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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:39PM
#1
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2012
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For the love of Gygax, stop telling me how to play. Our playtest group finally advanced enough to start messing about with some of the higher level spells. And that's where I found this laughably awful bit of purple prose: " Ice storm
4th level evocation
You utter the words of this spell, cold and heavy in your mouth, describing a future where the world has ended and ice ceaselessly pummels the frozen landscape. As you finish, your breath steams as white as the hail of rock-hard ice that pounds down, pulverizing everything in reach of the small storm..."
Good grief.
I'd already been trying to stomach the bits of somatic nonsense. Burning Hands describes the shape of the wizard's fingers. Okay. But when the wizard casts Mage Armor, we're told "your stylized gestures recall the motions of a knight donning armor," and Spider Climb requires the mage to wriggle like an arachnid climbing her web. Bad enough. Worse were those bits of description which told our party wizard what she was supposed to be thinking: "You visualize the Elemental Plane of Fire," or "you imagine shining wires that hang the subject of your spell in the air."
I can see why it might, on occasion, be necessary to describe the effect of a spell for newbies who can't picture a Stinking Cloud. Okay. Telling the wizard how they have to move for the spell to work is stretching it. Telling them what to THINK is way beyond the line, and it needs to die, now. Whichever developer is under the false impression that he or she is the next Hemingway needs to shut up, grab an eraser, and remove these hideous bits of cheese from the game. This goes for descriptions of skills and maneuvers as well: let the PLAYERS play the game, not the DEVELOPERS. The writing is laughably bad, but worse, it robs the players of the opportunity to describe their own actions and characters' thoughts.
Note: this goes for "roles" too. Stop telling me how to play, damnit.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:41PM
#2
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It's like flavour text on a magic card :P Ignore it if you want.
I personally appreciate the fluff. It makes it feel more immersed than numbers listed on a page.
My two copper.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:44PM
#3
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Strip the fluff text, and someone will complain about "formulaic" descriptions. They can't win.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:45PM
#4
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Strip the fluff text, and someone will complain about "formulaic" descriptions. They can't win.
Lol, true dat.
My two copper.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:50PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 28, 2005
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For the love of Gygax, stop telling me how to play.
Maaaybe no the best name to invoke for this particular cause. ;-)
Anyway, some example flavor text is fine. The problem just comes with it gets conflated with the spell's actual immutable mechanics. What you have there is not part of the spell's "Effect" line, so it's no problem for me.
this goes for "roles" too. Stop telling me how to play, damnit.
Roles don't tell you how to play. They just help to make sure that you don't suck if you can't figure the rest out for yourself.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact I am the Unfailing Arbiter of All That Is Good Design (Even More So Than The Actual Developers) TMSpeaking of things that were badly designed, please check out this thread for my Minotaur fix. What have the critics said, you ask? "If any of my players ask to play a Minotaur, I'm definitely offering this as an alternative to the official version." - EmpactWB "If I ever feel like playing a Minotaur I'll know where to look!" - Undrave "WoTC if you are reading this - please take this guy's advice." - Ferol_Debtor_of_Torm "Really full of win. A minotaur that is actually attractive for more than just melee classes." - Cpt_Micha Also, check out my recent GENASI variant! If you've ever wished that your Fire Genasi could actually set stuff on fire, your Water Genasi could actually swim, or your Wind Genasi could at least glide, then look no further. Finally, check out my OPTIONS FOR EVERYONE article, an effort to give unique support to the races that WotC keeps forgetting about. Includes new racial feature options for the Changeling, Deva, Githzerai, Gnoll, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc, Kalashtar, Minotaur, Shadar-Kai, Thri-Kreen, Warforged and more!
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:53PM
#6
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2012
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It's like flavour text on a magic card :P Ignore it if you want.
No.
Two reasons:
1.) If its in the spell description, its in the spell description. If there's an official somatic position for casting Burning Hands, I can prevent the wizard from casting it by supergluing his palms togather. If the Wizard can move, but NOT enough to wiggle like they're putting on invisible pants, they can't cast Mage Armor. So it's not just flavor text.
2.) EVEN IF IT WERE, there is no way that in a role-playing game, the designers should be telling the players what their characters are thinking. EVER. It's the diametric opposite of role playing.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:53PM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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I dunno... I don't mind the fluff they provide. I figure at worst, it can provide inspiration on the fly for how you want to visualize what you want to do. At best, it can provide something you might not have thought of before. It's one of the reasons I want fluff heavy campaign books (and why I use my old Realms books for lore instead of newer.) I love tearing through lore and concepts to either snag or tinker with. Sure, the prose may seem a little goofy, but D&D's writing isn't supposed to be the greatest. If you want better prose, why not check out the D&D novels.
Disgruntled ghost of the Knights of W.T.F.
(Keep D&D alive, end the edition wars!)
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Disclaimer: Most of my posts are based on opinions (and are sometimes humorous, other times inspirational)
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:54PM
#8
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2012
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Roles don't tell you how to play. They just help to make sure that you don't suck if you can't figure the rest out for yourself.
They do to tell you how to play. For instance, in your case they seem to have made you think that one "sucks" if one plays outside of one's Class' assigned role.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:56PM
#9
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Wow buddy, you are getting waaaaay too technical with this. If your players seriously think they HAVE to think about X, and it's having a big enough impact on your game to cause this much outrage, then you have more than a problem with fluff text on your hands :P
How do you handle campaign setting material? It gives you all sorts of predetermined fluff.
My two copper.
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6 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 1:57PM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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Roles don't tell you how to play. They just help to make sure that you don't suck if you can't figure the rest out for yourself.
They do to tell you how to play. For instance, in your case they seem to have made you think that one "sucks" if one plays outside of one's Class' assigned role.
I'll kind of agree. When I was learning 4th ed a second time (Via Encounters and Essentials), roles tended to fluster me more than help me. YMMV of course. Sometimes, I broke out of said role and did just as fine as someone in said role! (In one session, I went from being a "leader" to controller, striker, and defender... as a Bard - Skald)
Disgruntled ghost of the Knights of W.T.F.
(Keep D&D alive, end the edition wars!)
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Disclaimer: Most of my posts are based on opinions (and are sometimes humorous, other times inspirational)
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