It sounds right to me!

I know the feeling. I had thirty-something languages in a campaign setting I ran, once. Like I said, I'm a language buff so I've spent plenty of time detailing them in worlds I create, or making characters who are language-savvy. My favorite articles in Dragon were the racial lexicons they'd occasionally publish.

In Races of the Dragon, a 3.5 splat book, there was even a prestige class called the dracolexi, which was essentially a kobold linguist. I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Alas, it is because of all these things I have come to the conclusion that languages don't really work. Not well, anyway, and not in a way that is easily fixed. Like I said in the article, RPGs are a game of communication, and attempting to obscure that communication just falls apart at the player level.

This is a more reasonable take on assigning languages if everyone feels they must be included. It is somewhat tied into a character's intelligence, but not intertwined with the game's character currency (skills, feats, talents, whatever).

These days I wouldn't even mind just saying: "You know whatever languages you want." Generally I tend to trust those I play with to make reasonable choices.

My personal use of PDFs is twofold: 1) referencing the product when I'm on the go and 2) deciding if I want to drop the money on the actual print version. I greatly dislike it when people use computers at the game table, though I haven't had tablets come up yet so the jury is out on those. I find that the majority of gamers who say having electronics at the game table isn't a distraction are very adept at lying to themselves.

That said, I like low-cost PDFs, in the $5 - 10 range, because if I wasn't sure about the product enough to buy it straight out, I get the PDF and if I like it I buy the book. Considering every publisher and PDF retailer requires you to create YET ANOTHER unique account for purchases, it would be nice if they'd keep track of it and discount the price of a book by the cost of the already-purchased PDF, but I suppose that is asking too much.

I had considered including that particular use of language as well, and I should have for completeness, but I still stand by what I said.

In my experience, when a group of people who are on friendly terms are all speaking with one another, and some portion of those people begin conversing to each other in a different language or making gestures, those who aren't included begin to feel uncomfortable, perhaps even suspicious. If those people AREN'T on friendly terms, things escalate. The idea that a party could commit any form of truly meaningful subterfuge in this manner without, say, being attacked or watched extremely closely is questionable.

That aside, while there is a whole field of thought regarding hidden information in game design, role-playing games are typically not as competitive as games such as poker, Magic, or even Ticket to Ride, where such hidden information allows you to make legitimate bluffs. Language in an RPG only produces hidden information (in theory) between CHARACTERS, not players. The players are still saying whatever it is they're saying, and even if everyone can keep it separate for that session, details can blur down the road as to who said what and who knows what.

Even most well-designed RPGs are pretty poorly designed games when compared with competitive games. The cooperative or semi-cooperative nature of the game destroys most of the point of hidden information. I find more and more than most RPGs I like these days tend to move toward more shared information between GMs and players.

That said, I still don't mind languages in RPGs, per se. But as ChaoticGM says above, they should stay as flavor. If characters in the party speak some of the same languages, that's fine. I don't feel the game system should waste skill points, feats, or whatever other rules-based currency the game uses on them.

Oh I love written languages, even when they are just a simple letter-for-letter substitution. In the D&D game I currently play in I tend to jot a lot of things down in the Elven script (since I'm playing an elf, naturally).

However, if I'm DMing I would always provide a standard English translation for anything the players either understand or would uncover. Visual aids are cool, but should be that: aids.

Mwahaha, you cannot resist! Or at least I can't. I picked up Call of Cthulhu as well, and have some of the expansions. Game of Thrones and Warhammer: Invasion are not far off. They're remarkably affordable. Now that the expansions come with complete playsets of each of the new cards, too, things are lookin' up!

The great thing about Fantasy Flight's Living Card Game method of distribution is that it is significantly cheaper than meth. Each month they release Adventure Packs (or Chapter Packs or Asylum Packs depending on the game) that consist of a full playset (3x) of 20 new cards. They retail for about $15, which is slightly less than the cost of four booster packs of Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh! And let's face it, most CCG players dump a lot more than that on booster packs every month.

I got out of Magic a few months ago and have embraced the LCG format. I haven't looked back.

I'm glad you liked it! I look forward to seeing your post!

Yes, I admit I was somewhat enthusiastic when I learned that much of the material had ended up in D20 Modern: Future, but when I flipped through the book at a Barnes & Noble I found myself sorely disappointed. The magic was gone, so to speak.

I'm surprised many of you seem to have the same experience with Alternity as I do! Like Voidman says, there is something about the game. Released just before the turn of the millennium, just before the transition from AD&D to 3rd Edition, rich with the creativity of TSR setting-fu.

Star*Drive really seals it for me. I've often thought about trying to write (fan)fiction set in that universe, and I must have played through hundreds of sessions in my head. Galactic trading, space stations... these are the major aspects that appeal to me.

Thanks for the other highlights, I didn't manage to get to them, and I'd forgotten all about rank benefits! I've since gone back and looked over them, and I agree they are much more interesting than 3E/3.5 feats. I do feel the divine magic was tacked on however, which is unfortunate but understandable. "How do we sell this to our AD&D players, guys?" "Throw some elves and clerics in there!"