Two last comments on Sean's rant

[seankreynolds]

Hi, just two responses to things people said in the last thread (I'm ignoring the personal attacks because the opinions of those people have no value to me).

SonOfLilith said:
Also, he proved himself wrong in his own rant. He said game terms are capitalized (Large instead of large.) All his examples of "enshantment" were lower case, which, by his own definision, means they are adjectives, and not game related.

Actually, I said "Game-term sizes are always printed with a capital letter...." I didn't say "all game terms, I was specifically referring to the size category creatures.

Green Knight wrote:
Glad someone mentioned the word "actress". I guess in SKR's world the word "actress" would
be stricken from the english lexicon. Hell, while we're at it let's strike "brother" and "sister"
from the language, and verbally abuse anyone who uses those words instead of the word
"sibling".

Actually, I have a female friend who prefers to be called an actor, not an actress. And my sister and I refer to each other as "sibling" when we talk to each other, but that's just because we're weird.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, I said "Game-term sizes are always printed with a capital letter...." I didn't say "all game terms, I was specifically referring to the size category creatures.

That's the real problem here, though. The game-terms are also English words with a rich history both in fantasy and without all their own, and co-opting them to serve as game terms makes the issue problematic. If you always capitalized, or italicised game-terms, that would solve the problem, as would using slightly more esoteric terminology instead of general use words.

Actually, I have a female friend who prefers to be called an actor, not an actress. And my sister and I refer to each other as "sibling" when we talk to each other, but that's just because we're weird.

Isn't that the same point all of the personal attacks were making?

 

[Pielorinho]

I do appreciate your adding in the clarifying sentences, Sean. I just reread the rant, and it sounds perfectly reasonable to me now.

Daniel

 

[Davelozzi]

** Yes, the 3rd edition D&D Player's Handbook is abbreviated "PH," not "PHB." There are only two words in the book's title, and neither starts with "B," and there are no other books in the line that have the abbreviation "PH," so there is no reason to call the "PH" the "PHB."

What about the Psionics Handbook?

 

[Jasperak]

Thank you Sean for clearing all of this up. Now I can have my tea and cookies, biscuits, or whatever they're called now in peace.

 

[Berandor]

Psionics Handbook is PsiH, afaik.

But I just wanted to say that with the amendment that the rant is just directed at game designers, I now agree with what's written.

Ha-rumph,
Berandor

 

[Davelozzi]

Psionics Handbook is PsiH, afaik.

But I just wanted to say that with the amendment that the rant is just directed at game designers, I now agree with what's written.

Yeah, I agree that the revised rant is fine, I just couldn't resist a little teasing, hence the .

But seriously, is there somewhere where official abbreviations for the books are listed? If so, I've missed it, but if not, the same logic that would lead one to abbreviate the Player's Handbook as "PH" should lead to the same abbreviation for the Psionics Handbook.

Of course, I'm just making an obvious point for the sake of the argument but I agree that "PsiH" is indeed better for the sake of clarity.

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

Good. With this out of the way could we please return to the tea and cookies discussion?

 

[Davelozzi]

Sure... more tea, please.

 

[Zappo]

...incidentally, vBullettin can support ultra long threads with thousands of pages just fine. No need to close them.