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There was a person that showed up at a table I was playing in that had a Tien character that doesn't speak common. We didn't really get into an argument over it, but I told him in no uncertain words that there is no way within the rules to have a PFS character that doesn't speak common. His response was "I've never had anyone have a problem with me writing a flaw into my character. What if I wanted to make a character with one arm?" To which I said, "well you can't do that either."
Other players chimed in and basically said "RPing" is fine. I told him the closest he could come to and still be within the rules is feigning ignorance and refusing to acknowledge anything spoken in common. Then that would imply bluff checks if someone really cared whether or not he understood them. He made other PCs translate at which point they got tired of it and started mistranslating minor things on purpose (obviously).
Someone else said "it's like my monk who acts like they have a vow even though her archetype traded vows away". Which, is completely fine for someone to RP until they start applying mechanical penalties to their character.
As I said, it wasn't really an argument because I just stated my point of view and we moved on.
Is there any way to actually have a PFS PC that doesn't understand common? The only one I can think of is a tongues cursed oracle but that's only while in combat.
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Yes, I'm aware. Is there anything that implies a character can refuse a language?The Guide to Organized Play has this little nugget on page 8:
Tian characters receive the languages Tien and
Common for free.
No.
They are receiving common for free to avoid this type of communication issue in the first place. If you can't communicate with your teammates, then you aren't really a part of the team in the first place.
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Remember, every Pathfinder Society agent receives training. I would imagine part of the training is, if you don't speak Common, to learn it so you can properly cooperate with your teammates.
His excuse was "they tried to teach it to me and I refused."
But I just wanted to make sure I wasn't blowing smoke and that there actually was no way for that to be possible.
I would have thought that a character who cannot understand anyone else in their group, together with most characters that they encounter, would be more disruptive to a campaign that an evil character.
The first question I would ask of the player for this character is how does he know that he's on an adventure in the first place?
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Although the roleplay is creative he needs to remember that it will cause many other players to get annoyed due to the complications it brings.
My view is that to the best of my knowledge RAW he cannot opt to refuse common but also in a roleplay sense he needs to justify why the Pathfiders would bother to accept a level 1 trainee into the society when he refuses to even learn the very language that the society uses.
It would be fine if he had an item or familiar that translates it all magically though, but not sure what rulings that would require... or even if it would be legal.
It's a good character for homebrew play but maybe not for societal.
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He definitely has the opportunity to get it (for free). However, here's a slightly different question: what can you do about it?
What if he just wants to play a silent (or mostly-silent) character? Can you force him to speak Common?
Granted, it makes the character seem much less part of the team. If played poorly, it might even rub up against the "don't be a jerk" rule. In general, though... if it's not hurting you, why not?
Definitely no. I can't/wouldn't force him to speak. That being said he would understand everything and wouldn't force other players to translate for him. But he's not playing a silent character and that's in no way related to the question at hand.
Why not? Because we all follow the same rules. It's really just as simple as that.
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I have a Deaf/Wolf-Scarred oracle that I play as mute, but she has Read Lips and a journal to write in. I only give people playing Tengus a hard time because they dont have lips to read, so I look to other players to translate after writing a full page in my journal of "Translate?!?!?" to hold up. It brings about several laughs, but I only do it once, maybe twice per scenario. From there I just make the motions of writing, and holding up the journal so that I don't slow down play.
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To participate in Organized Play, players have to come to the understanding that some aspects of roleplay, especially those that would limit communication between characters and/or players, as well as the idea of a complete 'sandbox' style of play just have to be put aside for the system to work.
There are roleplaying decisions and campaign structures that work in 'home game' environments that just cannot be brought to the average PFS table due to time constraints, lack of familiarity between players and the general 'one and done' scenario structure of PFS.
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Based on the wording in the Guide to Organized Play that gives all PCs Common for free, I don't think it's possible under PFS rules to make a character without it.
But as others have said, problems communicating can sometimes be fun to RP, as long as you don't take them too far into "Don't be a jerk" territory. From what the OP described, this guy may be bordering on that.
I know a guy whose monk has a vow of silence. He says that the character wears a small chalkboard around his neck, and the player actually brings a small white board and wet erase markers to every game. He usually only uses it once or twice a session, and it's usually hilarious when he does.
I have an oracle with the tongues curse, so I can't talk to most teammates during combat. This has made for a couple of fun jokes, and I occasionally have to force myself not to metagame coordinate with my teammates during battle. Again, it's a fun bit of RP, but I try not to let it be disruptive.
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We have run into similar issues with Vow of Silence monks and Tongues or Deaf oracles who didn't realize what they were signing up for. Here's how I would handle this:
First, I would clearly explain to the players what the in-game effect will be. He cannot participate in any conversation, so he must sit out of any social encounter (unless it's in Tien). He will not know any information from the Venture Captain briefing. He can't understand any of the character introductions, where other players usually say things like "I'll cast Haste first round, so don't get out of range until I do" or "I need a flank partner--who's a good choice to help me with that." He can't participate in any strategy or planning conversations. If no one else at the table speaks Tien, some GMs will make him leave the table during these conversations so the player can't use metagame knowledge.
In combat, it's even worse. If any other character spots a sneaking bad guy, he does not know it. He cannot make use of information from any knowledge check against an enemy unless he makes it himself. He cannot benefit from any language-dependent spells or buffs like Message, the Tactician ability, Freebooter's Bane, etc.
Have him make up a list of spells and conferred class abilities that are language dependent and hand to the GM every time he sits down, so the GM knows what he can't be affected by--otherwise, the game will slow to a crawl as the group has to constantly look things up. (Actually, this last exercise might be enough to convince him how bad this will be.)
Now, most of these issues would be mitigated if he understood Common but just refused to speak it for whatever reason (for example, maybe he's embarrassed by his accent or he finds the sounds grating or he sometimes actually chokes on the guttural consonants--whatever). That gives him the opportunity to break down and actually speak in an emergency, which could also make for a fun kind of "Oh crap--this must be really bad!" signal at the table.