Alignment languages and how to improve them

A few days ago I was watching this video about alignment languages and ways to make them more interesting ingame (and also how Gygax actually intended them when he created them).

I found it interesting that these were never supposed to be actual languages, but rather a way to give other classes what Thieves got in Thieves' Cant; not a full-blown language, but a bunch of signs and gestures used to subtly convey a message. Therefore, lawful creatures would be able to make subtle signs that only other lawful creatures could decipher, but chaotic creatures would be able to spot those signs and become immediately aggressive. A little bit too convoluted for my tastes.

The video author, though, has an interesting idea: maybe each organized religion and follower of a specific deity has their own "language", which they can use to recognize each other while in the wilderness. This is an interesting idea, and a cleric could start with such a knowledge and immediately become a more interesting character, more rooted into the world, and the world itself will feel more alive for your players.

But why stop there? This doesn't have to be a character creation only thing, each faction that the party meets over the course of their adventures could have a similar system in place and, should a PC decide to join one of these factions, learning it would be a dowmntime activity they spend time on. Afterwards, they'd be able to use those signs to let other members of that factions know of their allegiance and receive help in a time of need, while being careful not to use it too much or in front of the wrong people, because that could lead to the faction punishing them, or in the worst cases outright expelling them, which could lead to all sorts of new adventures.

Of course this system should not be abused, not every faction needs a secret language nor every PC needs to learn one, but sprinkled here and there, it could, as I said before, feel the whole world more realistic and alive to your players, and that's something I always look for.

Will you add this, or a variation of this, to your campaigns and worlds? I plan to as soon as I can get a game going.

This is all for this week, see you next Sunday for my next post!

May your dice never betray you,
Kirhon

 

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