How do they frelling curse on Golarion?

[Chris Marsh]

Hey everyone,

I'm specifically not looking to set off any profanity filters, but I am looking to add some spice into my upcoming campaign. Creative swearing makes for a great way to immerse oneself. I'm not talking about saying Frell or the more recent frak. I'm talking more like:

By Hextor's Hairy @#$^ (a favorite in my Greyhawk Game)
By the Crack of Rao (not a favorite amongst the clergy of Rao)

I've got Greyhawk and Krynn down, but what about Golarion?

[James Jacobs]

The same way we curse in English.

In Golarion, a duck is called a duck, a ship is called a ship, and so on.

[Tarren Dei]

This thread was fun.

[Ben Kent]

Ah, ship.

There's no ducking special terms for it?

...I hope this doesn't count as censor-dodging. He told me to.

[Chris Marsh]

Well normal curse words work, but they're not anything special. "Gorum's G-n-ds!" sounds like something my Half-orc barbarian would say. :-)

[Dark_Mistress]

I imagine Witches do most of the cursing. :)

[TheWarriorPoet519]

For some reason, "Insert Deity's name plus profanity here" in fantasy settings has always sounded really campy to me, so I avoid it.

"Gods" Get's used in all the places where "God" would get used in our contemporary Western culture.

I actually like to look at other languages, and how specific single word curses tend to have a meaning different or more specific then the literal translation implies. There's an Italian curse, I understand, that literally translated means a turd, but in cultural context, means a floating turd somebody left in the privy. Given the variance of languages in Golarion, I like to take that route.

I also tend to like describing what curses sound like rather then explicitly stating them.

There's something so evocative about having that thuggish mercenary say "He turned and spat a Chelish curse at me so vile that I was surprised it didn't burn itself into my skin."

On the other hand, I still have my thugs and my mercenaries utter the occasional (or copious) "Mother f***er" when angry.

It's all in how the curses get used.

[voodoo chili]

TheWarriorPoet519 wrote:

For some reason, "Insert Deity's name plus profanity here" in fantasy settings has always sounded really campy to me, so I avoid it.

But it's just so sacrilicious:

Asmodeus' Balls! (balls are always funny)

By the Galvanized Groin Guard of Gorum! (gotta love alliteration)

By Calistria's grass-stained knees! (think about it)

[Steelfiredragon]

Iomedae's knickers

[dungeonmaster heathy]

I had some badguy call a halforc p.c. a "son of an orc-bleeper...."
He got mad, man. THAT'S what I call roleplaying.
Good times!!!

[dave.gillam]

Ive always found you should make the curse fit the character as well

"depart to conduct fornication with airborne breakfast pastry" would be much more appropriate from your froufrou Elven Wizard
"go (beep) a flying doughnut" would much more fit the half-orc barbarian he employs

So orcs would stick to short phrases referring to body parts and functions
Dwarves would probably be blue collar in terms, but not as crude
Gnomes would probably have all kinds of long crazy terms and big words
Elves might stick to calling you various kinds of animals
Halflings would call you types of garbage and bodily functions (but not as crude as orcs)
Humans would be a mix of all the above

[Damian Magecraft]

I like using things like
merlin's beard!
By the first egg!
Shards
Shells
Cu Calains emtpty tankard
By Dagna's short and curlys
etc...

[Nevynxxx]

James Jacobs wrote:

The same way we curse in English.

In Golarion, a duck is called a duck, a ship is called a ship, and so on.

Or as the saying goes around here, "he doesn't so much call a 'spade' a 'spade, as he calls it a 'f!~@ing shovel'"

[Chris Marsh]

TheWarriorPoet519 wrote:

For some reason, "Insert Deity's name plus profanity here" in fantasy settings has always sounded really campy to me, so I avoid it. It's all in how the curses get used.

The player who uses them the most is no stranger to camp. He also has an uncanny skill for puns. He can put together a slew of them rapid fire, all thematically linked and an impressive vocabulary.

As it stands the PCs are all aboard the Jenivere on their way to Eleder, and they're all getting to know each other....hehe First session in a couple weeks. They're getting to know themselves, and a few interesting Golarion specific idioms and aphorisms are popping up.