GURPS Alternate Language Rules
			   (C) 1995 by Doug Holland
		Permission granted to copy freely as long as
                    you cite the name of the author (me!)

GURPS has a great skill system that deals with most real-world skills fairly
plausibly, but it fails the reality-check when it comes to foreign languages.
Several attempts have been made to fix this problem, (yes, I've read the
Roleplayer article) but none to my satisfaction.  These rules are my attempt
to fix this situation.

Traditionally, GURPS treats languages as a skill, like other skills.  However,
languages completely transcend ordinary skills in that they have an immense
body of vocabulary, weird grammar with many exceptions, and speaking
styles that can't really be expressed, except as local accents.  It takes
years to become fluent in a language, and it takes even more years to learn
to speak it without an accent.  In addition, languages are so ubiquitous,
even more so than writing, that the skill brings immense benefits to the
user, when he or she is in an area where that language is used regularly.

So, in my treatment of languages, I treat them as advantages, sort of the way
Literacy is treated as an advantage.  As there are different levels of
knowledge of a language and since some languages are more difficult to learn
than others, there is sort of a sliding scale in these rules.

The basic language advantages are as follows, for a medium difficulty language.

Survival Level, 1/2 point:  You know enough of this language to survive among
native speakers.  You can count, read menus, ask questions like "Where is the
bathroom," "How much is this," and the ever popular "Do you speak English?"
Your vocabulary is limited to a few phrases needed for communications, and you
have little or no grasp of grammar.  You have a thick accent - native speakers
can automatically determine that you are not a native speaker, and they can
tell where you are from if they are familiar with your accent.  (Ever say
"Bonjour" to a Frenchman and have him look at you like you said "Howdy?")
When trying to hold a conversation, read a newspaper or get some information
that involves more than a few simple phrases, make an IQ-4 roll in order to
understand the information.  Failure means you don't understand, and a critical
failure means what you hear or say is garbled in a humorously embarrassing way.
"Where is the central train station?" becomes "Where is the sexual pain
station?"  Note that you can get survival level in any language for 1/2 point,
no matter what the difficulty is - you aren't learning more than a few
key words.

Conversational Level, 2 points:  You have enough skill to hold a conversation
in this language.  You have a small, but usable vocabulary, and you have a
basic grasp of the grammar, although you still make mistakes.  Your accent
is improved.  People can still tell that you are from out-of-town, but they
must make an IQ roll to determine where you are from.  Making conversation
or getting information is much easier now, it is a straight IQ roll since you
now have basic language skills.

Fluent level, 5 points:  You now are a master of this language.  You have
vocabulary comparable to some native speakers, and you know the grammar.
You can hide you accent fairly well, although some people choose to let their
accent show.  You can communicate in this language automatically, no IQ roll
is required.  To detect an accent, an IQ roll is required, and an IQ-3 or
Linguistics roll is required to determine the origin of the accent.

Native level, 10 points:  Either you are a native speaker or you are good
enough to be totally indistinguishable from a native speaker in all respects.
In order to determine that you are foreign, a Linguistics roll or a critical
success on an IQ roll is required. (although if you learned French in Quebec,
most people will think you are from Quebec.)  You can imitate an accent.  Make
this a contest of skills between your and your listener's IQ.  If you fail, you
sound fake, which could be bad for reaction rolls in certain situations.

Point value modifiers:

Easy language, or language that's similar to native tongue: 1/2 cost.  An
example is Romance languages (Spanish for a French speaker)

Average difficulty language: no modifier

Difficult language (Japanese for an English speaker or vice-versa): 2 * cost

Very Difficult language (a language used by aliens, or which requires
mechanical aids): 4 * cost

If a character learns a language with a radically different writing system
(Japanese,) he or she will need to pay ten points for a new Literacy(<language>)
advantage.  This isn't required for languages with a writing system in common
with the character's native tongue.

All languages can be learned at Survival Level for 1/2 point, the GM can
make exceptions for weird, alien languages or something to that effect.

Halve all costs for characters with Language Talent and second level Eidetic
Memory, and subtract 1/4 from the cost for first level Eidetic Memory.

Under most circumstances, all PC's start off with one free language at Native 
level, unless everyone is playing in a world where everyone has more than
one language, or the world is GURPS Neanderthal, where the characters know
no languages.

Unusual Backgrounds may be required for exotic languages.

Of course, PC's can spend character points and gain new languages in the
course of a campaign, that doesn't change because languages are Advantages.