Right up to the 1970s many British university degrees included the study of languages so students could read papers and text books that weren’t available in English. For example engineers often learnt German as about a third of all academic papers on engineering were published in German journals. It wasn’t only Universities that required the study of languages – cooks would learn French at catering college and electricians German to read instruction books. Night schools at colleges, universities and the Works Educational Association allowed people from all walks of life to pick up a language to better themselves.
In Trail of Cthulhu (ToC) and other Gumshoe games this can be treated as a Cherry (see the rule book for those) or a lemon (which I’ll describe here). This is a simple way to give more PCs languages or make them take them making globetrotting adventures less dependent on NPC translators or a single PC linguist.
Cherries
If it’s a Cherry any PC with more than a required number of points in an ability gets a free point and an appropriate language for free. As with other points in the language ability a player doesn’t need to reveal their language choice until they use it so can hold off until its advantageous in play.
It should be obvious but a character shouldn’t take their native language.
Optionally: Most character’s are going to take the easy route in life though so if two abilities can be satisfied by taking the same language that’s what the PC will do. So a character with Architecture and Physics at 4 points or more would take German as it’s common to both and not Russian and French.
Open Source Gumshoe Ability | Trail of Cthulhu Ability | Free Language at 4 points | Free Language at 8 points |
---|---|---|---|
Anthropology | Anthropology | One Indigenous Language relating to a people they have studied. | Another Indigenous Language, or one of English, French or German. |
Archaeology | Archaeology | Latin or Greek | One ancient Language or old form of a modern language. |
Architecture | Architecture | English, French or German | |
Art History | Art History | English, Italian or French | |
Astronomy | Astronomy | One of English, German, Latin, Greek or Chinese | One not taken at 4 points |
– | Biology | Latin | English or German |
Bureaucracy | Bureaucracy | One modern language if dealing with foreign countries | |
Chemistry | Chemistry | English or German | English, German, French or Russian excluding one taken at 4 points |
Cop Talk | Cop Talk | One modern language if working across national boundaries with different languages or in an area with a large population who speak a different language | |
Craft | Craft | English, German, Italian or French | |
Cryptography | Cryptography | Any Modern Language | Ancient Egyptian or Greek |
Explosives | English or German | ||
Geology | Geology | English or German | |
History | History | Latin or Greek | One ancient Language or old form of a modern language. |
– | Hypnosis | French | |
Law | Law | Latin | Old version of their native language, language used for old law in their country or the language of another country they practice law in |
Medicine | Latin | Any modern language | |
Natural History | – | Latin | English or German |
Occult | Occult | Latin, Greek or Ancient Egyptian | One not taken at 4 points |
Oral History | Oral History | One spoken language if working in areas where other languages are spoken | One spoken language if working in areas where other languages are spoken |
– | Outdoorsman | A local Indigenous language if working in an area where one is spoken | Another local Indigenous language if working in an area where one is spoken |
– | Pharmacy | English, German or Latin | One not taken at 4 points |
– | Physics | English, Russian or German | One not taken at 4 points |
– | Piloting | English, French or German | |
– | Psychoanalysis | English, Latin or German | |
– | Theology | Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Pali, Sanskrit, Tamil or Classical Arabic | One not taken at 4 points or Church Slavonic, Ge’ez, Coptic, Syriac, Classical Armenian |
Lemons
Put simply a lemon is a requirement to have an ability to increase another ability above a certain level.
If it’s a Lemon any PC who wants to advance past a level must have at least one of the languages mentioned to continue to spend points in the ability. English should only be used if it’s not a character’s native language.
Open Source Gumshoe Ability | Trail of Cthulhu Ability | Must have one of these in Languages to pass 4 points | Must have one of these in Languages to pass 8 points |
---|---|---|---|
Anthropology | Anthropology | One Indigenous Language relating to a people they have studied. | Another Indigenous Language, or one of English, French or German. |
Archaeology | Archaeology | Latin or Greek | One ancient Language or old form of a modern language. |
Architecture | Architecture | English, French or German | |
Art History | Art History | English, Italian or French | |
Astronomy | Astronomy | One of English, German, Latin, Greek or Chinese | Another of the Languages from the 4 points list |
– | Biology | Latin | English or German |
Bureaucracy | Bureaucracy | One modern language if dealing with foreign countries | |
Chemistry | Chemistry | English or German | English, German, French or Russian not the same as 4 points |
Cop Talk | Cop Talk | One modern language if working across national boundaries with different languages | |
Craft | Craft | English, German, Italian or French | |
Cryptography | Cryptography | Any Modern Language that isn’t their native language | Ancient Egyptian or Greek |
– | Explosives | English or German | |
Geology | Geology | English or German | |
History | History | Latin or Greek | One ancient Language or old form of a modern language. |
– | Hypnosis | French | |
Law | Law | Latin | Must have 2 points in Languages |
– | Medicine | Latin | Any modern language |
Natural History | – | Latin | |
Occult | Occult | Latin, Greek or Ancient Egyptian | One not taken at 4 points |
Oral History | Oral History | One spoken language if working in areas where other languages are spoken | |
– | Outdoorsman | A local Indigenous language if working in an area where one is spoken | |
– | Pharmacy | English, German or Latin | Two of the languages from the 4 point list must be taken |
– | Physics | English, Russian or German | |
– | Piloting | English, French or German | |
– | Psychoanalysis | English, Latin or German | |
– | Theology | Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Pali, Sanskrit, Tamil or Classical Arabic | Two of the languages from the 4 point list must be taken or one of them plus one of Church Slavonic, Ge’ez, Coptic, Syriac, Classical Armenian |