Ease the vernacular.

[technoextreme]

Jargon is part and parcel of what makes any social group special and inclusive. There's even a term for it but I forget what it is; it's the same phenomena as how science has scientific terms for things whilst everyone else calls it something else. It's all about the hard-wired nature of socialisation and recognising and accepting those who share common interests.

You do realize that the term you are looking for is jargon right. Seriously scientists and engineers don't just make up words for exclusivity. We generally tend to make fun of how stupid it is and its pretty dam stupid.

 

[DEFCON 1]

'Technobabble' is the new 'Jargon'.

 

[Dausuul]

In another thread, I compared power names to "macros" in a computer game. If many or all of a PCs powers are named "macros" then players (either through laziness or through the desire to speed up combat) will resort to calling out the name of the macro to represent a more interesting and complex move, reducing the narrative feel of the game. To save time (or as a lazy player) I might tell the DM, "I attack with Tide of Iron," rather than saying "I push forward with my shield to bash him and attempt to push him back."

Wait, your players actually use the name of the power? I'm jealous. Mine just say "He's pushed 2 squares and knocked prone." If I want to know what power is being used there, I have to ask. As for translating it into in-game narrative, forget it.

 

[technoextreme]

'Technobabble' is the new 'Jargon'.

There is no difference between technobabble and jargon. In fact in the field of engineering the long standing joke is a device called the turboencabulator where its nothing more than a babbling stream of techncial jargon. The joke actually got started in time magazine.

 

[CM]

Wait, your players actually use the name of the power? I'm jealous. Mine just say "He's pushed 2 squares and knocked prone." If I want to know what power is being used there, I have to ask. As for translating it into in-game narrative, forget it.

After all these years I'm finally getting my players to at least mention the name of the power before rolling attacks.

Not that I'm suspicious that the lucky 20 suddenly became a 5[W] daily instead of an at-will.

 

[Fifth Element]

You know, every edition of D&D has used five foot squares. Areas of effect have ALWAYS had to deal with filling square areas. Don't pretend like grids were some heinous new thing that 4e invented. It simply took what it had and made it easy to use and there's never a fault in that.

Unless you like making things hard simply for verisimilitude.

Square fireballs result not from using a grid, but from 4E's system of 1-1-1 diagonal moves, as opposed to 3E's 1-2-1.

My favourite retort to complaints that 4E measures things in squares instead of feet is 1E's measurement system, which uses inches instead of feet, but not in the sense of using 60" instead of 5'. It's a scale measurement (just like 4E's squares) and is a vestige from its wargaming roots.

 

[Savage Wombat]

'Technobabble' is the new 'Jargon'.

Not correct. "Technobabble" is not meant to convey information - it refers to the use of scientific-sounding gibberish as exposition in fiction. Best example being any scene in Star Trek where the engineering staff is explaining how they're going to solve a problem.

Scientific jargon, while sometimes inscrutible, has meaning behind it.

 

[Pickles JG]

My favourite retort to complaints that 4E measures things in squares instead of feet is 1E's measurement system, which uses inches instead of feet, but not in the sense of using 60" instead of 5'. It's a scale measurement (just like 4E's squares) and is a vestige from its wargaming roots.

Helldorado minis game uses Fathoms where a fathom is 1" on the table (& the size of a mine ie about 6'). If D&D switched to using a thematic & easy to count unit like that it ought to please both camps.

& FWIWI am all for firecubes. Figuring out which corners are missing in 3.5 is not something I want to revisit. In the TOTM it surely doesn't matter.

& on the other topic I am amused to see people blaming Wizards otC for people using "bamnfing" for teleporting & tanking & gish & any or all of the gamer but not game jargon.