Learning new languages?

Ok not sure if it matters to much, but after looking at the Conan write ups in the various source books, it seems our main man knows to many languages.

Unless I missed something, you only get two starting languages, 1 for each rank of focus, and one per linguistics talent. Conan has 10 languages in Conan the merc; has a focus of 2 and one linguistics talent.

Is there another way of getting new languages or am I missing something?

Ummm…he is Conan. He is special. :grinning:

No, I think in terms of rules you are right. I would guess they wanted to keep Conan more in flavor with he stories though, and not just sticking with the rules. So in this case I am guessing the game master (developers) made a special house rule.

Kinda figured that was the case

The Polyglot talent lets you learn all the languages you want; you spend a Fortune point and learn all the languages of the area you are in.

Oh, I noticed this talent as well… Seems too OP to pay for permanent bonus with temporary, per session resource.

Eh, languages aren’t that powerful of a thing, especially in Conan. As I recall, Conan himself never has a problem communicating with anyone in the REH stories. He goes pretty much everywhere, and speaks to people from lots of nations and regions, many of whom would not speak any other language, and Conan always understands them and is understood. Polyglot just lets a PC do the same thing.

I am not sure. it seems I am not finding it. But how actually does a character learn a new language?

I mean how much experience points does a new language cost?
In the green frame in the corebook page 70 they only say that characters with a expertise in Linguistc Skill do have a better grasp on how languages work and can study them with a little amount of time and study.
But its never said (or I was too blind really to see it) how much it cost for a player character to learn a new languag.

Does anybody have an idea or even found something more specific?

Yes, it is in the rules on page 67.

Characters gain additional fluency learning additional
languages equal to their Linguistics Focus.

So, if you raise your character’s Focus by 1, you gain an additional language.

But you don’t even need to explicitly learn new languages, as it is stated on page 67:

Anyone with one or more ranks of training in Linguistics is assumed to have a basic working knowledge of all common languages spoken across the known world, as well as a passing familiarity with dead or lost languages like Atlantean or Ancient Stygian.

So having at least 1 rank in Linguistics gives you this “basic working knowledge” of ALL common languages spoken as well as some familiarity with dead or lost languages. - A good investment, learning Linguistics at rank 1, I think.

Then on page 68 the Linguistics Talent “Traveler’s Tongue”:

Traveler’s Tongue
Prerequisite: Linguistics Expertise 1
You gain one additional language fluency for every Linguistics talent you possess.

So if you have invested in, for example, three Linguistics Talents, then you gain three additional languages for that.

Then you could give PCs fluency in a certain language, if they stayed in a certain region for an extended time, maybe having several adventures there.
For example, if your PCs had a handful adventures in Turan, spent their Downtime there, too, then all of them would be fluent in Turanian as it is to be expected. No XP costs, just an award by the GM.

If you really want the PCs to spend XP on languages, you could introduce the house rule of spending 50 XP per new language, without the requirement of having any rank in Linguistics at all. (But spending 200 XP to learn Linguistics Expertise at rank 1 is still the better deal, as then you can speak and understand ALL known languages - as above mentioned.) This 50 XP per new language is from the Infinity 2d20 RPG, but there the characters get about double the amount XP per session compared to Conan, so maybe make it only 25 XP per new language then?

Thanks for the good answer.

I think I will stay with the official thing and the rule of awarding chance to gain a language during downtime. I do not see the overwhelming need of the house rule.

Thx a lot.