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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6709893" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Nah. I'd just do it for this one specific thing, because it's easily confused. Only create new terms when old terms are confusing--not before.</p><p></p><p>Also, my suggestion would not mean that these things would stop being "scrolls" generally. "Scrolls" would be a catch-all term for <em>anything</em> written on paper coiled around at least one rod. Within the category "scrolls," you could have things like <em>map scrolls</em>, which are generally (but not always!) non-magical items that simply depict a territory or relationship between objects in some way; <em>spell scrolls</em>, which are the recorded rites, symbols, and notes necessary for a particular kind of caster to cast, or learn, a spell (with subcategories for <em>divine</em>, <em>arcane</em>, etc.); <em>glyph scrolls</em>, which are "imbued" with the power of a spell such that all you have to do is say a command word and tear them (or something of that nature) to create that effect (much more expensive to make than mere spell scrolls!); <em>information scrolls</em> which contain written accounts of something (perhaps not factual!); <em>art scrolls</em> for things like calligraphic art, watercolors, or the like; etc.</p><p></p><p>Since there is no confusion about whether a <em>ring of invisibility</em> works similar to, or different from, a <em>ring of protection</em>, there is no need to employ anything more specific than "rings." However, if (for some reason) there <em>were</em> a confusion, I would probably recommend creating particular adjectives to separate them, e.g. "imbued" rings are rings which possess a castable spell effect, while "enchanted" rings are those which provide a constant, passive benefit. Alternative words could be used for either term; I selected "imbued" mostly to match my earlier description of "gylph scrolls" as being "imbued" with a spell effect that anyone could activate. But, like I said, I see no <em>need</em> for these extra terms, so I wouldn't actually use them myself. Since it's quite clear that I am not the only person who thinks it strange that the category term ("scroll") is the same as just one subcategory within it, there is a call for clearer terms.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I was assuming that not all of these items would need to be <em>protection</em> alone, and could in fact produce essentially <em>any</em> magical effect that isn't already a specific, well-defined spell. So you could have a "protection" <em>scroll of raining fire</em> (which would produce an effect similar to the spell Fire Storm or Flame Strike) and a "spell" scroll of <em>Protection from Poison</em> This is why having a clear, distinct term which doesn't specifically reference whether it is "protection" or not, but <u>does</u> make it clearly distinct from a "spell," would be useful.</p><p></p><p>Edit:</p><p>To give a real-world analogy, one <em>could</em> call all pictorial depictions of buildings "drawings." However, there is a distinct difference between <em>urban landscape drawings</em>, which are artistic in nature, and <em>architectural layout drawings</em>, which are created by draftsmen to facilitate precision construction. The former would be useful to anyone, if they wanted to see what the building would <em>look</em> like; the latter would be useless to most laypeople, as architectural drawings tend to be in 'exploded' and 'layered' views, but would be profoundly useful to an architect, burglar, engineer, or other (semi-)professional individual who could glean useful information from them. Then you'd also have several other categories of drawings, like figure sketches, anatomical drawings, cartoons...again, all of these things <em>could</em> simply be called "drawings" or "building drawings," but it is much more useful to have specific words, or as English is wont to do, specific noun-phrases or adjectives which single out a particular kind within the substantial category of "drawings."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 6709893, member: 6790260"] Nah. I'd just do it for this one specific thing, because it's easily confused. Only create new terms when old terms are confusing--not before. Also, my suggestion would not mean that these things would stop being "scrolls" generally. "Scrolls" would be a catch-all term for [I]anything[/I] written on paper coiled around at least one rod. Within the category "scrolls," you could have things like [I]map scrolls[/I], which are generally (but not always!) non-magical items that simply depict a territory or relationship between objects in some way; [I]spell scrolls[/I], which are the recorded rites, symbols, and notes necessary for a particular kind of caster to cast, or learn, a spell (with subcategories for [I]divine[/I], [I]arcane[/I], etc.); [I]glyph scrolls[/I], which are "imbued" with the power of a spell such that all you have to do is say a command word and tear them (or something of that nature) to create that effect (much more expensive to make than mere spell scrolls!); [I]information scrolls[/I] which contain written accounts of something (perhaps not factual!); [I]art scrolls[/I] for things like calligraphic art, watercolors, or the like; etc. Since there is no confusion about whether a [I]ring of invisibility[/I] works similar to, or different from, a [I]ring of protection[/I], there is no need to employ anything more specific than "rings." However, if (for some reason) there [I]were[/I] a confusion, I would probably recommend creating particular adjectives to separate them, e.g. "imbued" rings are rings which possess a castable spell effect, while "enchanted" rings are those which provide a constant, passive benefit. Alternative words could be used for either term; I selected "imbued" mostly to match my earlier description of "gylph scrolls" as being "imbued" with a spell effect that anyone could activate. But, like I said, I see no [I]need[/I] for these extra terms, so I wouldn't actually use them myself. Since it's quite clear that I am not the only person who thinks it strange that the category term ("scroll") is the same as just one subcategory within it, there is a call for clearer terms. I was assuming that not all of these items would need to be [I]protection[/I] alone, and could in fact produce essentially [I]any[/I] magical effect that isn't already a specific, well-defined spell. So you could have a "protection" [I]scroll of raining fire[/I] (which would produce an effect similar to the spell Fire Storm or Flame Strike) and a "spell" scroll of [I]Protection from Poison[/I] This is why having a clear, distinct term which doesn't specifically reference whether it is "protection" or not, but [U]does[/U] make it clearly distinct from a "spell," would be useful. Edit: To give a real-world analogy, one [I]could[/I] call all pictorial depictions of buildings "drawings." However, there is a distinct difference between [I]urban landscape drawings[/I], which are artistic in nature, and [I]architectural layout drawings[/I], which are created by draftsmen to facilitate precision construction. The former would be useful to anyone, if they wanted to see what the building would [I]look[/I] like; the latter would be useless to most laypeople, as architectural drawings tend to be in 'exploded' and 'layered' views, but would be profoundly useful to an architect, burglar, engineer, or other (semi-)professional individual who could glean useful information from them. Then you'd also have several other categories of drawings, like figure sketches, anatomical drawings, cartoons...again, all of these things [I]could[/I] simply be called "drawings" or "building drawings," but it is much more useful to have specific words, or as English is wont to do, specific noun-phrases or adjectives which single out a particular kind within the substantial category of "drawings." [/QUOTE]
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