Sorry it has taken so long. RL has been kicking my tail. Sick and work combined to make me beg for my bed at night. Back in the saddle for a while. Hopefully we can make it "home". In my last post I promised something different for the topic. I would like to talk about language. That may seem odd but not when you really think about it. We all have to speak in some form. For most it is verbally; however there are sign languages that can be used as well though each can be different.

So, why is it that in role playing games we want to through it all out the window? Perhaps for the same reason that Star Trek and StarGate (the TV series) use a single lanuage. It works. Do we really need to hear English, German, Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese at the gaming table when we only speak one (maybe two) of those? Of course not. It isn't fun to hear them either. So why in the game is there the one language? Perhaps it is a concept that breaks the fourth wall, a meta-concept if you like, that makes the game playable.

Personally, I blame Tolkien. He created these amazing cultures, languages, writting styles and stories. Yet, the hobbits can talk to everyone like they were best friends since birth. There are never any mis-understandings between living people in the moment. The common tounge just magically works for all instances. Unless of course there is the need for confusion. The Elven riddle to enter the Mines of Moria for instance, is a play on words. Star Trek's universal translater also fails to translate key phrases when the meaning "should" be revealed by another. Worf on TNG and later DS9 is a key example with the Klingon language.

At any rate, what do we do with languages? Well, there is always the status quo. Not terribly exciting but available. There is the gloss over the details methodology but it isn't very satisfying either.

Wow. I just looked at a clock. I have to get to bed. More tomorrow.