Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Importance of Definitions

I was struck last night by something one of my friends said when we were hanging out last night.

"You know, it wasn't until recently that I figured out what OSR meant, and I've been reading your blog for nearly 3 years. Now that I know what it means, I realize it defines the type of gamer i am."

Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees , or visa-versa.

OSR - Old School Renaissance, Old School Revival, Oh Shit! Run! - it referes to Old School Gaming. I post about it constantly, but I fear there are times we assume knowledge that isn't necessarily there for all of our readers.

As I say in the training classes I give at work - if you have a question, ask! I don't bite.  Most of my fellow bloggers don't bite. So ask.

And if someone asks you a legitimate question, don't respond with "I'm not your fucking research assistant!  Look it up yourself!" You're not helping. Your just an asshole. The world has enough assholes already.  BTW, the only Gaslight I know of is in Call of Chtuhlu and in my house (it was built in 105 and the old cas light fixtures are still in place in many rooms i disconnected from the gas line just so you know)

Sorry, got sidetracked there by the remains of a G+ conversation from earlier today.

Anyhow, just like an RPG usually has a glossary of useful definitions, so should our RPG hobby.


Heck, it might already be out there, but if it is, we need to make sure we point people to it.  If it isn't, we owe it to ourselves to make sure there is a readily accessible one. Constantly changing, constantly being updated, constantly helping those who might otherwise be afraid to ask.


Besides, it may just help the new 5e players that are coming back to gaming from any prior edition.  That whole Hit Die definition reworks is going to be one confusing smack down ;)


1 comment:

  1. Come to that, looking up the term stands a good chance of finding the commonly-accepted definition.

    Under the circumstances (yes, I read the thread) there's a very good chance that you don't want the commonly-accepted definition but the definition being used by the person using the word.

    ... damn is that a run on sentence, even for me.

    Anyway. I greatly expect, from having read the conversation, that the word was wrongly used, because it was actually counter to what the person was trying to say.

    On the other hand, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that people who misquote, misrepresent, and generally misunderstand (possibly deliberately) what others say can't use language properly.

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