Stop Combining Words in RPGs! - Let English prevail

[lin_fusan]

What I really want to know is what the heck is the Shadowdark? Is it next to Lightdim? Or perhaps above Brightnot?

These guys say it better than I can:

Penny Arcade! - In Search Of A Robust Cosmology

 

[Pbartender]

"Do these boots, high, hard make me look fat?"

♬♩♬♫♪♫
These boots, high, hard are made for walking...
♫♪♩♫♪♬

 

[Mark]

♬♩♬♫♪♫
These boots, high, hard are made for walking...
♫♪♩♫♪♬

Funny you should join this thread on combining words, seeing as you work at the participle-collider.

 

[Katemare]

So, "greataxe" and "longsword" aren't valid words? Being non-native speaker, I learned from D&D that they are. "Hey", I thought, "it must be that English people heavily used or encountered specifically long swords and great axes, thats why they have separate words for them." Gotta double check that now.

Actually, what really sets me off is names like "cacklefiend hellsworn". Not only it's too complex for the sole reason of eXtreme, it doesn't give much information about the monster. It doesn't sound natural ("help, cacklefiend hellsworn of Wyrmbeast are coming!") and doesn't translate well, too. I just hate seeing this cliche of WoW in D&D.

 

[rounser]

That's "slime, green" to you!

Rules question: How much does a "Canard, embiggened" cost? And can my thief use it in a backstab?

It sounds like either a duck, or a polearm. Maybe both.

 

[rounser]

"Do these boots, high, hard make me look fat?"

AD&D to BECMI conversion: "Do these boots, swash-topped make me look fat?"

I googled "swash-topped boots" images to find out what they looked like.

The only meaningful result was a picture of Wonder Woman.

 

[Starfox]

This reminds me of the German Bundeswehr method of categorizing items, which (exaggerated) looks like this:
Trap, rodent, small, gray - Mousetrap.

My favorite military shorthand in Swedish is GRD-man, which is (or used to be) short for grodman (frog man or scuba diver). Zero characters saved!

 

[Starfox]

Which often changes their meaning entirely, so it's not unimportant. (Compare 'sjuksköterska' (a nurse for the sick) and 'sjuk sköterska' (a nurse who is sick).)

Another favorite;

Rök Fritt (smoke as much as you like)
Rökfritt (non-smoking)

And would you believe how often this is spelled wrong?

 

[TerraDave]

These are words:

Longbow
Broadsword
Chainmail

These are words sometimes used in specialty sources:

Longsword
Poleaxe
Platemail

As for place names, there is:

Newcastle

I am sure this is adequate precedent. For anything. Like hardboots. (the “high-“ before is optional).

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Which often changes their meaning entirely, so it's not unimportant. (Compare 'sjuksköterska' (a nurse for the sick) and 'sjuk sköterska' (a nurse who is sick).)

I believe that's the real point of having a Greataxe vs. a Great Axe. A Greataxe is a specific D&D weapon. A Great Axe is any axe that is superior to the average axe.

Actually, what really sets me off is names like "cacklefiend hellsworn". Not only it's too complex for the sole reason of eXtreme, it doesn't give much information about the monster. It doesn't sound natural ("help, cacklefiend hellsworn of Wyrmbeast are coming!") and doesn't translate well, too. I just hate seeing this cliche of WoW in D&D.

This has occurred to allow for multiple variations of the same creature. I geuss they could having gone with a Cackling Hellsworn, but they decided Cacklefiend gave their creation more identity. I think this was most important for low-level humanoid races. Not much differentiated 1st-Edition orcs from one another except their armor, weapons and hit dice (and the occasional shaman). I'm having fun converting 1E modules to 4E by changing up the variety of creatures.

As to the OP: English is ever-changing. New words are added on a constant basis. Hanging on to the old rules just makes you a Language Grognard. Not that there's anything wrong with that.