Just a couple of questions

[Zander]

This is YOUR game. WotC can call things whatever they want, or have a race look a certain way, or change how a particular spell works (fireball comes to mind), but your group can do WHATEVER it wants, and WotC won't interfere with that.

Does that mean that if I'm a player (not a DM) in a game that the naming, look and game mechanics in that game will be as I want them? What about if I go to a convention and play in games there? And what about discussing D&D online in communities like EN World? I think you'll find that the answer in all these cases is "no". The argument that it's your game and can therefore be customised only applies to DMs in their own game worlds (i.e. not shared game worlds like those used by the RPGA). In other words, WotC can't force you to run the game as they want but they can certainly distance you from the wider gaming community if you don't.

I understand that it can be more work to modify things to what you want rather than just having it the way you would like from the start, but with a little effort and creativity the game becomes whatever you dream of. Sometimes it seems like people don't want to be creative, that they want their rules and fluff handed to them the way THEY like without regard to others. Are there things I don't like in 4E? Sure, but I won't stop that from making the game into what my players and I choose. I recommend that you all do the same.

(if this post offends anybody, just realize I'm not trying to be offensive, I'm just frustrated by what I percieve as an unwillingness to modify your game)

It's not about a reluctance to modify the game. It's about the consequences of making changes.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Stupid stuff like that takes away from the credibility of the game. It interferes with the story. Monk abilities called "diamond body" don't mean anything because they just describe a cool power that will never be named inside the game world. Where as "Golden Wyvern Adept" describes a wizardly order and directly infers that you are part of and associated with this organization.

It takes away from your game and your story, I can accept. But I don't think will interfere with mine.

You're also making a lot of inferences based on very little information - one feat name is remarkably different from a whole books worth of information. Instead of worrying needlessly about it, why not wait a bit and see if this feat is part of a large chain of feats, powers and flavour? It may come down to the idea that Golden Wyvern Adept is part of a whole group of Golden Wyvern powers - in which case they can all be changed relatively easily.

In short, I don’t hate the “Golden Wyvern” part, I hate the meaninglessness of the “Adept” part.

This I can agree with - although I presume it's part of a greater group of powers and will make more sense when we have more information.

 

[eleran]

Where as "Golden Wyvern Adept" describes a wizardly order and directly infers that you are part of and associated with this organization.

Golden Wyvern Adept infers nothing. People infer things. Statements imply things. In this case you inferred soemthing that wasn't necessarily implied.

An adept can be a member of an order, it can also be someone who is particularly good at something. You need to just overlook the name and stop metagaming and refer to it by your lame name for the feat instead of their lame name for the feat.

Or better yet, design your own game so I can go to a forum and trash everything you do that i think is lame.

 

[Piratecat]

Or better yet, design your own game so I can go to a forum and trash everything you do that i think is lame.

That's a little harsh for someone trying to discuss this, don't you think? It's be a lot more effective to say "Not everyone thinks it's stupid. If you do, that's fine, but it's kind of offensive when you state it as if it's a fact."

 

[Flobby]

I would guess that the real beef people have with the name "Dragonborn" is that it doesn't sound like a name that an actual race would call itself. We call ourselves human, not "Sons of Men". Dwarves could have been "Mountainfolk" or "Stonechildren", but it has a better sense of reality to it that a race would have a unique name for itself. A name that doesn't mean anything besides the name of that race.

Draconian. Dracon. Even something like Saurials. All of these sound like the name of a race.

Dragonborn sounds like a category or an organization. Like what some of those creatures might refer to themselves as, but not the race as a whole.

Does Halfling sound like a name they would call themselves?

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Does Halfling sound like a name they would call themselves?

I'd be more inclined to call myself 'Dragonborn' than 'Halfling', personally.

Consider it; you're a fisherman in a coastal village, doing whatever fishermen do to their nets that takes all day after fishing. A great sailing ship appears on the horizon, and the village gathers to watch as it pulls into the bay and puts out a launch. The crew are a head and a half taller than the largest man in the village, scaled and reptilian of countenance. One stands in the bow of the boat, a sword taller than you are strapped to his back. The launch comes ashore, their captain disembarks and approaches, announcing to the trembling crowd, "We are the dragonborn". All you know about dragons is that old legend of the some ancient wyrm laying waste to the imperial capital over the course of an afternoon - and these new arrivals claim kinship with the beasts.

I think I just soiled my trousers, you?

 

[delericho]

1) First off, all of the furor about Warlord and why WOTC didn't listen to the public about how much the name is disliked and many a poll was started to come up with a new name. People didn’t seem to like the connotation Warlord for a 1st level character and also thought that it was too close to Warlock.

Using "Warlord" as a class name is fine. Using "Warlock" as a class name is fine. Using both together is a really bad idea.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I'd be more inclined to call myself 'Dragonborn' than 'Halfling', personally.

I agree with you and your reasoning on the name Dragonborn.

As for "Halfling", if I were part of the halfling community, I wouldn't use that name. I would call myself human and call those big oafs "doubleings."

 

[resistor]

This is YOUR game. WotC can call things whatever they want, or have a race look a certain way, or change how a particular spell works (fireball comes to mind), but your group can do WHATEVER it wants, and WotC won't interfere with that.

You're right, I can modify the game to be whatever I want.

BUT this isn't just a game for me. I have 5 (sometimes 6) players whose command of the rules is sometimes shaky at best. Not all of them own their own copies of the books. More than half wouldn't know the meaning of any of their characters abilities without having the sheet in front of them.

The big cost to modify fairly central elements of the game is the need to train my players. It took a long time to get the caster-players comfortable with reading their spell lists. The fighter player still forgets what Cleave does sometimes. Do you know how much harder that would become is I changed the names of half of the feats? How about if I do that to the spells too? I'd have to give each of them a "table names" --> "book names" translation guide at the beginning of every session!

Renaming is easy for experienced players who already know the rules. It is NOT easy for new players or those who do not have the rules committed to memory.

 

[Traycor]

Does Halfling sound like a name they would call themselves?

Not at all. That name comes from LotR's where outsiders refer to hobbits as "halflings", but it isn't what hobbits call themselves. Basically since TSR couldn't use the name hobbit, they used halfling and it has been grandfathered into the game. There is no logical reason at all why a halfling would call themselves such, but the name is needed so that new gamers can make the quick connection to what a halfling is supposed to be.

Or better yet, design your own game so I can go to a forum and trash everything you do that i think is lame

Wow. Um... I'm looking forward to 4E and pretty much everything I've seen, I'm stoked about (crunch and fluff). I've not been trolling the boards making complaints. The O.P. asked for honest explanations about why some aspects bothered people, and I provided thought out response on two of the points. I would suggest finding someone who can give you a warm hug. It helps