Today’s task (actually, the task I have been mulling over for several days now). What verbs should Arthur have? Currently I have six quite terse verbs:
Promise Reward
Praise
Upbraid
Threaten
Ignore
Reassure
This is nowhere near right. In the first place, they have to read like they are part of a story: complete sentences in quotations. I’ll definitely need to apply Tinkertoy Text lavishly here. But two questions remain:
1. Should I add another object, perhaps a quantifier?
This would give the players greater expressive freedom. The players could threaten lightly, moderately, or ferociously. They could promise a small reward or a big reward. However, quantifiers wouldn’t work for “Ignore” or “Reassure”, but that’s easily handled as a verb-specific specification.
2. Are there any more verbs I can add?
One that comes to mind immediately is “Send in the Katerfaks” — Arthur’s reserve force of elite knights. Hmm, what about “promise to send in the Katerfaks if it gets really bad”?
Or how about “Charge in myself” with a real risk of getting killed?
Or “Pull back and reorganize”?