|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Bruno, a handsome and beautiful Tetori, no care what words you use as long as Bruno grapple meaning.
Before game, Bruno often ask other less handsome and less beautiful characters what they do.
They can say:
"With the blessed powers of the Lady of Graves, I infuse my companions with rejuvenating healing to stave off the grasping fingers death. I have meditated deeply upon her mysteries and can turn the reanimated into dust with but a thought! But, before we journey forth, I would like to share a reading from The Bones Land in a Spiral..."
or
"I am a caster cleric of Pharasma with the healing domain. I also have all the channel feats."
or
"Healbot Cleric lol"
As long as everyone equally engaged in playing game, Bruno no care what terms you use.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Marc, there is space in between "I'm have a conscious, intellectual desire to choose the most efficient terminology in all cases in an effort to shave a few seconds off of my conversations" and "I'm lazy".
<snip>
People using shorthand for common terms is normal, and you do it too.
People do, and misunderstandings often ensue depending on the context. I work with ROI - but if I say that at different areas of the company I work for, it means two different things. Using the abbreviation POC is even worse because it now means three things.
If you're discussing things face to face, it's easy to ask for and gain immediate clarification when unknown jargon is used. But when engaging in written communication, clarity is important. On a messageboard, it may take hours to get a clarification if your readers don't understand what you meant the first time.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The first time I herd toon I immediately understood why it was used. I did not think it silly. I can't control what people think. What I can control is what I intend. If someone insists on inferring something not intended, then that's their problem.
Unless there are other entirely understandable inferences that are made that are not intended or that lead to misunderstandings.
I find "toon" a jarring bit of jargon for a character for a number of reasons:
- it has been used before in the Toon RPG - specifically related to cartoon characters so every time I see someone using the term, I'm thinking along the lines of a bunch of Animaniacs and not D&D or PF characters
- it refers to a visually animated medium whereas most pen and paper RPG characters are fundamentally imagined or represented with miniatures or counters that are static images
You may not be able to absolutely control what other people think but you can do a lot more than just throw your intentions out there and that's because many of the implications of the words you use are predictable. Descriptive language pretty much depends on it.
I guess she didn't expect her statement to draw Agro.Look whose trolling again!
TAUNTING OFF OF YOU!!!!
/tar focus
/cast Death Grip
/cast Dark Command
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Scarlet Plague
/cast Pestilence
JEEZ why can't you people be on TeamSpeak....newbs! lol
There already is one: PC for Player Character. A term as old as DM.I don't like PC. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way.
Why....are you a MAC?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
Toon, in particular, just sounds so silly and childish to a lot of people, it just really rubs the wrong way
Which is an entirely different thing than being upset at having a term get abbreviated. That distinction is all I was trying to communicate in my last couple of posts. :)
|
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
Toon, in particular, just sounds so silly and childish to a lot of people, it just really rubs the wrong wayWhich is an entirely different thing than being upset at having a term get abbreviated. That distinction is all I was trying to communicate in my last couple of posts. :)You do realize that's where he started, right?
You introduced the whole "They were just intended as shorthand so you shouldn't be bothered with them" sidetrek.
Yes, I know. First he said he thought they were silly. Then I said that maybe he wouldn't mind as much if he recognized them as helpful shorthand. Then he said that abbreviating RPG terms is lazy and insulting. Then I said that no, it's normal. Then we got back to the "they're silly" topic.
Full-circle sidetracking! :D
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Most shorthand terms don't really bother me-- "meat shield," "healbot," "glass cannon," etc. But they certainly can diminish the time and effort a person has put into his/her character, reducing it to just one of four or five different slots. I have a particular problem with the word "toon," even in MMO's; it just sounds childish. The first time I heard someone refer to their MMO character as a "toon," I thought "well now it just seems ridiculous." And in tabletop games, it doesn't even make sense aside from being carryover from computer-based games. If you're in a group that doesn't take the game seriously, by all means call it whatever you like. Some people like those kinds of campaigns. I've played with a few. But you shouldn't assume everyone does.
Just my two coppers.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think the larger issue being ignored here is that protesting changes in lexicon has never in the history of language done any good. Nevertheless used to be three words. Irregardless will always be a nonsense malapropism of Regardless to me, but it's a word now and we all have to live with that.
My point being, you can decry the slang that MMO players bring to pen and paper games, but you might as well fight the ocean. Language moves on, no matter how much you object to it's senseless meanderings.
|
I don't particularly mind (mmo)rpg jargon, but the word "tank" is a complete misnomer. There's no aggro mechanic so there goes that meaning and tanks in real life usually shoot stuff to bits rather than eat punishment in droves so the shorthand for "meat bicycle upon whose shoulders the party precariously balances" is faulty too.
I'm thinking along the lines of a bunch of Animaniacs and not D&D or PF charactersWhat game are you playing, every night I game I tend to find people playing pfs characters like Yacko Wacko and Dot...or Pinky and the Brain
We're a lot closer to Pirates of the Caribbean - it helps that we're playing Skull and Shackles. So, no bologna in our slacks nor nightly schemes to take over the world. But there is rum, criminal violence, hot women, and questionable morals.
|
|
I'm thinking along the lines of a bunch of Animaniacs and not D&D or PF charactersWhat game are you playing, every night I game I tend to find people playing pfs characters like Yacko Wacko and Dot...or Pinky and the Brain
Heh. I was GMing a game of Champions, and, I wish I were kidding, but the three PCs were human forms of Yacko, Wacko, and Dot. Totally out of control. It was, overall, fun, but my silliness grew in direct proportion to theirs.
I forget who the president was, back then, but he wound up kidnapped, brainwashed, and fighting the PCs dressed up in a fully functional Dr. Destroyer outfit....
On other things that can be abbreviated PC: Police Constable
|
|
Anyways, back to the original topic.
Remember the CRPG Icewind Dale 2? It was the first Infinity Engine game to use the 3.0 ruleset. You could forgo leveling ("level squat") and artificially boost the xp gained. Then level individual characters strategically when the challenges rose. You'd have a party of all L4s squatting into the midgame, run into a mass of melee monsters, then decide to spike your fighter to L8 cut through the horde while the rest remained L4 and soaked up xp.
|
I'm thinking along the lines of a bunch of Animaniacs and not D&D or PF charactersWhat game are you playing, every night I game I tend to find people playing pfs characters like Yacko Wacko and Dot...or Pinky and the Brain
Tonight's mission briefing from the VC:
PCs: Gee, VC, what do you want to do tonight?
VC: The same thing we do every night, PCs - try to take over the world!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm thinking along the lines of a bunch of Animaniacs and not D&D or PF charactersWhat game are you playing, every night I game I tend to find people playing pfs characters like Yacko Wacko and Dot...or Pinky and the BrainTonight's mission briefing from the VC:
PCs: Gee, VC, what do you want to do tonight?
VC: The same thing we do every night, PCs - try to take over the world!
That only makes sense if the briefing is being led by
Jorsal of Lauterbury's cool, though.
|
|
I have to admit, I was one of the folks who used to hate seeing / hearing the term "toon" in table top RPGs that did not involve a fear of erasers.
I think a lot of the resistance to the use of alternate gaming terminology is that it comes over with inferences from other systems.
Example 1: Toon. When I first started encountering "toon" a lot, for instance, it came with an implied "disposability / replaceability" of the character with a side-helping of "more stats than story". To be fair, this was likely me reading more into it than was intended. I have a friend, however, who (over)uses the term and I've grown more accustomed to it in time.
Example 2: Tank. When MMO folks hear the term "tank", they will likely begin thinking in MMO terms since that is an area where it is most prevalent. In MMO terms a "tank" can generally force opponents to focus on them rather than the more vulnerable members of a group (generally through an "aggro" mechanic). In a table top RPG, however, it's generally an indication of toughness as there is not really any "aggro" mechanic in most TTRPG systems. If someone is experienced with MMO's, but new to TTRPG's this can cause even more misunderstanding as they may feel that they should be able to utilize the mechanics and roles that they are used to from their MMO in a TTRPG.
Not saying that folks should change their play styles or preferences, only to illustrate why others may show greater frustration from word choices than the word choice itself may seem to warrant.
As always, YMMV.
-TimD
|
|
I suppose I will start referring to my Player Character as "Inserters".
Enemies shall be known as "Receivers", and the DM as "Lubricators".
I will even go so far as to rage, if anyone should dare suggest that use other terminology.
It is the advancing world, with advancing language.
You must accept it, and forcibly so, if need be.
|
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
|
Anyways, back to the original topic.
Remember the CRPG Icewind Dale 2? It was the first Infinity Engine game to use the 3.0 ruleset. You could forgo leveling ("level squat") and artificially boost the xp gained. Then level individual characters strategically when the challenges rose. You'd have a party of all L4s squatting into the midgame, run into a mass of melee monsters, then decide to spike your fighter to L8 cut through the horde while the rest remained L4 and soaked up xp.
QUIT MAKING ME FEEL SO OLD!
Also, I loved doing that...
|
|
Anyways, back to the original topic.
Remember the CRPG Icewind Dale 2? It was the first Infinity Engine game to use the 3.0 ruleset. You could forgo leveling ("level squat") and artificially boost the xp gained. Then level individual characters strategically when the challenges rose. You'd have a party of all L4s squatting into the midgame, run into a mass of melee monsters, then decide to spike your fighter to L8 cut through the horde while the rest remained L4 and soaked up xp.
QUIT MAKING ME FEEL SO OLD!
Also, I loved doing that...
Old??? You yungin's and yer newfangled computer games. Back when I started playing, there were only paper and pencil RPGs. The first computer games didn't even exist yet.
And when we wanted to play, we had to walk 3 miles through the snow. Uphill! Both ways!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And when we wanted to play, we had to walk 3 miles through the snow. Uphill! Both ways!
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Try to tell kids that today, and they won't believe you.
And when we wanted to play, we had to walk 3 miles through the snow. Uphill! Both ways!
You had paper and pecils? Awww, ye young whippersnappers had it easy! We only had slabs of slate and a sharp rock! And we only generated one set of stats, and ya played with what ye got! And we LIKED it!
|
|
Anyways, back to the original topic.
Remember the CRPG Icewind Dale 2? It was the first Infinity Engine game to use the 3.0 ruleset. You could forgo leveling ("level squat") and artificially boost the xp gained. Then level individual characters strategically when the challenges rose. You'd have a party of all L4s squatting into the midgame, run into a mass of melee monsters, then decide to spike your fighter to L8 cut through the horde while the rest remained L4 and soaked up xp.
QUIT MAKING ME FEEL SO OLD!
Also, I loved doing that...
It really wasn't THAT long ago. It was the last Infinity engine game, but the release year was 2002.