[Machiavelli] Italian vs. English words

[Ricky Donato]

Hi, all,

As my work on Machiavelli proceeds (I should have a first draft ready in a couple of weeks), I have a decision to make. Machiavelli is set in Renaissance Italy, so for color I could name the various mechanical portions with Italian words rather than English words. However, I am concerned that this will confuse the players rather than engage them with the setting. I am asking for your opinion on this matter: would it confuse you (you specifically, not someone in general) if you read an RPG that had a lot of Italian terms in it?

Let me give some examples of English/Italian word pairs that I am considering:

Prince/Principe
Counselor/Consigliere
Misfortune/Sfortuna
Advice/Consiglio
Church/Chiesa
Pope's Favorite/Favorito Del Papa
Military/Militari

[JakeVanDam]

Personally, the words similar to their English counterparts wouldn't confuse me at all. With the others, it depends on how much I would have to understand the word itself to understand the concept. This latter grou would be:

Misfortune/Sfortuna
Advice/Consiglio
Church/Chiesa

if you only gave the Itialian terms, I'd only connect the terms to the concepts they represent in game, not to the real word concepts they otherwise represent. If you gave the English translation, I'd probably replace them with the English terms. Misfortune/Sfortuna is on the border. Not given the English translation, I'd probably think of Sfortuna as fate, which may be useful or may be contrary to the mechanics it represents.

The other's I wouldn't have any trouble with at all.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I think that if you refer to character's titles and maybe geographic locaions in their native tongue, that would be a great way to get players jazzed and set the tone.
  But I think the danger is not to overdo it. Like naming a luck stat fortuna or whatever the proper Italian is might intrude on the mechanical aspects of he game. And of course that goes for all games/concepts. You want a vocabulary that conveys the mood/tone, but not one that might overwhelm/confuse new players no?
  Like, in my mind Jake's suggestions cross that threshhold where the player move from having to leanr a few terms/ideas to aving to leanr Italian, lol
  Well, that is just my 2 cents, no change please.