A question about Languages

**Corven_Ren** · Mar 6th, '04, 10:56 AM

What does one do about language costs for someone who was raised in a BiLingual home...In essance someone who has to native languages are they both free or do you still have to pay for one of them. (My character is Cajun and therefore grew up speaking both english and french)

**L. Marcus** · Mar 6th, '04, 11:00 AM

I'd make the character pay for one of the languages, the reason being that no matter if you learned Fluent Conversation at home or by travelling far and wide, it's still as useful as if you learned it in school. Reason from Effect.

**Redmenace** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:07 PM

L.Marcus makes a good point but my own call would be to give it to the player as a freebie.

**BNakagawa** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:34 PM

Your game, your call.

In general, though, it's a better idea to make them pay for it.

Otherwise, you're essentially penalizing anyone who didn't come from a bi-lingual household.

$0.02

**KA.** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:40 PM

Originally posted by Redmenace
L.Marcus makes a good point but my own call would be to give it to the player as a freebie.

Why?
I mean, if you have a house rule about giving each Character 10 free points of "Background Skills" for hobbies, etc., and this would count as part of that, I could see it.

But otherwise, if I were in your campaign, I would expect to get something of equal value for "free".

I mean why couldn't my Grandpa have taught me about Lockpicking when I was growing up?

KA.

**WhammeWhamme** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:41 PM

Originally posted by Redmenace
L.Marcus makes a good point but my own call would be to give it to the player as a freebie.

So what about the guy who was raised in household where everyone spoke a different language?

Does he get one heck of a freebie?

**Argus** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:55 PM

Originally posted by WhammeWhamme
So what about the guy who was raised in household where everyone spoke a different language?

Does he get one heck of a freebie?

If the GM lets you do it and then the next 10 characters have the same type of background, you are abusing his goodwill.
I would be willing to let the first character have it for free. And make him pay for it if the next character has the same type of background. As long as it is done with moderation and restraint it’s not really hurting anything is it?

A.

**freakboy6117** · Mar 6th, '04, 02:57 PM

i might just give someone who grew up around lots of langauges linguist for free woudl save some hastle

**Redmenace** · Mar 6th, '04, 03:54 PM

Why would I give it to him or her for free? It is a one time gift of three points that doesn't effect combat and seems to suggest that there is some thought to a background. How often is it likely to come up? If reasonably often then pay.

Imho, there are many little skills and Ks that aren't going to be purchased but we all have access to, Ak- home state, Ks- your specific sub culture, Contact- parents or friends. As long as people don't mooch off of the GM's goodwill I'm willing to grant a single 3 pt boon to a 350 pt character.

If the other players complained, which would be valid, I'd be willing to consider giving them each a 3 pt freebie as long as it had a sane background reason and wasn't combat related.

As I said, IF it were my call

**Redmenace** · Mar 6th, '04, 03:59 PM

Originally posted by WhammeWhamme
So what about the guy who was raised in household where everyone spoke a different language?

Does he get one heck of a freebie?

Lol. Oh Gawd, why do I ever post?

Allright, good point and No, probably not.

**Corven_Ren** · Mar 6th, '04, 04:09 PM

Just so you all know I plan on posting this character on the boards as soon as I finish converting him to 5th edition....my old gm did not give french to me for free but then again he was a word I cannot post which is why I stopped playing with him.

**Vondy** · Mar 6th, '04, 08:35 PM

I'd make them pay for it. Otherwise they're getting free points the other players didn't. It would also lead to <i>a lot</i> of characters with bi-lingual backgrounds crawling out of the woodwork. As for "they get 10 free points anyways" - yes, but those are points everyone gets for things everyone can do. Not everyone has a second language (normally).

**st barbara** · Mar 6th, '04, 09:12 PM

I would think that a person whose background included being brought up in a bi (or multi) lingual household should get one language free (of his choice from the various languages spoken at home) with a reduced cost for any of the other languages. Obviously it is up to the referee to keep an eye on it. Say for example a player is brought up in a Spanish speaking household as part of his background. The player would get English for free (assuming that the game is set in an English speaking country like the U S A or Australia) and could take Spanish at a reduced cost (say half ?)

**Mike W** · Mar 6th, '04, 09:44 PM

You still get one freebie and have to pay for the other. I would say this because a) It is game balance. b) Characters shouldn't be buying beginning skills/powers/contacts etc without it being written into their background. It might give the character an excuse for purchasing an exotic language(I once played a character with a legit reason for knowing Iriquois in his background), but the character should have to pay for it the same as any other character would have to pay for background skills.

**BNakagawa** · Mar 7th, '04, 02:22 AM

Originally posted by Redmenace
Why would I give it to him or her for free? It is a one time gift of three points that doesn't effect combat and seems to suggest that there is some thought to a background. How often is it likely to come up? If reasonably often then pay.

Imho, there are many little skills and Ks that aren't going to be purchased but we all have access to, Ak- home state, Ks- your specific sub culture, Contact- parents or friends. As long as people don't mooch off of the GM's goodwill I'm willing to grant a single 3 pt boon to a 350 pt character.

If the other players complained, which would be valid, I'd be willing to consider giving them each a 3 pt freebie as long as it had a sane background reason and wasn't combat related.

As I said, IF it were my call

It's a slippery slope. Best to close the door to abuses and say no freebies to anybody, regardless of background. It's just a language, it doesn't cost a bunch, just pay the bloody points.

Otherwise, why should it stop at non-combat related stuff only?

What if my character comes from a paramilitary background (think Spartan) and everything he might be entitled to as a freebie is combat related? What if my character was raised by ninjas? Why shouldn't I get three free points of combat related stuff? It's background-related. Just like your bi-lingual guy.

The point costs are there for a reason. It keeps everyone from playing ambidextrous lucky wealthy multilingual staggeringly attractive unbelievably graceful bodybuilder genius artistic speedreading special-forces trained noblemen.

Unless you're playing Champions, in which it's entirely possible to play such a character and not be unbalanced. In which case you can afford to pay to purchase a bloody second language.

$0.02