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There's always a debate about how realistic a RPG should be. Some argue the more realistic the better, it aides in immersion. I consider that a simulationist's argument. A verisimilitudist's argument is do just enough to fake it, to lower the barrier to entry, to allow as many Players as possible to enjoy the game.
I fall on the verisimilitude side. Why?
All RPGs try to simulate aspects of a world, but they all fail to some degree.
Combat
Look at combat in RPGs. Damage ratings are given to different weapons, but it's abstracted to some version of Hit Points. Let's look at a boxing or MMA match. Some fights have over a hundred strikes. As you watch the match, they tally up the number of attempted strikes and the number that lands. Over 30 strikes land per match. The rest miss either because the opponent dodged or blocked the blow. Now calculate how much damage 30 strikes does. Also take into account the fighters get some bonus damage for high strength or build. At the end of the fight, sometimes both fighters are still standing. That's 30 to 100 Hit Points. The only time someone does goes down immediately is with a knockout blow, I'd call that a Critical Hit.
Now take a gun. Shoot someone 1 to 3 times. They'll generally go down. Yes, you do hear about some soldier taking 20 bullets and before going down, but that's a Silver Star recipient. But let's just shoot one of our boxers. Yeah, he'll probably go down. So, that's like 4 to 30 Hit Points.
Now take a fencing foil. Most matches last only a few seconds before someone is hit and if the foils weren't blunted, someone would be skewered. I assume if you get stabbed 1-3 times, you'd be down. So, it'll be like a gun, but probably not as bad as a bullet which causes cavitation and a large exit wound.
There's like a 10x difference, so do you make punching someone 1/10 as deadly? What if I used a 2x4? How many times can I hit someone with a 2x4 before they stop moving? A hammer?
For some crazy gun simulation, try Aces and Eights. You put a transparent bullseye on your target's silhouette then based on die rolls and how far you missed, you see if you hit your target or air.
Godlike (ORE system), a gritty WW2 superhero game, really simulates the chaos of fast gun combat. But like all systems, there's some wonkiness to it.
So, combat is trying to simulate everything with charts and tables having weapon weights (encumbrance), damage tables, costs (as if everybody's price list is exactly the same), etc. But it only lends a level of verisimilitude. It is not a real simulation.
Languages
In fantasy games there's Elvish, Dwarvish, various race-based languages and the Common Tongue. In Star Trek, there's Klingon, Vulcan, other race-based languages and English, and a Universal Translator. In Call of Cthulhu, there's the real languages spoken on Earth, some dead languages, plus various occult languages such as Aklo, Naacal, and R'lyehian.
Do you hand out clues in Dwarven Runes, Latin, Aklo, Chinese, Klingon? And make your Players translate it by hand? You might for flavor, but most likely you'll also give them the translation.
Do you play The Yellow King RPG and make everyone speak French when they're in 1895 Paris? In my games I'd use some well known words, just to give a bit of verisimilitude such as Oui, Bonjour, Au revoir, Merci, Je ne sais quoi?
For CoC 1920s, there are lists of slang all over the internet. Again, I'd just use a few phrases just to give the right flavor, but if you used the list extensively, everybody would have to write down what you said and translate it on the fly. Drudgery.
All RPGs have some sort of common language because it sucks if PCs can't talk to or understand each other (or NPCs if the game isn't a combat game).
In one campaign, I had a Wookie in a Star Wars game. Wookies can understand other languages, but can only growl in Wookie. It was actually a lot of fun playing the Wookie nobody could understand leading to a comedy of errors. After 5 sessions, the GM gave up and gave all the PCs the ability to understand Wookie.
Racism / Sexism
Some people argue if they're going to run CoC 1920s that they are disingenuous if they don't reflect racism and sexism realistically. But why do you want to do this? If you are exploring the horrors of racism such as with Harlem Unbound or Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country, then sure. If not, then why use hurtful language or situations which do not have a direct relationship to the theme of cosmic horror? But it white washes history, some would argue. Then we're back to simulation vs verisimilitude. Why is simulating this so important? I argue it isn't. It pushes more people away than brings them to your table. The goal of the game is to have fun, not to teach history. If the game is well done and well run, it can do both, but if that level of excellence isn't reached, it could be a disaster. You'd end up with something like Hitler Fried Chicken in Thailand.
Conclusion
RPGs are for the enjoyment of all the Players, including the GM. Too much simulation ends in drudgery. You just need enough simulation to get verisimilitude. Simulate enough stuff to make it seem right, you don't need to go to Paris to shoot a movie about Paris, you just need a backlot movie set that looks like Paris. You don't need a real shark for Jaws, a mechanical one will work just as fine. Fake blood is ok. Mix in easy real stuff (real period pictures, a smattering of real language, an old phonograph song) and fake the rest. This is all for fun, the more accessible the game is, the fewer barriers between the Players and the game, the more everyone will enjoy the game. Verisimilitude, not Simulation!
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