Which means, yes, it's -just- a matter of how many words they're willing to pay someone to write. 800, 2,000, whatever the count is.
Ok, but obviously its not since they haven't done so.
This is not a big "Business Decision" where the couple hundred bucks to pay a writer to write a small section of the book is going to wind up costing WotC Millions down the road.
But it is a business decision.
I don't see that in any of the posts we've been doing but... what about it? Comprehend Languages and Tongues breaks language no matter what, so why worry that it would do it to a different language system than "Common + Races"?
Well, I certainly meant to include it in one of my responses!
Other than verisimilitude, which has little to no value to me, I'm curious why? Is it just another resource to limit? Another puzzle to solve? etc. I don't like roadblocks in my gaming. I don't like secret doors that are hard to find and hide key components required to solve the adventure. I don't like "ancient languages" that just give an excuse for a party to go somewhere else and obtain some other McGuffin (at least not more than once per campaign).
and will continue to use the terrible "Race Language" structure.
There are so many structures in D&D that are terrible for verisimilitude. Languages is just one of them.
Why do you believe that having any language structure that isn't "Common + Races" is exclusive of additional character options?
I was responding to a post that stated they would rather have a detailed language system rather than character options.
Why do I believe language structures is is exclusive of something else? Because WotC puts a limit on the number of pages they publish every year. They limit the number of pages of their books and they only print so many every year. So by adding something they have to exclude something.
And it's a terrible opportunity for Homebrew because while you can do interesting stuff in your own settings (And I do use a simple language system in my settings that is different from Common+Races) it won't touch the cultural weight or momentum of whatever the PHB says.
Very true. But you already said very few people would be interested in it. So why is it of value to the franchise?
I think you overvalue the impact of the 3rd party and Homebrew space and dramatically overvalue the ink in a book that is guaranteed to sell like hotcakes.
No, it's just that I value a different language system to the level that equates to 3pp. I know you don't, but that's where I think it belongs.
Language in D&D and any TTRPG which has language is going to be a core element of a given setting.
But no. Not for my tables. We don't use them. Either you can talk with an NPC or you can't w/o magic. We just don't worry if the language used is Common or Elvish or Western Flanes. It adds no interest or values to our games. Maybe if we had an awesome system it would. But we've tried various ones and never enjoyed them.
That's not how 3rd party production works. Green Ronin -could- make their own slightly different language system, sure. Or they could just leave languages like they work in the PHB and not bother with it.
But if you sold a million copies, and licensed your system (CC_BY_SA maybe) then they just might use it. But, we both know it would never sell a million copies, you even said it wasn't of interest to most groups.
One of those things costs a tiny bit of money. One of those things costs no money.
But it's not about money. It's about keeping the system streamlines so that casual gamers can enjoy the game.
So yeah. If WotC doesn't do it in some future PHB, it won't get changed. No matter how big an impact any 3rd party publisher makes. Y'all're wildly overestimating the impact of 3rd party publishers on the cultural zeitgeist.
True to the first part. But I would say you are over estimating the importance of languages. At least to the game as a whole. I totally understand how it can be invaluable to some segment of the community.
A detailed (and, ideally, edition-agnostic) language system or framework is something that really only has to be done once. Why not do it that once and call it done?
Maybe, (because I don't know WotC's reasoning) because they want to keep the system accessible to new players and DMs. Or they don't see the value. But hey, why not publish it once yourself if it's so important? Oh wait, because most people won't see it if WotC doesn't publish it.
If by spell, it's limited: the translation spells don't last very long and they only get so many slots per day to cast 'em. If by device, it's usually always-on; though some devices are limited in coverage e.g. one of my PCs has a device that allows speech translation for Human languages only (in effect, it gives me knowledge of all Human languages but if a Human speaks Elvish to me I'm still hosed).
See, just one more limited resource to manage and track. Just does not appeal to me.
Because if they're not in the best-selling book 95+% of the playerbase will never see them.
Yep, and I'm good with that. I think any of these such systems make the game less accessible for new and casual players and DMs. Making the game complicated is not good for growth.
So far, languages have been more of an immersion element than a puzzle or road block.
I love this. We've tried and it never worked for us. Maybe because none of us understand languages that much and really only speak one language ourselves we don't have real life to draw upon.
