Language as a factor in a roleplay

[Chevaleresse]

One thing I've noticed about all the RPs in this section is that none of them have language as a consideration when building interactions between characters. In most of them it's understandable that it would be a non-factor, but it seems like it could easily add an extra dimension to it. Take the upcoming Ymora RP, for example. The characters could be from everywhere in the known world of Pokemon, but there isn't a single mention of language. Graterras does the same thing; despite the fact that characters are from the far corners of a vast, diverse area, everyone can easily communicate with the only barriers being distance. Wouldn't it be more interesting if, for example, the RPers ran into someone that only knew Giantish? Or an elf who refuses to communicate in any of the "tongues of lesser beings" but still understands the party? It would add that much more flavor, for another example, that a character in the Ymora RP from Kalos speaks with a thick French accent, or that the faintest hint of a regional Japanese dialect can be heard in the voice of the character from Kanto.

Just a thought.

[Aurorix]

Do I sense that reborn should make our own language! x3

Edited September 21, 2014 by EXLink32

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Graterras does have a language barrier in places, you just haven't come across it yet. Most things can speak Common, but not all, so that is not true. Keep in mind, most of the places you guys have been are primarily Human settlements, therefore they would have to know common to function within society. Most of what are called the civil races in Graterras know common as it is required for trade etc....otherwise it would be a damn mess. ((like it is hard to talk with your allies in a war if they can't speak to you. and there have been many a war in the past.)) also, if you don't remember, I did list languages most Player Characters would reasonably know in the OOC of the RP, it just hasn't had an opportunity to happen yet. And trust me, it may at some point.

[Chim]

Good point. I didn't think about that, but I see no problems why I couldn't implement it. Every region can have it's own dialect but there has to be some sort of 'main' language. After all the Academy attracts a lot of international students and it would be a problem if they don't understand each other.

[Felicity]

Murdoc, you actually called what I was gonna do with Claud in Ymora XD. His whole shtick would be that he speaks with french exclamations and will lapse into french when angry or frustrated. and is packing the accent. Each of his mons will have a french name relating to them, his cottonee being called Doux which is soft in french. As for some of the other examples, that's a whole area that I love to think about. A characters dialect and wording, as well as pace to an extent, is all a factor in how they can be perceived and, from what I can tell, is an absent minded thing that comes about in a lot of writing.

Unless it's a Scottish accent. No one can write a Scottish accent.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Tempted to do Russian cause Dragovich is my PC's last name in PA lol.

Also as much as I like the idea of a more international approach to RPing, what about fantasy RPs though? There's probably a set chart for Elvish somewhere, heck there's even Draconian for Dragons, but what about entirely new races?

[Code: PIRULUK]

Tempted to do Russian cause Dragovich is my PC's last name in PA lol.

Also as much as I like the idea of a more international approach to RPing, what about fantasy RPs though? There's probably a set chart for Elvish somewhere, heck there's even Draconian for Dragons, but what about entirely new races?

To be fair, there are like... 20 different elvish tongues flying around, including Paolini's and Tolkien's. I do believe Tolkien's Sindarin/Quenya is the most developed, though.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Tolkien's probably is the most complete by far as he made sure it was a entirely working language for the most part, same with his dwarvish language as well. However, no other races has fully fleshed out languages tot he point where you could speak them as if they were real to my knowledge. This is not something I am going to worry about doing in full in Graterras, as I am not creating an entire language for every single race that exists, because it would be a pain in the butt.

((also, I believe that in a fantasy RP there must be a common language between the entire party, otherwise it adds a super amount of annoying language barrier shit that doesn't need to be there. As in, somebody would that understands that language, if there even are any, would have to translate for everyone one else in the party that doesn't understand them, so it adds about 50 bijillion steps to conversations that don't need to be there like characters repeating other characters about 50 times. This gets really really annoying SUPER quickly, and it doesn't really add much to the game except everyone being really mad at the PC who is causing all of it to happen. In a text based situation it would get even more annoying due to how slow it can be at times. Now, in NPCs for a fantasy thing it is fine, as it can lead to some interesting things etc....but in the PC party, hell no, it is not worth it in the slightest imo.))

That entire rant is on Fantasy RPs only by the way.

[Sutoratosu]

In PSS, every cultural region did have it's own language, or one or two shared a language, long before the opening of the story. The main reason I'm trying to avoid going into that though, and prefer to use anagramic versions of english and just pass it off as "Old high tongue" is because it would actually require me to go out and learn new languages, which is something I have absolutely no time or patience for at this point.

So multiple languages did exist at one point, but they won't be having any real signifigant part in the RP's conduction unless I either change my mind about learning, or I come across a lot of new friends who are multilingual in those tongues. and since it was rediculously long since anyone even last spoke them, it wouldn't make any real sense to have all the different cultures have accents, hence why so far only Diran born individuals do.

Dirosi would've spoken Arabic and Spanish (The latter of these I actually know a bit of) depending on whether it was in the north or south

Creylish would've spoken something like old english

Zrazara would've probably been russian

Cradle would've been German

The Sword would've been latin, and so would the Cithal range.

[Flux]

I've always thought this would be interesting. I asked about using languages and language barriers back when I first started Aervana, but the idea was kind of shot down, so it never went through...