I Really Like Keywords

[Shroomy]

I like keywords, and have liked them since 3e. After all, what are dazed/stunned/nauseated/etc, [Fire, Evil. Healing, etc], Empowered/Stilled/Quickened/Etc, if not keywords subsuming entire mechanical modifications?

Yeah, they were keywords, but my love has more to do with the how they are organized in 4e presentation.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Do keywords automatically include rules information?

Seemingly, no. They are rather "tags" than MtG-like keywords, which are usually a rule-snippet (even if they're often spelled out as reminder text).

Cheers, LT.

 

[malraux]

I've hated 3e's inconsistent use of keywords ever since I tried to figure out which spells protection from evil actual protected against. A few keywords tied to other spells would have made life sooo much easier.

 

[Ilium]

The direction of the rules in general in both 3.x and 4E reminds me very much of Object-Oriented Programming.

So maybe the class Hammer implements the interfaces "heavy throwable", "melee" and "versatile". Or half-orc implements "humanoid", "orc" (since they are treated as orcs for all purposes that matter) and more generic interfaces like "creature" and "living".

Seems like that SHOULD make it easier to write tools and utilities, but it's still obviously complicated.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I don't know if I like them or not, but the only other game I've ever played with formal Keywords is M:tG. This causes a "this is a card game based RPG" association in my mind even if it isn't an accurate comparison; this is a bad thing.

I'll have to see in play.

 

[catsclaw227]

I am a big fan of the use of keywords as well. I noticed the trend in 3.x and really like what they are doing with it in 4e. I am not a M:tG player, so I don't have something to compare it to, but a successful mechanic or "gamism" that can be taken and easily, justifiably applied to a new game is good no matter what the original source.

Symbols, bah. A sop to the semi-literate, <snip>

Tell this to the scores of scientists and the symbol heavy mathematics/biology/physics they use. Symbols are certainly not a sop to the semi-literate. There are millennia of tradition around the use of symbols as simple representations of a semi-complex concepts.

and one more thing for aging eyes to ponder in confusion. "Is that a shuriken?" "Is that the bow-pointing-straight symbol or the bow pointing slightly up symbol?"

This I can agree with more readily, though my eyesight is exceptional since lasik.

 

[Shroomy]

I've hated 3e's inconsistent use of keywords ever since I tried to figure out which spells protection from evil actual protected against. A few keywords tied to other spells would have made life sooo much easier.

I see what you mean, but I think the main problem was that the keywords were often integrated directly into the sometimes lengthy and dense text instead of being called out.

 

[malraux]

I see what you mean, but I think the main problem was that the keywords were often integrated directly into the sometimes lengthy and dense text instead of being called out.

Sometimes, but as in the case with PfE, not always. Much better to make keywords explicit and obvious. Certainly a mixed system is even worse than either not using keywords or not using them at all.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I like the keywords too... I hope the raw number of them doesn't get quite as bad as with Magic the Gathering (memorizing stuff is good, but too much information to memorize can be difficult and problematic), but I can really see how keywords will benefit D&D.

Various keywords work in magic because you really only have to know precisely the meaning of some of them in a period of 2 years. After that, the keyword will rotate out of standard and a lot of players will simply forget it once existed.

I hope they don't do an avalanche of keywords in D&D, unless we're looking at D&D standard, extended and vintage, with only the rules appearing in the last two years of PHB, DMG and MM being available for player choice in organized play…

No... that’s too terrible to be true...
Cheers!

 

[Lizard]

Tell this to the scores of scientists and the symbol heavy mathematics/biology/physics they use. Symbols are certainly not a sop to the semi-literate. There are millennia of tradition around the use of symbols as simple representations of a semi-complex concepts.

However, the symbols in this case are used as graphic fluff and are not notably more useful than simply using words. Further, we can presume there will be 'symbol explosion' over time.

There already are keyword -- Basic, Ranged, Burst. What do we need the pretty little pictures for, except to appease the "Reading is hard!" crowd which primarily plays games where all game options are presented to them in the form of pictures? How is more informative than 5?

Killing the left brain, that's what it's doing.