Legally Legiting My 4e Clone

I've recently decided to make my clone, Points of Light, legally legit. Not so that I can make money selling it -- PoL will be free -- but so others can sell adventures and possibly monsters compatible with it. This thread is to discuss the terminology I have to change to achieve legitimacy. Suggestions are appreciated!

Dungeon Master (GM) --> Game Master (GM)
Far Realm --> Weirding World
Feywild --> Faerie
Shadowfell --> Sibylie
Astral Sea --> Astral Plane
Elemental Chaos --> Elemental Plane
Eladrin --> High Elf
Drow --> Dark Elf (Not a necessary change, but I don't think this subrace needs its own special snowflake name.)
Elf --> Wood Elf (For clarity)
Changeling --> Doppelganger (Not sure if this one is actually necessary, as changelings are creatures from real world mythology. But better to be on the safe side.)
Second Wind --> Heroic Surge
Healing Surge --> Vitality Point
Bloodied --> Wounded
Short Rest --> Quick Rest
Extended Rest --> Long Rest
Minor Action --> Swift Action
Immediate Interrupt --> Immediate Hindrance
Immediate Reaction --> Immediate Counter
Saving Throw --> Risk Roll

Conditions: Don't know if this is necessary either. I really hope not.

MBA --> BMA
RBA --> BRA
2[W] + Ability modifier --> 2[Weapon] + 1[Ability]
Controller --> Censor
Defender --> Guardian
Leader --> Healer
Striker --> Slayer
Artillery --> Sniper
Brute --> Bruiser
Lurker --> Stalker
Skirmisher --> Rover
Soldier --> Protector
Minion --> Mook
Elite --> Superior
Solo --> Master
Encounter --> Scene
At-Will Power --> Least Power
Encounter Power --> Lesser Power
Daily Power --> Greater Power (Not a necessary change, but combined with the previous change, it eliminates the implied dissonance between abstract time and definite time.)
Close --> Near
Area --> Far
Burst --> Ball
Blast --> Cone
Heroic --> Adventurous
Paragon --> Lordly

C4 wrote:

[b]Second Wind --> Vital Rush?
Healing Surge --> Vitality Flux?

Second Wind is a real life phenomena.. which involves among other things cellular level healing I personally would keep it (did they actually try to trademark the term) but I think its a mix of a real second wind and the heroic turnaround from fiction.

I have been long tempted to make healing surges used more broadly not just for healing *they already are once you embrace martial practices and triggering item powers and similar and go with a name like spending a heroic or energy reserve.

C4 wrote:

Bloodied --> Wounded

Or embrace the hit points arent wounds angle and go with Winded?

C4 wrote:

Feywild --> Brightlands

I like that one or the plane of Faerie.

C4 wrote:

Shadowfell --> Shadowlands

That works - so does the dread realm or the shadows or gray plane.

Garthanos wrote:

C4 wrote:

[b]Second Wind --> Vital Rush?
Healing Surge --> Vitality Flux?

Second Wind is a real life phenomena.. which involves among other things cellular level healing I personally would keep it (did they actually try to trademark the term) but I think its a mix of a real second wind and the heroic turnaround from fiction.

No doubt you're right, but I can't assume that authors writing material for PoL will have lawyers ready to argue the point, should WotC's lawyers come knocking. Best to be safe, and change anything that might be legally considered a 4ism.

A good name for lurker might be Stalker.

How about instead of Vital Rush, Heroic Rush.

Artillery could be Archer.

Skirmisher could be Scout.

Elite could be Superior.

Solo could be Boss (Gamey I know. But most Solo's are.)

And honestly Commander should be your Warlords name.

Daily powers I think of as climactic powers.

Encounter powers I find myself divying up in to tricks and short term fatigue.

I would actually look in to dropping the term "Power". Primarily because its not particularly good for the genre.

Garthanos wrote:

C4 wrote:

Bloodied --> Wounded

Or embrace the hit points arent wounds angle and go with Winded?

Or you can go with fatigued.  Then you can keep the idea of being wounded in relation with your combat conditions.  So if you get dazed or slowed in combat, that can be a minor type of wound and something that immobilizes you can be a major type of wound.

I prefer fatigued myself.

Personally I am going with afflictions as wounds myself ;-p.

Felorn Gloryaxe wrote:

And honestly Commander should be your Warlords name.

Oh jeez, I forgot about class names! Good point, I'll also have to come up with something for quite a few other classes too...

Garthanos wrote:

I would actually look in to dropping the term "Power". Primarily because its not particularly good for the genre.

I'm open to alternate suggestions.

C4 wrote:

Felorn Gloryaxe wrote:

And honestly Commander should be your Warlords name.

Oh jeez, I forgot about class names! Good point, I'll also have to come up with something for quite a few other classes too...

Some certainly..  Warlords I like "Battle Captain"
An Avenger is perhaps a Zealot or just collapse in to a Paladin Build (generalize the Armor of faith to any divine class)

C4 wrote:

Garthanos wrote:

I would actually look in to dropping the term "Power". Primarily because its not particularly good for the genre.

I'm open to alternate suggestions.

Here is the irony Powers are actively Stunts or even more so Feats of Magic, and Feats of Martial Prowess and so on  -- > Normal working of magic is ritualistic ie slow and perhaps costly rituals - where as the accelerated casting like in a power/spell is a feat of magic not something you see out of the village witch or the typical noblemans advisor.  

D&D passive feats I might call character features/gifts/talents... some of them are virtually powers like perhaps White Lotus Riposte? which I might put them in Feats categories.

Felorn Gloryaxe wrote:

Artillery could be Archer.

I like this, but unfortunately I've already used 'archer' for my martial controller. Which is a character who doesn't necessarily use a bow; he might throw spears, for example. Anyhow, if I found another name for my martial controller, I could use 'archer' for the monster role.

C4 wrote:

Immediate Interrupt --> Immediate ???
Immediate Reaction --> Immediate ???

Thesaurus.com is your friend!

Interrupt: interference, delay, disturbence, cutoff, hindrance, impedance, prevention
Reaction: answer, reply, kickback, backfire, counter, counterstrike

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

C4 wrote:

Immediate Interrupt --> Immediate ???
Immediate Reaction --> Immediate ???

Thesaurus.com is your friend!

Interrupt: interference, delay, disturbence, cutoff, hindrance, impedance, prevention
Reaction: answer, reply, kickback, backfire, counter, counterstrike

You beat me to it. I was getting ready to reference a Thesaurus.   

Immediate Interference, and Immediate Counter don't sound half bad.

I would drop the "Immediate" and just call it Interference and Counter. I particularly like counter. It is more evocative than reaction.
The "immediate" does not need to be there if there is no other kind, no "delayed" or "slow" or anything.

And on that account, why "close blast", there is no other kind of blast, so just call it a blast...

TjD

Near and far are ranges but how does Far go with Area? Is that a type of Burst ie an Area at range X, ie a Far Blast/Burst.

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

C4 wrote:

Immediate Interrupt --> Immediate ???
Immediate Reaction --> Immediate ???

Thesaurus.com is your friend!

Interrupt: interference, delay, disturbence, cutoff, hindrance, impedance, prevention
Reaction: answer, reply, kickback, backfire, counter, counterstrike

Great resource! I like hindrance and counter.

Durriken wrote:

I would drop the "Immediate" and just call it Interference and Counter.  I particularly like counter. It is more evocative than reaction.
The "immediate" does not need to be there if there is no other kind, no "delayed" or "slow" or anything.

And on that account, why "close blast", there is no other kind of blast, so just call it a blast...

TjD

In conversation, I'm all for dropping the extra words, but I think there's value in keeping these terms around for the sake of rules clarity.

Garthanos wrote:

Near and far are ranges but how does Far go with Area? Is that a type of Burst ie an Area at range X, ie a Far Blast/Burst.

Yes, a PoL power might read 'Far blast 3' or Far burst 5 within 20 spaces.' Or rather, that modified by whatever words I replace 'blast' and 'burst' with.

I like the idea of abstract distances.

But if you needed it to be codified: Short could be up to 5 squares ( or 25ft), Medium could be up to 10 squares (50 feet), Far could be up to 20 squares (100 feet), and then you could add Very Far which could cover 20 squares plus.

I personally would also consider altering all the squares talk into feet. But that's just my opinion.

Felorn Gloryaxe wrote:

I personally would also consider altering all the squares talk into feet. But that's just my opinion.

I've opted for spaces. Spaces can be hexes or squares; feet or meters. And they can be fairly readily abstracted, as you describe.