this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I just use different American accents, mostly because I'm American.

Also, because hillbilly gnomes are funny

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As a native speaker I will use the very specific Baltimore MD accent on certain NPCs

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

One of my PCs is a ghoul, and I am incapable of speaking that rough without sounding like Fran Fine (if she smoked for 50 years)

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Undercommon is just really thick Australian accent.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I would also accept Scots, since it's barely recognizable as English

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I think you mean "Pikey" as depicted by Brad Pitt in Snatch.

Or, is that simply the way Duergar speak it?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I played a furry porn game where otters spoke Tagalog and honestly, yeah that's fine

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I am curious.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Pfft, all dwarves are either Scottish or German. Just a fact.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

We use German as common and Dwarves are Bavarian.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Dwarves are Scottish, goblins are German.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I like that one podcast where they established that a dwarf was caught in a dimensional rift and went to Scotland for a number of years before finding a way back home. But he brought back the accent and all the dwarves loved how it sounded so now all dwarves speak with bad copies of a Scottish accent.

Probably because the DM can't keep his accent straight. But fun nevertheless.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (7 children)

No, Germans are goblins, there's a difference ;)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yes Scottish Dwarf is really good.

But Goblins are not strong enough to yield German imo, maybe it could suit orc but also orc is metal voice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Drow are Australian, on account of the land they come from

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

IMO - Racial/Ethnic/National Coding isn't inherently wrong. But using that coding to push Stereotypes and oppressive mindsets is.

Rule of thumb, if you're worried you will in some way cross that line, don't do coding.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Not oppressive mindset, but i'm ok with stereotypes too.

Because it can be funny, in comedy racial jokes are always set in some stereotypes for a reason. I think RP is mostly that, fun and joking around.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I have my own language mappings in my homebrew. Most of them only appear as names since most people speak Common, but I did include some people in my game who don't. (I make sure that they are some who speak a language that I speak too.) So the mappings are:

  1. Common - English. We're playing in English, duh. (Before contact with Elves, humans spoke "proto-Common" which would be mapped to German if I had to use it. Many humans still have German names.)
  2. (High) Elvish - French. Yes, in-universe the Common language has plenty of Elvish influence. (Classical Elvish is Latin.)
  3. (Wood) Elvish - Greek. Most Wood Elves speak High Elvish, but their names are Greek and many of them still speak their own language as well. The continents and seas are often named in Ancient Wood-Elvish (i.e., classical Greek) because they used to be the primary explorers before the rise of the High Elves.
  4. Dwarvish - modern Dwarvish is Norwegian, old Dwarvish is Icelandic.
  5. Halfling - Frisian. (Fortunately I haven't had to say anything in Halfling so far.)
  6. Gnomish - Welsh. (Again, fortunately I haven't had to say anything in Gnomish yet.)
  7. Orc - Russian.
  8. Goblin - Mongolian.
  9. Tellurian (not a species, but an influential country) - Spanish. Many people alongside the Bay of Luria speak Tellurian as their native language instead of Common or their racial language.
  10. Sylvan - Finnish. (My go-to for weirder names as well. Many Fey-related creatures have Finnish names, as well as those who live near Fey portals.)
  11. Giant - Hungarian. (They feature a lot in Hungarian folk tales.)
  12. Draconic - Hindi.
  13. Hashiman (not a species, but a group of eight islands - though they are also the Kenku homeland so most Kenku speak this as their native language) - Japanese-ish. The language comes in two dialects, Hanego which is used primarily by Kenku but also Aaracokra, Owlin, Tortles, and other creatures with hard beaks that have difficulty pronouncing M and N, and Hadago which is used by the rest. They are identical in writing, differ mostly in pronouncing those sounds.
[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Orc - Russian.

Haha holy shit.

Draconic - Hindi

"The dragon rears back and bellows 'DO NOT REDEEM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??'"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

"No, Mr. Sorcadin. A Snickers is not a sprinkle."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Tolkien was primarily a linguist, so the languages he made were actually based on real languages. Tolkien elvish is based on Finnish.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why not just you Elvish for Elvish?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Because I don't speak Quenya. (I wrote the signature of an Elvish character in Tengwar, but that's about it.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought Kenku couldn't speak

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That was pre-MotM, and also Forgotten Realms lore which holds no water in a homebrew setting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Oh cool. I'm only really familiar with them from the 5e Monster Manual and Volo's Guide to Monsters, I'll have to check out Monsters of the Multiverse. Also this is probably a stupid question but what is Forgotten Realms lore?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

The Forgotten Realms setting is the "default" D&D setting. Most published adventures take place in it, specifically a small part of it (planet: Toril, continent: Faerun, region: Sword Coast, the west coast of Faerun; this region has a number of famous cities like Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep, Neverwinter, etc...). The vast majority of lore that you can find in books like the Monster Manual specifically relate to this setting (Volo, Mordenkainen, Tasha, Xanathar, etc... all live there anyway). It also has many famous characters and deities (e.g. Corellon, Gruumsh, Moradin...), countries, cultures, even some languages. And it also includes things like the Kenku curse.

But of course if you're running a homebrew setting like I do, you can feel free to cherry-pick it or just straight-up ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Esperanto is gnomish

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Just want to point out that draconic has quite a lot of words already defined, as well as a few grammar rules. 1. Draconic, 2. Draconic Primer, and 3. Lonely Planet Vayemniri (vayemniri being the endonym for dragonborn in the Realms—a race that absolutely despises dragons wouldn’t exactly be happy about a name that says "dragon").

I’m not sure what real-world language would be the best analogue. Maybe something Germanic?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (14 children)

You can't be racist against the French. Same way you can't be racist against dogs.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Latin is Primordial

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use portuguese for common, english for elvish, japanese for abyssal and i'm learning dovahzul to use as draconic, i'm thinking on learning german too but i don't know what it will be yet

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Goblinoids are German, with various tribes having dialectual differences (my personal fave is the Heßisch goblins of the wooded riverlands, famed for their spider silk surfing), but the most insidious in both regards is the hobgoblin Sweiß-Deutsch.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thank you, i will go with that

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Works at larps too. One I go to (in NL) has Dutch as common, and we use English as Elvish and, depending on with whom I talk, I express Dwarvish with either Scottish English, Northern English or German. If I really want to commit to the bit, I should learn High German or an Austrian dialect for Dwarvish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Jello Apocalypse and crew did a Let's Play of Skies Of Arcadia that was fantastic for a variety of reasons. Everybody in the Chinese-coded nation got Southern accents. It was... an alarmingly apt choice.

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