Author Topic: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?  (Read 26244 times)

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Offline tbigness

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #260 on: March 02, 2016, 03:34:10 PM »
One of the toughest parts of using SW was the language distinction for PC's and Race as there are a lot to choose from but should be limited to region unless played as an outsider/orphan/migrant type of character. so a list of races per region would be nice and then the languages per region/race would benefit SW as a whole.
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Offline Terry K. Amthor

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #261 on: March 02, 2016, 04:04:02 PM »
One of the toughest parts of using SW was the language distinction for PC's and Race as there are a lot to choose from but should be limited to region unless played as an outsider/orphan/migrant type of character. so a list of races per region would be nice and then the languages per region/race would benefit SW as a whole.

Its a tough nut, but even in the real world, language is a barrier. I remember my trips to central America, Greece and Italy, and I was an ignorant fool, and if the people there did not know some English (and were very gracious as I begged the one phrase I learned, if they spoke English), I would have been unable to do more than order food by pointing at a menu. It was a learning experience.
Terry K. Amthor
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Offline egdcltd

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #262 on: March 02, 2016, 04:12:48 PM »
I wonder if there's a Y'nari language.

No. The Y'nar are a racial group, like Asians. Koreans and Japanese and Chinese languages have little commonality.

Also, I love this language discussion, and I apologize for not going into it more in my previous books. I should note that while Erlin is kind of a 'common tongue' across the hemisphere, where most people can speak at least a few basic phrases badly in order to trade, etc., in Jaiman, Rhaya is what most Jaiman natives would be taught first. (Unless I am contradicting something I wrote years ago, which is possible!)

Language skills are some thing that should be important, and I finally put some in the new edition of Eidolon, making that important distinction between writing and speaking skill.

Thanks. I was trying to work out if the Lotana would have a native tongue from their original homeland that they might still speak.

I assume that there are Umli and Haidic languages, given the references to what the Fustir-Gost speak and the Syrkan reference?
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Offline bpowell

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #263 on: March 02, 2016, 05:35:25 PM »
I wonder if there's a Y'nari language.

No. The Y'nar are a racial group, like Asians. Koreans and Japanese and Chinese languages have little commonality.

Also, I love this language discussion, and I apologize for not going into it more in my previous books. I should note that while Erlin is kind of a 'common tongue' across the hemisphere, where most people can speak at least a few basic phrases badly in order to trade, etc., in Jaiman, Rhaya is what most Jaiman natives would be taught first. (Unless I am contradicting something I wrote years ago, which is possible!)

Language skills are some thing that should be important, and I finally put some in the new edition of Eidolon, making that important distinction between writing and speaking skill.

I am thinking that in a rustic town like the one we are creating the ability of local PCs to have much knowledge of written languages.  In the home they would have access to things like a "family bible" or books their parent and grandparents used to learn to read.  But the cost of books would be prohibitive.  Those PCs that come from the Big City, Rapata, would have a more in depth knowledge of the written word.

So, based on this information the local language would be a dialect of Rhaya.  Is there a listing of those someplace?
Also, I will ensure almost all of the merchants have at least 2-3 levels in Spoken Erlin.  This would give them the ability to at least get the price of a good or service across to travelers.

This is why I love RM.  I can add depth of character to the characters.  Even people raised in the same town can be widely different, as they would be in real life.  I was born in Hawaii and move to California after my Father died in Viet Nam.  Trust me the culture shock was huge!  And in the small town there were several different cultures that remained separate.  One culture was the Mexican population that spoke Spanish and were very close knit.  Then there was the Caucasian population that spoke English and were somewhat loose than the others.  I remember some stores where the language used was Spanish and we spoke enough to be able to get what we needed.  So I have an idea on how to try to paint this picture.

I am so glad RM gives me the tools to represent this mix of cultures and languages.  I envision a marketplace in the town square with various languages and dialect being spoken during the weekly market.  Some of the people speaking in broken dialects trying to haggle over a basket of fruit.  Too much detail?

-BP

Offline bpowell

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #264 on: March 02, 2016, 05:39:18 PM »
One of the toughest parts of using SW was the language distinction for PC's and Race as there are a lot to choose from but should be limited to region unless played as an outsider/orphan/migrant type of character. so a list of races per region would be nice and then the languages per region/race would benefit SW as a whole.

Its a tough nut, but even in the real world, language is a barrier. I remember my trips to central America, Greece and Italy, and I was an ignorant fool, and if the people there did not know some English (and were very gracious as I begged the one phrase I learned, if they spoke English), I would have been unable to do more than order food by pointing at a menu. It was a learning experience.

If I might be so bold as to suggest one of the maps I saw in school.  I had a rough outline of a continent and different color blotches showing where a language or dialect was spoken.

Just my 2 copper.

-BP

Offline egdcltd

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #265 on: March 03, 2016, 11:05:27 AM »
I haven't found any details on the Rhaya dialects, but I expect that each current or former Crown Kingdom had one. Given Xa-ar's location, in that case I would expect a Saralis dialect of Rhaya to be spoken.
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Offline tbigness

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #266 on: March 03, 2016, 11:17:26 AM »
So is a Dialect of Rhaya important at this point because there may be too many offshoots of main languages that make the number of ants in the world look like a small number in an ant farm. I would just suggest Rhaya as the language and be done with that. The higher the skill in Rhaya the better understanding of (dialects) from older times and different regions.
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Offline egdcltd

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #267 on: March 03, 2016, 11:20:29 AM »
I don't know how important the dialect is, but the MA says that the seven dialects are very distinct. I don't know how big a distinction this is; American is after all distinct from English, but they are largely mutually comprehensible.
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Offline tbigness

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #268 on: March 03, 2016, 11:48:32 AM »
Then the naming convention of the Dialects should be for those regions, but if my guess is correct this area was not apart of any of these regions so the language should be pure or just know by the Xa-ar Rhaya. I suspect this can be made very difficult as the different variations that could be thrown in here. That is why a pure Rhaya language would be preferred unless everyone is going to be a language scholar and know multiple dialects for different languages of different areas traveled. I would recommend unless isolated that the language of the continent be of one dialect:

Erlini
Shay
Rhaya
Dwarven
Jaimani-Erlin
Jaimani
Haidic
Syrkan
Fustir
(Black Speech) what ever goblin, ork, troll, ogre or whatever speech may be
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Offline egdcltd

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #269 on: March 03, 2016, 12:08:28 PM »
I'm not sure that Xa-ar would have a pure version of Rhaya; a lot of people speaking different languages have trooped through the region over the years, including Saralis. I would expect the local dialect to be probably similar to that of the latter. However, I also think that the dialects of Rhaya are mutually intelligible. Dialects might then just add a bit of colour - and a reason to sneer at people who speak with the "wrong" one.
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Offline tbigness

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #270 on: March 03, 2016, 01:06:14 PM »
For world building and Campaign building this needs to be a more simple process. If SW has say 30 main languages and then 50 dialects per language then the world of SW would be difficult to campaign in. The amount of dialect languages alone for Rhaya is more than enough to keep a scholar busy. That is why with the introduction of this adventure series, it needs to set a presidence on the language structure for modules and source material to come. It would be difficult to justify well over 100+ languages in a gaming world and over 10+ of the same base language in a small area. Remember this is a game world and will reflect on possible adventures to multiple areas. So limiting languages to the base should be enough to have flavor without overwhelming the system with dialects unless as a plot for older versions that need to be deciphered anyway. ;)
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Offline bpowell

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #271 on: March 04, 2016, 09:26:08 AM »
OK, I can work with this.  Once I have this fixed I will post here.

-BP

Offline Terry K. Amthor

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #272 on: March 05, 2016, 12:56:49 PM »
Note: this discussion should be moved to the new Product Development category at the bottom of the Forums, which has been set up so that you can have multiple threads on the topic. I'll leave this here, but will lock it (but not remove it, so that you can still reference it) later today. You may want to copy posts from here and repost them in the new section under new thread titles.
Terry K. Amthor
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-- Clarke's First Law.

Offline egdcltd

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #273 on: March 05, 2016, 02:29:01 PM »
What if other people are interested in joining in the project after this is locked? Should they make a post?
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Offline Terry K. Amthor

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #274 on: March 05, 2016, 04:51:00 PM »
What if other people are interested in joining in the project after this is locked? Should they make a post?

As far as I know, the new category is not hidden or closed, so any new person could go there. Thanks for mentioning it!
Terry K. Amthor
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Eidolon Studio Art Director


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-- Clarke's First Law.

Offline Old Man

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #275 on: March 05, 2016, 07:28:39 PM »
What if other people are interested in joining in the project after this is locked? Should they make a post?

As far as I know, the new category is not hidden or closed, so any new person could go there. Thanks for mentioning it!

Terry - I only see the old Cyradon dev forum there. So must invite in some form.
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Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #276 on: March 06, 2016, 11:24:57 AM »
Anyone else that is interested needs to contact Terry or Nicholas via PM for them to request it to me to add the name.
Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline Terry K. Amthor

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #277 on: March 07, 2016, 09:56:55 AM »
Okay, I will keep the board open for inquiries, but if you are interested in contributing to a new SW book, PM Nicholas or me to be added to the double-secret development board  8)
Terry K. Amthor
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-- Clarke's First Law.

Offline Malim

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Re: Crowdsourcing an Adventure Path?
« Reply #278 on: April 06, 2016, 04:05:53 PM »
I can join in!
Sir Elor Blacke knight of Helyssa, Kytari Fighter lvl 25 (RM2)
Malim Naruum, Yinka Lord Bashkor lvl 27  (RM2)