NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aaron L" data-source="post: 7590830" data-attributes="member: 926">I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to belittle anyone who plays D&D and doesn't understand where terms come from or what they're supposed to mean... but I do get irritated when the actual writers of the game clearly don't understand what they're writing about and end up misusing such terms.  If you're a professional writer, you should have a greater grasp of language and its use than the average person, and if there is any ambiguity in your mind about anything then you should absolutely do some basic research to understand the intent and meaning behind terminology used in older editions of the game which you are trying to adapt, especially when writing fantasy RPG books which are prone to academic, archaic, poetic, or medieval-esque use of language.  Plus, adherence to proper use of language and rules like that is very dear to my heart.  I am actually currently undergoing evaluation by a neurologist who my family doctor put me in contact with to determine whether or not I qualify for a diagnosis as being on the low end of the Autistic spectrum, but having just turned 43 it isn't quite as simple as it would be for a child... and all the signs are pointing to "yes, definitely."  Had our current levels of awareness of the condition been common when I was a child back in the late '70s/early '80s I am 99% certain that it would have been quickly caught back then, but as it was I was just diagnosed with ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, clinical depression, and social anxiety disorder, and had to endure many, many social struggles because I was never able to fit in or really understand how people acted; trying to interact with other people always felt like I was observing strange creatures through a glass wall, creatures I could never quite comprehend.  It's not that I'm not looking for a diagnosis for any real specific reason, but rather just for the sake of knowing and having a label to attach to all the problems I've had throughout my life, and to be able to have a name to give people to hopefully help them to understand when I act oddly.So, if I offended anyone or came across as being a condescending jerk, sincerely I apologize; such was not my intention.  I was just feeling frustrated by a misuse of terminology that had seeped into common (mis)use over the years.  And while it may not seem like a big deal to many, when the meanings of terms like school and college and the like are misunderstood and misused it can seriously distort the intention of the original writers.  I'm not saying that every player of D&D should study up on the old stories that inspired the game, but certainly the actual writers of the current game should make an effort to read them and understand where the tropes and themes of the game came from, and to understand how the language and terminology was used.  That way they could explain ideas in the text like, for example, the term Bardic College doesn't actually refer to a university where Bard's go to be trained, but rather it refers to a social/professional association of like-minded Bards with similar skill sets.</blockquote>

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