Languages are expensive!

[babayaga]

Learning a second language is *really* expensive in terms of xp. I've seen several player characters initially conceived as knowing a second language, but the player invariably backs down after realizing the cost. 60xp to have a wildling speak the Old Tongue? 90xp for a Bravoosi swordsmaster who can speak and passably read Westerosi? 120xp for a Maester who wants to read and write High Valyrian? Too much. The single player character (a roving merchant) I've seen who could speak multiple languages simply took Cunning 5 (Decipher 2B), the Polyglot Quality, and no other language but his native own.

So, here's the house rule we are currently using. Each extra language beyond your native own is a specialization of the Language Ability; the number of dice determines the rank at which you know it. E.g. a northener with Language 3 (Old Tongue 2B) knows Westerosi at rank 3, and the Old Tongue at rank 2. As with normal specializations, each die costs 10xp and the number of dice may not exceed the main ability (i.e. Language) rank. Simple, but seems to work well. I also find it more "aesthetically" appealing in that it keeps the number of Abilities constant.

Do you also feel the current "price" of Languages is too steep, or is it ok for you?

[coldwind]

Eh... doesn't phase me. Most people are not well versed in tons of other languages, and for those that are, polyglot serves.

Conceptually, languages are something that works out having been in a characters background, so basic competency is a mere 10xp per extra language, 70xp to be literate in every language beyond the first.

[Zeroed]

I use the same house rule as you, Babayaga... The Language ability represents your native language, and the others are your specialties.

I too feel that new languages are too expensive. It is mostly fine for campaigns set exclusively in Westeros, but for campaigns interacting with the Free Cities or beyond, learning new languages becomes too much of an investment for characters.

[DaimosofRedstone]

Learning languages is investment.
It took me 9 years to get as good in english as i am.
It took me 3 month of nothing else to at least grab the basics of Russian.

One thing that speeds language acquisition though is contact.
If you are in the Free cities and speak it everyday, you are bound to get better much faster than, for comparision, studying it from a book in The North.
I, as a GM, would solve that per extra XP reserved for language acquisition.

[Tao Jones]

I like the house rule set forth by Babayaga. Language is already one of the least useful abilities, it doesn't need to be the most expensive, too. I like the idea of specialties, because when we learn new languages we still have our knowledge of linguistics to back that up, and rarely have to start from scratch, unless the language uses a different morphology, such as isolating vs. agglutinating languages.

As Narrator, you decide how much in-game training equates to a single rank, be it the ability or a specialty. Nothing says it doesn't have to take just as much time and effort as it does now. Polyglot should be reserved for characters who don't need to train to pick up a language, it shouldn't be practically required just to have a character who knows multiple languages.

I think what is just as necessary are some rules for multilingualism; perhaps "Native Language" should refer to all languages the character learned to fluency as a child, which would be limited by where they were raised.

[LordValorna]

Or you can have a skill Languages from Free Cities rank ... instead having High Valyrian, Braavosi, etc separated. Use Free Cities languages like they are all included in the same pack. All of them have valyrian origins, so it's possible I think. Very usefull for merchants princes, captains, strangers, faceless men, braavosi swordmen and maesters.

But if you want Dothraki, I won't put it in this pack of languages, because it's another type of language so to speak.

[shadowninja]

I use the same house rule, the character's native language is the Language Ability and other languages are Specialties. This is much more functional and work fine in my campaing.

[Paedrig]

We used a rule that it cost 10 GP to get a language, +10 to get rank 2, and additional +10 to get rank 3. This is still a little bit expensive but a little bit better than before...

[superbat_99]

If you are in another area for a long period of time you could always give out skills in a language as part of a story reward. Say they spend time in Braavos then they could get a point in Braavosi but will never really be fluent and won't make it above 1 point unless they actually study the language and you could have it be temporary unless they visit an area using the language in the course of a year.

[Tobi]

Alternativly: New Quality: Billingual -> spend a destiny point and start with a second language at rank 2.

[Legate]

As DaimosofRedstone mentioned above languages should be difficult to learn and take many months of study; which is the way I would read the extra xp cost. If you don't agree then my suggestion would be to add extra xps to a PC that has previously mentioned that he is studying a local language. If it is during PC creation then just give the player permission to take a couple of levels in another language.