Not speaking the same language

[StillyPF]

A bit of background: our group just switched GMs and the old GM is now a PC. The new GM literally teleported all our asses to a new planet in one of the biggest deus ex machina plot shifts in the history of RPGs. That's all fine and dandy since the old plot was a pain, but there is one hitch. The ex-GM's PC isn't speaking our language, any of them.

What I'm wondering is, does anyone have any creative roleplay ideas for dealing with the situation? We're running Pathfinder, so comprehend languages would be an option, but the wizard doesn't have that spell available.

tl;dr: general roleplay question, creative solution(s) to PCs not speaking the same languages

Thanks!

[KillianHawkeye]

well you can always mime things out, that should cover the basics

[StillyPF]

I agree it works for the basics; we can depict which way we think we should go. The problem comes with discussing strategy or ideas, introducing our characters and who they are, or anything remotely more complex.

[atomicpenguin]

You could try this. Its called the Mistranslator. You could try doing an unskilled language roll with this. Even though the odds of understanding perfectly aren't great, the Mistranslator can still spit out a phrase that is somewhat similar to the one you're trying to communicate. Furthermore, the odds of this happening are increased by using very simple phrases, causing your party to treat the issue similarly to if your players had a real language barrier.

[StillyPF]

The Mistranslator is fun; I'll suggest it to the GM. Two of the party members have the Lingusitic's skill. The GM's been letting us use that for partially interpretting what the odd speaker has been saying. That's outside of the, strict, skill description, but it seems a bit limited as far as its name suggests. We've gotten away with using Sense Motive a time or two as well to try and get a feeling for how the babling PC is feeling.

[TuggyNE]

You could try this. Its called the Mistranslator. You could try doing an unskilled language roll with this. Even though the odds of understanding perfectly aren't great, the Mistranslator can still spit out a phrase that is somewhat similar to the one you're trying to communicate. Furthermore, the odds of this happening are increased by using very simple phrases, causing your party to treat the issue similarly to if your players had a real language barrier.

Totally bookmarked. Much obliged.

[BWR]

If you guys really have no common language and no magic to translate, you have three options.

1. mime
2. pictoral communication
3. learn the local tongue

These are probably all going to come into play at some point. While playing charades and advanced Pictionary can be fun, it distracts from the game, so I would make it some sort of Intelligence check based on the complexity of the message being conveyed. If you are lucky, you can convince your DM to allow you to learn the language during a downtime and borrow get skill points on credit. Possibly some sort of Linguistics roll to gradually acquire the language during play.

The mistranslator is fun, but somewhat limited.

[endoperez]

There used to be a caveman roleplaying game mini-system, where each player had an inventory of 10... words. You could speak those words and "ug", but I think others understood all the words in your inventory when you say them, IIRC. Something like that sounds like it'd be fun for a session or two.

Some words are easy to figure out, and some will be figured out as time goes on, so you and the DM should agree on a set amount. For example, after first sesisons he knows your characters' names, "yes", "no", "thirsty", "food", "good" and "weapon".

After a few sessions, you can simplify it into "words with 1 syllable".

[Living_Dead_Guy]

Pay some meandering lad to point to objects and say their name. Then write them down. Point to yourself say your name, point to him and raise an eyebrow. If he doesn't get it look for someone else if he does then point to a tree then a rock. Eventually you will have a small dictionary.

I had a barbarian once that couldn't speak common and by using this method he had about 10 pages of translations by the end of the 2nd session. It was fun as me and another player developed our own language and were eventually able to speak to each other without anyone else understanding us.

[inexorabletruth]

This is actually similar to another thread here on the forum, and the solutions found there were pretty clever and would apply seamlessly to your language barrier situation.

I hope this helps!

[YossarianLives]

A few years ago my elven psion activated a trap in a dungeon that muted me for the rest of the day. It was pretty hilarious trying to mime out the villains secret plan to destroy the world.

[TheCountAlucard]

Pay a hireling a silver piece a day to just stand around and be the group's translator. It's what I suggested to the player of a Dragon-Blooded PC of my Western game when she didn't speak any languages in common with the other PCs.

[Erik Vale]

Pearl of Speech from MIC is 600gp, gives you the ability to understand and speak one language, takes up no slot, but you can only use one at a time. Ask your present DM if you can port it in, and now you can by a translater.

Though how did he make a character that didn't speak common?

[Jormengand]

You could try this. Its called the Mistranslator. You could try doing an unskilled language roll with this. Even though the odds of understanding perfectly aren't great, the Mistranslator can still spit out a phrase that is somewhat similar to the one you're trying to communicate. Furthermore, the odds of this happening are increased by using very simple phrases, causing your party to treat the issue similarly to if your players had a real language barrier.

The trouble is, missing the DC by 1 can turn the phrase:

"The rogue is attacking the goblin, who is running towards the castle."

Into:

"The brigand attack the goblin, who advances on the castle."

or:

"In contrast to the bad temper towards Goblin to attack."

And missing the DC by 19 yields:

"The thief take the goblin who to the fortification."

Which is probably more useful than the second mistranslation. Even though you missed the DC by a lot more.

[StillyPF]

We run a more linguistically realistic campaign, i.e. not everyone in the world speaks a language. As such, different races have different languages. We were all good in a country with a default language, but now that we've been transported to what appears to be another world, that's out the window.

Paying a hireling is a good idea, assuming we can find someone who speaks two languages we need.

Thanks inexorabletruth for pointing me to the other thread. I would love to have a search feature so that I could have found it myself, but I understand the complications.

[MirddinEmris]

{Scrubbed}

[StillyPF]

{Scrubbed}

Mods lack your sense of humor MirddinEmris. Google translate, and my e-mail subscription, yield: "I would suggest using pantomime or speak a foreign language which understands only speaking player" from your original Russian.

Thanks!