There are many ways to make a truly immersive session of tabletop gaming, such as using miniatures on a map, playing mood music in the background, or creating a character-specific voice. But perhaps what makes a world feel most lived-in is a fictional language. Constructed languages, or "conlangs," spoken by different characters within the game universe can do a lot to distinguish the different cultures of the game.

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Perhaps it's no surprise that some of the most famous tabletop games also feature their own complex conlangs, many of which have become famous in their own right. These languages compliment the game's world-building and enhance its setting and the play experience, and deserve their spot at the top.

10 The Or'zet Language In Shadowrun Is A Cultural HeirloomA group of characters from shadowrun battle in the street with swords, guns, and magic

Shadowrun is a classic science fantasy tabletop RPG that's only growing in popularity. Shadowrun is a mixture of cyberpunk and urban fantasy, so there's no shortage of fun races to play. Among them are the Orks, who take great pride in their language Or'zet.

As is typical in fantasy, the Orks aren't exactly well-respected in Shadowrun, and so it's actually rather heartwarming that the Orks were able to translate an ancient text that contained their long-forgotten language. In this case, Or'zet isn't just a language to distinguish the Ork race, but actively plays a part in their characterization and is a major part of their heritage.

9 Dungeons & Dragons' Draconic Language Is The Original Words Of PowerDraconic Language D&D

Dungeons & Dragons is seen by many people as the archetypal tabletop RPG, and it is the progenitor of many features that have since become standard for TTRPGs. This includes the use of a conlang for the different races in the world, including the famous Draconic.

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Draconic is largely iconic because it is associated with two of the longest-lasting fantasy tropes: wizards and dragons. Draconic is the ancient language spoken by the dragons and was then adopted by both wizards and the dragonborn for both spells and normal conversation, and the concept has since bled over into many other fantasy settings.

8 Belter Creole Perfectly Compliments The Expanse's Social CommentaryThe Expanse Game Collage

Perhaps the only thing more compelling than the grounded sci-fi approach of The Expanse is its depiction of vast cultural differences that have arisen across the solar system. Of these cultures, the impoverished Belters living on asteroids and moons quickly became fan favorites. Maybe it was the gritty aesthetic of their low-gravity lives or the historical parallels to colonialism, but the Belters have arguably become the face of the franchise.

But nothing distinguishes the Belters more than their language. While the citizens of Earth and Mars largely speak some kind of accented English in the series, many of the Belters mix their speech in with their own language, Belter Creole. As the name suggests, it's a mixture of the different languages the original colonists spoke, that over generations combined into its own. Nothing makes a game of The Expanse RPG more authentic than throwing around some Belter Creole.

7 Arkham Horror Includes Plenty Of Lovecraft's Strange R'lyehian WordsThe box for Arkham Horror game

The works of H.P. Lovecraft have become a staple of tabletop gaming, and even unrelated games like Pandemic have seen Lovecraft-inspired spin-offs. But it would be impossible to make a Lovecraftian horror game without using any of his strange invented words in R'lyehian, the language of the Elder Gods. Of the many games inspired by his works, Arkham Horror might be the most iconic and features some of the most prolific use of R'lyehian.

Arkham Horror is chock-full of nigh-unpronounceable, guttural words, largely in the form of the names of the many abominable horrors that comprise Lovecraft's mythos. From Cthulhu to Yog-Sothoth, to Shoggoths and Dagon, this game has all kinds of fictitious names and words to keep players immersed in the horror.

6 The Dothraki Language In Game Of Thrones Is A Work Of ArtA Song Of Ice And Fire RPG

Invented by George R.R. Martin for his novels and expanded upon in the Game of Thrones television series, the Dothraki language is regarded as one of the most extensive and renowned fictional languages. With Dothraki characters like Daenerys playing prominent roles in the original series and House of the Dragon, it's no surprise the language also features in the tabletop RPG.

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The Dothraki, and in particular the Targaryen family and their allies, are all over the Song of Ice and Fire RPG books. It would be easy to make a Dothraki character, arm them with a fast steed and an arakh, and after enough practice, start mixing some Dothraki words into their in-character speech

5 Star Trek Adventures Gives Klingon The Presence It DeservesStar Trek Adventures RPG

Following the success of the original Star Trek series and films, Klingon skyrocketed to become one of the most famous conlangs ever. With the villainous-turned-heroic Klingons being as popular as their language, it's no surprise that both have featured heavily in Star Trek games.

Star Trek Adventures even features an entire expansion based on the Klingons called The Klingon Empire with an overview of Klingon history and a guide to creating a Klingon character. The guidebook is covered in Klingon script, comes with prebuilt Klingon characters and a basic adventure, and brims with Klingon pride. Truly, it's a dream come true for ay Klingon lovers.

4 Warhammer 40,000's High Gothic Goes Hand In Hand With Its Art StyleWarhammer Miniatures from the tabletop

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. While primarily known for pioneering the genre of grimdark and its inordinately expensive miniatures, Games Workshops's Warhammer 40,000 is also famous for its excellent world-building. Key to this is the languages its factions use, most notably the Imperium's High Gothic.

High Gothic, while based on Latin, is its own language, with a Low Gothic variant (very similar to English) being the common tongue. High Gothic, however, is used primarily for formal titles and designations, along with some incredibly cool mottos such as "Victorus Aut Mortis" or "Innocentia Nihil Probat." This Latin-based language works wonders in complimenting the Imperium's Roman aesthetic and serves to connect the far future to the real-world past.

3 Chakobsa Cements Dune To Its Arabic RootsDune Board Game

Frank Herbert's Dune is widely lauded as the greatest sci-fi novel of all time, and now it's finally getting its time in the sun with films, video games, an upcoming streaming series, and tabletop games being released. One element these all have in common is Chakobsa, an Arabic-inspired language Herbert created to be spoken largely by the Fremen but also by the Bene Gesserit and House Atreides.

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The Dune board game, for example, is littered with Chakobsa words from the deadly poison needle, the Gom Jabbar, to characters with Chakobsa names like the Shadout Mapes. Perhaps most famous are the old men of the desert, those giant sandworms known as Shai-Hulud. The languages Arabic influences only help to enhance the setting and the experience of any Dune game.

2 The Aurebesh Alphabet Keeps Star Wars Fantastical And FamiliarThe contents of the Star Wars: Rebellion board game.

Star Wars has had its own alphabet, called Aurebesh, since the original trilogy. Aurebesh is only a written form of Galactic Basic (aka English), and the pronunciation of Basic is derived from an older alphabet called High Galactic (also just English). Since its invention, Aurebesh has been included in almost all Star Wars media, including tabletop games.

Aurebesh can be found all over Star Wars board games, typically either alongside a character or planet name or in the form of decals painted onto armor or the hull of a ship. Perhaps what makes this conlang so successful is that it is purely written and not spoken, making translation much easier and also allowing for it to be present largely in the background, adding to the world-building without the effort required to learn how to speak it.

1 War Of The Ring's Elvish Is Fantasy's Most Iconic LanguageWar of the Ring board game

J.R.R. Tolkien's expertise in linguistics, combined with his knowledge of Nordic, Norman, and Bretonnic history and culture, allowed him to create some of the most famous and extensive fictional languages in history. For almost every society he crafted in Lord of the Rings, he made a language for them to speak and write in. None are more prominent than his Elvish languages, specifically Quenya and Sindarin.

Almost every single piece of media connected to The Lord of the Rings will feature some form of Elvish, most often the famous inscription upon the One Ring. Elvish, and Tolkien's other languages, are all over Ares Games' War of the Ring, and the game feels authentic because of it. From locations to characters to even the cards and dice themselves, the use of Elvish truly makes this game feel like a dive deep into Middle Earth.

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