Hello! Please enjoy this kitty who will be teaching today's lesson on ... chemistry?! Rats, we were going for an English professor!
Languages will generally be perceived by characters to be in their native tongue! However, if a character speaks multiple languages (let's say, English and Spanish, with their native language being English) then they will perceive everything as being in English, but if another character is speaking Spanish they will potentially be aware of it due to changes in syntax and contextual phrasing. Obscurity of the language does not matter, this mechanic is 'magic' and relative to the Chrysalis.
This mechanic only affects and works where the PCs are involved. NPCs have a variety of languages that they utilize, from Urdu to Mandarin to English to Romanian, and there are a wide variety of pidgin dialects that have evolved over the last several years as a result. Amongst NPCs, these language barriers still exist, and their social interactions reflect it; however, none of them struggle to understand the PCs, and the PCs will never struggle to understand them. ~Magic~!
The written word is not beholden to the same mechanics. There is an auto translate setting on the comms devices, but it has to be toggled on to be utilized. Words written on paper, in dirt, carved into wood, etc, could in theory be scanned by the comms device and translated that way, but a character could invent their own symbols and it would be considerably more difficult to decipher (others would have to rely on codebreaking and pattern recognition to determine what was being said). Written words will not automatically be understood without foreknowledge or extra steps taken to discern them.
We hope this helps, and you are by all means free to come up with a clever system for private communication!
no subject
Languages will generally be perceived by characters to be in their native tongue! However, if a character speaks multiple languages (let's say, English and Spanish, with their native language being English) then they will perceive everything as being in English, but if another character is speaking Spanish they will potentially be aware of it due to changes in syntax and contextual phrasing. Obscurity of the language does not matter, this mechanic is 'magic' and relative to the Chrysalis.
This mechanic only affects and works where the PCs are involved. NPCs have a variety of languages that they utilize, from Urdu to Mandarin to English to Romanian, and there are a wide variety of pidgin dialects that have evolved over the last several years as a result. Amongst NPCs, these language barriers still exist, and their social interactions reflect it; however, none of them struggle to understand the PCs, and the PCs will never struggle to understand them. ~Magic~!
The written word is not beholden to the same mechanics. There is an auto translate setting on the comms devices, but it has to be toggled on to be utilized. Words written on paper, in dirt, carved into wood, etc, could in theory be scanned by the comms device and translated that way, but a character could invent their own symbols and it would be considerably more difficult to decipher (others would have to rely on codebreaking and pattern recognition to determine what was being said). Written words will not automatically be understood without foreknowledge or extra steps taken to discern them.
We hope this helps, and you are by all means free to come up with a clever system for private communication!