Foreign Languages and Special Training in Delta Green

A rules variant for playtesting. Post comments below.

An Agent with the Foreign Language skill can learn a loosely related language as special training with the same skill rating. This option applies only to the Foreign Language skill, not an Agent's native language.

EXAMPLE: Special Agent Martinez has the skill Foreign Language (Spanish) at 50%. He wants to learn Italian and Russian. The Handler decides Italian is close enough to Spanish, another Romance language, to learn it with special training. Martinez can learn Italian with a few months of special training and use his Spanish skill rating with it. Russian is a Slavic language, not related at all. Learning Russian requires a whole new Foreign Language skill.

The Handler and players have great latitude in defining a “related language.” As a rule of thumb, most languages might have three to six languages closely enough related to master with special training rather than separate skills. 

Some languages are isolates. A language isolate always requires skill in itself, not merely special training.

At Agent creation, the Handler might grant an Agent one or two instances of special training to expand a Foreign Language skill’s usefulness. Or replace 20% in bonus skill points with one instance of special training.

Here are a few rough possibilities. Edit or correct these lists as you like. Look to encyclopedias and experts for real guidance.

EUROPEAN

• Germanic languages: Danish, Dutch, English, German, Gothic, Norwegian, Yiddish
• Greek languages: Classical Greek, Greek, Medieval Greek
• Romance languages: Catalan, French, Italian, Latin, Occitan, Old French, Portugese, Romanian, Spanish
• Slavic languages: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Ukrainian
• Language isolates: Albanian, Armenian

MIDDLE EASTERN AND SOUTH ASIAN

• Akkadian languages: Akkadian, Ancient Aramaic, Assyrian, Babylonian
• Egyptian languages: Coptic, Demotic Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Old Egyptian
• Indo-Iranian languages: Bengali, Hindi-Urdu, Kurdish, Ossetian, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi
• Semitic languages: Amharic, Aramaic, Arabic, Berber, Gurage, Hebrew, Phoenician, Tigrinya
• Turkic languages: Azerbaijani, Turkish, Uyghur, Uzbek
• Language isolates: Sumerian

EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN

• Austroasiatic languages: Khmer, Mon, Vietnamese
• Kra-Dai languages: Lao, Thai
• Austronesian languages: Filipino, Javanese, Malay
• Sino-Tibetan languages: Burmese, Karenic, Mandarin, Min, Wu, Yue, Tibetan
• Hmong-Mien languages: Hmong, Mien

AFRICAN

• Chadic languages: Hausa, Masa, Bata
• Bantu languages: Shona, Swahili, Xhosa, Zulu
• Cushitic languages: Oromo, Somali

INDIGENOUS SOUTH PACIFIC

• Polynesian languages: Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan
• Australian Pama-Nyungan languages: Maric, Nyungic, Paman

INDIGENOUS NORTH AMERICAN

• Algonquian languages: Arapahoan, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Mi’kmaq, Ojibwe
• Eskimo-Aleut languages: Alutiiq, Inuit, Yupik
• Iroquoian languages: Cherokee, Mohawk
• Northern Athabaskan or Dené languages: Carrier, Chipewyan, Chilcotin, Gwichʼin, Koyukon, Slavey, Tlicho
• Northern Uto-Aztecan languages: Hopi, Numic
• Siouan languages: Crow, Omaha-Ponca, Sioux
• Southern Athabaskan or Dené languages: Apache, Navajo
• Southern Uto-Aztecan languages: Aztecan (Nahuan or Nahuatl), Cahita, Corachol, Tarahumaran, Tepiman
• Tanoan languages: Kiowa, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa
• Language isolates: Keresan, Zuni