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<blockquote data-quote="Ciaran" data-source="post: 753259" data-attributes="member: 756">Hey Creamsteak,Here are some quick thoughts on the subject:While I may be misinterpreting what you say about things being &quot;useful in a literature sense,&quot; I'd like to state right up front that this isn't literature.&nbsp; This game has a simple set of criteria, and &quot;literary merit&quot; will always come in second to &quot;makes good use of the ingredients.&quot;&nbsp; And judges don't necessarily have either the time or the training for elaborate deconstruction of the text.&nbsp; I like to think that I'm facile with English, and I still don't see your use of &quot;rat&quot; as coming through from Sanctus' speech to Rathan.Subtlety and metaphor are good.&nbsp; Deliberate obscurantism is bad.&nbsp; If you twist away from using a word or its synonyms just because using it seems too easy or too obvious, you're handicapping yourself unnecessarily.&nbsp; For instance, when you used &quot;a simple stone watchtower&quot; in place of &quot;the palace of the Dragon Kings,&quot; you needlessly avoided the essence of the thing you were supposed to represent; palaces aren't watchtowers, and they are (almost by definition) not simple.The issue of &quot;rat style&quot; is a bit more complicated than you make out, since martial arts styles of the animal persuasion are supposed to be based on the movements of the animal in question, and thus you can describe your character's movements in a way that resembles the animal.&nbsp; This makes it fundamentally more viable than other &quot;cheesy&quot; word usages like &quot;My lackey, Rat Johnson, hits my opponent in the kneecaps.&quot;Magic-using characters have a fundamental advantage over non-magic-using characters in style matches, since it's always easier to, say, summon a giant rat or turn yourself into a rat than it is to move in a way that shouts out &quot;rat&quot; to the judge.&nbsp; Either the judge needs to give extra weight to non-magical moves (which have to work at integrating the keywords into the moves), or the fighters should agree on a magic-free duel to keep things even.- Eric</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ciaran, post: 753259, member: 756"] Hey Creamsteak, Here are some quick thoughts on the subject: While I may be misinterpreting what you say about things being "useful in a literature sense," I'd like to state right up front that this isn't literature. This game has a simple set of criteria, and "literary merit" will always come in second to "makes good use of the ingredients." And judges don't necessarily have either the time or the training for elaborate deconstruction of the text. I like to think that I'm facile with English, and I [i]still[/i] don't see your use of "rat" as coming through from Sanctus' speech to Rathan. Subtlety and metaphor are good. Deliberate obscurantism is bad. If you twist away from using a word or its synonyms just because using it seems too easy or too obvious, you're handicapping yourself unnecessarily. For instance, when you used "a simple stone watchtower" in place of "the palace of the Dragon Kings," you needlessly avoided the essence of the thing you were supposed to represent; palaces aren't watchtowers, and they are (almost by definition) not simple. The issue of "rat style" is a bit more complicated than you make out, since martial arts styles of the animal persuasion are supposed to be based on the movements of the animal in question, and thus you can describe your character's movements in a way that resembles the animal. This makes it fundamentally more viable than other "cheesy" word usages like "My lackey, Rat Johnson, hits my opponent in the kneecaps." Magic-using characters have a fundamental advantage over non-magic-using characters in style matches, since it's always easier to, say, summon a giant rat or turn yourself into a rat than it is to move in a way that shouts out "rat" to the judge. Either the judge needs to give extra weight to non-magical moves (which have to work at integrating the keywords into the moves), or the fighters should agree on a magic-free duel to keep things even. - Eric [/QUOTE]

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