Dragon's Tail Cut?

[Kid Charlemagne]

Actually, thinking further on this, I'd be cool with a naming system operating something like Wolfgang Bauer's Book of Roguish Luck - spells got two names; for example there was a roguish/sorceror-ish core class whose spells all had unique names, even when they were standard spells and were listed like this:

Bouncing the Baby (Feather Fall)

So you got the standard, easy to understand version, and the more flavorful version, which you could use or discard easily. I'd be in favor of soemthing like this.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Really, if they want me to buy 4.0 they're gonna have to do something about these played out, corny Street Fighter Turbo type names.

Props for not just saying 'videogamey'.

 

[hazel monday]

Props for not just saying 'videogamey'.

No problem. I know how the "V-word" sets you people off.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Because then people might have less reason to be snippy, and apparently, the chance to be snide is more important to some people than reasoned consideration. :\

(Mandatory disclaimer: This doesn't apply to everyone who dislikes the name, but only certain folks, and so on and so on, blah, blah...)

I hope I'm not one of those certain folks you have in mind. Guilty as charged on the snide and snippy, but my position is actually arrived at through very careful consideration. (As well as, if you'll permit the appeal to authority, a degree in Technical Writing.)

Alright, this one, I really don't like. Please give me generic names for my powers, even if they don't sound as flashy. I want knockback, fireball and magic missile, not Dragon's Tail Cut, Bursting of the Fifth Sun and Rise of Deathly Stars.

Because frankly, these names are silly, flavor specific and just not very descriptive. I want to be able to know what a power does by reading the name.

More folks who GET IT.

And notice that they get it, not solely on aesthetic grounds, but because they understand on a gut level that the handle has to have instant meaning.

The ideal handle of a rule component defines itself. It does not require you to learn what the handle means before you can attach any meaning to it.

The designer simply does not have free reign to assign whatever handle he wants to rules components-- not if he wants his rules to be as widely useful as possible.

I'm not advocating a flavorless book of mechanics. There are ways to make a rulebook interesting without making the rules unapproachable; and there are places where creative, descriptive fluff is appreciated and appropriate.

The handle of a rules component is not the appropriate place.

 

[Jhaelen]

Hey but remember testing shows anything with Dragon in the title sells better. It's how we go the Dragon Magic book.

Which incidentally contained several new spells with silly names.

For the record: I don't like 'Dragon's Tail Cut' and I'd hate having to memorize hundreds of names of that kind. Especially once there are several varieties on the name.

The BO9S already showed the problem with fancy names: There were two maneuvers from different disciplines that were (almost?) identical without their names indicating any kind of similarity. And there's a feat that shares a name with a class ability.

Yeah, I know, this could happen with less flowery names as well, but still...

 

[Exen Trik]

Dragon's Tail Cut sounds like an extra lean portion of dragon meat. Cut out the "Cut", make it sweep or just leave it off, and that would sound considerably less silly.

If it isn't sword specific, I'd say call it "Beatdown". Or if not, they should call SOMETHING "Beatdown", mostly because it's just fun to say.

 

[hazel monday]

Dragon's Tail Cut sounds like an extra lean portion of dragon meat. Cut out the "Cut", make it sweep or just leave it off, and that would sound considerably less silly.

If it isn't sword specific, I'd say call it "Beatdown". Or if not, they should call SOMETHING "Beatdown", mostly because it's just fun to say.

. I hope some of the naming impaired 4.0 designers end up reading this thread.
Knockdown, Curb stomp,Choke, and Beatdown are all acceptable names for manuevers.

 

[Wormwood]

. I hope some of the naming impaired 4.0 designers end up reading this thread.
Knockdown, Curb stomp,Choke, and Beatdown are all acceptable names for manuevers.

Really? Beatdown and Curb-Stomp fit a sword & sorcery fantasy game?

 

[hazel monday]

Really? Beatdown and Curb-Stomp fit a sword & sorcery fantasy game?

They fit My Sword and Sorcery fantasy game. And if you can't see that, you're just a grognard who's stuck in the past. Contemporize man! The future's not such a scary place!

 

[Wormwood]

They fit My Sword and Sorcery fantasy game. And if you can't see that, you're just a grognard who's stuck in the past. Contemporize man! The future's not such a scary place!

I see what you did there.