Showing posts with label Pathfinder RPG. Show all posts
The Magic of a Name
What's in a name...
So typically when you read a lot of fantasy novels especially those with Elves, Dwarves, and Werebears (oh my!) you tend to come across some odd naming conventions out there. You find things like this little gem I made where the name is designed to be ridiculous so that its unique. Now most people would simply break up the word and say the sword's name is Tal-ganz-fik-narf, but lets say I am one of those authors that really want to through a wrench in the works. Say its an Elven sword and in the Elven/Elvish language for this word maybe I have special rules like you only pronounce the consonants after vowels with the exception of z, which is always said and sounds like a hard S. So now its al-anS-ik-ar. Then the reader has to ask why all the other letters? No explanation given. Either way you get my point. Sometimes naming things and characters can be the hardest part about playing a game like D&D. A bad name can instantly detour a person from your game, I know for me if I feel like I cant say the vast majority of names of locations in a setting I usually put the book down immediately. So this time I am talking about some handy tips for naming things in your game.
Character Names
I usually look to real world names as a good source for humans and their half-breeds. This can also be used if you are saying that your Dwarven Culture has a Tibetan feel to it. You can reinforce the campaign setting by picking a name that is appropriate, or in the case of a foreigner, picking a name that is appropriate for you people but will stand out here. I tend to use the same website for every character I make simply because I like the interface, 20000-names. For more exotic races I will often look at the suggestions in the book and build something similar, or if they seem too complex perhaps try a common name your friends would use and a formal name that would match your race. Its not uncommon to have nicknames among friends.
Here is a short checklist I do to make sure I like the name:
- If you are a player work with the GM to find an appropriate style name if things are not "per the book" exactly.
- Can I say the name without having to put a lot of thought into it?
- Can others figure out my characters name by just hearing it? (especially if your game is going on YouTube.)
- What does your name mean? ( I like to make character's name be a reflection of my RP for that character.)
- Is your name very close to another characters? (for ease of everyone at the table I recommend against having similar or same names, it would be realistic to have two Chris' as characters in your story but it can be confusing, if you do go that route use last initial as you do in the real world)
- Found a good name? Good. Sleep on it, do something else, come back in an hour... Do you still like it, because you may have to use that name for the next six months?
Making Language Matter
If you do have a unique guide to the way things are said in a language it might not matter too much in game play beyond names so make it work. If you use the Elven Sword idea then you have to build a strong pronunciation guide make it publicly aware. You players should have a reference they can call on, but it should be more well defined than what I presented earlier. The guide I gave did not let the reader understand the choice of letters used. Perhaps in the Elven language they have a letter that would be "Ta" and another the is "l" now it makes more sense where that came from. Don't just put apostrophes in to break up a world, give them reason too. Maybe the word for sword is "Tal" and the apostrophe is the short hand equivalent to "of," so now its Sword of... Giving the weapon a name that matters and a easy alternative to use for the players. Unless they really like calling it "al-anS-ik-ar," which luckily isn't that hard to say, but it could be worse. Another tip is if you do have special letters like a sideways P with a christian cross superimposed on it always have the pronunciation written down near it, and spell out the things name so your players know if its something they will have to come back to in a later game or you have a note taker in your party.Consistency
The important thing when playing with language is to establish rules. If you happen to be an native English speaker don't model it after English, way too many contradicting rules. Keep it simple. The more consistent you are with your naming conventions and language rules the easier it will be for players to buy into your story. Plus when someone comes along with a really strange name like Charles in a Korean themed Elf game its going to be weird, in fact they may say his name with their pronunciation at first if he writes it for them, so "ar-es." This can be fun if you want to try a traditional exploration into a foreign land campaign. You could teach the players the language rules while also teaching the characters. For a great example of the kind of thing check out the first season of the History Channel's Vikings, they learn English as the story goes, but it is a strange tongue to them. If you have the ability to I would suggest making up little rules and following them about the language, but only provide a translation to the player with that language. That may be a lot of work but it could be a vary interesting game, especially if you only have to worry about one or two languages in the game.Background Notes and Pathfinder RPG
So I have given it some thought now, and I would like to assume that if you are here looking at this blog then you have some level of understanding of what an RPG is. As such, I will not post about past editions and I will try to stay with systems that are still in print or still available. This will include systems that are downloadable to the general public, through legitimate (and legal) venues. I am not condoning the illegal download of any published material.
Down to the nitty-gritty of it. To understand if my views are even valid to you, I will give you a brief rundown of the kind of player and Game Master I am. Generally I lean more toward the "role" play aspect of games rather than the "roll" play. Meaning I am less concerned over how awesome mechanically a character can be or how much damage he can put out per round. Instead, I am more interested in the character as a character. The idea of the game is to play someone in a fantasy setting who, like yourself, has a background before the adventure begins. They have hopes and dreams, families and friends. All of this is good for great story. I am bound to remember the story of how my character grew as a monk and a person on his journey of self exploration, rather than how much damage I could dish out. I take feats and skill to reflect the character rather than to be the best at one particular thing. In general, I like skills focused systems better than level based systems as they often more accurately show slow growth of a character. I just find the sudden bursts of improved power to be a bit much. As a general I like a more conservative magic system, and items that benefit the players strengths in obvious and not so obvious way. I enjoy monsters and challenges that make sense for the story, not just to challenge players mechanically. If an innkeeper has locks, I think about what he could afford and let that dictate the lock types and DC's same with traps and dungeons. As such, I have a table of very ingenuity players that, when asked to write personal backgrounds, they excel and are very good with story, so I let them direct the adventure path. I write worlds and stories personalized to my players, not adventure arcs and this seems to fit use nicely.
As such we have tried many systems, we have our favorites and others that we just don't want to play ever again. We do mainly find ourselves going back to Pathfinder RPG by Paizo, mainly since we all grew up with Dungeons & Dragons, but do not like 4th edition. The system is great but I feel that there are a few things that are negative about the system, when it comes to my style of gaming. Skill DC are of particular interest to me. They seem to just be unchanging as a whole. With just a few levels, average locks to a rogue are useless. If the owner of the locked object does not posses the money for good locks and spells to protect the object then it wont be much of a challenge. This is fine in the average situation, but in dungeons locks are on most doors and how much money did the past owner put into the once great keep? If there are traps who would have made them and again the expense that goes into them. Thinking of them as a DC that is hard for them to beat sometimes is not the best way to think of it. Just because you have a fire mage in the party doesn't mean that you should fight back with a fire proof monster, because it is hard it should be part of the story. I also don't care much for experience for kills systems, as it tends to promote reckless behavior and killing that is not always needed. Pathfinder is designed to be a kill for experience system, and it could be modified to meet a story/game experience using static numbers. I have played with a DM that did this and the story actually improved drastically, when players didn't mercilessly kill everything that was in sight. I also have issues with the idea of Hit Point. They seem a bit obscure and I prefer the use of the variant rules of "Wound/Vigor" and "Armor as DR" (both found in Ultimate Combat). I do find that one of Pathfinder's strongest points is the Archetypes and Classes they re-worked from the older D&D 3.5 rule set, to make they viable without the need to take prestige classes.
Pathfinder RPG Overall:
Pros:
- Classes are well written with many alternative rule sets to support various types of players.
- The lore of the Pathfinder established world of Golarion has extensive lore with histories, kingdoms, heroes, and more.
- The magic system was rethought and expanded to includes many concepts, that are unique to this system adding a bit of charm not found anywhere else.
- The system is very easy to teach
Cons:
- 3rd Level Spells become drastically more powerful in terms of damage, but instead become less useful for utility reasons. This is more of an arcane magic complaint as divine magic seems to be a bit more even across the board.
- Leveling is a bit faster than I would like even with the slower progression XP chart, you wont be spending 8 months to get to level 10, so it pushes the story a bit.
- After sometime your characters become almost too powerful, even if they have no magic items. They get to the point that after only a round they kill the giant monster that is 4 to five CR higher than then with little damage taken at all.
- Static Defenses, as you become better at fighting you become better at avoiding hits and learn how to take them. Some argue that this is what Hit Point represent but I just don't like that defense don't improve much after level 1 (monks excluded) and I think that Hit Points should instead be static or at least be harder to improve.
All that said, Pathfinder has served as a great system for my table's fantasy games and continues to impress us as a whole. I understand that all systems will have its pros and cons. I am just looking for one that fits us better as a whole.
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