Trope Description Improvement Drive

Also, "Super Sentai" Stance needs a description of what the trope is.

Closing the TRS for Magic Missile (aka Projectile Spell) might have been just a wee bit premature because nobody tweaked the on-page definition to reflect the latest discussion on it. So I did just that. Treating spells like projectiles also means we can mention stuff like Taking the Bullet or Bulletproof Human Shield because it can happen.

edited 23rd Jun '13 7:25:46 AM by Stratadrake

That didn't look like a discussion to me, more like "that difference doesn't matter". Hence why I didn't act on it.

Yeah, there were no real objections to it, but the page itself claimed the distinction was of critical importance, meaning the definition was bad:

Especially when fireballs are one of the most iconic forms of projectile magic.

edited 23rd Jun '13 7:28:40 AM by Stratadrake

Slow-Motion Fall is a bit unclear. Is this about people getting knocked down to the ground, being dropped from a great height, or both?

Can I get someone to pop into my latest YKTTW, Walking Fishbowl, and offer some advice? Description feels really, really lean right now.

Also, the discussion on the rename of In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You to Russian Reversal was shut down prematurely IMHO before the description was cleaned up any. I did a bunch of work on clearing it (clarifying that it counts even if Soviet Russia isn't involved and shoving references to the meme into the example section).

edited 23rd Jun '13 11:06:30 AM by StarSword

Huh. I thought you had already done that.

Double Standard is written exclusively about double standards based on sex and gender expectations.

Because that is what the index is about - gender-based differences in tropes.

I just hacked off a big chunk of Our Wormholes Are Different into Analysis and rewrote it to be a lot more concise and to the point.

I hope I'm just missing it, but what the hell is a splat ?

It would seem like a term derived backwards from "splatbook", which is a rules supplement to a tabletop RPG. I suppose I could have it the wrong way round, but I am more familiar with "splatbook" than I am "splat". By simple language rules, a "splat" is a character archetype, class, kit, or similar construct for an RPG, and a "splatbook" is what contains it.

I don't really know that we need an article defining the term, as it's not a trope so much as a definition of a thing that contains tropes.

Not all double standards are sex-based, though. If it's exclusively for those only, then the name is misleading.

"Splatbook" was coined as a pronunciation for "*book", with "*" standing for the large range of words that tend to be attached to "-book" when making RPG supplementals (e.g. sourcebook, guidebook) as well as idiosyncratic names (e.g. clanbooks and tribebooks for World Of Darkness). See here for more info.

That's right. Splatbook is a constructed word, and splat is a back-formation from it. I would redirect splat to Splatbook. Except that we don't have that. Seriously?

edited 29th Jun '13 10:46:45 AM by Fighteer

I could have sworn we had Splatbook, but I'm probably misremembering Splat. Anyway, anyone mind if I just switch them, and redirect splat to splatbook?

And on the description note, I feel like it should say something about crunch and fluff (for the record, currently Fluff redirects to WAFF).

edited 29th Jun '13 11:58:01 AM by Discar

Those are all good ideas.

For the record, Splat's article does mention the origin of the term from "splatbook", and in turn briefly explains the etymology of that term.

There's the minor problem that the definition of Splat is about splats, and mentions splatbooks only for reference's sake.

I imagine that if you were to do a search, you'd get a lot more hits for "splatbook" than "splat".

And a lot more relevant ones, too.

I'm finishing a YKTTW left Up For Grabs and could use a hand filling out the description. Current title Merger of Souls.

@782: No, I had proposed the changes and was waiting for a second opinion.

edited 1st Jul '13 9:50:27 AM by StarSword

Splat is also an onomatopoeia for destroying something with blunt force enough to force its liquids out, equivalent to squish. So you'd get a lot more hits for searching it but they'd be less relevant.

Here's my revision to the first line of Splat so that it will make sense when it gets swapped to Splatbook.

Does that work well enough, or are the changes too minimal?

Are you sure the etymology is from White Wolf? I recall hearing the term used to refer to D&D's various handbooks as far back as 2nd edition, although it may have been after the fact.