Adventurer's Guild - OOC

Given that there are ” fighter” guilds, they most certainly do. And Cleric is a profession along with ranger and every other class except maybe barbarian.

Yes, but not every traveling minstrel would call himself a 'bard'. Not ever High Priest is going to say 'I'm a cleric', not every woodsman is a ranger, there are not 'fighter' guilds in most settings, I highly doubt anyone refers to themselves as a 'Duskblade' or 'Hexblade', l doubt every person in touch with nature considers themselves a 'druid', and that's not a profession.

I feel like you're being intentionally thick.

I think you're trying to pass your opinion off as fact. Nothing in the rules supports your opinion and much of the prose contradicts it.

You know...I'm actually going to address this dogma in the slim chance someone of those reading this will gain some enlightenment.

Well, guess what? Every traveling minstrel wouldn't be a bard, now would they? A Bard has specific spells, they have proficiency with specific martial weapons, they gain specific abilities and have access to a specific spell list. And every adventurer who possessed these abilities, would in fact, know that they belonged to a group of individuals called bards. Why? Because being a Bard meant you could do those specific things. You know...like what it means to be a Wizard?

The same is true for a Duskblade or Hexblade. Being one of those means you can do very specific and unique things and society has labeled those people who can do those specific things as a Duskblade or Hexblade. It's irrelevant what the player thinks. If you can do X, Y, and Z, society knows you are a that class. Anybody who can do those things and did not grow up under a rock would automatically know how people would label them. Just like modern day witches know that they are witches.

The complete set of powers each class has are unique to that class. People with those powers are labeled according to their class names and there's nothing meta-game about that. Society gives them the labels and the label are 100% accurate.

Now if some person playing a duskblade wants to act like they've never heard the term...whatever. It's a free world.

My two cents here:

The characters just define themselves by whatever broad term/noun/adjective they choose. Not every fighter is Just A Fighter, in the broadest sense of the term. Some fighters are gladiators or streetfighters or duelists or dragoons... just like some wizards are enchanters or conjurers or mystics. It's all in the way they choose to see themselves.

And maybe some characters, before getting to know other people in the story, just define other people by these broad terms. If Damaris sees Tanvas before knowing he's a barbarian, he's just some guy compensating for something with a greatsword (he probably isn't, but it's really fun to make that joke!); seeing Fracko as a strange gnome, having not seen his casting abilities, makes Fracko an odd... gnome.

Possibly you both are taking this much more seriously than is needed?? I don't know. What I do know is that until the other characters say who they are and what they choose to do, Damaris will try to infer what they do based on their actions and equipment--as incorrect technically and politically that is. That's the game. U:

Probably one of the greatest social benefits of the Internet is we can all have and share our opinions.

Any person can play their character anyway they choose. If that's what you're trying to say here, I'm not disagreeing with you. But this statement is tangential to the underlying dogma that Purity is trying to espouse and I resist. It's irrelevant whether a cardiologist thinks of himself as a dog catcher or a truck driver. Regardless of how we think of ourselves, we are defined by what we can and cannot do. This is true in both real life and in D&D.

Let's go back to something something that Purity said...

Let's take a look at the p. 23 of the PHBII

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can research
duskblades to learn more about them. When a character
makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including
the information from lower DCs.
DC 10: Some elves have the ability to cast arcane spells
while engaged in melee combat;
such elves are known as duskblades.

Emphasis added. So here we have it in black and white RAW..."duskblade" is what these people are called by society. Unequivocal. The crucial and unavoidable fact is that the class is named and society uses that name within the context of the IC game. And considering how educated and knowledgeable these classes are, one would have to be....i don't know...."intentionally thick" to argue that a duskblade wouldn't know that they are "duskblades." Ergo, The class name is NOT metagame, but in fact part of the very fabric of the game.

So how did you phrase it?
But play your character however you'd like.

AS GM, I would appreciate if we stop this line of conversation. In the many RL games I am currently in, each person has introduced their characters either by stating, 'I'm a fighter.' or 'I am well versed in the applications of blade, plate, and shield.' Each player is allowed to state, however they wish, what role or abilities they play. Most of the time, groups build characters at the same time and talk between themselves what they wish to play, so the introduction in game doesn't necessarily need to be too descriptive, which is the whole purpose of this comment.

That is all I will say. Let the games continue!

Thank you Dru. And I would request that you make each IC thread private to those who are playing so I don't have to have Purity coming OOC and trying to lecture me about how the game is suppose to be played when she's not even in our group.

For myself, Raston answered the way he did because he wasn't asked what he was, he was asked what his skills were. In this case saying he was a fighter was basically self evident and he was just descibing what kind of fighting he does.