How flowery/dramatic/illustrative is your game talk?

[Quasqueton]

I don't think the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night" etc. belongs in the best category:

Perhaps you coyly intend to cast aspersions on the style of the Authorized Bible/Tolkien/Gygax . . .

First, 10 in this poll is not the “best category” – it is merely one end of the scale. 0 in this poll is not the worst category – it is just the other end of the scale. In my opinion, 5, in this poll, is the best category.

Second, when I tried to think of something to represent the 10 category, the first line that came to my mind was, “It was a dark and stormy night…”. The next line that came to mind was, “A shot rang out…”. Both came to mind with an image of Snoopy sitting on his doghouse, typing his novel. I knew that the “dark and stormy” line was from some book, prior to Snoopy, but I didn’t know much else about it. So I Googled the line. I found the real, full sentence to be atrocious, so I edited it heavily (for a sane style, and to be appropriate for a D&D scene).

If you think this poll somehow insults King James, Tolkien, and Gygax, then that is all only in your own head. I suggest you shake off the imagined offense rather than ascribe false motives to me.

Quasqueton

 

[vulcan_idic]

I voted 5 mostly because it really varies between the groups I've played with. At least one was probably a 2-3, very casual type game, while another was a 8-9, almost all "in-character" mood setting and everything, with just an occassional lapse or "out-of-charater" remark or reference when it just fit too well not to be said. Within the groups it also varied a lot game to game depending mostly on the moods we were all in and the kind of weeks we'd all had.

 

[wmasters]

How flowery, dramatic, and illustrative is your game talk? Do you talk in character with archaic-style dialects (thee and thou), or do you just talk as yourself (y’all and youse)? Does the DM describe the scene with Hemingway’s talent, or with no adjectives at all?

This is probably just me being English rather than American, but I don't think I've ever said y'all, and I've got no idea what youse means. But somewhere in between is probably the answer. As a DM, I tend to be fairly descriptive, at least of anything characteristic, but I I'd use modern language.

 

[The_Gneech]

I'd prefer 10, but I'm the only guy at the table who can pull it off on a semi-regular basis, so we end up somewhere around 5.

-The Gneech

 

[Henry]

3 - not nearly enough. I wish I were better at it, in fact.

 

[Sejs]

This is probably just me being English rather than American, but I don't think I've ever said y'all, and I've got no idea what youse means. But somewhere in between is probably the answer. As a DM, I tend to be fairly descriptive, at least of anything characteristic, but I I'd use modern language.

Y'all is a southern-drawlified version of 'you all'. Hey, y'all wanna get somethin' to eat?

Youse is a brooklinated version of 'you'. Youse get a good look at the guy?

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

 

[Gentlegamer]

If you think this poll somehow insults King James, Tolkien, and Gygax, then that is all only in your own head. I suggest you shake off the imagined offense rather than ascribe false motives to me.

Grouping the Authorized Bible, Tolkien, and Gygax with a piece of prose that even you admit is "atrocious" seems pretty clearly to be a dig at the three styles.

 

[Quasqueton]

Grouping the Authorized Bible, Tolkien, and Gygax with a piece of prose that even you admit is "atrocious" seems pretty clearly to be a dig at the three styles.

Whatever.

Quasqueton

 

[Fishbone]

I don't know enough about Gary to pass judgment but the Authorized Bible is HELL to read. Boring, repetitious, filled with gore and perversion. This is coming from somebody in a Fundy household with no hate for Christianity. Tolkien is hell on me too, I could never read him.