When to throw Nish?

[Water Bob]

one more thing: Your attempts to have this term enter the vernacular by starting multiple threads with the word front-and-centre are a wee bit transparent. If you want to have it catch on, plant the seed, then stand back. If it grows, it grows. At this point, though, you may have over-watered it.

lol.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I expect part of the reaction runs hand in hand with rejection of the degradation of language that accompanies text messages and 140-character status updates.

U R so rite #mypants

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

lol.

Assuming that's the effect you were looking for of course... you might just be doing it because you like the reaction you're getting!

 

[Tamlyn]

But, shiit, if he uses the word "nish", God help him.

That's over the line.

On this we agree.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For whatever reason, it rubs me the wrong way too. I think it's that it's a bit precious, like when people say 'lock instead of warlock. If something sounds so nerdy that folks on a site like this instinctively want to beat you up and steal your lunch money, you've achieved something!

Many, many, many MMO players use "'lock," since being able to say something quickly via VOIP during raids is sometimes important.

So it's a more common offense, if it similarly offends you.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Many, many, many MMO players use "'lock," since being able to say something quickly via VOIP during raids is sometimes important.

So it's a more common offense, if it similarly offends you.

Can't say I know much about MMO raids. I see ''lock' on messageboards though, where typing something quickly is somewhat less of an issue. To each his own though.

 

[RainOfSteel]

It's part of the gaming vernacular.

It is a neologism.

When your first topic posted (the one from a couple of weeks ago), the title was clear and I clicked into it to read more. When I read the first post I was stumped. I realized you were replacing the word initiative with nish, but I could not figure out why.

I thought nish was an acronym or other common term that I was unfamiliar with and so I spent time Googling for nish, and I found nothing except for you here on EnWorld.

So, when I speak initiative, I use nish. It's a hell of a lot easier to type than the full word "initiative" or even the shorten "init" that you bring up.

I could suddenly start calling initiative tish or tive, or really mash it up and call it tellus, but nobody else would understand me. Because I'm realistic, I would expect others to have no idea what I was talking about if I used those terms in public.

 

[Quickleaf]

It's a moving target, at least for me. When we roll initiative depends on how much granularity we need, particularly when it comes to the players. Some of the unusual situations we've ha come up...

<snipped actually intelligent commentary>

What's this? A poster who gives the idiosyncrasies of the OP the benefit of the doubt? And tries to respond to the topic at face value?

WTH??

This Quickleaf is a totally pawnsy! He should go fetch some nish.

 

[Marius Delphus]

All I can think of is the lead ogre from "Ella Enchanted." For me, that totally destroys the term as a piece of serious gaming jargon. ("We just did this. Didn't we just do this?")

Reminds me of another limited-exposure neologism that isn't very neo... from the days when wizard/rogues were called magic-user/thieves. It was at a small regional con that I heard it, and it took a minute before I figured out what the word "mooth" referred to.

It's been 25 years, and I still can't get over how corny "mooth" sounds.

We roll initiative at the first sign combat is breaking out, whether it's actually making an attack or trying to prevent one. Pretty much exactly what several others have already said. If the question was serious, I'm not sure what can have prompted it, as I don't really see many alternatives that make sense.

 

[Beginning of the End]

When do you call for an initiative throw during a game session? When a character perceives danger and readies himself, as a gladiator walking into an arena? (The thinking being that combat is imminent, and neither combatant should be caught flat-footed).

End of the previous combat.

Addressing "nish": At our table we usually just say "initiative". We will sometimes say "in it". We will rarely say "ee-nish".

But "nish" is just silly. It doesn't follow any natural pattern of elision.