So, are there any formal rules for learning to speak/understand foreign languages? I know older versions had it, but 5.1 seems pretty mum on the whole thing.

I am sure Greg will correct me if I am wrong, but the reason (AFAIK) why the foreign languages were removed was two fold:
1) It was counter to the chivalric stories, where the knights from all over the world could talk to one another and be understood without problems.
2) It hampered roleplaying. When you can't speak to the opposition, they might just as well be mute monsters. Much more fun when you can talk to them.

So, it's just assumed that everyone can talk to everyone else? I guess I get it, but it's a weird bit of hand-wavium in a pretty crunchy system.

Pretty much, yes. It is not that weird, and it is reasonably easy to justify it within Britain: everyone speaks Common Brythonic. It would be just an additional hoop to jump through, or amazingly annoying additional rule. Imagine if you'd have to roll against Language 10 each time you try to communicate with a Saxon or a Frankish knight? Madness! :)

If you look at the stories, everyone talks to everyone else, no problem. Gawaine is able to converse with a Saracen knight without problems, knights are arriving from all over the world to Arthur's court and able to converse...

Then again, I am one of the resident heretics who feel that there are already too many skills in KAP...

However, if you want to use them in your game, no one will stop you. :)

No, I agree there are probably too many skills in the game... just thought there was some way to handle this without fully breaking verisimilitude. We'll find a way to work around it, just checking to see if there was something we missed since rules seem to be a bit spread around various books at this point.

Agreed with Morien. Versimilitude sometimes has to give way to playability and the conventions of the milieu. I'm plaing a WITCH HUNTER campaign right now and I can tell you it's a royal PIA to juggle all the languages of Europe (and beyond). More realisitic? Yes. More fun? No. It's the same problem shows like STAR TREK has. Miraculously, everyone in the universe speaks English — even aline races from unexplored regions of space. So don't talk to me about that Universal Translator nonsense...

I do kinda like the idea of foreign languages, however, and, indeed, we see glimpses of diferent tongues in the GPC. I just always have translators present when my PKs are dealing with Saxons, ala the Bernard Cornwall books. But, as Morien says, if you wnt language rules, you can certainly introduce them, no problem. Just hack them from any of a hundred other games.


Best,


T.

No, I agree there are probably too many skills in the game... just thought there was some way to handle this without fully breaking verisimilitude. We'll find a way to work around it, just checking to see if there was something we missed since rules seem to be a bit spread around various books at this point.

Well, here is one quick suggestion:

Starting Languages
You start Fluent (Skill 15) in your native language. For Cymri, Romans and Picts, this is Common Brittonic with some Latin loanwords mixed in, although Romans often learn actual Latin as well.

Learning Languages
Languages are relatively easy to pick up. Hence, when you spend skill points on them, each point increases the skill level by three. Otherwise, the normal rules apply: you still get only one skill point to use if your Language skill is 15 or more, and it is capped at 20. Successful Experience check rolls only increase it by one skill level.

Using Languages
Your skill level in a language determines your comprehension category (see below) in the language. Normally, you wouldn't have to roll the language skill, if you are working at your comprehension category. A successful language roll, however, allows you to use the next comprehension category: for example, a Fluent speaker tries to mask his accent (Expert category), and he would have to roll against his skill. On a success, he manages to hide his foreign accent. If you are less than Fluent, your social skills that rely on spoken communication but do have a gesture/body language component (such as Courtesy and Flirting) are capped at language level times 2, whereas Orate, which is more fully about the eloquence, is capped at your language skill. So if you are speaking Saxon at 6, your Orate of 18 becomes 6; However, if he succeeds in his language roll, his comprehension category for this instance goes up by one to Basic, corresponding to a skill of 9, and so Orate is capped at 9 instead.

The comprehension is broken to six categories (skill level in parenthesis):
Very Basic (3): You know a few words (yes, no, hello, bye, thank you, friend, food, drink) and can probably count to five.
Broken (6): You are able to formulate simple sentences of every day things, but your vocabulary is still quite limited, and gestures and expressions count for a lot.
Basic (9): You are able to hold an every day conversation, but get lost on humor and word play, and your sentences are still quite stilted to the native ear.
Accented (12): Your vocabulary is pretty good, and you can understand the humor and word play quite well. However, you still have an outrageous foreign accent, which occasionally forces you to repeat yourself, and marks your foreign origin clearly.
Fluent (15): You are able to speak the language as fluently as a local. Your social skills are no longer capped by your language skill. You do retain a slight accent, which might betray your origins.
Expert (18): You can mimic the language's accents at ease. At this stage, the use of language is effortless and you probably don't need to roll for anything anymore.

You could say that there was a lingua franca, that everyone spoke and that made speaking with each other easier.
Also the use of translators during formal negotiations is a standard practice, even in those days. So that would negate the need for different language skills.

Although this is later (after that William guy) in England there was a difference between the language the nobility spoke and the language the common people spoke. The nobles spoke the same language as those in France.

Difficulties because of different languages could be interesting, but should not IMHO determine the mainstream of the game.

By the way. The Folk lore skill could be seen as a language skill. What are those commoners babbling about?