WotC_Rodney: Trap Fun!

[Demigonis]

Tornado Strike implies something involving circular motion or something hitting all the foes around you (like Whirlwind Attack).

Tornado Strike is in fact a remarkably bad name. It would be bad enough if it were just some kind of cool-sounding ability that tells you nothing about what it does... but in this case the ability name actually misleads you as to what it does.

That's a tad judgmental for the actual information we have on hand.

 

[Ipissimus]

Why do I have this image of Rodney at some point doing a bad impression of Admiral Ackbar shouting "It's a trap!"

especially in light of him wanting to give Mon Cals in Saga Edition a racial ability of the same name

What was it called? "State the Bleeding Obvious"?

But that is a sweet combat example.

 

[Adso]

The roguew should be grateful the monster did not have dragons tail cut!!

On a more serious note, Rodney: Why are you not hammering away on the latest sourcebook for SAGA? Y'know, KOTOR guide? And I just got my starships of the galaxy delivered to day...my does it look sheek!! (can't wait to see the cover of kotor! Ihope its a lit lightsaber or something, would love to have a cover like that!)

He's not hammering away on it because it's basically...well...done. And by done, I mean written and through development. There's still playtesting...last minute changes, art, layout and all that stuff, but the majority of the R&D work is fin. I got to help him out with that book, now he gets to help me with some D&D...that's always the deal. I think I get the better end of that deal, personally.

I haven't seen the cover, but the play material IMO is pretty sweet.

 

[Adso]

No, it's not.

As pointed out by jmucchiello in this thread, Tornado Strike implies something involving circular motion or something hitting all the foes around you (like Whirlwind Attack).

Tornado Strike is in fact a remarkably bad name. It would be bad enough if it were just some kind of cool-sounding ability that tells you nothing about what it does... but in this case the ability name actually misleads you as to what it does.

Yeah, and tornado can also means something that throws you a fair distance. After a series of tornados there is always this story or that story about things and people being throw a far distance.

I don't always think that names of powers need to entirely describe exactly what they do and how they do it (which would lead to tremendously boring), especially when what they do is really in the eye of the beholder. We know, as folks who took enough science in school (or at saw Twister), that a tornado is a whirling circular moving force of air and that’s how it achieves its force. But that was probably only a vague recollection by people hiding from the billowing winds and mass of debris they were hiding from. To most people for a long time, tornado was just something that occasionally kicked your ass. They were more interested in the force than how it achieves it. I’ve been close to tornados a couple of times in my life, and my rationalization of how it achieves its force is not nearly as important of getting the hell away from it.

That’s the tradition of knowledge that the power was named after. It did a pretty good job of doing exactly that in my Castle Greyhawk game. I think a little allusion, a little poetics, and a little fun is definitely allowed when it comes to naming powers. I would hate for them all to be clinical.

 

[Protagonist]

That’s the tradition of knowledge that the power was named after. It did a pretty good job of doing exactly that in my Castle Greyhawk game. I think a little allusion, a little poetics, and a little fun is definitely allowed when it comes to naming powers. I would hate for them all to be clinical.

I fully agree! More evocative names, please!

 

[Joshua Randall]

I don't always think that names of powers need to entirely describe exactly what they do and how they do it (which would lead to tremendously boring)

So are you saying that existing 3e combat powers (feats) like Dodge, Power Attack, and Cleave are tremendously boringingly named? Because I find the names to be fine; and I know what they do without having to think about it.

We know, as folks who took enough science in school (or at saw Twister), that a tornado is a whirling circular moving force of air and that’s how it achieves its force. But that was probably only a vague recollection by people hiding from the billowing winds and mass of debris they were hiding from. To most people for a long time, tornado was just something that occasionally kicked your ass.

Seriously? That's your rationalization? I'm... underwhelmed, at best.

I think a little allusion, a little poetics, and a little fun is definitely allowed when it comes to naming powers. I would hate for them all to be clinical.

I would hate for them to all be so terribly clever that players have no idea what they mean without referring to the PH.

 

[Mad Mac]

I would hate for them to all be so terribly clever that players have no idea what they mean without referring to the PH.

Oh, I dunno. It probably took me about 5 seconds to link the name (Tornado Strike) with the effect. I don't see it as paticularly hard to remember.

Then again, I do play a lot of fighting video games, and Tornado-Anything moves tend to send people flying.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Dragon's Tail Cut was lame.
Emerald Frost and Golden Wyvern were unnecessary (and lame).
Tornado Strike? Well, it's a strike, and it hits you like a tornado. It doesn't imply membership in some kind of special Tornado organization. It doesn't sound awful, or like a wuxia technique.

Tentative approval from here. I generally hate what they've been naming things, so this is an improvement in my book. Baby steps toward the naming conventions not being a total embarrassment.

 

[Adso]

So are you saying that existing 3e combat powers (feats) like Dodge, Power Attack, and Cleave are tremendously boringingly named? Because I find the names to be fine; and I know what they do without having to think about it.

Yes, that's what I’m saying. Not only that, there are only so many simple names and phrases we can bat around. Let's see, dodge is taken, how about "duck,” “dart,” "shuffle to the side,” "get out of the way,” “evade.” Drat, we’ve already used that last one. I would also say that tornado strike is descriptive and evocative, so it is one of the places where we were able place a dead-simple description. You just seem to have issue with the particular set of things a tornado does that it’s describing.

Seriously? That's your rationalization? I'm... underwhelmed, at best.

Sorry. I'll try harder next time. Don't mind my snark here Joshua, it's harmless. Personally, I think it was a fine a decent rationalization, and I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree about the level of my whelming on this one. I think decent number of people will get what the power does without asking “where the heck’s the circular motion?”

I would hate for them to all be so terribly clever that players have no idea what they mean without referring to the PH.

I understand they're very simple names, and names help us remember, but there is nothing in those names that instantly tell us the particulars of their effect. You still have to look in the Player's Handbook. The title "Dodge" tells me that my character will be harder to hit if I take it, but I don't instantly apprehend the fact that it's a +1 dodge bonus against a single target that I designate during my turn. There're all sorts of ways that you could conceivably make it harder for you to hit with a dodge in D&D, and at some point (and usually multiple points when you're first starting to play the game) you're going to have to refer to the book to see what Dodge does exactly. We know it by heart now, because we’ve used it time after time after time.

I also think that we can have new and exciting names that may sing more to story than pure description, and that we can create a meaning through the game and their use. D&D has done that in the past and will continue to do it. Those types of names serve as mnemonic devices. You remember the story, you remember what it does. I can tell most of my friends something is a Kobayashi Maru, and they know the hopelessness of the situation we are in. The phrase without the story mean next to nothing (at least in English). In context, the words are concise and evocative, though they mean something entirely different from the loose Japanese translation.

This kind of name-game activity happens at game tables all the time. The game creates and evolves its own parlance constantly. Ask the typical person what a cantrip is, they’ll stare at you blankly. On the individual game group side ask my players what Volo’s Law is, and they will tell you without hesitation. Other D&D players will just stare at you blankly. I don't think the creation of this gaming parlance is avoidable or necessarily undesirable.

 

[hong]

So are you saying that existing 3e combat powers (feats) like Dodge, Power Attack, and Cleave are tremendously boringingly named? Because I find the names to be fine; and I know what they do without having to think about it.

Only because you've already had 8 years to think about it.

Tell me, what does "Expertise" do?