Dragon's Tail Cut?

[Nifft]

What's wrong with unambiguous names for things? Aren't we trying to make the game easy to understand for new players?

Er, isn't a unique (and probably silly sounding) name LESS ambiguous?

Not arguing which should be used, though I do like making up silly maneuver names...

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'm not keen on the names proposed.

However, I do think of one of the fantasy series I really like, that does have names for sword manuevers:

* Sheathing the Sword
* Folding the Fan
* Stones Falling Down the Mountain
* Cat Dances on the Wall

These sound like euphemisms for something else, IYKWIMAITYD.

 

[Lackhand]

Er, isn't a unique (and probably silly sounding) name LESS ambiguous?

No? After all, my character's name is Tevyn Wheelwright. But you wouldn't know him from Adam.

I think he meant "ambiguous as to what it does". And I agree.

 

[Wormwood]

*shrug*

Sounds fine to me. More interested in the mechanics, frankly.

 

[Nifft]

No? After all, my character's name is Tevyn Wheelwright. But you wouldn't know him from Adam.

*sigh*

ambiguous
adj 1: open to two or more interpretations; or of uncertain nature
or significance; or (often) intended to mislead; "an
equivocal statement"; "the polling had a complex and
equivocal (or ambiguous) message for potential female
candidates"; "the officer's equivocal behavior
increased the victim's uneasiness"; "popularity is an
equivocal crown"; "an equivocal response to an
embarrassing question" [syn: equivocal] [ant: unequivocal]
2: having more than one possible meaning; "ambiguous words";
"frustrated by ambiguous instructions, the parents were
unable to assemble the toy" [ant: unambiguous]
3: (psychology) having no intrinsic or objective meaning; not
organized in conventional patterns; "an ambiguous
situation with no frame of reference"; "ambiguous
inkblots"

I'm referring to (1) and (2), not (3).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Er, isn't a unique (and probably silly sounding) name LESS ambiguous?

Which are you more likely to forget the purpose of:

• Ogre's kneecap dancing flumph manoeuvre
  or
• hamstring attack

Especially when you consider how many other idiosyncratically-named manoeuvres you need to keep track of.

PC 1: Bargle's Lesser Gryphon Tail Technique? Is that the one where you spin around and hit people who are flanking you?
PC 2: No, you're thinking of Massive Hedgehog Birthday Gambit. B's LGTT is when you backflip over your opponent and backstab him.
PC 3: Wait, I thought that was Mordenkainen's Overly Abstruse Malfeasance.
PC 1: That's a 4th level spell.

 

[Lackhand]

Right. We mean 3.

No worries. We can all be right I didn't mean that to sound as snarky as it did, sorry.

Besides, 2 could be used either way: the name has no intrinsic meaning, since you can interpret Dragon Tail Cut as either a maneuver similar to that of a dragon's tail (which we'd need to see rules for, before we could tell whether that had further ambiguity) or a cut at a dragon's tail, implying some sort of flankery thing.

Besides, it just doesn't summon the same motion for me as Sweeping Cut or Tripping Cut or even just regular old Leg Cut do.

never post while tired, kids.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Right. We mean 3.

No worries. We can all be right

Well, by unambiguous, I mean the antonym of 1, 2, and 3. As in, it has only one meaning, and the meaning itself is given and will not be mistaken for another meaning.

 

[Nifft]

I think he meant "ambiguous as to what it does". And I agree.

Oh, that's what you mean.

Dunno. It really depends on how many maneuvers there are, and how specific the rules are for each one. "Downward Chop" means nothing more or less mechanically than "Seven Demon Fang".

Example (IMHO): Trip is fine as an attack name in 3.5e, because it does something simple, and the rules don't grossly violate my intuition.

Combat Expertise, however, tells me nothing. Parry might be a better name for that.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Lackhand]

Yeah. Names are a weak point.

This *can* be fixed, but it'd be nice if the names were right from the start, since it makes communicating so much easier.

Some of it is taste, of course.