He said, she said

[takasi]

However, I expect WotC will probably continue the trend of using pronoun based on the gender of the associated iconic character, as they have been doing in 3E. Of course, that isn't a possible aswer in the poll, so I am not sure what this poll is trying to accomplish...

You are using a "3E mindset". Do they know there will be iconics? Assuming a pronoun is used where the gender is not defined, which do you prefer to see? If you don't care then don't vote, but the poll is to see, of those who do care, which one they prefer to see over the other.

And yes, the original question does not match the poll. It's for freeform discussion, and the real topic of the thread. The poll is a side note.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Will the generic pronoun in 4E be he or she?

They'll continue with the turnabout system. Returning to 'he' would be a retrograde step. And until WotC becomes a lesbian separatist commune*, they're not going with 'she'.


* I, for one, am praying for that day.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Since when did "he" cease being the gender-neutral pronoun in proper English language? Why does everyone have to be so damned cutting edge? Why does everyone have to think there's some hidden motive or agenda in everything? Reading through a paragraph wherein the pronoun changes from sentence to sentence is about as annoying as I am.

Hurricanes only named after females?!? My lord, it must be a conspiracy against the female race!

Woman?!? Bull crap - I say, womyn! There's no man in woman, not any more!

Gender neutral society = a worthy goal.

Genderless society = asinine.

And yes, I hate the iconics. Dumb idea. Dumb word.

W.P.

 

[delericho]

I say "he". Most D&D players are male, so we have the bigger claim

Hang on a second, are we missing a trick here? I for one haven't yet met my hawt gamer chick, and they definately seem thin on the ground.

If the game brings in an influx of female gamers via an equal use of 'she', and by toning down or eliminating the cheesecake, why is that a bad thing?

Perhaps WotC should print off t-shirts: "D&D 4e: Now with 34% more feminine pronouns". More seriously, perhaps some of the adverts that get run should include females as players and DMs and, significantly, not just as the token female in the group - perhaps they should be showing entire groups of female players?

Or we can continue hanging the "No Grlz" signs. I'm sure that'll work.

 

[The Souljourner]

If I had to pick a single pronoun I'd go with "they". And tell language perscriptivists to kiss my Shakespeare.

Dude, it's plural. I *hate* the use of "they" as a genderless pronoun. I'll admit to occasionally using it myself, but it's physically painful when I have to.

They'll use a mixture, like they did in 3.x.

-Nate

 

[Kae'Yoss]

If the game brings in an influx of female gamers via an equal use of 'she'

...I'll eat my hat. You can quote me on that.

Really, do you want to play with people who insist on stuff like "emancipated pronouns"? It's not like male player characters get more loot or something.

 

[Maggan]

As such, "he" is the correct answer.

Nope. The question for the poll is "what do you prefer". To which there is only one correct answer; the answer that I prefer. And you won't find that in a dictionary.

The question in the post is "what will it be in 4e?" Since 4e isn't released yet, the correct answer cannot be known to the majority of us posting here.

So, "he" is far from the correct answer.

/M

 

[jonathan swift]

Es.

Oh, this isn't German. My bad.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Es.

Oh, this isn't German. My bad.

Es? It? "It puts the lotion in the basket"?

In German, we at least have an indefinite pronoun: man. It can be translated into you/one or something like that.

So "Man sagt, er habe magische Kräfte" means "They say it has magic powers.", "Kann man so sagen" means "You can say that!" And so on. It's quite useful at times.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Having spent some time writing notes for my Arcana Evolved campaign, which features the genderless mojh, I vote for more than two pronouns. Specifically, not only should they add a genderless race, they should also add a hive race referred to in the plural. Then they should alternate "he", "she", "it", and "they" in the general rules text. This will contribute little to understanding of the rules, but will provide hours of entertaining bashing of the poor editors.