When do you capitalize game terms?

[Talakeal]

I am currently editing my own RPG, and I can't seem to find any rules for when you capitalize game terms. I decided to check to see what WoTC has done, and it seems they have a system, but one that I can't crack. Just looking at my PHB they appear to capitalize the names of attributes, skills, and feats, but not classes, races, items or spells. Other rules terms seem to have no rule, for example Melee is capitalized, but epic is not.

Anyone know what the punctuation rules are for an RPG or where I would go to look them up?

[Ravens_cry]

It's not a rule, but you should do so, especially if it is word that has a common meaning elsewhere. You might not need to consistently capitalize,say, saving throw, because that phrase pretty has only a single meaning. But words like Fatigued, Attack, Damage, all should be capitalized to help distinguish fluff and crunch.

[Knaight]

In general, the proper noun rules apply. For instance, in FATE Aspect is a proper noun referring to a specific type of character trait, where aspect is merely part of a character. Similarly, a Stunt is a special option of a skill which provides an unusual benefit of varying forms, where a stunt is some sort of trick someone performs.

[Saph]

I don't know if there's any official rules for how to do it in RPG books, because RPGs aren't centralised. Every game designer writes them differently.

The closest parallel is probably law. In legal contracts (which are surprisingly similar to RPG rules in a lot of ways) capitalising a word means that it's a defined term, while leaving it uncapitalised means that it follows the ordinary English meaning.

[Ravens_cry]

I don't know if there's any official rules for how to do it in RPG books, because RPGs aren't centralised. Every game designer writes them differently.

The closest parallel is probably law. In legal contracts (which are surprisingly similar to RPG rules in a lot of ways) capitalising a word means that it's a defined term, while leaving it uncapitalised means that it follows the ordinary English meaning.

Huh. That was my point, though I did not know it was part of contract law. It makes sense though, both involve a statement of what involved parties can and cannot do and both invariably involve jargon in some form or the other, and both have people who nitpick over every detail looking for an advantage to their position.

[stainboy]

What Saph said works for things where it's more important to be unambiguous than easy to read (like legal documents). Most of the time you can leave game terms lowercase when they're obviously game terms.

The Fighter makes an Attack of Opportunity against an Enemy in his Threatened Area with a Reach Weapon.

That's hard to read, and teaches the bathroom reader to gloss over caps. Everybody knows that fighter is a class. "Attack of opportunity," "threatened area," and "reach weapon" are hard to mistake as anything but game terms. The only thing the reader might not realize is a game term is Enemy.

[Mastikator]

But the flaw with that quote is that "Enemy" is not a defined game term. D&D does not distinguish between "allies" and "enemies". Only Targets (which is a game term).

[stainboy]

But enemy effectively is a game term even if it's not in a glossary anywhere. If I'm a necromancer and I cast a spell that deals negative energy damage to all "enemies" in a burst, I can legally use it to heal my own zombies. That wouldn't work by the Merriam Webster's definition of enemy.

You could also look at this as Enemy is not a game term even though it really looks like it would be. Either way, it's potentially confusing, and capitalizing tells the reader "this might not mean what you think it means."

Tangent: Put Enemy and Ally in your glossary if you ever write them in a crunch block.

[Seb Wiers]

As mentioned above, its up to each game designer / company. Back when I did some freelance writing for FASA, they had a writers guide that covered such things. And yes, all game terms were to be capitalized. It made for some awkward typing and at times seemed excessive, but (among other things) it probably helped them when writing indexes, since it helped them determine every page a game term was used on.

[Ravens_cry]

Maybe, for easier reading, game terms should be this and/or bolded.

[erikun]

You then run into the problem of half your book being in bold-face rather than capilatized.

[Ravens_cry]

You then run into the problem of half your book being in bold-face rather than capilatized.

It will read like a bad comic book, but at least bold stands out more.

[ClockShock]

It will read like a bad comic book, but at least bold stands out more.

This always annoys me in comics.
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Contrary to what was said above, if you establish the use of capitals (or whatever) for game terms i don't think you should stray from it - even if it is a little odd to read sometimes.

Aside from the ambiguity already noted above, "fighter" doesn't obviously refer to a distinct class, so depending on where and what the rule is you may be suggesting that a Wizard can do all the tricks a Fighter can do, because at the time they happen to be fighting.

Related to this, try and use a vocabulary that doesn't overlap too much. Interchanging Opponent and opponent will breed confusion. If Opponent is a defined term use things like 'foe' or 'enemy' or 'creature' in places where it is undefined.

[Talakeal]

Thanks for the replies!

In the 3.5 PHB they have things like

"Unlike the Intelligence ability, Wisdom represents common sense rather than smarts"

And "Like wizards and bards, sorcrers can't arcane spells."

It seem's really wierd that Intelligence and Wisdom are capitalized in the first and that the class names and arcane spells are not in the second.\

I think capitalizing rules terms is a good idea, although bolding is a bit too much.

BTW, thanks for comparing it to a bad comic book. Now whenever I read my own text I hear in my head the "Crazy Steve Batman voice" from Atop the Fourth Wall.

[TheCountAlucard]

It seem's really wierd that Intelligence and Wisdom are capitalized in the first and that the class names and arcane spells are not in the second.

That's because Intelligence and Wisdom could be mistaken for non-game terms otherwise, especially for newbie players who don't have an eye for that sort of thing. Wizard, bard, sorcerer, and "arcane spell," while existing as terms that might be used out-of-game, are still much less likely to be mistaken.

[Ravens_cry]

BTW, thanks for comparing it to a bad comic book. Now whenever I read my own text I hear in my head the "Crazy Steve Batman voice" from Atop the Fourth Wall.

I hear his impression of the Warrior.

[Morph Bark]

But the flaw with that quote is that "Enemy" is not a defined game term. D&D does not distinguish between "allies" and "enemies". Only Targets (which is a game term).

Except that it does. Cue auras, certain White Raven maneuvers, and so on.

[Talakeal]

I hear his impression of the Warrior.

Come now, no RPG has terms that far from reality. Hmmm, maybe I should add a "Destrucity" attribute...

[BlackSheep]

Consistency is key. Establish some rules, feel free to update them as you go, but apply them consistently across all your content.

[Rixx]

Capitalized: Ability scores, feats, skills, saves

E.G. "Add your Strength bonus to damage", "Lose your Dex bonus to AC", "Gains Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat", "Add 1/2 your level to Disable Device skill checks", "Makes a Reflex saving throw"

Not capitalized: Class features, class names, game terms

E.G. "A rogue can avoid even unusual attacks...", "Whenever she makes a sneak attack", "The enemy is paralyzed for 2d6 rounds"

Italicized: Spell names

E.G. "This works as a light spell", "Gains grease as a spell-like ability"