Found myself in a Star Trek RPG mood again and started looking through my old stuff like Way of D'era. Not sure why I never noticed before but the romulan words in Way of D'era don't seem to line up very well with Rihannsu or Rom'lesta. So, where did LUG get their romulan words from? Did they just make them up as they went or was there a third romulan language?
There is no actual official Romulan language. Rihannsu is from a single set of books published by Pocket books and is not really accepted by many Star Trek fans, while Rom'lesta is a completely separate and purely fannish invention. Diane Duane, author/inventor of the Rihannsu, is not a linguist and her Rihannsu vocabulary is limited, while a proper grammar is practically non-extant, so there is no real Rihannsu "language". This is in stark contrast to Klingon, where Paramount Pictures itself went out and hired a linguist to develop both a vocabulary and a grammatical system and are used under the terms of the license. Since Pocket Books and Last Unicorn Games were separate licensees, of Star Trek, there was no cross-pollination between the two licences, therefore many things established in the novels were not usable in the game. The FASA iteration of the game, however, was able to use elements from the John M. Ford Klingon novels because of a relationship between FantaSimulations Games, the development team for the game and Ford, author of that set of novels. That relationship is detailed in the designers notes to the FASA Klingon rules (both 1st and 2nd editions), and was worked out by the writers rather than by the licensees.
Further, you will also note that LUG did not use the Fordian Klingon society as used in the FASA game, nor did LUG use any of the Rihannsu culture from the Duane books. These would have entailed separate licenses and opened up a whole 'nother can o' worms. You, however, as a GM, are under no such restrictions. You can cherry-pick what you like from whatever source you prefer and customise the continuity and background of your game. Like the Kzinti? Use 'em. Prefer the Rihannsu to the Way of D'Era? Sustitute 'em. Nobody can tell you that within the context of your game you're wrong.
Thank you. I know there isn't a canon Romulan language, so to speak. I suspected LUG just made up bits but there was enough that I wondered if they had gone through the effort to build something like one. I was originally a FASA fan so Rom'lesta was my favorite. I have to admit though that Rihannsu has grown on me.
Sorry. I misspoke slightly. Rom'lesta was a FASA invention, not a purely fannish one. That puts it in the same boat as Klingonaase, also by FASA (with input by Ford).
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