Didier Monin's Blog - What the heck is...

[Andor]

From the most recent blog:

How one adjudicates this kind of idea without slowing the game down? Well this was my take on the fly. I started by asking a DC 15 strength check to lift and throw the groundling, and requested a Ranged touch attack roll versus the cleric. This ranged touch attack would receive a malus of -1 to this roll for every point the strength check was below the DC (I have an home rule to always use the difference of failure or success of an attribute based non opposed check as a sort of measurement bonus/malus applied to what is relevant to the action).

Okay. Sounds like a pretty cool house rule. But what the heck is a malus? I tried looking it up and got "malus - noun - apple trees; found throughout temperate zones of the northern hemisphere"

At this point I'd be cocking my head like a puzzled german shepard if it wasn't obvious from the context he meant "modifier." -1 Apple trees per point you fail the check? Wha?

Also - A Barbarian/Cleric of Illmater?

 

[Mark Hope]

I'm guessing it's just a pretentious way of saying "penalty". Y'know, bonus/malus.

Unless it does have something to do with apples, and the term "Core" rules is going to take on a whole new meaning in 4e...

 

[Intrope]

Try this: Malus. Latin for Bad, Wicked.

 

[Cam Banks]

I'm guessing it's just a pretentious way of saying "penalty". Y'know, bonus/malus.

It isn't pretentious. "Malus" is very common among folks for whom English is a second language, used instead of "penalty." I'm assuming Didier is ESL.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Atlatl Jones]

It isn't pretentious. "Malus" is very common among folks for whom English is a second language, used instead of "penalty." I'm assuming Didier is ESL.

Cheers,
Cam

I've heard French and German RPGers use "malus" for penalty, as well as a translation of "disadvanage" in the advantage/disadvantage systems that various RPGs have.

 

[Oldtimer]

But what the heck is a malus?

Both the french and the german translations of D&D have always used the (latin) word 'malus' as the functional oppsite of 'bonus'. The english D&D term 'penalty' doesn't really translate well into other languages.

I faced the same when translating D&D into swedish, but went with 'advantage'/'disadvantage' (or rather the swedish translation of those two words) instead of 'bonus'/'penalty'.

So when a french or german D&D:er says 'malus', read 'penalty'.

 

[Piratecat]

It isn't pretentious. "Malus" is very common among folks for whom English is a second language, used instead of "penalty." I'm assuming Didier is ESL.

Cheers,
Cam

Yup, he is - so I think you've hit on the answer. Not pretentious at all.

I met Didier briefly at GenCon, when Scott Rouse introduced him after the ENnies. Nice guy.

 

[Aloïsius]

Yup. Penalty may be translated in french in "pénalité" but it's rather a judicial word. Malus vs bonus is more intuitive ("good" and "bad" translate in "bon" and "mal" in french). Didier probably did not realized that "malus" is not used in english, because so many english words are the same than the french ones.

 

[Mark Hope]

Fair enough - learn something new every day. I stand corrected .

 

[Klaus]

It isn't pretentious. "Malus" is very common among folks for whom English is a second language, used instead of "penalty." I'm assuming Didier is ESL.

Cheers,
Cam

Er... what?

"Malus" for speakers of Latin-languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French) means "evil" much more than it means "penalty". The word for "penalty" is much more commonly "penalidade", which shares the root "pena" (as in "punishment") with "penalty" and "penance".