others, due to his lack of ability with the language, which will go away with time.

The intent is to tell him some plot moving stuff, but 'encrypt' certain parts of it. So that he can either try to work out the gaps for himself, or I can reveal the meaning of the characters as the plot goes on, if they're not making much progress.


Vampire2948,

I like it as an idea. Given that it's basically you investing extra time and effort in his character, he's really got no reason to complain. That might not stop him, I'm sure we've all experienced ungrateful gamers before, but I still say go for it. :)

[RiOrius]

...so why wouldn't he put one rank in Language (Japanese) almost immediately? Isn't that enough to learn the language, by RAW?

[Lycan 01]

I like it.


Although, he may not like it so much, as he may view it as a solution-less puzzle or something, due to his lack of roleplaying interest or skill.

[Pyredup]

I agree that the idea is pretty neat. I wouldn't make any of the notes especially critical to that player's success, however, so if he doesn't care for it or feels cheated it won't be like he missed something very important.

[The Neoclassic]

...so why wouldn't he put one rank in Language (Japanese) almost immediately? Isn't that enough to learn the language, by RAW?

It is, but that doesn't mean he'll automatically understand all the cultural subtleties. So, he might read something and while he techically knows what the word means, he might entirely lack a grasp of its significance or place in culture. Hence, just spending one skill point won't realistically solve all of his comprehension woes.

[Eldariel]

It is, but that doesn't mean he'll automatically understand all the cultural subtleties. So, he might read something and while he techically knows what the word means, he might entirely lack a grasp of its significance or place in culture. Hence, just spending one skill point won't realistically solve all of his comprehension woes.

Then again, knowing a language also involves understanding the thinking the language requires and emphasizes so that rank would go a long way towards keeping the cultural aspects straight too.