The following text is © 2024 by Frank Mitchell. All rights reserved.
Note: These rules are a work in progress.
The optional rules below adapt some of my language rules to OpenQuest.
Language Levels
This option is appropriate in settings with numerous languages, or when players and/or the Referee don’t want to deal with Language checks.
Instead of treating languages like skills, languages have only five levels of fluency.
- None: It’s all Greek / Chinese / Klingon / Volapük to you.
- Beginner: Knows a few words, maybe can put them together.
- Intermediate: Can make themselves understood in most situations, but ignorant of idioms, proverbs, specialized jargon, and cultural references.
- Fluent: Speaks idiomatically, with a noticeable accent and occasional mistakes or lapses in knowledge.
- Literate: Can read the language, knows its literature.
Players know their native language at Fluent. The Referee may grant a fixed number of additional Intermediate languages at character creation, based on how many languages are in the starting area and/or setting.
Further languages cost Growth Points:
Language Level | Growth Points | (Total) | Equivalent Skill | % | Skill Growth Points1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | None | - | - | 0% | 0 | - |
1 | Beginner | 0 | (0) | INT | 10 | +0 |
2 | Intermediate | 3 | (3) | INT + 20% | 30 | +5 |
3 | Fluent | 4 | (7) | INT + 40% | 50 | +8 |
4 | Literate | 10 | (17) | INT + 70% | 80 | +20 |
Languages Skill
(This is based on “The ‘Understand Languages’ Test”.)
This option assumes the PCs travel a lot, or the campaign area has a number of mostly similar languages. The character therefore picked up bits of a lot of languages prior to the adventure’s beginning. The question is how much of each language they happen to have picked up.
The system also assumes a character fundamentally either knows a language or they don’t.
Instead of multiple Language skills, PCs have a single Languages (plural) skill, which begins at (INT + CHA)% and may increase like any other skill. The character sheet also has room for a list of languages the PC knows and a list of languages they don’t. Initially the player has only their native language and perhaps a religious or secondary language among their Known Language list, and nothing in their Unknown Language list.
When the player encounters a language not on either list, they make a test of their Languages skill:
Result | Effect | Language Level |
---|---|---|
Critical Success | Reads and writes the language | Literate |
Success | Knows the language fluently. | Fluent |
Failure | Knows of the language and maybe a few words. | Beginner |
Fumble | Never even heard of the language. | None |
The player rolls only once for each language for the remainder of an adventure, and puts it either in the Known or Unknown list. During downtime they clear their Unknown Languages list and may try again next adventure.
Rarity Levels
The Referee may allow the following modifiers based on how common the language is.
Level | Modifier | Label | Description |
---|---|---|---|
≥ +5 | +100% | Ubiquitous | Everybody born in this world knows this language, why don’t you? |
+4 | +80% | Language Group modifiers only. | |
+3 | +60% | Language Group modifiers only. | |
+2 | +40% | Language Group modifiers only. | |
+1 | +20% | Common | A common first language in this part of the world. |
0 | 0% | Uncommon | A second language in this part of the world or a first language in a major nation or region. |
-1 | -20% | Rare | A language from a small or distant region. |
-2 | -50% | Very Rare | A vanishing language almost nobody speaks. |
-3 | -70% | Extinct | A dead language used only by scholars, ancient inscriptions, and secretive cults. |
≤ -4 | -100% | Unknown | Not even scholars know this language; why do you? |
If the language is Very Rare, Extinct, or Unknown, the Referee may first require the player to provide a backstory on how they learned this language. Failure to provide a convincing story counts as a Fumble.
Language Groups
(This is based on “Language Groups”.)
For a more detailed and complex treatment of language relationships, the Referee may classify the languages in the game world into “groups” which represent related languages. Each group contains a list of languages and the degree of their relationship.
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Dialect: All languages in the group are non-trivial but mutually intelligible dialects2 of each other.
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Close: All languages in the group share enough vocabulary and grammar that one can sort of understand other languages in the group if one knows one of them.
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Related: All languages in the group share enough vocabulary and grammar that knowing one helps in learning another.
Languages may belong in multiple groups. For example, Dutch and English might be considered Related, Scots and English are Close, and English in North America and Northern England are Dialects.
In OpenQuest, players can use these groups to understand new languages and save on the costs of learning languages within the same group:
- The Player Character can use a related language skill at a default.
- The Player Character can use the default level as a basis for learning the language formally using Growth Points.
- If using Language Levels above, the PC already knows the language at a number of steps lower.
- If using Languages Skill above, the PC can reduce
the Rarity penalty by a number of steps.
- The Referee may prefer to grant language Similarity only one level of difference, rather than +1 to +3.
Similarity | Default | Language Levels | Rarity Levels | Rarity (alt.) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dialect | Language - 20% or INT + 20% | -0 | +3 | +1 |
Close | Language - 50% or INT + 10% | -1 | +2 | +1 |
Related | INT + 10% | -2 | +1 | +0 |
Literacy
In the rules as writen, a Language skill of 80% or more means a character is literate in that language. (OpenQuest 3rd edition, Mar 2023, p. 45).
The following options bring a little more realism (and some complexity) to the game representation of written languages and literacy.
Higher Literacy Rates
In some settings the Referee may lower the literacy threshold to 50%, or even rule that a player character can read every language they can speak. In settings closer to the modern era, for example, education becomes more freely available and many people learn to read as children.
Literacy Cost
Instead of a skill threshold, the Referee may charge a flat number of Growth Points (say, 20) for literacy in all languages the character speaks.
Literacy Skill
For simplicity, the Referee may create a single skill, Literacy, which represents the ability to read and write any language the character speaks.
Written Language Cost
The Referee can charge a flat number of Growth Points (e.g. 5 to 10) for literacy in each language separately.
Written Language Skill
The Referee may rule that reading and writing a specific language is distinct from speaking it, and therefore some (or all!) languages require both Language (X) and Language (Written X) skills, or their equivalent. Literacy may therefore require a threshold value (50% to 80%) in Language (Written X) or Language (X/Y) where Y is the name of a writing system for transcribing X. (See also the Complex category, below).
Written Language Categories
(This is based on “Written Languages”.)
Each written language generally falls into one of the following categories. Representing languages in some categories may require the Referee to bend the normal rules for Literacy.
Normal
A Normal written language (almost) perfectly represents the spoken language phonetically.
Real World Examples: modern Korean, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic.
Real World Counter-Examples: ancient vs. modern Greek.
In this case use the standard rules for Literacy.
Adapted
An Adapted written language was borrowed from another language, with all its quirks and inefficiencies.
Real World Examples: The Roman Alphabet, the Cyrillic Alphabet, the Arabic Alphabet (used in modern Iranian among others).
Real World Counter-Examples: English spelling, Cuneiform (a style with multiple scripts).
In this case use the standard rules for Literacy. However, if the character tries to sound out a language they can’t read because they share a Script with one they can read, they will have to make a language test with a penalty of -20% or -50%. (Few scripts are perfectly phonetic across multiple languages.)
Archaic
An Archaic written form of an extant spoken language is obsolete. If the player already knows the spoken language, knowing this script would let them read older documents and inscriptions.
Real World Examples: Glagolitic (Old Slavonic), Old Persian.
In this case create a new spoken language that uses the Archaic script, then use the normal Literacy rules for that language.
For example, the “Foobarian” Language doesn’t have an Archaic Script “Bazquuxian”; its ancestor “Old Foobarian” does. Thus to read a “Bazquuxian” text one must first know “Old Foobarian” at 80% or better. Hopefully if you already know modern “Foobarian”, learning “Old Foobarian” won’t be too hard.
Complex
A Complex written language is complicated enough that it counts as a whole new language. Native speakers start with the written language (usually); others must learn it. For example, logographic languages have a several thousand symbols, each representing a word or part of a word.
Real World Examples: written Chinese (original or simplified), written Japanese (Chinese characters plus two syllabaries!), English spelling (arguably).
Real World Counter-Examples: Japanese Hiragana and Katakana3
In this case represent the complex script as an entirely new language. So, for example, Language (Chinese) and Language (Written Chinese) are two distinct skills.
A native speaker of Chinese would consider both spoken and written forms as Language (Own) if they learned how to read at a young age. If not, only Language (Chinese) would start at (INT + 50)%; the unlettered peasant would have to learn how to read the hard way.
Complex Writing Systems
Sometimes separating speaking and writing can be tricky. One might, for example, split Japanese into Language (Japanese) and Language (Japanese Kanji). Language (Japanese) would grant not only the ability to speak Japanese but, at 80%, full mastery of the kana syllabaries. However, to read any Japanese text beyond a kindergarden level one also needs Language (Japanese Kanji) which includes thousands of Chinese-style characters.
If a Language skill is split into a spoken skill and a written skill, then a score of 50% or more in one skill and an 80% or more in the other allows one to read an “average” text in that written language. The Referee may have additional restrictions on which one requires the 80%. For example they may decide that one needs Language (Chinese) at 50% and Language (Written Chinese) at 80% to read Chinese, but Language (Japanese) at 80% and Language (Japanese Kanji) at 50% because Language (Japanese) includes the ability to read kana.
Generally, though, if a character spends 40+ Growth Points4 on speaking, reading, and writing a language they should be able to speak, read, and write the language fluently.
Complex Reading Material
In some cases a simple literacy threshold may not be sufficient. The Referee may require a character to test the lower of the spoken and written language skill to read old, technical, or complex texts in that language. So, for example, Language (Written English) 50% and Language (English) 80% might allow one to read a newspaper without making a test, but reading a scientific work in English would require a test against the lower score, 50%.
Polyglot
Ultra-rare and arguably unrealistic, a Polyglot written language is complicated to count as a skill unto itself. Unlike a Complex language, the written language conveys only sounds, so once someone understands its principles and knows a few examples. one can theoretically transcribe any language.
Real World Examples: modern Gregg shorthand, the International Phonetic Alphabet, Visible Speech.
In this case the polyglot script counts as an entirely new language. However, if the script is the primary or sole means of writing a spoken language, literacy in that spoken language confers a skill of Language - 50% in the written language.
For example, the Japrali developed the Pelganic script to write not only their own language (Japral) but other languages. Thus anyone with Language (Japral) at 80% or above acquires Language (Pelganic) at 30% or above.
Anyone with Language (Pelganic) is not literate in every language that can be written in Pelganic. (Which, by design, is all of them.) Instead, they’d have to test Language (Pelganic) to “sound out” a sample of writing and see if it resembles a language they know.
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Based on the following progression for an INT of 10:
to 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 from 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 g.p. 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 +5 +8 +20 -
In the real world the distinction between “dialect” and “language” is a fuzzy and somewhat political one. Here I use the term to mean two language sound enough alike that a speaker of one can figure out most of the words in the other at first hearing without too much difficulty. ↩︎
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One can phonetically spell out every native Japanese word in Hiragana or Katakana. Katakana has extensions to spell out foreign words, and both forms of kana have diacriticals to mimic certain accents and speech patterns. Learning kana isn’t for lazy people, but it isn’t too hard. ↩︎
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Estimate based on a character of INT 10 raising two foreign language skills to 80% and 50%. For native speakers the cost will equal that of raising one language to 80%, since they will have already mastered the 50% skill. ↩︎