Phrases that are driving you bonkers


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Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Resurrecting this thread from last year.

Once again I'm starting to have a visceral physical reaction to the phrase "appears to be".

Any other repetitious or meaningless phrases getting on your nerves?

Silver Crusade Dedicated Voter Season 7

You know your avatar is an item, right?

Silver Crusade Dedicated Voter Season 7

The clear, undisputed champion for Visceral Phrase of Retching is...

"Upon death..."

It's just like my favorite video game... "You have died. Press restart to continue."

Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Zi'on Darkbane wrote:
You know your avatar is an item, right?

Sorry, I'm not following. Unless you're seeing a different avatar than am I it should be a gelatinous cube. :)

Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

There's an item this year that basically summons a gelatinous cube around the user.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka GM_Solspiral

Sulaco wrote:
Zi'on Darkbane wrote:
You know your avatar is an item, right?
Sorry, I'm not following. Unless you're seeing a different avatar than am I it should be a gelatinous cube. :)

That joke sailed over your head... Keep voting you'll get it eventually :)

Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

Ah, I've not come across it yet.

Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

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Nazard wrote:
There's an item this year that basically summons a gelatinous cube around the user.

Dude that was way to specific, delete thread, burn burn!!!

Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

"...grants a +10 X bonus to Y skill check" is quickly beginning to grate on me.

Sovereign Court Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9

The "treasured, wanted, desired, prized, etc, by x" line is always a classic.

Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Pan wrote:
The "treasured, wanted, desired, prized, etc, by x" line is always a classic.

From where does that usage come? Did previous editions or alternate gaming systems use it, because it's so prevalent among items from anybody who hasn't read the advice threads.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7 aka Total Biscuit

"This".

RPG Superstar 2014 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7 aka Belladonna Blue

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I'm finding I can only read the word "blood" so many times in one paragraph before my eyes glaze over. With blood.

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8

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"rumor has it that..."

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8 , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Mark D Griffin

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... Even more powerful variants exist"

Dedicated Voter Season 7

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I made a very sassy post a minute ago, but I decided against it and deleted it. The point I was trying to make is that designers need to remember that magic items by definition can be created by anyone with the prerequisites. Things like command words can be chosen at creation. And just because one such item was made by King Doofus and forged in the Holy Church of This Garden, blessed by special gods and nymphs; in my game, it's made in my wizard's basement in his underwear, and the command word was a dirty word in Undercommon he learned at a bar.


Nazard wrote:
There's an item this year that basically summons a gelatinous cube around the user.

I saw that item before but I made no connection to the OP's avatar and thus missed the joke.

Lantern Lodge Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 9

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Cost: zzgp

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

Drejk wrote:
Nazard wrote:
There's an item this year that basically summons a gelatinous cube around the user.
I saw that item before but I made no connection to the OP's avatar and thus missed the joke.

I actually kind of like that item, although it didn't quite make my keep file... thinking about it now I might have to reconsider it if I see it again.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8

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TimsterMon wrote:
Cost: zzgp

That price was over the zz top.

Lantern Lodge Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 9

At least that gives me a range, buying out ZZ Top would prolly be pretty expensive... 8')

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Total Biscuit wrote:

"This".

Here's the thing -- virtually every Wondrous Item I looked at in the CRB began its description with that word. I ended up deciding it was a formulaic requirement.

Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

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The most commonly used words out of the 438 items I've seen, not including template words, auras, slots, and some articles and prepositions. I may update this file as I go along.

Top 10
Number of occurrences, followed by the word:

==============

814 WEARER
368 CREATURE
340 ACTION
313 PER
283 DAY
277 EFFECT
276 DAMAGE
251 MUST
249 WITHIN
243 ONCE

==============

Notable relationships:

93 UNDEAD

No other race shows up on the top 150 words.

136 SPELLS
116 LIGHT
115 ENERGY

130 HIS
128 HER
108 HE
89 SHE

133 TIME
91 HOURS
283 DAY
207 ROUND
111 ROUNDS

169 WEAPON
144 GLOVES
129 CLOAK

No other item types make it to 100.

148 STANDARD
146 MAGIC

In a contest of exceptional items, the word Gloves is almost as common as the word Magic -- and both trail Standard and Weapon.

BTW:

724 THIS

Less common than Wearer, but still #16 overall without omitting digits, single letters, template words, and articles.

Sczarni Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

The phrases that annoy me are the ones that say "Few doubt it's usefulness..."

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

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I must say that I am getting tired of wondrous items that appear ragged, worn, beat up, tattered, or otherwise ill-maintained...

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8

it comes from the surprise our current culture has that anything that isnt shiny tidy and arrives in a sparkly box could be useful or value. very counter cultural.

Liberty's Edge Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7

I'm starting to note a lot of "on close(r) inspection".

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cwslyclgh wrote:
I must say that I am getting tired of wondrous items that appear ragged, worn, beat up, tattered, or otherwise ill-maintained...

Maybe someone spilled a lot of one entry this year all over the others!

Shadow Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka mamaursula

"item name, Lesser"

You cannot have a "Lesser" version of an item unless you have more people! I have seen at least 3 such items, possibly more, I usually don't get too far into the item because they make me mad on principle.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor

? I don't get it, mama.

There are lesser and greater items in the CRB (such as bracers of archery).


I think I saw that I saw something with minor in its name. Then I saw another item with mirror in its name and thought that I hit it again.


Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

? I don't get it, mama.

There are lesser and greater items in the CRB (such as bracers of archery).

Yeah, but when you submit a completely new item named lesser glove of scratching then were is greater glove of scratching?

Lantern Lodge Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 9

Yeah, I saw something like that and commented in another thread. If its too wordy to have all the versions on the write-up, then don't make it lesser/greater/whatever....


Shadow items seem ever popular.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor

That's a fair argument, Timster, but at the same time, I think we can imagine the designer obviously has something in mind. I guess it just doesn't bother me that much.

Lantern Lodge Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 9

@ Jacob: I wouldn't say it "bothers" me, but if two items are really close, that might tip it down (notice I said, "might"). In actuality, I merely found it strange that it would be presented that way. 8')

Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8

bonkers in a good way- swirling -love swirling stuff big time so far!

Shadow Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka mamaursula

Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

? I don't get it, mama.

There are lesser and greater items in the CRB (such as bracers of archery).

Sure, but when you're making a new item for RPGSS and you just make the "lesser" version, it seems very weird to me. If there are no other versions, why would this be the "lesser" version of nothing? I am probably explaining this very badly.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Boxhead

mamaursula wrote:
Jacob W. Michaels wrote:

? I don't get it, mama.

There are lesser and greater items in the CRB (such as bracers of archery).

Sure, but when you're making a new item for RPGSS and you just make the "lesser" version, it seems very weird to me. If there are no other versions, why would this be the "lesser" version of nothing? I am probably explaining this very badly.

No, I get it. If there's only one out there, why on earth would you tag it "lesser"? Instead of the Lesser Boots of Awesome, why not just submit the Boots of Awesome? I think that's what bothers people (at least, that's what bothers me...).

Grand Lodge Marathon Voter Season 7

"...but its true nature is revealed when"

In a world where any apprentice wizard (and many other classes) can cast detect magic at will, I just have a hard time finding that an item is so apparently mundane that few notice it until it does something.

I want to emphasize that this is by no means a killer, or even a major mark against an item. It just seems to be unnecessary unless there's a reason why the item should appear "normal," such as magic aura, or it's a disguise item and so it should blend in with an outfit.

Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9

"Greater major xxx" (or some variation thereof)

I've seen several items with this line in them somewhere (usually following the item name). I don't quite understand where it comes from. The closest comparison I can think of offhand is terminology used to refer to artifacts in BECMI, but otherwise, I don't recall any version of D&D or Pathfinder to use this terminology in magic item names. Is this from some other rules system I don't know of?

It just seems odd that it appears in multiple entries from (presumably) different people. They must have picked it up somewhere.

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OK, Durations, a lot of items have said things like, "You have a pool of time length A, which must be spent in increments of B, which do not need to be spent consecutively" - that's a lot of words.

What are you doing with this phrasing? You are allowing something to be started that will last for the length of the encounter without needing to make any tactical decisions to renew the effect. It's kind of yuk. It involves a lot of book-keeping on the owning player and/or the GM.

Let's look at what it really is.

A pool A spent in increments of B - what we are really saying is, the duration of the effect is B, and you can use this effect A divided by B times per day.

Use this wording (or something like it) - it's what is expected and allows those tactical decisions to be made if the encounter lasts longer than B. It's also a lot less words.

"The effect lasts for B, useable Y times per day."

No need for consecutively, if the effect expires, I choose to use another charge or not at my discretion. Book keeping is also reduced to how many times have I used this today!

This isn't a deal breaker, I don't think anyone has yet to lose a vote pair because of it in my voting, but it is starting to grate a little.

Rant over. Back to voting.

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Sulaco wrote:

Resurrecting this thread from last year.

Once again I'm starting to have a visceral physical reaction to the phrase "appears to be".

Any other repetitious or meaningless phrases getting on your nerves?

Carrying on with my musings on fixing the bonkers driving phrases...

The one above tells me, the voter, that you aren't sure about your imagery. You should always be definite in what you describe.

If you are using "like", "appears to be" then you should really look hard at the sentence. Is it because the imagery of the item is not strong enough to convey what is in your mind's eye? Is it (or you) unclear or ambiguous? Fix these problems. Example...

"It appears to be rusty" -->--> "Is coated in rust colored particles...", (these particles could of course fall away when the item is picked up revealing the splendor beneath.)

This is also true for "on closer inspection" - this is just a round about way of saying "appears to be".

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Garrett Guillotte wrote:

The most commonly used words out of the 438 items I've seen, not including template words, auras, slots, and some articles and prepositions. I may update this file as I go along.

Top 10
Number of occurrences, followed by the word:

==============

814 WEARER
368 CREATURE
340 ACTION
313 PER
283 DAY
277 EFFECT
276 DAMAGE
251 MUST
249 WITHIN
243 ONCE

==============

"Once per day action - wearer must damage creature within effect."

Garrett Guillotte wrote:


Notable relationships:

93 UNDEAD

136 SPELLS
116 LIGHT
115 ENERGY

"Light Energy Spells: Undead"

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor

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Cthulhudrew wrote:

"Greater major xxx" (or some variation thereof)

I've seen several items with this line in them somewhere (usually following the item name). I don't quite understand where it comes from. The closest comparison I can think of offhand is terminology used to refer to artifacts in BECMI, but otherwise, I don't recall any version of D&D or Pathfinder to use this terminology in magic item names. Is this from some other rules system I don't know of?

It's based off Ultimate Eguipment, which doesn't have the slot in each individual item because they're all sorted by slot. Greater major refers to the table people use to roll for random generation.

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Anthony Adam wrote:

OK, Durations, a lot of items have said things like, "You have a pool of time length A, which must be spent in increments of B, which do not need to be spent consecutively" - that's a lot of words.

I think you will find that used a lot in PFRPG stuff, I remember reading that many times in the new "Advanced Class Guide" for many of the class powers. And yes it is a bit cumbersome.

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Jacob W. Michaels wrote:
It's based off Ultimate Eguipment, which doesn't have the slot in each individual item because they're all sorted by slot. Greater major refers to the table people use to roll for random generation.

Ah, that explains it. I was flipping through UE to see if there was a difference in formatting that might cover it, but I didn't even think to look at the tables. :p

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy

"DM".

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Jacob Kellogg wrote:
"DM".

Ha! I have to catch myself on that one occasionally.

Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

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Anthony Adam wrote:

OK, Durations, a lot of items have said things like, "You have a pool of time length A, which must be spent in increments of B, which do not need to be spent consecutively" - that's a lot of words.

I think that's because some items in the rule books work this way (boots of speed, and the greater cloak of displacement from the core rules both use incremental not necessarily consecutive durations).

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