Additional Options

At the Narrator’s discretion, the following additional rules may be added to the system described above, either individually or all together.

Dialects and Coded Speech

When a character encounters a dialect other than their native dialect (or the dialect they predominantly studied), they treat their language rank and associated language bonus as one rank lower than usual, or two ranks lower if the dialect is particularly unfamiliar, even if they are fluent in the language. Coded speech such as Thieves’ Cant can be mechanically treated as an unfamiliar dialect.

A character can learn a new dialect (or treat an unfamiliar dialect as a standard dialect) for 1 language point, or learn an unfamiliar dialect for 3 language points. What dialects exist within each language depends on the Narrator and the setting, but in general, different cultures use different dialects.

Low-Complexity Languages

Some languages (such as pidgins used primarily for trade) are not capable of expressing the same range of nuance and complexity as others. It is not possible to use low-complexity languages beyond the rank of advanced, or possibly even intermediate. To increase the importance of languages in your setting, consider making Common and Undercommon low-complexity languages.

Distant Relatives

A character that learns a language to the rank of Fluent only considers unfamiliar languages to be standard (instead of familiar) if they are distant relatives.

Further Granularity

At the Narrator’s discretion, characters who are interested in learning a language in such a way that significantly restricts the extent to which they can use that language may treat an unfamiliar language as standard or treat a standard language as familiar for the purposes of determining point costs. Examples include only learning to read a language but not how to speak it, or only learning to sign a language. Discounts should only be given if the restriction imposed is narratively significant; e.g., characters learning a language with no writing system don’t receive a discount for not learning how to read.

Reaching the fluent rank in a language in which a character has such a restriction only affects the classification of related languages if a character learns the related languages with the same restrictions. A character may remove such restrictions by investing a number of language points equal to 1 + 1/2 their current language points in the relevant language, rounded up.