On The Horrible Naming

[BryonD]

Care to explain how or why? Otherwise, this is a blank post itself.

First, no one is debating the smell of the rose. It is the stupidity of the other name that is being taken to task. We don't have enough infomation, but I'll assume that the feat is good. And it will remain so no matter how poor the name. Just the same a rose called pile of rat droppings would still smell the same, but the name would be a poor choice.

We know what Golden Wvyern is now.

I won't use it in the future.

I had a much better idea what Evocation was the first time I heard it.


Hmmm, thats 4. Seems I was wrong once in my tiny post.

 

[BadMojo]

What if my world doesn't have a Golden Wyvern order?

It has to. It's part of the EULA you need to agree to when you buy the book.

 

[The Little Raven]

Just trying to come up with an example that fit the lettering scheme. I think I did pretty well with a whole 5 seconds to think about it. Perhaps if I were writing some kind of book or something, I'd put more effort into my names.

Your opinion is wrong. You may believe that, but in the end, you're simply wrong.

(Turnabout is fair-play.)

 

[mach1.9pants]

My theory is that they've hired Eddie Adams (aka Dirk Diggler) to come up with names. Every time I hear a new name like 'shining tiger flourish' I think of that scene in the hot tub in which Eddie chooses his new name.

It is all related, WotC must be using 'fluffers'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluffer

 

[Doug McCrae]

They are kung fu style names, there's no denying it. Personally I like them. Part of the ongoing Asian influence on D&D which goes all the way back to the monk class in an OD&D supplement.

Blame Gary Gygax for kicking it off.

Actually if you look at the 1e naming conventions, they are all over the place. There's tons of spell names derived from C20 sci-fi or late C19 spiritualism, like ESP and teleport. Most of them don't sound medieval at all. The class titles are all over the shop too. Lama, the term for a 7th level cleric, is Tibetan. A fighter seems to become Greek at 6th level cause he's a myrmidon. But then he steps into the mid-20th century at 8th when he progresses to superhero. I have a strong feeling Gary got most of the class titles from a thesaurus.

Monsters and magic items are the same. Why do dinosaurs use their scientific names?

The only conclusion one can draw* is that all these names are for the use of the players of the game, not the inhabitants of the game world. Which means that practically everything would have to be renamed if you wanted to make a serious world out of it. Not just a place where you go down dungeons and kick the crap out of monsters and it doesn't matter what anything is called so long as it makes sense to the players.


*Apart from that Gary hadn't given it much thought and was just making everything up as he went along. Which can't possibly be true, right?

 

[mach1.9pants]

They are kung fu style names, there's no denying it. Personally I like them. Part of the ongoing Asian influence on D&D which goes all the way back to the monk class in an OD&D supplement.

Blame Gary Gygax for kicking it off.

Actually if you look at the 1e naming conventions, they are all over the place. There's tons of spell names derived from C20 sci-fi or late C19 spiritualism, like ESP and teleport. Most of them don't sound medieval at all. The class titles are all over the shop too. Lama, the term for a 7th level cleric, is Tibetan. A fighter seems to become Greek at 6th level cause he's a myrmidon. But then he steps into the mid-20th century at 8th when he progresses to superhero. I have a strong feeling Gary got most of the class titles from a thesaurus.
Monsters and magic items are the same. Why do dinosaurs use their scientific names?
The only conclusion one can draw* is that all these names are for the use of the players of the game, not the inhabitants of the game world. Which means that practically everything would have to be renamed if you wanted to make a serious world out of it. Not just a place where you go down dungeons and kick the crap out of monsters and it doesn't matter what anything is called so long as it makes sense to the players.

I like the names as well, for fluff (love fluff, see my previous post )but the core rules should have easy recognisable names that we can all remember, and the settings books could have a chart which gives them all their setting specific fluff names which you can use if you want.
As for the second half of your comment, yep 1E was all over the place but that doesn't mean 4E has to be!

 

[Shortman McLeod]

There is a pretty large percentage of the population that has suicidal tendencies. I'd be willing to bet all of my money that if you asked every person on earth whether they want to die, you would encounter more than one answer, even if you insist on yes/no.

And it would really depend HOW they would die. If you asked me if I want to die peacefully in my sleep after having an intense 10-hour session of sexual relations with a Swedish cheerleader, I might say YES. If you asked me if I want to die slowly and painfully from poisonous scorpions crawling up my rectum, I might say NO.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

No, but since you obviously feel passionate about whatever your discussing, I thought you could move it to an email conversation. Your email is listed on your profile, yes?

Maybe they should post their phone numbers and make it a long-distance telephone conversation!!!

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

If you asked me if I want to die slowly and painfully from poisonous scorpions crawling up my rectum, I might say NO.

What scares me here is the "might"...

*grins*

I am getting the feeling these names are an attempt to layer fluff into the crunch to make it harder to work the core rules for settings other than the WOTC produced settings. I hope its not true and I think its a bad idea but it does make it so that the settings they produce are the only ones you can use; which.... sells more books...

 

[Simplicity]

Your opinion is wrong. You may believe that, but in the end, you're simply wrong.

(Turnabout is fair-play.)

That's okay. I can be convinced otherwise.