Troll Lord Games

How do you handle literacy in your C&C game? The rules do not really cover it that I can find (possible in the CKG??). Is it assumed the players are "a cut above" and thus able to read and write? Do you grant literacy to certain classes as a part of being that class (ie; spell casters, knights, palladins, etc?).

If you're playing with advantages, does it cost and advantage to become literate? Or what about secondary skills?

Related topic, what about extra languages?

Clerics, Wizards, Illusionists, Knights and Paladins are automatically literate in my games unless the Knights and Paladins have a piss poor INT stat.

Druids may be literate if INT is 9+. I leave it to the player to decide since that culture had a strong tradition of passing on knowledge orally.

Barbarians automatically begin as illiterate.

Players of the other classes may choose whether or not to be literate unless INT is 8 or lower. Those with INT <= 8 are illiterate.

There is a tad in the CKG.

I generally assume basic literacy unless there's good reason not to. Otherwise, it just makes things more difficult, and that doesn't sound like much fun to me.

It would depend on the cultures n your game. Some would prize literacy more than others. I use FR for my campaigns (mostly) and there is an assumed basic literacy in the campaign, so that's what I use.

R-

For extra languages, the PC gets the languages listed in the racial write ups, plus any bonus for high Int, per the rules.

R-

Whoops, missed the languages part of the question. From my Greyhawk PC handout:

- All PCs speak Common.

- All PCs also speak their respective racial language:
-- Humans:
--- Baklunish speak ancient Baklunish.
--- Flan speak Flan.
--- Oeridians speak Old Oeridian.
--- Olman speak Olman.
--- Rhennee speak Rhopan.
--- Suloise speak ancient Suloise.
-- Dwarves speak Dwarven.
-- Elves speak Elven.
-- Gnomes speak Gnome.
-- Halflings speak Halfling.
-- Half-Elves speak either Elven or a human clan language, depending on whether they were raised in a primarily elvish or human community.
-- Half-Orcs speak the clan language of their human mothers.

- Characters of high intelligence speak an additional number of languages equal to their Intelligence modifier (e.g., a character with an Intelligence of 14 speaks one additional language). The CK is the ultimate arbiter of language availability.

Depends on the game. Sure certain classes normally get a pass on this, but it adds flavor to the game many times if this is not a sure thing for the PC's.

Just to make things dificu ... er ... interesting, I have about five regional languages and no common tongue in my homebrew campaign world. Instead there is a very rudimentary "trade tongue" which allows people to express themselves well enough to ask for prices, count coin and talk about the quality of goods and services. These are in addition to the usual demi-human racial tongues.

As far as basic literacy goes, there really isn't such a thing. The world I built is essentially locked into the equivalent of the late Dark Ages, early Medieval period of Europe. The only learned characters by default are High Elves, Clerics, Wizards, Druids, Thieves, Assassins and Bards (Knights would have basic literacy except that there is no "knightly" archetype in my game world). As a result , much of the world eschews written communication in public spaces, favoring pictographs or symbols and relying heavily on verbal communication in the form of songs, bards and criers to disseminate information.

I do allow players to spend about 500 experience points (or more or less, depending on the pace of the game) to learn reading and writing as long as their intelligence is 8 or higher, and this can only be done during a training period between levels

That is really fun. This makes the PC's have to work a bit and everything does not fall into their lap.

Rigon wrote:It would depend on the cultures n your game. Some would prize literacy more than others. ... .

R-

Rgr on that.

NJPDX wrote:Just to make things dificu ... er ... interesting, I have about five regional languages and no common tongue in my homebrew campaign world. Instead there is a very rudimentary "trade tongue" which allows people to express themselves well enough to ask for prices, count coin and talk about the quality of goods and services. These are in addition to the usual demi-human racial tongues.

As far as basic literacy goes, there really isn't such a thing. The world I built is essentially locked into the equivalent of the late Dark Ages, early Medieval period of Europe. The only learned characters by default are High Elves, Clerics, Wizards, Druids, Thieves, Assassins and Bards (Knights would have basic literacy except that there is no "knightly" archetype in my game world). As a result , much of the world eschews written communication in public spaces, favoring pictographs or symbols and relying heavily on verbal communication in the form of songs, bards and criers to disseminate information.

I do allow players to spend about 500 experience points (or more or less, depending on the pace of the game) to learn reading and writing as long as their intelligence is 8 or higher, and this can only be done during a training period between levels

I tend to lean that way with language too. However, in my home brew reading and writing is a bit more common than yours. But I do require at leas average (9) to read, and a bit higher to write (historically, especially in the 'dark age', the 2 skills were separate). Also there has to be a cultural or class associated reason for the player to read (at their start). Also, I DO NOT assume that someone speaking a language also knows how to read & write it.

Nicely put.

Yeah I should have clarified. Rogues and Assassins can read, but can't necessarily write. Reading and writing I assume are part of the skillset for a caster character or a Bard and everybody knows how stuck up and highfalutin the elves are. "Wot with thur fancy shmancy elf stuff."

I follow the rules in the C&C PHB, and then add-on the rules found in the CKG. By this, when a PCs is created for each language she knows, you can make an INT check for each language. Success indicates literacy.

~O

I limit what langauges can be spoken by each player as to the campaign settings and where they come from. If the character is a very intelligent Elf but goblins are no longer present in force as far as the elves are aware the chances of the player being able to speak goblin is very close to zero, I will however allow the player during creation to explore their surrounding areas or interactions possible to see if there would a be a language they would want to subsitute for goblin

It rarely matters. In the few cases it comes up, I just say "the document is in a rare script. You cannot read it. Use a spell or find someone who can." Otherwise, I assume whatever languages the character can speak they can also write, just because it is easier and I prefer removing the abacus elements. I don't use barbarian as a class so it is irrelevant.