Pathfinder 2E Paizo drops use of the word phylactery

[Irlo]

Seems like much ado about nothing. Making words off limits is dumb.

No one is making words off limits. Paizo isn't preventing (or trying to prevent) anyone from saying or writing "phylactery." It's an editorial choice.

 

[embee]

Not fond of soul cage either. Are they imprisoning their own soul? I suppose they're kind of keeping it from escaping to the afterlife. Soul vessel or even soul jar work better for me than soul cage.

On behalf of Dave Pirner, have you considered "Soul Asylum"?

 

[S'mon]

some have pointed out that using the word seems problematic<<

Has anyone claimed to be offended or harmed by liches having phylacteries prior to the announcement? Use of religious terminology can be offensive, but I would think that if this one was considered offensive it would have been stated by some one some time in the past 45 years.

 

[dave2008]

Nice! But I’m just not digging either term. I think the old one needs dropping from this use but dang I wish there was another that is usable.

Yes, I would rather a new word be made for the item than a description (like soul cage / vessel). Though I do not personally mind the current word either.

 

[billd91]

On behalf of Dave Pirner, have you considered "Soul Asylum"?

No, but I have seen them perform live in a small venue. They put on a good show.

 

[embee]

Has anyone claimed to be offended or harmed by liches having phylacteries prior to the announcement? Use of religious terminology can be offensive, but I would think that if this one was considered offensive it would have been stated by some one some time in the past 45 years.

Personally, as a Jew, I'm not. It's not at the same level as, say, stat-ting up Moses as a wizard or something.

While it's a good gesture, I feel like it should be taken in context with the allegations from September of a hostile workplace and sexual harassment (which, again, are allegations and not admitted facts).

At the end of the day, Paizo is a corporation that exists in a marketplace that is dominated by the 800 lb. gorilla that is WOTC. Paizo needs goodwill (a positive opinion of its brand/company among the buying public) to survive and thrive.

To clarify what I am saying, I do not think this is "virtue-signaling" or whatever synonym others may choose to use. But events don't exist in a vacuum.

Ultimately, it's a positive move, one that, taken with their decision two weeks ago to recognize the Paizo Union, will likely help burnish the company's image.

Good on them!

 

[embee]

No, but I have seen them perform live in a small venue. They put on a good show.

I haven't seen them play in over a quarter century. IIRC, I saw them either at Bowery Ballroom or Roseland.

Back in the 90's, when music was good and not all this Tik-Tok algorithm stuff with the Cardi B and the Kanye and the Eddie Sheerin.

GET OFFA MY LAWN, YA LOUSY KIDS!

 

[billd91]

I haven't seen them play in over a quarter century. IIRC, I saw them either at Bowery Ballroom or Roseland.

In my case, it was in either 1990 or 1991 on the Beloit College campus on a little patio behind the 609 Emerson dorm. There was a muddy mosh pit right in front of them packed with drunk college students celebrating Spring Day.

 

[Cadence]

"I mean, sure, there's a group of people who systematically had one of the worst things happen to them, in part fed into by a long history of inane stories associating them with evil, and some of that group that survived the worst are still alive today, and there's other folks - including politicians - who even now regularly play on those tropes with no regard to the fact that over 50% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the US target them (even though this group is a tiny percent of the country), and now with D&D more popular than ever someone noticed that we use a word associated with their religion for a monster's power source... but I don't want the publisher to use a different word for that monster and handful of magic items. I mean, next they'll want the publishers to stop portraying chattel slavery, racism, and for-profit-genocide as potentially non-bad things. And then folks will start looking at me like maybe I should too, and I just want to have fun."

 

[Blue Orange]

Personally, as a Jew, I'm not. It's not at the same level as, say, stat-ting up Moses as a wizard or something.

BTW, Green Ronin did that in 2003 in Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. "In the world of Testament, Moses is listed as a 3rd-level paladin/7th level Levite priest/10th-level prophet of the Lord." It has Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

I'm not offended (Jews disagreeing on something? Naah), but I can see how people would be. I think it was too obscure to raise much of a fuss at the time--the Orthodox wouldn't be familiar with D&D, the Conservative branches might try to use it as a tool to get kids interested in Judaism, and the Reform branches would do the same but complain about representation. Nowadays everyone has bigger worries.

Fantasy Wargaming had stats for the saints and even the Virgin Mary, but that was obscure as heck.