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Re: Conlangs in roleplaying games?

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Saturday, October 27, 2007, 23:07
Yes, I imagine this is one of the more common conlangesque
applications.  Another in the RPG milieu (hm.  Meta-milieu?) would be
languages of magic (in place of Harry Potterish dog-Latin).  As long
as the spells are short and easily pronounced (and the player, unlike
the character, can jot them down on a character sheet rather than
memorizing them), this can add an air of immersion to the sessions.


On 10/27/07, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> Geijss wrote: > << > I was looking for any tips you would be willing to give, as well as > knowing > if this is something with which I could add something to my world. > >> > > I imagine many more people have done this than have created > languages. It certainly is a nice way to personalize a role playing > game. > > For advice on limited languages used for the purposes of naming > (a.k.a. a naming language), I'd go check out Jeffrey Henning's > page on creating your own naming language: > > http://www.langmaker.com/ml0102.htm > > Given that you intend this to be for place names to be used by > other players, I would recommend the following: > > -Stick to sounds that your players can comfortably pronounce. > Language is cool, and there are tons of sounds to play with, but > since your goal is to play a role playing game, not to have others > learn a language, ease of pronunciation should be a goal. > > -Since you're primarily going to be using this for place/character > names, try to make each name distinct. "Erin" and "Karen" and > "Baron" are different names in English, but since we have hundreds > and thousands, it's fine if a few sound alike. In a limited language > with maybe no more than a hundred names (if that), to have > two commonly-used names sound alike can lead to confusion, > which could disrupt the flow of the game (which is the ultimate > goal). > > -Though longer names are more fun, I'd recommend having > more commonly-used names be shorter, so that time isn't > lost pronouncing Drakforaldonaritos Castle a dozen times in > a conversation. > > -Common endings can be useful to help classify things. For > example, /-ton/ and /-burg/ are common city endings in > English, so even if you've never heard of Middleburg, you know > right away it's a city name. If in your RPG you, for example, > have two different opposing factions, you could create different > city suffixes for each one--say, /-tel/ for one and /-goz/ for > the other--and then when a player hears a new city name, > like Dalgoz, they'll know right away whose city it is. > > -Along that line, if you have different races/species in your > game, you might want to create different naming languages > for each. Further, if you come up with rules and common > nouns, as Henning suggests, players can invent their own > names, and still have them fit in with the racial/species-specific > naming language. > > The above are by no means rules; just suggestions. Let us know > how it goes! > > -David > ******************************************************************* > "sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze." > "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn." > > -Jim Morrison > > http://dedalvs.free.fr/ >
-- Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>