I got to thinking the other day about folks who like to play their characters as only fluent in one given language. Language of birth, language of origin what have you. There will obviously be communication barriers that will have to be overcome by Krolvin who cannot speak Common, elves who don't pollute their tongues with Common speak, dwarves who are difficult to understand through all that drunken grunting. What I am wondering is if it would be possible or plausible for the communication barriers to be breached by way of the ESP net. Would a Krolvin who doesn't speak a word of Common understand the voices in his or her head if they are Common? Does the mind magically transcribe the language into something understandable?

Your thoughts on thinking...

>I think of it as being direct mind-to-mind communication without need for a language, so it would be possible to carry a conversation with someone who doesn't share your language.

I feel the same way. I also drop any accents that my character might have speaking. It might come out of my mouth "ya'll", but I definitely THINK I said you all.

~Becca

I'm a fan of the "communicating on a different level" way of thinking (ha!) regarding the amulet net. I highly doubt it's some kind of walkie-talkie that channels your thoughts into how you would audibly speak and then communicates that as a sort of pseudo-sound to everyone who is receptive to the thought. I don't think accents would really carry over the thought net, though it doesn't bother me when people maintain their accent while using it. If anything, it could be seen as representing their slightly different way of thinking due to the different culture they were raised in (from which comes their spoken accent).

I assume it's a sort of universal language on the thought net, with a few exceptions such as thoughts and concepts that are foreign to a receiving individual, or alien ways of thinking/conceptualizing/whatever. I wonder if I'm the only one who's wondered what would happen if we slapped an amulet around the neck of a rolton and rubbed it. Would we suddenly start receiving phrased thoughts along the lines of "I'm hungry, where'd the pasture go?" and "That dang shepherd is about to whack me with his crook again, better get trotting?" Or would we receive vague thoughts communicating, on a rudimentary level, the desire for sustanance and the fear of creatures that inflict harm upon them?

Or, of course, we might suddenly become aware that the supreme hive mind of the roltons has finally finished biding its time and is about to unleash the hordes of hoofy, wooly doom that will enslave the humanoid races.

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-Farn & Co.

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