First-Person or Third-Person Perspective for your supplements?

[IronWolf]

Adding my vote to the third-person perspective in gaming materials.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I voted third person.

But, first person is I, We.
Second is You, You.
Third is He, She, It, They, Them.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Doesn't matter to me.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I'll strongly disagree with that. As an English Major, using a male pronoun for a subject of ambiguous or no gender is tantamount to telling women to "get back in the kitchen." This is coming from the professors; you know, those guys and gals with the PhDs. I tend to take their word on things like this.

Bah. They're just repeating what they were told in orientation when they were in college and what they read in feminist papers back in the 60's and 70's. Any honest student of historical english would know that the male pronoun was default in English from before the time of Shakespeare until the late 20th century. (And honest teachers have an obligation to mention that fact if they discuss it). Even now, it is a highly controversial topic anywhere except universities. You'll note that the first and second edition D&D books used the male pronoun as gender neutral and 3e chose to avoid the problem by using iconics (which are more or less evenly divided between men and women).

As for "tantamount to telling women to get back into the kitchen," I suppose they also get faint and have trouble breathing if they hear any speculation that men and women might be biologically different. If they can't handle people disagreeing with their politicized declarations of how language should be used, they don't belong in a university. One could just as easily call their approach to language "tantamount to newspeak" but that might be a little more accurate than the first.

 

[devilbat]

Couldn't care a less.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I prefer third-person perspective, with the use of "they" in pronouns.

"A rogue gains evasion at X level. Whenever they are exposed to an effect . . ."

Avoids arguments.

 

[hong]

Anything is better than third-person-indirect, which seems to the default White Wolf way of writing crunch.

2nd person: you gain a +1 bonus.

3rd person: the character gains a +1 bonus.

3rd person indirect: the player can have their character gain a +1 bonus OR the player of such a character gains a +1 bonus.


Hong "won't someone think of the syllables" Ooi

 

[Starglim]

I prefer a d20 supplement to follow the d20 standard. It's not a question that can be separated. But for some other, entirely unrelated RPG, the third person is better because the rule may relate to an animal, an impersonal force, an inanimate object or some other target that is nonsensical to address or think of as "you", and thus the reader could miss the possibility that it may so apply.

 

[The Shaman]

The Warhammer fantasy RPG uses second person, and has a humorous note about it in the beginning, something to the effect of "the text uses second person to refer to the player character. For example, the talent of fearless states "you are uncommonly brave and can resist fear." While there are many brave players of Warhammer, this actually refers to the character and not the actual player's personality..."

As I understand it, WHFRPG's use of the second person is derivative from 3e/d20 - and I mean that as a compliment!

Third person - I am not my character (though I play him at the gaming table).

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I prefer third-person perspective, with the use of "they" in pronouns.

"A rogue gains evasion at X level. Whenever they are exposed to an effect . . ."

Avoids arguments.

Except for arguments from English majors who point out that rogue is singlular and they is plural.

Using the second person can make it clearer and more elegant when the description deals with a second creature, such as a spells target. "When you cast a spell your target dances a jig and you gain ten hit points. If he makes his save you only gain five hitpoints." As opposed to "When a character casts this spell his target dances a jig and the caster gains ten hit points. If the target makes his save the caster only gains five hitpoints."