[UA] RE: Negative Skills?

[Mike Dewar]

The 1st language (no roll) and 2nd language rules work well. 

But riddle me this: It's one thing to be a person who has studied a foreign
language (ie. taken French in Unversity, or lived there long enough to pick
it up), but what about bi-(or even tri-)lingual societies? For example, I
live in a country with ELEVEN official languages where most people are
bi-lingual and tri-lingual is becoming increasingly common. 

Or what about a UA game set in Europe? Especially as the EU leads to
integration, you'd expect more and more people to grow up with "two first
languages". That rapidly becomes expensive. 

Which is preferable? That you argue that circumstantially, both should be
used as "first languages" (no skill) or that the person should just take the
30-point hit and smile (serves him right for his smelly foreign food!
Ahh...delicious smelly foreign food...).  

Also, where do we draw the line between "linguist" and "knows a language"?

If someone who's been playing a lot of Cthulhu and expects to see
"Translating of Weird Things" high on his agenda, so he creates a character
who is decently fluent in three or four (or even more) languages. In blunt
terms, your character wants to play at being Giles from Buffy
(French...German... Latin...Ancient Summerian...hah!).
For someone with a mind of 80 or so - eight or nine languages isn't
impossible. 

In fact, I'm pretty sure that it's established fact that it gets easier to
learn languages the more you learn. 

I'd be inclined to say there's a point at which he buys a consolidated stat
called "Expert in Renaissance Languages" whose penumbra covers a couple of
languages. Maybe make him pay for that by making him have that an obsession
skill ("You've got your doctorate in it, dude. Of COURSE it's your obsession
skill.") 

- Mike