D&D General Jaquaying the dungeon - a term to avoid

[Mannahnin]

Reading the article, it really seems that the main issue was the way the term would be used as a bludgeon towards her, people like her, and people who still support her. Often for exactly the reason you would expect.

If it were me I'd say that transphobes can die mad about it, but I can understand why one would want people to be able to talk about those contributions and ideas without getting derailed by hatred.

I agree that they can die mad about it. One of the reasons the proposed change rubs me the wrong way.

Err… Yes, it does say she objected to the lack of an s, and that is a true statement. But, the bigger issue is clearly the harassment that was resulting from the use of her name in association with the technique. Jason Alexander is (wisely, I think) being careful not to be too explicit about it, but… Well, if you’re familiar with Jennel, you can probably guess why she might have become the target of a harassment campaign.

This whole situation sucks, but changing the term is probably for the best. And while choosing to name it after himself might come across as a tad conceited, it makes some sense given that the inventor of the technique is being targeted this way, Jason popularized the use of a verb to describe the technique, and he wants to avoid associating a different person’s name with the technique, for fear of them possibly becoming secondary harassment targets. So, I’m good with it.

I remember her objecting to his misspelling her name in the original term, and I remember him giving kind of weird pushback on her correction. Oddly, I'm having trouble now finding her comments on the original article series, where she asked for that correction. I'm digging through and finding nothing from her. Weird!

I have not encountered anyone harassing anyone about the term. The linked article about the renaming seems to refer to people harassing users of the misspelled term, not harassing Jacquays. Which makes me less enthusiastic for this change.

You haven't missed much with KotS. It's poorly written, and even the hardest-core 4e fans will generally say it wasn't a good way to start the edition. I can't recommend Bone Hill highly enough for its dungeon design, though; it really is excellent (but skip the town, it's irrelevant).

Skip the town? I'm not in love with the way Lakofka wrote it, but IMO Restenford and the local area map are great. My most recent three-year campaign used that as the starting area/local map and I replaced the dungeon on Bone Hill with Dyson's Delve.

Justin Alexander is the one who coined the name, in articles Justin Alexander wrote, about a style of dungeon design that Justin Alexander codified, inspired by the work of Jenell Jacquays. He apparently was trying to honor her past work, and the fact that she inspired the ideas.

Ms. Jacquays asked for her name to be removed from it.

If he'd have named it after himself in the first place, we would have rolled our eyes but had no issue. So, we can roll our eyes now.

Yes. The story as he relays it rings a bit false to me, though. I have a sad suspicion that Jacquays wanted her name removed because she didn't want to be associated with JA and her name used to promote his stuff. Which sucks, because even if JA is off sometimes, that article is genuinely good and her early dungeon designs ARE what's being talked about. A principle/best practice which she innovated and deserves every bit of credit that naming it after her gives.

It does read to me like the issue is more one of ownership/self-promotion of the original article and the new book, rather than any kind of defense of Jenell/avoidance of harassment toward her. Which is saddening to me and makes me resistant to the change.

I do appreciate him linking to her Go Fund Me, though. May that benefit from all this.

 

[Stormonu]

Tempest in a teapot.

Xerox, Escalator, Jaquaying. Term is in use, good luck changing it.

 

[Umbran]

I agree that they can die mad about it. One of the reasons the proposed change rubs me the wrong way.

Yeah, but... it isn't your name, so...

It does read to me like the issue is more one of ownership/self-promotion of the original article and the new book, rather than any kind of defense of Jenell/avoidance of harassment toward her. Which is saddening to me and makes me resistant to the change.

She didn't put her name on it. She asked her name be taken off of it. That is all that is required. Her reasons are her own, and are academic to us - it is her name, her identity, and she gets a veto on it being applied to stuff.

You can be resistant to his applying his own name to it, but resistance to taking her name off it is inappropriate.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think there's a little more nuance to it

Very non-linear?

 

[Reynard]

Very non-linear?

Anti-linear?

 

[billd91]

The correct short form of Alexander is Sandy. Alexander is my dad's middle name. He hated it when his school friends found out and took to calling him Sandy!

Correct, shmorrect. The correct short form of any name is what the name wearer decides is the correct short form. The incorrect form is any form the name wearer disapproves of.

 

[Autumnal]

Anti-linear?

Invitational. Inclusive. Polyrouted.

 

[Reynard]

Polyrouted.

That's it!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Tempest in a teapot.

Xerox, Escalator, Jaquaying. Term is in use, good luck changing it.

None of these is an actual human person's name.

 

[aco175]

What did we call this guy.