Hey Rube! and other archaic knowledge

[ExploderWizard]

Well... it doesn't. The comments that this is a response to were of a generic nature. "See Spot run" is entirely hyerbolic.

Frankly, though, if you want to "go there", I find the idea that someone should be reading the DMG to expand their vocabulary pretty messed up anyway. There's a lot better material out there to expand your vocabulary. Like I said earlier: Clark Ashton Smith.

A gaming book does not need to be written specifically to be a vocabulary exercise but it shouldn't go out of its way to avoid perfectly serviceable and appropriate terms just because some readers might never have picked up a book before.

 

[Raven Crowking]

We get it, Hobo. Your hat of EGG know no limit.

 

[Voadam]

A young teenager DM describing to his Players a deck of cards made of dog ears is a little more funny. Possibly embarrassing for the DM, possibly completely confusing to the Players.

So stretching and challenging a reader's vocabulary is all well and fine in novels or textbooks, but in something designed for 10-12 year olds to read and understand well enough to run on their own (like Basic D&D supposedly was) -- without the breadth of knowledge and experience of a 30-50 year old prodigious reader -- sometimes you should dial down the archaic language and references.

1 I think a deck of cards made from dog ears in the hands of a bunch of humanoid guards is actually a pretty cool image that fits in fine with D&D.

2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade with the dog eared cards was not for Basic D&D. It was for AD&D and above the levels of the Basic game.

3 If you look at the writing in Gygax's AD&D DMG and then Moldvay's Basic D&D book I think you will note some style differences.

 

[Bullgrit]

relatively common words/terms

"Hey Rube!" is considered a common term? I'm 42 years old, and an avid reader (since ~13), and I have only encountered this term/concept exactly twice -- first time in B2, once just recently. Twice in 42 years.

I have open on my desk, right now, a Funk & Wagnells New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language, copyright 1978 (1,930 pages; as thick as my hand is wide!) -- "Hey Rube!" is not listed in this tome.

"Dog-eared," I wouldn't say is common, but it's not esoteric like "Hey Rube!"

For the record, I'm not suggesting that D&D writing should be (or should have been) written at a low vocabulary level. (Note that some classic D&D books had glossaries at the back to define terms that you and I now know easily.) But an author shouldn't assume that his audience (especially an audience that included, specifically targeted, 10-12 year olds) has as vast a vocabulary and world experience as a 30-50 year old buff.

Anyone else find it ironic that EGG used many varied and uncommon words for so many things in the books, but he stuck with "level" to refer to so many different things?

Bullgrit

 

[billd91]

Other than geeks, the 'cool' in this era was largely owned by the heroic age explorers like Roald Amundsen and (in a slightly different form) Buffolo Bill. This is 'World's Fair' and 'National Geographic' era (not incidently chaired by Alexander Graham Bell).

But explorers were something of the 'performers' of the day. They did spectacular things in exotic places - things now brought to use via television when we see various athletes or watch travel shows.

I can't speak for that era. I don't honestly know who Roman children would have idolized beyond obvious figures like Julius and Augustus. Gladiators? Generals? Orators? Poets? (There really was an era when poets were treated like rock stars and lived like it, see for example Lord Byron.) Chariot Racers? Mystics? I don't know. Records from the era are so relatively scanty and framentary that I'm not sure anyone really knows, nor am I really sure that anyone at the time would have cared to record anything like that.

There's pretty good evidence about the followings that chariot teams had in Constantinople. Gangs of fans that would get into fights over which team was better. But Roman urban culture was also one that incorporated the ideal of "bread and circuses". Entertainment was something most definitely promoted.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Anyone else find it ironic that EGG used many varied and uncommon words for so many things in the books, but he stuck with "level" to refer to so many different things?

Bullgrit

It is explained in the 1E PHB. Check out section titled "Use of the word level".

 

[Stoat]

Your "definition" has nothing at all to do with "Hey Rube!" In fact, if that's what you think when you see "Hey Rube!" then I bet that text in B2 was even more confusing for you.

Yeah, this was me. I thought "Hey Rube!" was an insult. Somebody is trying to get you to call the kobolds suckers.

FWIW, I was at least 30 the first time I encountered the phrase. The only time I've ever seen it referenced was in B2, here and when I googled.

 

[billd91]

AFAICT, "dog-eared" isn't archaic; I have heard it used often throughout my life. Of course, I grew up in Wisconsin, so this might have been more regional at the time.

Your experience matches mine. I probably learned it when I was first introduced to bookmarks - dog ear folds being NOT suitable methods for marking books.

As far as the appropriate prose for a set of rulebooks - I generally favor clarity in the writing of rules. These are, after all, technical manuals far more than anything else. That's the trouble with the 1e manuals, too little clarity when it was needed - such as in describing mechanics.

But once mechanical rules are written, I don't mind a little more purple to my prose. That's where the 1e manuals, particularly the DMG, do better than later editions.

 

[Bullgrit]

It is explained in the 1E PHB. Check out section titled "Use of the word level".

I know about that "explanation." But a man who could come up with 9 words for "fighter" (level names) and "thief" and "magic-user" surely could have come up with a few synonyms for "level," and just skip the excuse. ;-)

Bullgrit

 

[Bullgrit]

For the record: I love, love, love reading the AD&D1 DMG.

Bullgrit