What does RAW mean?

[atom crash]

Really Annoying Webspeak


Pretty soon we will only type in acronyms.

So true. Mark this one down as one of my pet peeves. It annoys me to no end. In a discussion about crafting magical shirts with armor bonuses, the Craft Magical Arms & Armor feat was referred to as CMA&A. Fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Armor bonus becomes AB. Whirlwind Attack is commonly WWA. Sneak Attack becomes SA. Nobody ever writes Attack of Opportunity anymore (even a player in my sit-down game the other night said "AoO"). Somebody in the warforged thread referred to them a few times as WF. Cuz it's so durn hard to cut and paste the term in a post. Or heaven forbid, type it out again.

Does everything have to be an acronym? Crazy, I tell ya.

IYKWIMAIBYD

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. Carry on.

 

[RuminDange]

It's the opposite. It means, that it is exactly like that, if you strictly follow the rules as they are written.

It nowhere says, that this should be done, or that it is the most reasonable approach, it is just a term to say how the rules work precisely, and it's up to anyone to decide whether this is how he or she will run it or not (-> houserules).

The RAW are often stupid, but they are still the RAW.

Bye
Thanee

Maybe I'd agree and call them rules if and only if the so-called "rules" were not stupid at times, and there was no room for interpretation as to how a "rule" applied given a situation. In the case of a RPG a "rule" can only be a guideline because the playing field, i.e. the players imagination, is unlimited in scope and unbounded, and given such a large set of possibilities any such “rules” would stifle play with the all to famous response “no, you can’t do that.” Instead of setting the DC or deciding the response or outcome.

When you have a limited playing field with set boundaries, with set actions available then you can have rules, you might need a third party to oversee the enforcement of such rules but it is not required in some cases. In the case of the RPG the DM is a player not an unbiased third party to judge.

Your opinion may vary and I respect that, but to me the books are filled with guidelines and ideas that are based off of the writer’s house rules during play testing. Granted it gives all of us a common ground in which to start and refer to but how anything is interpreted, used, ignored, or changed it on a case-by-case basis.

RD

 

[Thanee]

But the question is what the term "RAW" stands for, not what a rule is or should be.

Saying "By the RAW..." basically means "That's how it's written, as stupid as it might be."

Bye
Thanee

 

[RuminDange]

But the question is what the term "RAW" stands for, not what a rule is or should be.

Saying "By the RAW..." basically means "That's how it's written, as stupid as it might be."

Bye
Thanee

True and that is what I initially responded with and then my opinion as to what they should be referred to as. Call it a pet peeve.

It could be said "by the GAW..." without any change to the purpose, and without anyone feeling that what is written is absolute or that they have done something wrong with their interpretation of what is written.


RD

 

[Thanee]

There's a fundamental difference between...
"The rules (as written) work like this." and "You have to play it like this."

Bye
Thanee

 

[Turjan]

Pfffft...

Everyone knows that it means Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk !

 

[Hypersmurf]

In a discussion about crafting magical shirts with armor bonuses, the Craft Magical Arms & Armor feat was referred to as CMA&A.

Heh. That was me, from memory.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

You know, all those acronyms are just to save disk space...

Bye
Thanee

 

[-Warlord-]

RAW is a reference to “Rules” As Written, but should be Guidelines As Written as nothing about the game is written in stone that it cannot be changed, ignored or modified to suit the players of the game.

And a document with the guidelines as written would be refered to as GAWD?

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Robots Against Wonderboys - my new campaign setting