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[Pillbo]

It's awkward grammatically to call animal people 'animal men', most players already refer to them as 'animal people' instead. Right now Cougar Women are a type of Cougar Man, and also Cougar Men are also a type of Cougar Man, from either perspective it's odd and un-intuitive. It's strange to choose to play a Cougar Man, then 3-4 menus later choose the caste of Cougar Man to be a Cougar Woman, for example. Even the variation is named 'ANIMAL_PERSON' instead of 'ANIMAL_MAN', so it seems like it was already considered.

This would also be a step towards better inclusiveness, which I know if important to the Adams' bros. It seems like a simple non-code change that Tarn wouldn't even need to do by himself, as far as I can tell all it would take is changing 2 lines of each raw for an animal person. This:

Code: [Select]

[CREATURE:COUGAR_MAN]
[COPY_TAGS_FROM:COUGAR]
[APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:ANIMAL_PERSON]
[GO_TO_END]
[SELECT_CASTE:MALE]
[CASTE_NAME:cougar man:cougar men:cougar man]
[SELECT_CASTE:FEMALE]
[CASTE_NAME:cougar woman:cougar women:cougar woman]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
...
[NAME:cougar man:cougar men:cougar man]
[DESCRIPTION:A person with the head and tail of a cougar.]
To this:

Code: [Select]

[CREATURE:COUGAR_PERSON]
[COPY_TAGS_FROM:COUGAR]
[APPLY_CREATURE_VARIATION:ANIMAL_PERSON]
[GO_TO_END]
[SELECT_CASTE:MALE]
[CASTE_NAME:cougar man:cougar men:cougar man]
[SELECT_CASTE:FEMALE]
[CASTE_NAME:cougar woman:cougar women:cougar woman]
[SELECT_CASTE:ALL]
...
[NAME:cougar person:cougar people:cougar person]
[DESCRIPTION:A person with the head and tail of a cougar.]

Now a Cougar Woman and a Cougar Man are a type of Cougar Person.

[Putnam]

Honestly, yeah, "animal men" in the collective just sounds weird to me. I think the creature token can stay, since it never actually shows up in game. There's also blood men and iron men to contend with, but those aren't people, so that's a different question. "Blood homunculus" is an awkward term, too.

[voliol]

(From the top of my memory) There is the whole thing where "man" in English can be synonymous with "human" or "person", which is not originally prescriptivism of the sexist kind (unlike the generic "he"), but has its roots from when male men were called "were-"men to go along with the "wo-"men. This excuses the blood men and iron men, mostly. But when cougar women and cougar men are separated by gender, and the general term is still "cougar man", then that is just plain out weird.

+1

[BlueManedHawk]

+1 to this suggestion.  I would imagine that construct creatures would be determined on a case-by-case basis—for blizzard men, "beast" would probably be a better term, whereas for amethyst and gabbro men, "golem" would probably be better.  The one exception I could see would be for plump helmet men, as those are sapient (within the scope of the game) creatures.

[clinodev]

"Golem" is independently problematic, but otherwise, +1

[Mobbstar]

+1 for common animal people.  "-folk" would also be okay to me, e.g. batfolk, capybarafolk, elephant seal folk.

[Orange-of-Cthulhu]

+1

I also feel like that it sounds way cooler with people.

"I shall go seek out the alligator men" sounds like Spongebog Squarepants to me.

"I shall go seek out the alligator people" sounds like Lovecraft,

And shoutout to the classic movie "Cat people" (1942), supremely directed by Jacques Tourner - a must see for anybody interested in the theme of humans transforming into animals in mid 20th century American culture.

The ONLY drawback is if a bat man is not called a bat man anymore. But I can live with that.

[BlueManedHawk]

"Golem" is independently problematic, but otherwise, +1

Is it?  I hadn't heard of that.

[PlumpHelmetMan]

Maybe it's at least partially because "golem" usually refers to deliberately-constructed servants rather than elemental beings? Beyond that, I'm also in the dark.

Anyway...+1 to this suggestion on the whole.

[Eric Blank]

Probably a good idea with "man" being exclusively male-gendered in modern English. "Folk" is just as good a term, too.

[voliol]

The word ”golem” originates from Jewish folklore, but I am not sure if it is touchy merely for that reason, i.e. wanting to avoid accidental antisemitism by avoiding having any references at all materialized as something you should kill, or if the golem has some deeper meaning.

[Mr Crabman]

Folk sounds better for animal people I think.

The word ”golem” originates from Jewish folklore, but I am not sure if it is touchy merely for that reason, i.e. wanting to avoid accidental antisemitism by avoiding having any references at all materialized as something you should kill, or if the golem has some deeper meaning.

I'm pretty sure myth&magic will introduce both good and bad "golems", some constructed by players, others not, and I've not seen this naming for animated statues have any problems anywhere else.

I don't think "golem" fits any of the existing creatures however. Maybe bronze colossuses technically fall into that category, but their name is fine as it is.

[Pillbo]

I'm also a fan of Folk as an alternative to People, but what's the singular of folk? Still person?

[scriver]

Using men to not include women is a pure patriarchism, and the opposite of inclusive

[PlumpHelmetMan]

I think "folk" can be both singular and plural. At least that's how fantasy RPGs like D&D tend to use it, from my own experience.