Sign Language

[Loren Schmidt]

I have a character that has a mute parent, and I was wondering what sign language would be like in Golarion, not as a battle or combat hand signal, but as an actual language, similar to ASL or SEE. Can anyone think of anything?

Because otherwise I may just stick GSL (Golarion Sign Language) in my languages section...

[Orfamay Quest]

There's a drow sign language (used, as you might expect by drow) that is "secret" and not taught to non-drow. There is no other "official" sign language for humanoids.

There may be a realistic reason for this. Sign language doesn't appear without a large coherent group of mutes (usually deaf) who need to communicate with each other. Without that group, mute children will usually develop a signal system, but it won't be a a full language and it won't be understandable outside of the child's immediate circle. Feel free to read about the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language; it was one of the most exciting developments in 20th century linguistics.

[bookrat]

There's also "sign language" used by organizations to give short communications. It's not a full language, but almost all militaries around the world have various signs they use for communication amongst the troops. Here is the manual for the U.S. Army hand signals.

Even Theives Cant can be considered a type of sign language.

In one of my past games, our group had our wizard (with several ranks in linguistics and very high intelligence) design a sign language for our group to use, and the next level everyone took a rank in linguistics to learn it.

[Cuuniyevo]

There was a homebrew thread a while back about having written and spoken versions of languages requiring their own entries, due to the barbarian nature of the campaign setting they were using, and I'd imagine the same could be said of sign languages. Due to how fragmented the world is, it's highly unlikely that there'd be any standardized sign languages that work across all of Golarion but I'd certainly allow a player to invest Linguistics in Elven or Gnomish sign language, for instance. Most of the elves and gnomes you met while adventuring wouldn't know the signs, but they'd be more likely to and they'd have a lower Linguistics DC to understand you. I'd probably simulate this by having sign language be a DC 20 linguistics check to understand if you don't know the signs or the underlying language and a DC 15 if you didn't know the signs but did know the underlying language.

I'd probably also homebrew a feat that worked something like this:

Intuitive Signer

Prerequisites: At least one skill rank in Linguistics.
Benefit: You gain the ability to use sign language in a number of languages equal to the number of skill ranks in Linguistics, as well as in the languages granted by your race at character creation. In addition, the DC to understand what someone is communicating in a sign language that you do not know is reduced by 5.

[Lincoln Hills]

One of my home-brewed worlds had two fairly widespread (but limited) sign languages, one used by burglars/pickpockets and another for sailors. The players actually enjoyed trying to make ordinary statements using nothing but gangster slang or pirate dialect (as appropriate).

Enchanter: Time to fit these orcs for cement overshoes, know what I mean?
Cleric: Shiver me timbers.

[cnetarian]

non-existent. there may be some cants different groups come up with for situations where silent communication is necessary, but there should be no actual language. there is just too much magic to have a significant deaf population when one can buy a 3rd level cure blindness/deafness scroll(375gp) or hire a cleric (150gp). throw in a world where spells like telepathic bond and detect thoughts exist and there is no need for a full sign language to be created, most mutes will just use the written language and spells/scrolls/magic items when writing won't work.