Lament for the Elves

[Bêthberry]

Dear Helen and All,

Ummm, I don't think the point here is to make "sweeping edits" as Helen so names the activity. Will Witfoot offerred to make certain edits, but there has not been a large hue and cry for major reworking of any games. That was certainly not my suggestion. Nor do I think we need to set up a prescribed list of "canonical insults."

Perhaps this link which Aylwen Dreamson provided for the Rohan thread on RPG resources will be helpful in suggesting how to address the issue which Aylwen described by saying, "you can't rightly call another character a name from these days, can you? "

Elizabethan Insults


My point was merely to suggest that people think a little about aspects of language such as tone, modernity, connotations, style, etc. And in the process to point to some of the qualities of writing which distinguish the different RPG fora we have here.

Really, I think SaucepanMan said it best when he commented

But rather because they (or at least some of them) are modern phrases and terms of construction such that I would not imagine denizens of Middle-earth using. But I suppose it is no worse than film Gimli calling film Legolas a "pointy-eared Elf" or referring to an Orc's central nervous system.