Common Sense Corner

[yamina-chan]

The issue does not lie in killing a character, it's in how it is done.
Having a character die is not the same as kiling a character off.

[kyonides]

So you would prefer that the story writers would come up with something more like Terra from FFVI (spoilers coming up next) who suffered amnesia and refused to fight because she had people to take care of. Of course she later rejoins the party after her transformation got stable and so on but this could be also done with temporary characters.

What I don't understand is why temps don't lose confidence or just stop fighting because they made a terrible mistake that haunts them like ghosts in the dark. It could also happen due to the temp being disappointed by the party leader's choices or lack of leadership skills.

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

Discussions on Stupid Trendy Names

I think it's about time to revive this thread, don't you think? 

OH, GREAT SERGEANT BANANATURK! I SUMMON THEE AND COMMAND THEE TO REVIVE THIS THREAD!!!

...Did it work?   

Alrighty, let's get down to business.

Common Sense business! 

Why does everything have to have Death, Doom, or Neo in front of it?


Death Maid! Deathcycle! Deathwheels! Deathcopter! Deathplane! Death Warrior! Death Corps! Death Potion! 
These are real examples that, in my opinion, totally kill the whole concept of Death in your game. A random soldier being called a "Death Soldier" that dies in 1 or 2 hits doesn't feel very threatening.   

Also, who calls their military corps "Death Corps" and pretend it's for peace? And who actually believes that? 
Imagine the conversation with an NPC: "The Death Corps are protecting us! I mean, they burnt down 2 completely innocent villages to the South, killing everyone in sight, but they're such nice people!"
Might as well call them "Badguymurderyhomicidegenocideinnocentslayer Corps" 


And "Neo" means new. What's new about the monster or person you're calling Neo? You gave it a palette swap without any explanation? Is it really new, or are you just naming it "Neo" because it sounds cool to have an enemy named "Neo Doomcycle of Deathy Doom Warrior"?


Now, "Neo" also means a revived form of something, but slapping Neo into the front of every monster towards the end gets weird-- ESPECIALLY if there's no explanation as to why they're supposed to be new, or if they're revived. 

There are ways you can do these things right, which should be common sense as well... I'll leave the creativity up to you, though. 

Neo Emus! Neo Bananas! Neo Turtles! Neo Water Bottles!
...You're still here?
*Sneaks away*

[DerVVulfman]

Yarg. Makes me think how bad our advertisements and brandings have gone. Xplode. Xtreme. MegaMillions. MegaGroup. MegaWhutzis. And now Uber... just as Uber? It's as if, we need to establish something is big, just for the sake of saying it is the next big thing. The only thing doing the opposite would be anything with the prefix MICRO in place.

And I guess it's a good thing one of my friends changed his username from his 'Neo' based nom de voyage.

Hey, can I ask a question???

You're born and raised on an alien planet. Your friend is hurt bad. You throw up a 'Phoenix Down' to cure your friend.... HOLD UP!!!! You're on an alien planet, so how the heck do you know what a Phoenix is? I may be appearing a bit critical of a particular Square franchise, but does anyone know enough of the Hindu Pantheon to know who Shiva or Bahamut are, let alone what an Ifrit is? No, I do not wish to get into a religious debate. But it does seem extremely out-of-place to use in a setting where none of the religious practices ever took place.

If you want to make a skill or summons, at least let it make sense for your game setting. Heck, doublecheck your items too. I mean, don't have a Colt .44 show up in a steampunk game if Samuel Colt wasn't even born.

Oh... and the 'Peace Corps' was already taken.

[Taylor]

If you're going to make up new words instead of simply borrowing them from classical mythos (usually the themes too) you better hope they're reasonably good terms.

I mean, people complained about FFXIII's made up words sounding nonsense and without explanation, iirc.

But it does seem extremely out-of-place to use in a setting where none of the religious practices ever took place.

I'm sort of trying to do something like this myself - a location borrowing the name from one myth has its own myth in setting, one which is thematically similar.

[kyonides]

But wouldn't it mean that at some point before or right at the item purchase the player should have learned about that myth so they can connect the dots and thus start recalling your new weapon or item is a gun or a potion or anything else related to that specific myth? If so that would force you to spend a lot of time adding such content to your game that at the end would be even more non sensical than just naming them after things and myths people can find anywhere on books or all over the internet. I mean it, people would just get totally lost and hitting their heads against the wall or the table trying to figure out what the hell that item was supposed to be or to represent in such world. OK, most people would just be lazy enough that they would just skip all the mythos and would go straight forward to kill the monsters and the bossy badasses.

[Ahzoh]

But wouldn't it mean that at some point before or right at the item purchase the player should have learned about that myth so they can connect the dots and thus start recalling your new weapon or item is a gun or a potion or anything else related to that specific myth? If so that would force you to spend a lot of time adding such content to your game that at the end would be even more non sensical than just naming them after things and myths people can find anywhere on books or all over the internet. I mean it, people would just get totally lost and hitting their heads against the wall or the table trying to figure out what the hell that item was supposed to be or to represent in such world. OK, most people would just be lazy enough that they would just skip all the mythos and would go straight forward to kill the monsters and the bossy badasses.

And I don't want those lazy players who can't appreciate good creative mythology...
If I want to incorporate the elements of my constructed world's culture, mythos and all, I should do it in a fashion... understandable and approachable.

[DerVVulfman]

In the Elder Scrolls games, you deal with the mythos of the 9 divines and the Daedra Lords. They have a mythos all their own, and an immersive environment that explains it. Handled correctly, there would be no confusion. Granted, there are plenty of standby animals and plants for the player to recognize (deer, rats, bears...) and plants to harvest. But I do gripe that you can find St. John's Wort as a plant when you do not have a St. John in the game world's history. That's just stupid and lazy.

A game I'm working on has animal variants... and byproducts to match. Let's say you have a boar-like animal called the Harche. Looks like a pig with tusks, but has venom sacks and claws instead of hooves. Dang, I just came up with a mean description. From it, you can get something like Harche steaks or Harche Jerky. You can keep a bit of recognition in your game so players can know something to expect, but throw in a curve ball to surprise them.

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

Discussions on Revelant Characters

Thanks for the additions, guys! Common sense is great 

Here's some common sense: MAKE CHARACTERS YOU MEET THROUGHOUT THE GAME RELEVANT TOWARDS THE END! 


Final Fantasy does this well, with characters you've met making clutch saves, or being important memories that pull a character through, or even just being there as a ghost to egg the party on if they had passed away through the course of the game. 

Seeing a character you had kinda forgotten about, even an "enemy" turned ally can have a great and lasting effect. Don't leave Swampoo the Great sitting around at his desk all day after you had told him forever ago about the rising evil, have him help out in the final battle against the big bad and super-evil Doggero! Even if it's just holding the annoying minions back so you can have a personal one-on-one with Doggero! (Or one-on-four. Whatevs.   )

I played a game once that made every character the party met totally irrelevant. There was a big hero next door to where the final battle was going on, but apparently it was too much trouble for him to show up and help out against the hordes of enemies   

[Ahzoh]

Common Sense: don't create impractical weapons, like keys for swords or a spear with a blade the size of a dog, or a sword blade larger than you and as wide as you. That is, no Big Freaking Swords.