-So I'm going to try to teach a group of Chinese English Majors (All sophomores, and all pretty good at english) to play RPG's this semester. Don't worry this isn't in class.
-Has anyone played or DM'ed in language other than their first? What are some problems? What are some hints or suggestions you can give me?
-Lastly with the popularity of things like World of Warcraft and other video/PC RPGs in Asia it should be easy enough to handle the terms like race and class. It's more the description of character action and the whole role-playing side of things that worry me.
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Hi HarbinNick, I’ve had no such experience myself, but there was a guy on these boards last year, I believe he was a native English speaker but was GMing Pathfinder in Japanese for Japanese speaking players.
He posted some links to his blog, you can find them in this thread.
I’m not sure exactly how relevant it would be to your situation, but you might find some useful advice there.
I've both played and run games for non-native speakers quite a lot. I've noticed that, especially if the non-natative speakers share a different language, they will often switch back and forward between the two. This is expecially true in roleplaying situations or in situations that require the player to articulate an idea in some detail, such as a complex combat situation or skill check.
I've allways been ok with this as a GM, but it depends on your goals for the session. For example, if you want to teach english to these players, or want them to improve their language skills, I would immagine you would have an english only rule at the table.
For most games in which we did not have native english speakers at the table, the entire game is run in the players native tongue. I usually just translate most things on the fly. Stuff that doesn not get translated are game terms such as the stats, feats, skills and spells, as well as propper names such as the names of NPCs and towns.
I would guess that one potential risk would be learning gamer jargon as though it was the vernacular.
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Well, i am from Serbia, thus all of my games are played in serbian, except that almost all of the terminology is in english. Anyway, we tried to play in english for fun, but it was too painful to bear. I thought that my friends new english good, i was wrong.
I agree with Evil Lincoln. Gamer jargon will be the hard part.
I thought that my friends new english well, i was wrong.
:D
Do not worry overmuch, Hama. Many native English speakers confuse good and well. I was only pointing it out for irony's sake.