Spreading the Cant

[Samloyal23]

I love the planar Cant and it just tickles me pink when someone who doesn't even know what D&D is uses it. To spread the influence of Planescape beyond our little niche market, I have been adding Cant words and phrases to the online slang dictionary at
Urban Dictionary. I remove any references to game terminology to disguise each word's origin so non-gamers won't get turned off, and just post the technical definition with a modern-day example of the word's use. Please help out, I'm only one man...

 

[Samloyal23]

So, any bloods out there check out the link I posted? Any thoughts on the use of planar Cant? Just wondering...

 

[Alan Shutko]

The cant is definitely one of the most polarizing things I've seen in D&D. The folks that love it really, really love it. The folks that hate is want it eradicated from the universe. I'm afraid I'm one of the latter.

 

[Dragoslav]

I discovered the planar cant when playing Planescape: Torment for the first time recently. At first I hated it, but it really grew on me.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I always thought it was weird how everyone in the entire multiverse speaks cockney rhyming slang* (and how TSR got away with publishing an entire product line that calls the reader a [c-word] every three pages).

*Disclaimer: I am not an expert on British dialects, but it feels weird to pronounce words like "berk" and "barmy" in my native California accent, and even weirder to affect a foreign one just to make use of some ill-fitting slang words. Besides, I already use cockney rhyming slang for thieves' cant.

 

[Samloyal23]

I always thought it was weird how everyone in the entire multiverse speaks cockney rhyming slang* (and how TSR got away with publishing an entire product line that calls the reader a [c-word] every three pages).

*Disclaimer: I am not an expert on British dialects, but it feels weird to pronounce words like "berk" and "barmy" in my native California accent, and even weirder to affect a foreign one just to make use of some ill-fitting slang words. Besides, I already use cockney rhyming slang for thieves' cant.

Half of planar cant was invented by knights of the cross-trade, so the comparison to thieves cant is intentional...

 

[Samloyal23]

I am always on the lookout for top-shelf additions to the Cant, so if you know any please lann me...

 

[lin_fusan]

I personally don't get the hate (or maybe I do, I just don't want to give up the argument for its use) for the Cant. It's no different than Kubrick/Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" and its Nadsat, or Welsh's novel Trainspotting with its phonetic English with Scottish accent.

 

[Samloyal23]

I think the main objection to everything in Planescape was that it required to much effort and planning. This was a setting for adults, not newbies...

 

[Alan Shutko]

I personally don't get the hate (or maybe I do, I just don't want to give up the argument for its use) for the Cant. It's no different than Kubrick/Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" and its Nadsat, or Welsh's novel Trainspotting with its phonetic English with Scottish accent.

Yeah, I don't like those either. Can't really explain it, but that's the way it is.