Which is all very well when there *is* a standard diplomatic language, but in Glorantha, the nearest we've got to that is Tradetalk.
> While it might be saner to have diplomats learn the
> language of the country they are posted to the time
> it takes to learn to a reasonable standard works
> against
> that. What diplomat would take a posting to Hungary
> if
> they had to learn Hungarian? Especially as within a
> few years they'll be transfered somewhere else.
Don't post 'em elsewhere, then.
But the time to learn a new language doesn't have to be the the deadly slow affair it is for me (and presumably you). I'm thinking of people like my younger sister, who can arrive in a country knowing none of the language, and within a few months have an accent indistinguisable from that of the natives. (Mandarin Chinese took her a bit longer, admittedly, but Dutch took two weeks). "Natural ability to learn languages" is probably the ability we want for our "diplomat" keyword, assuming they're the sort of diplomats who go and talk to other countries, not the sort who sit at home discussing things with people who're really already part of "us".
Actually, looking at how her ability to learn languages appears to me, maybe it's a magical Affinity?
> The time to learn is one of the things we seem to be
> forgetting when we add skills to character sheets.
> The
> skills obtained from the Homeland, Occupation and
> Magic
> keywords represent learning from childhood up to the
> game start.
Depending on the occupation. If its one you can pick up as a child, preferably from your parents, then yes.
> A minimum of ten, often fifteen or more years.
Yes.
> Additional skills are going to take several months
> of full
> time study each. A complete new occupation maybe
> five years.
No arguments there with the general principle.
> If the argument for allowing skills within keywords
> gets
> carried to far the PC would have to be in their 50s
> to have learnt it all.
It's a good point. I do like to look at keyword levels and compare them to "how long have you done the job?" and a PC timeline. The correlation only needs to be vague, but it helps, and can add story. "If you've been with the unit ten years, you were with us for 1611, and 1613. How did you get on?"
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