I've tried looking but I haven't found much. Are there any (mundane) items people have used or know of for a character to attempt to translate languages?
I was thinking a character who goes around inspecting old ruins might want to bring a few "How to translate Abyssal" or "The basics of Celestial" or something. Someone traveling with goblins might want to pick up a "Conversational Goblin, what not to say". Perhaps an (Int?) skill check to attempt basic language translations.
I get that magic would probably be used in some form (at higher levels) for most things, and any such translation books would be world/setting dependent, but has anyone made use of any ideas like this in their own games?
Like you said, magic, and not even at higher levels. Comprehend languages is a 1st level spell. And really if you can’t read something, it’s probably because the DM is using it as a story hook.
Sure. For some reason, some players were trying to read something written in Giant in the library of a silver dragon. Neither of their characters were scholarly types, and the thing they were trying to read wasn't especially important to the plot, but they wanted to know what it said, so they went and found a Draconic-Common dictionary and a Draconic-Giant dictionary and I told them with an hour and a DC 15 INT check, they could torture out the rough meaning.
In real life, a stunt like that, across three different writing systems, three different grammars, would take a day of grinding brainwork, if it could be done at all, but it didn't seem like a big deal.
Another "mundane item" would be hiring a translator or sage. This could look like anything from the civilian translators in The Hurt Locker to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the old guy translates the inscriptions on the headpiece and the evil monkey gets it (spoiler alert).
The game has a character who will help you translate any text into the desired language. It's easier to play with this than in real life. When at work I needed to make a business translation for foreign colleagues in a short time, with a large selection of languages and as high quality as possible, I had to spend a lot of time searching, but fortunately I found the service and was very pleased.
I've tried looking but I haven't found much. Are there any (mundane) items people have used or know of for a character to attempt to translate languages?
I was thinking a character who goes around inspecting old ruins might want to bring a few "How to translate Abyssal" or "The basics of Celestial" or something. Someone traveling with goblins might want to pick up a "Conversational Goblin, what not to say". Perhaps an (Int?) skill check to attempt basic language translations.
I get that magic would probably be used in some form (at higher levels) for most things, and any such translation books would be world/setting dependent, but has anyone made use of any ideas like this in their own games?
Like you said, magic, and not even at higher levels. Comprehend languages is a 1st level spell.
And really if you can’t read something, it’s probably because the DM is using it as a story hook.
Sure. For some reason, some players were trying to read something written in Giant in the library of a silver dragon. Neither of their characters were scholarly types, and the thing they were trying to read wasn't especially important to the plot, but they wanted to know what it said, so they went and found a Draconic-Common dictionary and a Draconic-Giant dictionary and I told them with an hour and a DC 15 INT check, they could torture out the rough meaning.
In real life, a stunt like that, across three different writing systems, three different grammars, would take a day of grinding brainwork, if it could be done at all, but it didn't seem like a big deal.
Another "mundane item" would be hiring a translator or sage. This could look like anything from the civilian translators in The Hurt Locker to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the old guy translates the inscriptions on the headpiece and the evil monkey gets it (spoiler alert).
The game has a character who will help you translate any text into the desired language. It's easier to play with this than in real life. When at work I needed to make a business translation for foreign colleagues in a short time, with a large selection of languages and as high quality as possible, I had to spend a lot of time searching, but fortunately I found the service and was very pleased.