Dragon's Tail Cut?

[Xyl]

From Rich Baker's blog:

I spent a little time here and there polishing up some Player's Handbook bits. Yesterday I cast my eye over our list of fighter powers, and spent a couple of hours patching up placeholder names and writing up better flavor text. We had a 1st-level power called "Wallop" that had a knock-you-prone rider on it; I changed the name to "Dragon's Tail Cut" and flavored it as a crouch down and make a long looping swing through target's legs power, sort of like the way a dragon might use a tail whip to knock someone down. Maybe it's dorky, maybe it's cool; hard to tell with flavor you write yourself.

It looks like they're going with Book of Nine Swords style move names. I know some people will view it as just extending the sorts of names they use for spells to other classes, and other people will say it's yet more evidence that D&D is becoming Exalted. What do you think?

 

[WyzardWhately]

From Rich Baker's blog:

It looks like they're going with Book of Nine Swords style move names. I know some people will view it as just extending the sorts of names they use for spells to other classes, and other people will say it's yet more evidence that D&D is becoming Exalted. What do you think?

I like 'wallop' better.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Do Western-style sword fighters not use idiosyncratic names for the various moves they do? Is this only an asian thing; or is it just thought to be asian, but is actually universal?

 

[useridunavailable]

I vote "dorky" on that one.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Do Western-style sword fighters not use idiosyncratic names for the various moves they do? Is this only an asian thing; or is it just thought to be asian, but is actually universal?

Western swordfighters have names for their moves, but they tend to be less metaphorical. This kind of stuff (to my limited understanding) actually comes from the various animal styles of kung fu specifically, rather than just asian martial arts in general. They were a sort of metaphor/mnemonic device for the moves from fighting animals that the martial artists were attempting to emulate.

Or at least, that's how it was explained to me by my buddy who does a lot of kung fu. And we were drinking at the time.

 

[szilard]

I like 'wallop' better.

Me too. What if I just want to hit people so hard they fall down? Do I have to trip them?

-Stuart

 

[hazel monday]

I'll second the Dorky. These guys need some help in the naming stuff department.

 

[Dragonblade]

They should call it "Sweep the Leg" and write flavor text of how it was a maneuver perfected by the ancient and mysterious Cobra Kai society.

 

[Xyl]

Do Western-style sword fighters not use idiosyncratic names for the various moves they do? Is this only an asian thing; or is it just thought to be asian, but is actually universal?

Part of it is a translation problem. Even really flashy moves in anime/wuxia tend to have relatively short names, for example "getsuga tenshou". However, because every syllable in Chinese or Japanese has its own meaning, if you translate it into english you get a mouthful like "Moon-Fang Piercer of the Heavens".

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Western swordfighters have names for their moves, but they tend to be less metaphorical. This kind of stuff (to my limited understanding) actually comes from the various animal styles of kung fu specifically, rather than just asian martial arts in general. They were a sort of metaphor/mnemonic device for the moves from fighting animals that the martial artists were attempting to emulate.

Or at least, that's how it was explained to me by my buddy who does a lot of kung fu. And we were drinking at the time.

Well, I think that a swordfighter is more likely to call his own move "dragon's tail cut" than "wallop" anyway. But I do think that it's kind of a crappy name. It sounds like it hails from the "rice paper walk" and "footpaddin'" school of nouns.