Below are the best rules I've ever seen for languages, taken from Telecanter's Receding Rules.
Simple Languages by Welleran
“You can invest as many points into languages as you have intelligence - more points meaning more fluency.”
0 - gestures only
1 - no verbs, only proper nouns
2 - no verbs
3 - one verb per sentence
4 - fluent with an accent
5 - native fluency
Personally, I don't like the entry that says "only proper nouns", it's a bit weird. I'd replace it with "greetings (hello, goodbye, please...) and some swear words" since usually those are the first things you learn.
What's so good about it?:
- It's granular: usually in games you either know a language or you don't. Knowing it at some level makes it much more immersive.
- It can be roleplayed...: players get a clear indication on how to talk to convey their conversation level: 1 verb per sentences, no verbs, accents etc..
- ...or it can be mechanized: instead of the levels being 0-5, separate them from Intelligence and make them 1-6, we'll call it Skill Level. PCs start knowing only Common and their Alignment Language, if you use them. I'll illustrate below how the PCs can learn other languages. If the PCs have to communicate something important in a risky situation or when pressed for time, and the way they are roleplayinh it doesn't really make sense, roll below the Skill Level on a d6, as in a LotFP skill.
Compared to LotFP though, you wouldn't have an all-compassing Language Skill, but a different skill for each language. So, besides common and alignment, a travelled PC might have 3 pts in elvish (1 verb per sentence) and 2 in dwarvish (greetings), while every other language is 1 (only gestures).
How do PCs learn a language? They get 1 Point for every Downtime Action (approximately 1 month) they spend in a settlement where that language is spoken, or with a mentor who speaks tha language.
If you are gonna employ such complicated rules for languages in your game, be sure to make them count. Put important resources behind a language barrier.
Speaking of xin6 Skills, M-U and Cleric spells in B/X go up to level 6. What if Magic and Religion were Skills instead of Character Classes?
Magic as Skill
Arcane Magic:
Characters can memorize and cast a number of spells levels equal to their Magic Skill Level minus one. They don't get spells at level-up, they go look for scrolls or grimoires.
If they want to learn magic they need to find a mentor or spend a downtime action studying a new scroll or spell in a grimoire that is the same as their current Magic Skill Level. Scrolls and spells of a higher level are still too advanced to understand.
This rules out 6th level spells, but I don't care.
Divine Magic:
As Arcane Magic, devotees can cast spells (called 'prayers') of a level equal to their Skill minus 1, and and don't get spells at level up but instead have to go look for them, but the devotees don't have a limit to the number of prayers they can learn, and these aren't expended when cast. However, they have other types of restrictions:
- Prayers are associated with a deity. Every deity is a separate skill, has a limited spell list and has tenets to observe. The alignment of a deity isn't relevant as long as the PC follows their tenets. Characters can worship multiple deities. Be careful though, their tenets might contrast.
- How the skill level raises or drops is completely dependent on the referee's decision, based on how the PC's actions relate to the deity's tenets. At any moment, the referees may even decide to raise it all the way to 6 or drop it all the way to 1, if the PC proved themselves that much worthy or unworthy, of their god's favor.
For a list of deities, mentors and associated spell lists, check out Alex Schroeder's Halberds & Helmets:
- H&H (pgg 15-16)
- Spells
Turn undead is considered a lv 1 spell
Other Skills
PCs can learn any skill as long as they find a mentor and spend the necessary Downtime Actions. Roll 1d6 to see if they succeed.
You could have a more granular Survival skill based on the regions explored. Every region in your setting has an associated Skill Level. The Skill is raised by one for every day spent interacting with the wilderness in that region. Survival skill rolls are used for cooking, exploring, foraging, hunting, navigating, recognizing medicinal and poisonous plants and tracking.
