Opinions on Gameworld Jargon

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12 comments, last by theOcelot 14 years, 1 month ago
Quote:Original post by JasRonq
what do you think of the situation when I make it up?

I think you should have a good reason for doing so.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

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Quote:Original post by Tom Sloper
Quote:Original post by JasRonq
what do you think of the situation when I make it up?
I think you should have a good reason for doing so.
One reason could be procedural generation/combination of weapons.

Diablo/rogue-likes tend to suffer from the problem of item proliferation, and I don't think that made-up names would be particularly less useful than "Erik the red's frozen fiery long-sword of imminent doom +5", for instance - just as long as you stick to some system of categorisation.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

Making up names for things is fine as long as players can figure out what you're saying by context. For example, use the terms "budaik spear" and "pira blade/pira dagger" in dialog, and in the inventory screen make sure the icons for the budaik and pira get the message across by themselves. This way, the made up names become transparent and serve only to add flavor to the game.
Quote:Original post by JasRonq
I'm not sure about the Budaik, Tom, but the Pira is a specific design of bladed weapon. The words in this example are historically accurate usage from a foreign, non-english speaking culture.

The Pira: Pira


That thing definitely needs its own name. It doesn't really look like a dagger at all, more like a small machete, and calling it by any other known name would just be confusing.

If you make sure that it's easy to figure out what the names mean either from context or people directly telling you (maybe put a picture next to the name all the time), and the names mean something, then go for it.

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