Accents

[Inquisitor]

Hi!

I'm getting back into Spycraft after years of not playing (still a great game if a bit complex!) and I have a short question:

Do the PCs have obligatory accents?

They all come from different countries (Mexico, Russia, Sierra Leone, US and Finland) and they don't all have a background that would give them opportunity for loosing their native accent. The player who plays the finnish guy roleplays is character with a strong scandinavian accent but it's not something the others have thought out fully (still in the beginning of the campaign).

I kind of remember in Spycraft 1.0 the faceman had an ability of having no accent (maybe I'm wrong). Is something like that still in place in 2.0? Most of the time, it's not really bothersome that they have no accent but in certain situation, it could be an obstacle for them. Like infiltrating a social gathering or being in disguise when you have an accent that really stands out.

Or maybe it's just left to the GC and I try to much to stick with the rules... 

[Desertpuma]

With languages being folded into the Cultures skill, accents were not so much done away with as muffled or muzzled. However, you can choose to change that for your game simply by adjusting some slight rules on Cultures. For every 4 ranks, someone gains an area of Cultures Focus. You can simply allow them to apply that focus instead to an existing language so they sound like a native speaker of it.

[Merxiless]

In my campaign, I have it that if you took focus America, you have American accent. Or focus Britain,British Accent.

If not and you are from say Russia, and have north american region, you still have an aceent.

Vice versa, if you are CIa, and don't take Russia as a focus, you have an accent, and it's difficult to pass for russian, on a mission.

Seems to me it's like the (I don't know what it's called) Blending in courses for advanced deep cover handlers.

Something like that.

[Inquisitor]

Thanks for the answers!

The focus rule idea is neat. I will probably try to use it. Or mix it with the Cultures forte.

[MilitiaJim]

You can also play around with accents.  I grew up in NY, and my Spanish has a Mexican accent.  (As opposed to the Castillian we learned in class, or the various accents of the guys in my Guard companies.)

[astral707]

In our campaign, we used the personal background of the character to help direct this.  One character grew up with a parent from France and another from the US, splitting his time between both countries.  Since he's a superspy, we assumed that he learned to speak English with a US based accent and French with a France based accent, able to blend into either culture seamlessly.

The skills and character class also help.  For example, Since a Faceman is meant to be a master of disguise, it's likely that there are instances where they will speak a language with the appropriate accent for the setting.  A well connected character or one that is very streetwise may not have the best accent, but they might know local slang terms and the like that set a listener at ease, or increase their ability to blend in and be viewed as unremarkable in a crowd.