Brain picking time! Offensive language.

[EnigmaticSpirit]

Note: Please keep this PG-13 ladies and gents.

I'm playing a bit of a nasty character right now and I find her words seldom seem to make the grade.

PG-13 insults and medieval themed curse words. Go!

(I also may be doing NaNoWriMo, so... I'll be needing this for that, too.)

[Cortex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjHclWPVij0

(swearing included)

[Opustus]

-Arse always. Use as verb and auxiliary verb (if I understand what that means!): I arsed this. Can't be arsed. We got arsed. Also as a noun in "to make an arse".
-Shit a lot if it's allowed here.
-Never bloody, it's trite and won't come off as crude! Ron Weasley ruined this word.
-Feck, same deal as with bloody, although Hagrid is the prime suspect.
-DIY insults that you use instead of the real deal. Snorkblart. Farkshite.
-Be aggressive or bitter if either fits the character, even ironically (BE BE AGGRESSIVE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvbctTRpD0A)

EDIT: The most terrifying two BGs I've ever encountered were women who acted as offensively as aggressive young men, swore as profusely, and were opposites of what might be expected. They were quite plain appearance wise. I guess that (doing the unexpected, making something generally thought of as safe very unsafe) can also add to the shock value and feeling of discomfort!

[WinkinBlinkin]

If you want to know how to swear like a real woman, you need Mumsnet.

Bollocks and thunderflaps! A pox upon you, you egregious cock-wombling, hard-ridden arse-weasel.

[Bashagain]

Smeg!
For you Red Dwarf fans out there.

[WanderingPoet]

- Bloody works fine, regardless of movie-triteness! "You are a bloody fool" is still stronger than "You are a fool", though other words can work as well in place of 'bloody'.
- "By the (nine)Hells" - or replace 'hells' with another word related to a character, such as "By the Winds", "By the Seven", "By the Triad" etc - more of an exclamation than a swear word. But it can be used for frutration "By the Winds you are a bloody fool!"
- "Cur/Vagrant/Vagabond/Cretin (And any underhanded profession such as thief)" - lighter but insulting, unless its true
- "Curse"/"Curses", such "Curses, foiled again", or "I curse you, you cur!"
- Referencing anatomy - Arse, as said above!
- Referencing evil/slovenly/monsterous creatures - "You thrice blighted goblins arse!" is a favourite of mine
- Referencing the stereotypical aspects of a race in a negative connotation - "As hairy as a dwarf's arse and stink twice as bad!" or "As pansy as an elvish dancer and as ugly as an orc"
- Emphasis on normal words can also imply them as an insult - "She is a good /paladin/, isn't she?", implying something wrong with paladinship

Put it all together? "By the nine hells you bloody idiot, I've killed orcs with more brains than you, you thrice blighted goblin's arse of a /dwarf/"

[Opustus]

Geh, all of WanderingPoet's and Winkin Blinkin's examples sound very nonthreatening to me, even if I try to stretch my imagination to place them in various contexts. For me the main question is: Would you as the player be offended or threatened (or otherwise affected) by the language used? Maybe I'm just bad at imagination but I can't ever see myself taking any of the above examples seriously. A showdown at the Shakespeare recital? Ooo, peed my frilly knickers. And yes yes, I know people are different and everyone is special and wub you much, but c'mon!

Language abounding in fantasy allusions just sounds childishly jocular to my ear, which is like the antithesis of being formidable or actually uncouth and threatening.

[Dreams]

If you're going for the thematic of swearing without using the ones that really offend some people, then I'd stay away from using 'feck, fack, fock, etc'. Just jump right into the deep end of medieval creativity you puss-festering Amnish sod! Get down in the muck with the pigs and cover yourself in their fly ridden fecal matter, enjoy the filthy tongue of a back-alley Zhent you wretch!

[Opustus]

Didn't you guys play Witcher 3? When did the peasants with their "harsh" language, in truth a series of quotes from old literature, ever threaten you? It's the equivalent of modern comedians or blog writers trying to be scary, eeughhh

[FoxyPigeon]

[Mr_Rieper]

Alright, I felt inspired by swearing. Here's my short guide.

A good swear word/phrase or exclamation takes 4 things into consideration:

- An object of great reverence/respect or something disgusting/repugnant/filthy
- The education/refinement level of the one saying it
- How fun it is to say.
- Practice.


The first point can be broken down further. For exclamations of awe or wonder, use something your character has respect for. For expression frustration, anger or disgust, use disgusting things.

These can be gods, concepts or physical things, it depends on their education level. But for point one, focus on how important it is to them. Warhammer 40k examples of this would be "By the Emperor!" (important) or "By Russ's beard!". Real life examples of this? Invoking God or the concepts of holy: "By all that is holy" or "For God's sake!".

If you think about the insults and swearwords we have in RL, they pretty much all relate to disgusting things like faeces, fornication or being incomplete/disfigured (lacking testicles or guts, for instance). For FR, we often have gods of enemy pantheons. Mandalorian swearwords pretty much all boil down to calling the other guy a coward, which is something highly disgusting to them. My character uses "Malar's spit!" as a swear-phrase. To create a swearword, think of something that disgusts them, then read on.


Point 2: A character's level of refinement generally determines how low they are willing to stoop and their levels of imagination. In RL terms, the exclamation "By Jove!" is associated with highly educated people. Calling somebody a wanker isn't. Crude expressions can relate to point 3 as being more fun to say, though.

More Warhammer 40k examples:
Space Marine: "By the Emperor's wrath! Die, witch!"
or "Heretics! Scum!"
(Again, things that disgust them)

Imperial Guardsmen: "By the Emperor's teeth!" (I was going to say something else but the word filter doesn't like spherical objects apparently)
Orks call each other "grotz", which are diminutive and weak. Again, disgusting to an ork.


Point 3: It has to be fun to say. Generally things that end in a k or t are really satisfying to say. Alliteration and rhyming helps too.


Point 4: Practice. It's going to sound weird the first couple of times your character says it, no matter how great of a swearword it is. I'm currently reading Space Wolf by William King, and by Russ, does it Russ the Russ out of its Russ. Only Russ knows why. For Russ's sake.

Hope it helps. I'm meant to be sleeping.

[Baron Saturday]

Goatlicker

[Ork]

Milkdrinker

[CoastalSurf]

Curse words are for emphasis. It doesn't matter if they are real life curse words or fantasy versions, they are there as amplifiers. If you can't say something controversial or offensive without using either the modern or archaic version you're doing it wrong.

"I'm so very sorry your people didnt name you a hero after repeatedly trying to play the martyr" for example

[Iceborn]

Berk.

[EnigmaticSpirit]

If you want to know how to swear like a real woman, you need Mumsnet.

Bollocks and thunderflaps! A pox upon you, you egregious cock-wombling, hard-ridden arse-weasel.

I can say bollocks and thunderflaps in a PG-13 environment?

[Giftstoff]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LyFMCIpok

I use this as inspiration for Baranna's voice and insults.

[One Two Three Five]

Fantasy swearing is too cheesy, real life swearing is too edgy. The exceptions for me are when it's funny. If you can come up with a funny wizard swear, you're good.

[Cortex]

Fantasy swearing is too cheesy, real life swearing is too edgy. The exceptions for me are when it's funny. If you can come up with a funny wizard swear, you're good.

what happens if you mix both

[gilescorey]

Fantasy swearing is too cheesy, real life swearing is too edgy. The exceptions for me are when it's funny. If you can come up with a funny wizard swear, you're good.

what happens if you mix both

cold fusion

[The GrumpyCat]

-Shit a lot if it's allowed here.

No. No it's not.

Ok to be more accurate... it's allowed in small doses. Using that word (or Shite, Shyte ect) is fine very, very occasional (maybe two or three times per IRL month) but not on a regular basis.

As others have point ed out, it's kind of impossible to get exactly the same psycological 'punch' out of some mild swear words as you do from the 'usual' ones. This is because swear words are taboo, and inherently not PG13. That's... sort of the point.

But most people understand that, and it's very possible to get a character sounding crude, without breaking the pg13 rule.

I will say that any 'swear' word that's used by the voice set is fine. (Hells, damn, bugger, blast bloody, ect)

Other mild swear words are also alright, if used in extreme sparcity. (e.g. shit)

the F bomb and a certain four letter word beginning with C are not to be used here.

So basicaly, you're never going to get the same 'punch' as if you used some of the harsher swear words - but on the other hand if you do use those it will no longer be PG13 (it can't be, by it's nature.) So this is just something to accept.

My personal favorite swears are.
Blast
Hells.
Damn.
Bloody.
Pike off.
Tosspot
Strumpet.

[milosr]

I was always a fan of the word "Bugger" ...for example, you get jumped by a drow raiding party...and you mutter "Oh, bugger" ...or "Bugger all!" ...It was always quite comical in my mind and, and since we are brain picking, I was wondering what you snugglebears think?...comical or offensive?

[DSM-IV]

What about emoting it?

*A series of extremely abusive and obscene cuss words.*
*Drops crate on foot. Cusses like a sailor*
*The following swear words are so vile and disgusting it is best left to one's imagination.*
*Follows up the insult with a creative joke about one's mother.*

[CookieMonster]

*After stubbing his toe, Tian trembled with rage whilst blasting out all manners of profanities.. Some so powerful that it cost 15% Piety.*

Tian himself is quite a rude and crude man..

As well as the sly cuss.. Mostly Sod, Feck, Bugger and Hell I find it is effective to create the hole "Offensive RP" by using dialects. Stick with a broad peasentry, london sort of accent..

"Oiy'll take th'damn stick off yeh, then oiy'll drop yeh like a sack o'feckin' stone with it, Pal.. Y'just wait, eh?"

I find that the extra effort in the dialect itself really detracts from the cuss's tabooness, whislt giving it a strong impact. The filthy spelling and dialect just act like a catalyst.

[High Primate]

Snuggybear