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I wish I could go to GenCon one more time. 14 years ago my friends all pitched in and bought and paid for my entire trip there. But I'm afraid that I'll never be able to go again, for monetary and psychological reasons (I've developed severe anxiety issues since then) and my fight or flight instinct is on constant DefCon 4 in crowds.
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First off, I know not everyone who plays is a great reader or good at pronouncing words (especially the names of places, people, and creatures) but they should at least study the name and come up with a close approximation.
For a very brief time I played under a GM who was a horrible reader, and had a difficult time with names of things. We were involved in a battle with a creature, the name of which he pronounced at least four different ways. I finally asked him to spell it, and it was a chimera. But his pronunciations had us so confused we thought we were fighting more than once creature at some points.
And playing at a GenCon game once the DM for in a 3.5 game was pronouncing "brazier" as "brassiere". Every time he'd mention "the area is lit by flaming brassieres" I had to suppress a juvenile giggle.
This is a pretty petty grievance, I know. It's more a pet peeve than a true grievance, I suppose.
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I think it's a legitimate grievance, though. Words mean things, and flaming brassieres mean something quite a bit different.
And getting words right matters--you want to be understood. If I'm fighting a gazebo, I'm fighting a gazebo.
I really do try to sound the unfamiliar words out phonetically several times before running them against my players. Even if I'm pronouncing it wrong, I try to be consistent with the wrongness.. lol
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Another grievance, though this one could actually be counted as a pet peeve: when a new bestiary is announced people start speculating on the NEXT one before the new one even hints at what's in it.
And getting words right matters--you want to be understood. If I'm fighting a gazebo, I'm fighting a gazebo.
My friend Richard A. was at that game.
Wow. We had similar flooding in my part of Arkansas (USA) back in 1982 and again in 1984. I remember people kayaking in the flooded first floor of my dormitory.
The 2011 floods were far worse for most of Brisbane, though where my folks are got flooded worse in 2013, just due to the catchment area. This morning they got picked up off their roof by helicopter.
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My friend Richard A. was at that game.And getting words right matters--you want to be understood. If I'm fighting a gazebo, I'm fighting a gazebo.
So it's not a myth!
Wow. We had similar flooding in my part of Arkansas (USA) back in 1982 and again in 1984. I remember people kayaking in the flooded first floor of my dormitory.The 2011 floods were far worse for most of Brisbane, though where my folks are got flooded worse in 2013, just due to the catchment area. This morning they got picked up off their roof by helicopter.
Holy cow! That's like the flooding was in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
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So it's not a myth!My friend Richard A. was at that game.And getting words right matters--you want to be understood. If I'm fighting a gazebo, I'm fighting a gazebo.
They thought it was a Glabrezu, didn't they.:)
*Figures out how fighting a Gazebo is*
*Chuckles*
I am very strict about trying to get everything named and pronounced right.
Of course I tend to latinize some names when I pronounce them but at least I read them as written xD
I hate when players constantly change the names of everything. I try to correct them with a soft voice so they don't realize how much does it bother me. I had a dyslexic player and I knew I had to be patient because he made a big effort. The worst is when players change the name.of their own gods/birthplace/family/pets and as they cannot remember it instead of making the effort they give puny names.
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I'll post a grievance on behalf of one of my groups about myself. I love to mispronounce common things to bug people; (LOVE IT!) Instead of katana ill say, " Ca-tan-ah" or breast plate as, "bree-east plot" Drives em nuts and gives me smiles :)
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I'll post a grievance on behalf of one of my groups about myself. I love to mispronounce common things to bug people; (LOVE IT!) Instead of katana ill say, " Ca-tan-ah" or breast plate as, "bree-east plot" Drives em nuts and gives me smiles :)
When I used to teach literature, I had a running joke that I would teach my students that the greatest playwright in the English language was pronounced "SHOCK-ess-pee-ARR-ay." That way, decades down the line, I could still identify my former pupils.
People believe a lot if you say it in a firm, authoritative voice from the front of a classroom. Realizing that was why I had to quit teaching. Because I'm the worst. The. Worst.
I just want to play.
Last game was Halloween weekend. :-(
Busy winter, and early spring flu make Captain Yesterday go something, something.
Won't happen this weekend, daughter is in Grease. Probably not next weekend either, as there's a long delayed sleepover in the works.
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I had a teacher who insisted it was legitimate to pronounce foreign names as they would be readed in Spanish. It might be legit, but doesn't sound OK.
He said we should say it like Shack-ess-pe-AH-re» (sorta. Never knew how to write fonetically in English).
I think I picked it up from this ultra arrogant professor I had in college. The only class I had with the guy was "appreciating film as art" He insisted that genre was pronounced "john-ray" something I have never heard anyone else repeat. He spent the first class session denigrating his remedial English students (he actually referred to the class as "bone head" English) The second week after the first round of papers went in was quite entertaining. "Folks this is a serious class and I expect college level work" lol
(In my defense, I knowingly pronounce things incorrectly for fun, this guy did it as a "matter in fact.")
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Ah, expecting words imported from other languages into English to retain their original pronunciation is so quixotic.
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I think I picked it up from this ultra arrogant professor I had in college. The only class I had with the guy was "appreciating film as art" He insisted that genre was pronounced "john-ray" something I have never heard anyone else repeat.
Gah. That Guy. Hate That Guy.
Tho I must confess, I used to say, when lecturing: "Genre, which comes from the French word 'genre' meaning... 'genre.'"
I went to elementary school with a kid named John Ray. We recently reconnected on FB.
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How about living in Quebec where they complain about English spoken too often. Then take English words and incorporate them into French. The last municipal election one of the slogans was " with the current government in power its a free for all." They kept free for all as is. Combined it into one word put a random accent somewhere. When they say it still sounds like a English word. Except somehow saying it with a french accent makes it a french. Even flabbergasted has been altered.
Except somehow saying it with a french accent makes it a french.
This is my approach to speaking any non-English language. It works more often than it should...
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Ah, expecting words imported from other languages into English to retain their original pronunciation is so quixotic.
Quijotesco. You should say quijotesco.
And you should spit from the deepest of your throat trying to pronounce the «j». If it doesn't seem like some nasty mucosity is going to come out of your throat you're doing it wrong.We invented the «j» sound just to get foreign people to make funny noises. It is its only known purpose.
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I'm convinced that nearly every non-English speaking country on Earth pronounces the "J" wrong just to bug us.
I have a bad habit of unconsciously picking up a person's accent while speaking with them. I sometimes have to apologize to them for it. I truly don't mean to do it, but it just happens. At other times I'm horrible at doing foreign accents. Even here in my home state of Arkansas. I spent many years working in radio, perfecting a neutral voice without an accent. But when I'm around some people from here I find my original Southern accent creeping into my voice.
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I spent a month in the UK. I came back with a terrible Andalusian accent, as most of the people I traveled with were from Andalusia.
I tend to be a copycat regarding to accents.
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I have a bad habit of unconsciously picking
up a person's accent while speaking with them. I sometimes have to apologize to them for it. I truly don't mean to do it, but it just happens. At other times I'm horrible at doing foreign accents. Even here in my home state of Arkansas. I spent many years working in radio, perfecting a neutral voice without an accent. But when I'm around some people from here I find my original Southern accent creeping into my voice.
I tend to do the same....just with dialects instead, which is easy when you speak a language shared by only something like 5.6-5.7 million people.
And you should spit from the deepest of your throat trying to pronounce the «j». If it doesn't seem like some nasty mucosity is going to come out of your throat you're doing it wrong.
Actually this is allmost exactly how I was explained to pronounce the «j» by my old Spanish teacher....just with the added flair, of a 50+ year old woman actually doing it.
I have a special place in my heart for my silly language and its silly dialects.
to illustrate this love let me present the following sentence
"the man went to the isle in the river"
in heavily *diatectified* Danish
"Æ mann to te æ ø i æ å"
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Ok, you got me to gesture like an idiot saying something like «aeaeaeaeaeoiaiaea» trying to read what you wrote.
I also have a second language (if I called it a dialect I'd get killed) that is spoken in Northwestern Spain. I don't speak it very often, mostly for swearing. It sounds like a mix between Spanish and Portuguese.
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Fun fact: The word "barbarian" comes from a Greek word "barbaros" (βάρβαρος) which is meant to mimic the "bababababa" (kind of like saying "blah blah blah") nonsense that Greeks said non-Greek speakers spoke.
No wonder the class has rage as a feature. I'd be pretty easily pissed off if people made fun of my language all the time like that.
One the fiction podcasts I listen to is a dramatic reading of a short story.
Today, the narrator consistently pronounced the main character's name "Cordelia" as "cor-DELL-ah."
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Fun fact: The word "barbarian" comes from a Greek word "barbaros" (βάρβαρος) which is meant to mimic the "bababababa" (kind of like saying "blah blah blah") nonsense that Greeks said non-Greek speakers spoke.
No wonder the class has rage as a feature. I'd be pretty easily pissed off if people made fun of my language all the time like that.
It's easy to mock what you don't understand. Easier than trying to learn.
Ok, you got me to gesture like an idiot saying something like «aeaeaeaeaeoiaiaea» trying to read what you wrote.
I also have a second language (if I called it a dialect I'd get killed) that is spoken in Northwestern Spain. I don't speak it very often, mostly for swearing. It sounds like a mix between Spanish and Portuguese.
hmmm now you´ve gotten me curious....is your second language Galician?
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It's easy to mock what you don't understand. Easier than trying to learn.Fun fact: The word "barbarian" comes from a Greek word "barbaros" (βάρβαρος) which is meant to mimic the "bababababa" (kind of like saying "blah blah blah") nonsense that Greeks said non-Greek speakers spoke.
No wonder the class has rage as a feature. I'd be pretty easily pissed off if people made fun of my language all the time like that.
It's also a common tactic used by ruling elite to make enemies out of entire groups of people by generalizing them. An old song and dance still employed today sadly.
Back on topic, I do have a grievance of one of my groups. If a villain has a name that's close to a common noun they will grab whats easy to remember and wont let go. For instance, say you have a baddie named Korax, well Korax becomes Clorox.....
I spent a month in the UK. I came back with a terrible Andalusian accent, as most of the people I traveled with were from Andalusia.
I tend to be a copycat regarding to accents.
I spent a school year in Dublin as a student, came back with a definite Irish accent, but I lost it over the years and am back to my normal terrible French accent.
Ok, you got me to gesture like an idiot saying something like «aeaeaeaeaeoiaiaea» trying to read what you wrote.
I also have a second language (if I called it a dialect I'd get killed) that is spoken in Northwestern Spain. I don't speak it very often, mostly for swearing. It sounds like a mix between Spanish and Portuguese.
You're a Galician? Is it normal that I can't tell Galician from Portuguese? (knowing that my knowledge of Spanish is barely more than two years of being taught it in Middle school, and I don't know Portuguese at all)
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Yes to both who asked if my second language is Galician.
And it's normal to mistake Galician with Portuguese, they are both very similar (and they have common roots. In Middle Age Spanish already was a separate language but Galician and Portuguese were the same).
Funny thing, I can usually understand Italian better than Portuguese because Portuguese people are very heavy accented. I understand better Brazilians too.
When seeing written language the best way to tell both languages apart is that we use the letter «ñ» (a lot) and Portuguese uses «nh» instead as «ñ» doesn't exist.
Actually it's a known fact that the letter «ñ» was invented as an excuse for selling special keyboards to Spaniards. It was a revenge for us inventing the «j» to make foreign people do funny noises.
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Back on topic, I do have a grievance of one of my groups. If a villain has a name that's close to a common noun they will grab whats easy to remember and wont let go. For instance, say you have a baddie named Korax, well Korax becomes Clorox.....
I have observed the same tendency with both my groups.
My own pet theory on the subject is that the reason for this is part laziness and part psychological warfare.If you, as the GM, give your npc's very flairful names like "Roakokorax the feathered fury" or "Telotopumir, the mountain that stands defiant against the sky" the players will shorten them to stuff like "Rff" and "the mountain" both to save themselves some time and to put you down, for using all that time, coming up with these weird names.
Then again, the problem might be with me being stuck on using, late 90's and early 2000, white wolf naming conventions.
I don't have an issue with remembering names but I have a tendency to abbreviate all my characters names out of lazyness. So Liliana ended being called Lily, Elisa was Eli, Lynessa was Lynn, Eirenne Nightbreeze was just Breeze, Shorisuro was Shori, etc.
I named Kileanna like that to avoid abbreviating her name, as it didn't came natural to me. She ended being just Ki.
Seleena and Ellara are probably my only PCs with more than 2 syllables that have avoided having their name recklessly cut by my lazyness.
I have a player who calls his character Elishandra, but refers to her as just "Eli". And there's a Hobgoblin fighter in my group named Hueguen, but he refers to himself as Huggy Owlbear. The Bard plays Al-Viz, shortened to "Al". Al-Viz in itself is a play on the name "Elvis". Oh, and there's Tabitha, who goes by "Tabi".
I'll work really hard to come up with a memorable name for foes and NPCs and my group just mangles the names or calls them something wholly different. I know your pain.
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I feel your pain, CrusaderWolf. They turn my map drawing into a kind of Rorschach test where all the answers are really, really dirty...
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Sometimes I feel like my villains are softly singing:
They called me chicken legs, they called me four-eyes
They called me fatso, they called me buckwheat
They called me Eddie
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I laughed right out loud at that (the Rorschach line).
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This is a grievance about myself. I'm miserable at taking notes during the game when I'm GMing. I have to have a designated note taker (and one player fortunately has a great memory) so I have to rely on them. I'm trying to get better, but being the lead clown in the tiny car makes keeping up with everything difficult (at least for me).
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When I brought Queen Sylvyana to the table everybody kept mistaking her for WoW's Sylvanas. I didn't choose her name, she was a canon villainess (and I think she was named before WoW's Sylvanas, because she is first mentioned in some old Dragonlance resources).
Even if I have a tendency to abbreviate names, I avoid doing it with leaders or villains because it goes against the image I want to make of them.
Calling Sylvyana Sylvie or Syl is the best way to ruin her epic evil queen image xD