Illiteracy for Nearly Any Class

[Arcanemuses]

Since Pathfinder has done away with the old illiterate class feature for the barbarian, I propose the following option:

At 1st level, any character may choose to be illiterate in exchange for 2 skill points. As they progress in levels they may spend 2 skill points to gain literacy.

Given that many people in Medieval times were not "lettered", I feel that this would be a cool way to flavor a game. Just a thought.

[Umbral Reaver]

Trade literacy for profession (peasant)!

[The black raven]

Our GM did something even harsher.

Except for Clerics and Wizards (and Nobles or some such), no one was literate. Getting literacy would cost you a single skill point.

My Ranger spent his skill point around 6-th level. But I had spent so much time considering him illiterate and playing him that way that I always forget that he now knows how to read (and the other players and the GM forget it too).

Though I like your premise better, I believe that the same "I did not remember that I now know how to read" is bound to happen.

Really, being illiterate in PFRPG is NOT fun.

[FireCrow]

I love being illiterate in games. I think it's a ton of fun. However I really do think that player characters would qualify for knowing how to read in that "they are exceptional people" way. Personally I just let them be illiterate if they want to be and later make them pay to be taught to read.

[Mortuum]

The skill points thing sounds fair, but beware! Anybody without reading-dependant class features or a reading-dependant concept will probably be better off making the trade, particularly if they get very few skill points per level. Illiteracy will likely become the default for PCs.
If just one guy in your group can read, you're good for over 90% of the time.

[Ascalaphus]

I like the skill points at level 1 idea. It might indeed stimulate people to be illiterate, but isn't that somewhat the point?

I've been pondering whether knowing different alphabets should be separately bought, but that gets tricky. I think I like the OP's idea better.

[The black raven]

The real problem, IMO, is that most PFRPG/DnD settings and adventures suppose that most people (and certainly almost all PCs and important NPCs) ARE literate.

Thus they are not adapted to the "almost everyone is illiterate" trope.

In a setting where almost everyone is illiterate, very few things (especially important ones) depend on literacy, except when the literate people want to keep some knowledge between them (such as the finer points of theology in the Church in the Middle Ages).

Most messages will pass through images such as heraldry and works of art (such as sculptures, paintings, storytelling and so on), so that every illiterate person can understand them.

If most people (and PCs) are illiterate, the setting and adventures must be adapted in may subtle but essential ways.

[Stereofm]

@BR :

You're just back from today's game, and are already squealing, are you ? :)

Honestly, at the time I had a different version of Golarion in mind than what it is, and what's done is done.

now, of course, you are SO going to pay for this when you actually get to run Jade Regent.

[Eldric the Pyromancer]

Hell yeah !

In my time only the true folk could read.

Damn'em round eared aliens !

[Stereofm]

Seriously, literacy was a very variable thing in the middle ages, and after, depending on where you lived and when.

Example : in Normandy literacy rates were at an all time rate with some 80 % rate before the French revolution.

It still meant that one person out of five was out of the loop. Even if you do not want these details, it is worth remembering for NPC portrayal.

Other provinces in France rated between 30-60 %

It's up to you, if you want to portray class struggles between nobility/burgers/peasants/clergy/ .. or not.

For a typical game, I would agree it is not worth the bother.

[Lamontius]

d skflja hsj kdllajfhl la jkds hflaeiopgh asdj nbjjel1 kd aldkwyri
(Translation: I gave up literacy to be better at swimming and acrobatics!)

[Lincoln Hills]

I do not recommend granting skill points in this situation. If your world has near-universal illiteracy as a plot point (if, for instance, your campaign world has lost the art of writing or has not yet invented it) simply warn the players that the base assumption is that characters are illiterate (and you'll need to do something about scrolls and wizards.)

If, on the other hand, it's assumed that most reasonably-educated people are literate, it's better to go with the way things are. Don't get me wrong, illiteracy makes sense for most professions (even hero classes), but you'll find that enforcing illiteracy just adds one more thing for you as the GM to keep track of, and doesn't really add much besides a few cheap laughs at the dumb dwarf who can't read. I class illiteracy with different-coinage-systems-for-every-kingdom and different-dialects-for-every-tribe as "adds realism at the cost of slowing down play."

[Ascalaphus]

I started out in 2nd ed D&D where illiteracy was the norm. Honestly, it's not all that complicated a game to run where the Learned Classes (clerics, wizard) can buy Read/Write(specific alphabet) at a reasonably price and others pay through the nose for out-of-class Proficiencies.

That's all ancient history, but my point is: it's not so hard to run such a game. If you assume literacy is rare, NPCs won't depend on books quite that much, but instead rely on bards, wizards and clerics as repositories of information. So instead of reading the Book of Plot Exposition the PCs question the Old Learned Man. Potayto-potahto.

Anyway, historically it turns out that even in early medieval times, many people could read well enough to write their own name on for example a land lease. But the writing of more complicated texts - high-level contracts, laws, theology, history and philosophy - was a rare skill. Just how many people were just how literate is a matter of debate, but the idea that everyone was illiterate is an outdated conception from way back when the renaissance/enlightenmnent people liked to thumb their noses at the "backward" "dark ages".

But such subtle historical matters do not lend themselves well to game mechanics - having different mechanics for basic and advanced literacy would be tedious.

[Vamptastic]

@Ascalaphus: Oh I don't know, I think it could be fun.

[Ascalaphus]

I like the idea of having illiteracy. The "illiteracy for 2 bonus skill points" seems a good way; not nerfing players, just giving them more character-defining options, including the option to undo by learning literacy later on.

What I'm not into is a too-detailed system about partial literacy.

[Hill Giant]

One way to do it from Wayfinder #2:

Illiteracy (magic trait): You do not know how to read and write in any language, not even those you can speak. You automatically fail any Linguistics skill check involving writing. However, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against spells and effects based on writing, such as glyphs, sigils, and symbols.
This trait can only be taken at 1st level. You lose this trait if you ever learn to read and write.