Humor Penny Arcade on 4e Naming Conventions

Kamikaze Midget · 21st March 2009, 09:22 PM

(image removed 'cuz of bad words; link below)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tycho's Newspost

Shadowdark is a word that...we constructed expressly to be as awful as is humanly possible. Imagine my surprise when, upon opening "The Manual Of The Planes," I discovered that this is an actual place in the base setting. We decided that this was a punishable offense...

*giggle*

Merlin's Shadow · 21st March 2009, 09:37 PM

I want a source book for Shadow Shadow bo Badow.

cmbarona · 21st March 2009, 09:43 PM

And under Scarytown?

Lazy Town

Wik · 21st March 2009, 10:05 PM

Hate to be the one who says it, but your image violates "Eric's Gramma".

That being said, I loved that comic. Great stuff.

Asmor · 22nd March 2009, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wik

your image violates "Eric's Gramma".

Now that's an image I didn't want in my head.

mshea · 22nd March 2009, 02:58 AM

I personally loved their idea of "Lord of the god-kings".

Dr. Strangemonkey · 22nd March 2009, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mshea

I personally loved their idea of "Lord of the god-kings".

that series was awesome sauce.

Hairfoot · 22nd March 2009, 08:07 AM

So true. But that's what happens when a company decides its target market is emo teenagers rather than the people who supported its product for four decades.

Admin here. There are a lot of problems with this post, and I don't like any of them. In the future, please don't take cheap shots at large groups of people.

Email me if you have any questions, or if this is somehow unclear. ~ Piratecat

Minigiant · 22nd March 2009, 08:45 AM

Double Hell, whatever. Now Triple Heck. There's a scary place.

How far down do you have to go to get to Jersey?

The_Fan · 22nd March 2009, 10:14 AM

I had the same reaction to the Shadowdark. I was looking through the books, and when I read about the Feydark I started wondering what the Shadowfell's equivalent would be. Logic dictated it would be the Shadowdark, but I dismissed that as sounding too silly.

I'm also amused that, while the Feydark gets a lot of discussion, the Shadowdark is pretty much "DON'T GO THERE!!" even for epic characters.

Keefe the Thief · 22nd March 2009, 11:27 AM

I actually like that. There should be a place even epic characters are afraid to travel to.

Lord Tirian · 22nd March 2009, 12:55 PM

Hehe. Yeah, the 4E names tend to be a wee bit silly, but often unintendedly funny.

Cheers, LT.

ferratus · 22nd March 2009, 02:12 PM

The Shadowdark seems utterly pointless. You are already in the land of the dead and undead, so what are you going to put in the Shadowdark? Undead Illithids? I could perhaps see a case made for Tartarus, in which epic dead creatures are imprisoned by the Raven Queen (so they don't ressurect), but I fail to see what an "Underdark Land of the Dead" adds. I can also see the case for the Nine Hells being beneath the Shadowfell, since the Shadowfell can substitute for Limbo in Dante's Inferno.

The Feydark is also relatively pointless. Aside from the gloaming fairies, goblins, and Fomorians there isn't much in the feydark either. You don't need an underdark in the Feywilde for those creatures, just a few cavern systems and ugly block fortresses like Mag Tureah (sp?).

This is case of promoting needless symmetry!

Nymrohd · 22nd March 2009, 02:20 PM

Indeed. We could just have had big underground caverns beneath the Feywild and Shadowfell without them being named realms of their own.

Alzrius · 22nd March 2009, 03:03 PM

DM's who use the Shadowdark in their campaign should now all be sure to have their villains monologue to the heroes: "It's been a million years since we were banished to the dark shadows of the Shadowdark."

The_Fan · 22nd March 2009, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alzrius

DM's who use the Shadowdark in their campaign should now all be sure to have their villains monologue to the heroes: "It's been a million years since we were banished to the dark shadows of the Shadowdark."

"That sounds silly when I say it out loud..."

Tigerbunny · 22nd March 2009, 04:11 PM

There's always something new and different to complain about, isn't there?

Generic names in the published rules are generic ON PURPOSE. So that you will come up with your OWN material instead of worshipping at the altar of someone else's creativity. As far as I have experienced in 30 years of gaming, the people who really care about the evocative, specific details of material -- outside of dedicated setting books -- basically fall into three categories. People who would rather read and obsess over "canon" than play the game; people who like to use that knowledge to play stupid geek dominance games at the table; and people who just want to come to the table and play the dang game, so want something more or less canned and ready to go when they need it.

And that last group isn't there to revel in setting detail anyhow. They mostly want to know where to find the monsters.

Seems to me like there's a huge possible market there for 3P products that re-skin the generic into the specific - or simply provide lots of seeds to help GMs do it themselves. But I want my core books to be generic. Less for me to say "no, it's not like that in my game" about.

Lonely Tylenol · 22nd March 2009, 04:20 PM

Oh, Gary, you brought so much eloquence to the game, and improved the vocabulary of so many young people through three decades of gaming. Now your successors stumble through the language like drunken rhinos. They slap together campy, juvenile portmanteaus like they had never seen a thesaurus or even read anything more challenging than Weis and Hickman.

In memoriam: literacy, evocative language, and taste.

I have been a firm supporter of 4th edition since its release, but one thing is clear: the people who wrote this game are game designers, not writers. I shudder to think that many of these people also write fantasy novels, if this is the best they can do. Of course, if it's not the best they can do, why did they publish it?

Shemeska · 22nd March 2009, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keefe the Thief

I actually like that. There should be a place even epic characters are afraid to travel to.

Yes, but if it's difficult, then it isn't easy for characters to adventure in, and that would make it the "antithesis of fun".

Shemeska · 22nd March 2009, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tigerbunny

Generic names in the published rules are generic ON PURPOSE. So that you will come up with your OWN material instead of worshipping at the altar of someone else's creativity.

Why would someone want to pay for something that's dull, generic, or unimaginative though? You can do precisely the same things with well developed, detailed material that you can do with poorly detailed, generic material.

99% of the time I'm going to be making my own material anyway, but I like to have something with detail and really cool ideas so I'll be inspired by it possibly when I'm making my own things. Generic McGeneric'ville isn't going to inspire me, so from my perspective there's little benefit to actually paying for it.