Arelith

While I agree that the intention of using -an should avoid 'esoteric' discussions (although this assumes quite a bit about how certain animals, like octopodes and dolphins communicate), it makes emoting in the language nearly impossible for clean RP.

For example, I was participating in a RP this morning during which two groups of animal henchmen were involved in a ceremony. The rangers/druids were trying to keep them at bay using the -an language via emotes, yet they had to take several lines to communicate what their hums/moans/growls meant.

It's my strong plea to remove the cap as it damages RP more than it saves it (in my experience).

Best,

My best advice to give you for the time being until there is (if there will be, actually) a mechanic that doesnt count *emotes* in the character limit, switch to common for emotes and add at the end of your emote *and she says...* or he. or barks/howls/whatever. Given that the alternative is not to have this language in the module at all...

Sure, that is what we ended up doing, yet that removes the flavor of using the language in its entirety...

There has already been a thread about this very topic that had to be locked.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=30802

Let's try to keep this civil as we proceed. Just a forewarning.

Nidea Lynn wrote: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:52 pm Sure, that is what we ended up doing, yet that removes the flavor of using the language in its entirety...

I dont expect people to keep using it for much longer, because of the emoting inconvenience mostly, which is kinda what I think the team had in mind when they decided to limit the characters rather than outright removing it. Let me put it this way: if you feel you're using it so often that switching to common for emotes becomes a major inconvenience then you were /probably/ using it for more than the very basic communication form it was meant for. This of course, isnt directed specifically at you. Just in general.

No worries.

I'd be entirely happy if text within * were not counted towards the total limit. While I may concede that philosophical debates would be untasteful in an animal language, quite of bit of information can be relayed via a growl or a moan with layers of nuance.

A growl could be playful or threatening; it could, with additional body language, indicate a geographical threshold over which travel should be avoided (i.e., if a wolf is growling at you protecting its kill, it isn't a great idea to move closer). For these explanatory reasons, I think the change should be reverted or changed to not count emotes.

Best,