Editors! Get a Web browser!

[stevenehrbar]

I've been reading Exalted products lately.  I have run into the following in the Lunars:

[M]any tribes practice primogeniture: the splitting of lands and valuables among the surviving offspring of a dead chief.

Er, no.  Priomgeniture is the practice of the eldest (son) inheriting the whole. Division among all offspring is a form of obligatory partible inheritance. For example, Salic patrimony, the inheritance rule that resulted in the division of Charlemagne's kingdom, and produced so many itty-bitty statelets in Germany.

(Salic patrimony is distinct from the "Salic Law", which is a rule of determining who is the eligible heir in a system of primogeniture that was generally accepted in Continental Europe.)

And the following in both Scavenger Sons and the 2e corebook:

All firewands are breechloaders. The firedust must be loaded down the the front of the barrel[.]

The technical term for the front of the barrel is the muzzle, thus the term muzzle-loader for guns loaded that way. A breechloader is loaded from the rear.

Now, why am I saying "Get a Web browser"? Because the definitions of primogeniture and breechloader are available at m-w.com.You're editing these things on a computer, after all.  Maybe you can't afford a reasonable dictionary, but you still can access one.

Comments

[holyprophetril.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice the first (never touched the book after a skim of it once or twice), but I did notice the latter some time back. Annoying.

[jhghendriks.livejournal.com]

Can I say that I'm snigger at the irony of you misspelling "Priomgeniture" in your rant about inaccuracies? ;-)

[sesmo.livejournal.com]

You're a snigger? How odd.

Also here from metaquotes & amused.

[jhghendriks.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am.
I always believed I was a snigger and frequently claimed this, but my parents where in a state of The Nile. This caused me much pain and I often started to whale in this pear.

But yes, it is ironic that I'm making a mistake while pointing out that Steven did.

Fortunately I've never claimed to be an expert speller, and neither have my teachers according to whom my language skills would have even prohibited me from common speech.

Plus, I'm Dutch. And the Dutch are usualy worse at writing Dutch then Belgians are.
So, I feel have a proud heritage to live up to.

[leticia.livejournal.com]

Exalted 1e is a lovely, lovely gaming system which seriously could have used the fierce and pruning hand of an editor who knew what they were doing. Also, someone besides the summer intern to do indexes.

Exalted 2e /also/ has some obvious needs for an editor. And a sanity check. But it is an even MORE lovely gaming system. (Despite early doubts, I've been converted.)

But, seriously. SANITY CHECK, PLZ. I give you the following from the Scavenger Lands book: "Every company has a different procedure for admitting new members. Some units have probationary periods up to a year in length. Others, such as the Bronze Pioneers, require prospective employees to fight a randomly chosen company member to the death."

Yes.

For every new recruit, they MUST lose an experienced veteran. To that recruit. How battle losses are replaced, I don't know. Battlefield recruiting? "You just killed John. You're a member now. Turn around and fight your friends."

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

*dies giggling*

May I metaquote this?

[leticia.livejournal.com]

If you think it's funny enough for that, go for it, 's far as I'm concerned. ^^;

[omg-teh-funnay.livejournal.com]

Trust me, it was funny enough. That's how I got here...

[elf]

Here from metaquotes.

One could argue that primogeniture is a form of splitting lands and valuables among the offspring, with a default 100%/0%/0%/0%/0%/etc. ratio.

[stevenehrbar.livejournal.com]

Yes, technically, one could argue that.

In the context of the whole (unquoted) paragraph, however, "the splitting of lands and valuables among the surviving offspring" is specifically to keep a single heir from receiving enough of the property of the deceased to also inherit the power and influence of the deceased.

[kitty-foxglove.livejournal.com]

I cry for these guys. Can't they look at "primogeniture" and see that "primo," meaning "first" and related to "prime," is right there?