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Message: <blockquote data-quote="helium3" data-source="post: 2734907" data-attributes="member: 31301">Oh, I'm not necessarily sticking up for Incarnum. I actually don't know a lot about it. Rather, I'm responding to a rhetorical technique I see used a lot on these boards that I find very annoying. Basically, it's the technique of strong language. My friends with PhD's in political science do it all the time. They use words like clearly, obviously (and note that there's usually an volume inflection there so that the "power-word" is spoken at a higher volume then the other words in the sentence) or a more cunning assembleage of similiar words that states the same thing with the intent of tricking the listener into making the assumption that the speaker is a bona fide expert on the subject. It's a way of taking control and asserting dominance in a debate without actually proferring a specific argument. Engineers and science types are using the same technique when they say something along the lines of "it follows from first principles."I hate it, and whenever I see it, I challenge the speaker to give an actual reason. In this case, he (she?) did and pointed out that Incarnum is apparently just the SWRPG force system ported over to a fantasy setting. While I don't necessarily agree that this is a great thing, I don't think it automatically qualifies the Incarnum book as Dreck. I don't own the SWRPG, so having ported to a fantasy setting for me isn't such a terrible thing.</blockquote>

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