I HATE the term GISH

[Corsair]

I only use the term outside of game, since it's easier to tell your fellow player: "I want to play some kind of gish next campaign" rather than 'I want to play a warrior-spellcaster next campaign'. Once in game I don't use such meta-game terms. It that sense, I have no problem with it, any more than I do with any other reference.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Hate the term, and didn't like the actress very much, either.

Didn't like Lillian Gish? Did you see NIght of the Hunter?

It does have a "wimpy" sound to it, to my ear.

I do agree on that.

 

[Jesus_marley]

Gish, Pally, Barbar, skelly... it all smacks of linguistic laziness to me.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shorthand terminology should make things clearer, not murkier. Gish fails that test.

Now, as a test of how hardcore a geek a player is, it passes with flying colors, although that's never the reason the people who use the term say they use it for.

In any case, a fiery death to those who use the term, starting with the toes and moving up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I also very much dislike "pally" for paladin. The first time I heard "skelly" for skeleton in a gaming store I cringed so bad I almost knocked over a display case.

I'm sure they were thrilled to have you as a customer.

You need to use the full name for the exotic, arcane, mythological flavor. Being in a medieval world is not supposed to be easy, there's a lot of complicated honorifics you need to get in the habit of correctly pronouncing. Turning it into modern jargon -- pure gaming number abstractions -- is like a punch in the gut to me. I would definitely not game with anyone who made those kind of abbreviations.

This makes no sense. Professional soldiers -- which is what adventurers amount to, whether they're mercenaries, tomb-robbers or anointed heroes -- use shorthand so that communication in combat is faster and easier. The US military is probably the premier creator of semi-insane abbreviations (mostly not acronyms, just abbreviations that look like them, like NORPOL) and if it would offend your sensibilities that soldiers would talk like soldiers, then you're asking for something I think most players would deny you.

I assure you Roman soldiers used abbreviations and slang terminology, as did Crusaders and Musketeers.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Am I missing something? I still think it's stupid and wrong. Where does the 's' come from?

If you want to shorten "githyanki," it's shortened to "gith."

I suppose a "gish" might be a baby "gith" since it sounds a bit more cutesy.

What are you talking about? :\ It's not short for anything, it's a githyanki word for a warrior mage.

 

[T. Foster]

Never heard it in a gaming context before this thread. Agree that it's terrible. Lillian Gish was awesome, and her sister Dorothy was pretty good too (at her best alongside Lillian in Griffith's Orphans of the Storm). I don't like the Smashing Pumpkins

 

[Valesin]

Most people who hear the term for the first time will have no idea what it means, and it's utterly non-intuitive to learn, since it sounds like an acronym, but is in fact an obscure piece of D&D lore.

Fighter/Mage, F/M for short, or battlemage would be far preferable.

How about 'fage?'

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How about 'fage?'

Kexy would approve.

 

[shilsen]

How about 'spoozle'?

Bye
Thanee

That'll be 25 cents, please.