Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Profanities in the game

I think that's the point: emphasising strong emotions, catastrophe or just, well, making a point sometimes "requires" strong language (somewhat subjective, but y'know). However, I have known people who've used e.g. "fucking" and so on effectively as verbal punctuation and that quickly becomes very tiring to listen to.


I dunno. After posting about the colourfully-named local street (now Magpie Lane... bah. There's a case to be made for magpies being more offensive, horrid flying bastards) I looked it up and it seems the "most offensive" thing is a modern affectation: back then it and its ilk were just words and meant what they described, nothing more.

Well the alternative would be that they've already described what a lot of the race languages sound like in D&D so you'd get creative and make them up based off of those descriptions.. .. or just make everyone sound like Ricardo Montalban because he had the best accent ever.

Oh, I agree. While it is possible to come up with a something decent, they generally sound juvenile and unintentionally comedic. But I figured I would give the OP to offer some examples before passing judgement.

I'm reminded of things like "grud" and "drokk" from Judge Dredd, which sort of developed their own coolness over the years but I think a large part of that was the mix of corniness and satire. But it's debatable whether it's really credible and IMHO risky, even in its target market; much more so for mass appeal, which like it or not, video games really do have to cater to at least to some degree. Such an obvious example might be a conspicuous turn-off for a lot of people; I mean I'm guessing, I'm no sociologist nor marketing type, but my own reaction might be a bit "hmm" if it comes at me with commonplace heat-of-the-moment expressions replaced by jargon.

I would say you answered you own question

"An Elf?? MAKER FORBID!" (cit)

I think swears are needed, because I imagine people would causally swear in a world darker and more dangerous than our own.
If I'm ambushed by goblins, I'm not going to go 'Oh bother!' like some blood-spattered Winnie The Pooh.

..I'm playing a Warlock, so I might say 'By the the three prehensile balls of <insert my Great Old One Patron's name>!'

But normal swear words work better. Also:

The f-word is of Germanic origin, related to Dutch, German, and Swedish words for “to strike” and “to move back and forth.” It first appears, though, only in the 16th century, in a manuscript of the Latin orator Cicero

I dunno. I'm just thinking how improved Planet Of The Apes would've been if Charlton Heston's famous line had been re-recorded in a sort of Ned Flanders voice saying, "gosh darn you all. Darn you all to heck!"

..Now I'm picturing 'Sexy Flanders' doing that exact line.

I both hate and thank you for this.

There is plenty of historical evidence that the word 'Fuck' predates its first appearance in the literature. For one, unless the likes of Lyndesay et al. made the word up, it must have been par of the language before it was used in print. For another, there are variants of the word in use going as far back as the middle of the Middle Ages. In addition, the similarity of words in Scandanavian and Germanic languages suggests a history stretching far enough back that it migrated with the migration and integration of those languages into English.

Of course, the Irish also have 'Feck' as far more socially acceptable alternative, but that would be an odd choice of phrase when facing death by gnoll.

Surely, 'to heckly-deckly'.

I agree it breaks immersion as it seems the writers are just trying too hard to be modern and edgy.

I've found with most art forms, if it doesn't curse and bleed I don't trust it. People cuss because life fucking sucks, and when things get hard it usually involves blood, voluntary or not.

I value everyone's opinion, but to me. The content in the game so far, makes foul language seem trivial. Not going to spoil it.

Love the game so far BTW!

My favourite profanities were the Lore-specific ones, i.e. Khlegar Ironfit's "By Tyr's right buttock!" battlecry (NWN2) or the most common "By the Nine Hells", or even race-specific for elves as "tree-worshippers". They were funny and added flavor without going into uncomfortables of modern profanities. I am sure there are plenty of creative ways to come up with curses and profanities that would reflect the world of Abeir Toril.

I generally prefer if games set in what looks like an older time (renesaince) also tries to adjust it's language somewhat. Modern slang in oldtimey setting is a bit like dropping a pop culture reference.

I think this is definitely a person preference thing. I prefer 'normal' swearwords generally, just because I know what they mean and I know the context in which they should be used. The Tiefling swearwords are fine, but they just leave me with a general sense of 'oh, I guess that was a naughty word' as opposed to someone saying "Oh, Fuck yeah!" when I agree to help them. I understand what that means, and what it means for someone to so casually say it to a stranger. The immersion breakers for me are when people keep spitting out variations of 'By Odin's beard!" or "By Zeus' hangnail!" It always makes me pause for a second and consider if what they just said was supposed to be blasphemy, of if it's just a general accepted exclamation. Is it even offensive? It's especially strange, because people tend to use the deity they actively worship in their expletives, which is generally considered disrespectful to that deity. Saying 'God damnit" in a medieval temple would get you tossed on a torture rack, but you year paladins, clerics, and peasants alike using their god's name in vain all the time. What does it even mean?

I can understand why sometimes this can be annoying, but then just think about, how many we are; if each of us want just a single feature removed or changed, where this will end?
Just can't be done.

When I don't like something, all I wish for is a way to change it just for me, an optional setting. If that can be easily added, not everything can be.
Or a mod. That's why modding is so awesome; allows customizing the game further. And yes, everything matters, there are no "small" details: everything is a huge, or can be. A mod could edit all these voices and mute the parts you don't want or replace with a beep and asterisks in text, or something else.

I'm not bothered by profanities, if I can make my character react in a funny way when surprised, instead swearing like a weak mind. The other characters can do it, I don't mind, just in real life. I won't praise anyone for swearing, but won't stop it either.

Also the English accent no problem. Of course I would like dwarf using Scottish, and some other could use Australian or something else, but not those extreme accents where I can't understand it (I know from Discord in other games, just can't understand about half of what some people say, have to ask them to type in chat what they just said)

TBH the Middle ages were far from being an age of politeness. And their profanities were not that different.

i bite my thumb at thee cowardly knaves. Thou art milksops of the lowest sort! yellow bellied fornicators of trees, and vile scum of wretched street tramps! BEGONE vermin or I shall sic my cat on you.

how many people even get what I'm saying? If you want something more D&D then shakespearen.

By the Nine Hells (may confuse non D&D players as modern daymajor religions often times only have hell) , Mordians beard (non d&d players will not know who Mordian is escpecially with my spelling) Shars Tits (yeah four letter word., also who the hell is Shar?) By Lloth (again who's Lloth) Silvanuas twisted beard (you get the point god curses are out do to those that it would lose) Those pointy eared, tree herder? (again non D&D players, also may include various other pointy eared races that span a wide variety. why does everything have pointy ears? That stick so far out?) Black blooded runts! (again non D&D players may not catch fact that gobliniods, and orcs have black blood) Silver blooded trash (again ndnd players).

These are just a few examples all unable to really be used do to non d&d players not familair with meaning, racial maledicdtions, gods, blood color etc. Which would illicit opening another can of worms with how Larian isn't targetting the general audience, or is only targetting hardcore D&D players. As for these I can go on and on with D&D racial slurs, curses etc. but I won't because though I have no life. I find them to be boring and futile when a simple fuck you asshole would work.