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<blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5048389" data-attributes="member: 23240">There are cases when using simple english is much better than making up your own words (or taking them from foreign languages) and there are cases when it is the other way around.If something may be precisely described by one or two english words, name it this way. You gain nothing by using exotic word here, and you create something the players have to memorize.Use new words for ideas that take long to explain in detail, or that carry unusual aspects of meaning, and at the same time are important for the setting. For example, if a race or culture has a strong tradition of children being brought up by different people that they biological parents, it's a good idea to name &quot;biological mom&quot;, &quot;biological dad&quot;, &quot;upbringing mom&quot; and &quot;upbringing dad&quot; using made up words, as it makes the concepts easier to communicate and less likely to cause confusion.I read several books that were heavy on author-created terminology and still were very good - but all of them used the rule mentioned above, of giving exotic names only to concepts important for the fiction and rarely if ever used IRL.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steenan, post: 5048389, member: 23240"] There are cases when using simple english is much better than making up your own words (or taking them from foreign languages) and there are cases when it is the other way around. If something may be precisely described by one or two english words, name it this way. You gain nothing by using exotic word here, and you create something the players have to memorize. Use new words for ideas that take long to explain in detail, or that carry unusual aspects of meaning, and at the same time are important for the setting. For example, if a race or culture has a strong tradition of children being brought up by different people that they biological parents, it's a good idea to name "biological mom", "biological dad", "upbringing mom" and "upbringing dad" using made up words, as it makes the concepts easier to communicate and less likely to cause confusion. I read several books that were heavy on author-created terminology and still were very good - but all of them used the rule mentioned above, of giving exotic names only to concepts important for the fiction and rarely if ever used IRL. [/QUOTE]

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