Depends on the style of the game. I generally have Tradetalk be a widely understood language anywhere lots of different languages meet. But my rural clansfolk don't speak or understand anything those Lunar demon worshippers from the Heartlands say.
>
> I hate when the Game Master tells me "you can't communicate
with them because you don't know the language" and the whole
dialect/tongue/mothertongue bonus-malus matter makes things agonizing
slow in play.
If you are playing a cosmopolitan, multicultural game, then different languages can be a pain. If you are playing a game where people from different cultures are going to be strange and alien, then it can add to the fun. Just remember the opening of "Raiders of the Lost Arc" when Jones says to Belloq, "Too bad the Hovitos don't know what a bad person you are, Rene," to which Belloq answers: "Too bad you don't speak Hovito."
Jeff
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