In the summer of 2010, I wrote the article now titled Xandering the Dungeon.
That wasn’t the original title of the article, nor the original term I coined to describe both the process of creating a non-linear dungeon (xandering) and the properties of a non-linear dungeon (xandered). The original term was “jaquaying,” which was, of course, an eponymous term I had chosen based on how much the work of Jennell Jaquays had inspired me.
In 2023, for better or for worse, this term was changed to xandering. I want to offer a brief explanation for why this happened.
First, Jennell Jaquays wanted a change. She didn’t like that the term dropped the “s” from her name. Her name is very important to her. This wasn’t a problem. In fact, Jennell had previously requested some sweeping changes to the article for similar reasons, and I’d made those changes. Based on that experience, though, I knew that making this change would not be a quick or easy process: It took weeks of effort, followed by months of extra work to make sure all the metadata had been properly scrubbed on the site. Making this change would be even more substantive, because I’d been using the term for over a decade and I’d need to track it down in every single article. (As I’m writing this, in fact, I’m still in the middle of that work.)
Second, Jennell’s preference for a change in the term had been mentioned in some interviews. Unfortunately, this began a harassment campaign: Whenever somebody used the term “jaquaying the dungeon” they would be targeted. Some of this just took the form of saying, “You shouldn’t use that word.” Some of it escalated to claiming the word was bigoted. In a few cases, I’ve had people tell me they received death threats.
And to be as crystal clear as possible here: Jennell had absolutely nothing to do with the harassment. She didn’t want it. She didn’t encourage it. And if anyone tries to use this as an occasion to be an asshole and harass her or her fans, I’d really like to emphasize that (a) you are no fan of mine and (b) you can come for me first, because I’m definitely a fan of hers.
Obviously, however, this could not be allowed to continue.
I spoke with Jennell earlier this year. We both agreed that the name should be changed, and I said it would be a large project to do it, but I’d make sure it happened by the end of the year.
The final factor here is that I had also been working on So You Want to Be a Game Master, a book in which I discussed non-linear dungeon design that had originally used the term “jaquaying.” So I contacted the publisher and said, “We need to make sure we change this term.”
Long story short, this created a legal question. Not an arduous or terrible one. But one that resulted in the conclusion, “There is some risk in using a word based on someone else’s name. Let’s not do that.”
One option at this point would have been to drop the neologism entirely and just refer to “non-linear dungeons.” But I’d originally created a verb because I found a verb useful; other people had found the verb useful over the years; and it would be substantially easier to update all of the various articles that had used the term over the years if I could just swap one word out for another. (As opposed to rewriting entire articles.)
After a bunch of back-and-forth, we (UPDATE: me and the publisher; the “we” mentioned in previous paragraphs who “need to make this change”) finally settled on the term “xandering.” And so, from this point forward, my dungeons will be thoroughly xandered.
UPDATE: There has been interest in a more precise or detailed sequence of events. To hopefully make things as clear as possible without obfuscating what this article originally said, the sequence of events in early 2023 is: Jennell and I spoke about changing the article. Legal questions resulted in a new term being selected. I let Jennell know that the site would be updated by the end of the year. She thanked me. That conversation, in April 2023, was our last before she became ill. The book was then updated for publication. From September thru October of 2023, I worked on updating every article using the original term on the site. I then posted this historical note on November 1st, and spent another couple weeks updating posts and metadata that had been missed in the original update.
If you’re reading this historical note in November 2023, shortly after I’ve posted it, then there’s likely still a few instances of the old term floating around the website. If you’re reading this in the mid-term future, then this is likely the only place on the Alexandrian where you’ll still find the term being used. If you’re reading this even further out, then it’s possible you’ve never even heard of “jaquaying the dungeon.”
There’s a part of me that feels sad about that. But I also know that this was the right thing to do and that it needed to happen.
FAQs
You can’t do this!
I can.
This is, honestly, one of the reasons why the term needed to be changed. People were somehow convinced that I was not the creator of Xandering the Dungeon.
To be really clear here: I wrote the article. I invented the word (both the old one and the new one). I created the categories of techniques and level connectors. It’s my work.
So, yes, I can do this. And, for the reasons described above, I also believe it’s the ethically right thing to do.
I’ve used the old term in my article or video or blog post. What should I do?
Well, I’m not your boss, but if you’d like to respect the wishes of the original creator of the term and the article, it would be great if you could update your stuff to use the now-correct terminology.
If it’s in a form that can’t be easily updated (e.g., a video or printed book), though, please don’t feel like you need to take that material down. You might, however, consider adding a clarifying note in the info-box for your video or making a note to update the text when the book is reprinted.
I see someone using the old term. What should I do?
It’s fine to just do nothing. Particularly if there’s a link to the original article, it’ll sort itself out. (If there’s not a link, though, I won’t dissuade you from pointing people in the right direction.)
I’d rather not see every discussion of the dungeon design principles in Xandering the Dungeon instead turn into a discussion of the term. That’s one of the reasons why the change was necessary, and it would be great if the solution didn’t perpetuate the problem.
Why have you edited comments on your site that used the old term?
To make sure that the update of the site is complete and the term Jennell Jaquays wants removed is totally purged, we wanted to use database updates. It turned out the use of the term in comments was actually a problem and they might get invisibly changed by the search-and-replace. I wasn’t comfortable with that. I also didn’t want to just delete comments. So I opted to track the references manually and update them in a way that indicated the original wording had been edited.
Will links to the old article still work?
Yes.
If they don’t, please let me know what link isn’t working and we’ll get it fixed.
UPDATE: Are you saying that Jennell Jaquays threatened to sue you?
No. The decision that the name of the article needed to not use Jaquays in any form was prompted by legal advice that resulted as a consequence of Jennell asking for the article to be updated. The full and specific chain of events is described above. As previously noted, Jennell was not the one to create or specifically request the term “xandering.”
UPDATE: By removing the term “jaquaying,” are you plagiarizing Jennell Jaquays’ work?
No. Xandering the Dungeon prominently celebrates and champions Jennell’s genius. It always has and, if I have anything to say about it, it always will. Her dungeon designs are both foundational works and also remain examples of excellence that anyone can (and should) learn from. But the article is not a Cliff’s Note summary of some previous article written by Jennell Jaquays, nor was she a co-author as some have suggested. It’s also not accurate to claim that the article only cites her work or that her work is the sole inspiration for the categories of techniques & connections I created. Other works cited include the sample dungeon from the 1974 edition of D&D (Dave Arneson & Gary Gygax), Stone Mountain from the D&D Basic Set (Tom Moldvay & Tom Wham), The Temple of Elemental Evil (Gygax & Frank Mentzer), Dungeonland (Gygax), Star Trek, The Glass Elevator, Greek myth, and The Empire Strikes Back, as well as my own work in Halls of the Mad Mage, Darkwoods’ Secret, and The Lost Hunt.
If I was writing the article today I would also mention, in addition to Jennell’s post-2010 design work, Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign, Greg Svenson’s Lost Dungeons of Tonigsborg, Rob Kuntz’ El Raja Key, and Pete & Judy Kerestan’s Palace of the Vampire Queen. If you’re interested in diving deeper into early dungeon design, I recommend all of these adventures.
UPDATE: Is it true that you removed all reference to Jennell Jaquays from your article & book?
No. This never happened. You can easily read the article for yourself. She is also given an acknowledgment in the book. Some have claimed that Dave Arneson being mentioned three times, Gary Gygax being mentioned twice, and Jennell Jaquays only being mentioned once in the book is intended as some sort of insult to Jennell’s legacy. If this is so, however, it was not my intention.
UPDATE: Will you be changing the name again?
No. As I’ve attempted to explain in as polite a way as possible, the primary reason for changing the name was because Jaquays’ name in the title was creating the false belief that either I did not write the article and/or that she or others had some legal and/or moral authority over my work.
It’s not so much that nothing has changed, but rather that recent events have proven that these concerns were completely justified and that the situation was, in fact, much worse than I had ever imagined. I am sorry for those who have been hurt by this, but unfortunately that makes the change no less necessary.
This article was updated in January 2024, as indicated above, to reflect discussions with the RPG trans community and to provide additional details as requested.
A longer reflection on these discussions, which may also answer other questions you may have, can be found in the Second Historical Note on Xandering.
PLEASE HELP MS. JAQUAYS
As I was working on this, Jennell Jaquays was hospitalized and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Her wife has posted a GoFundMe, and if you have the means, it would be really, really great if you could help her out.
Regardless of the reasons for the change – why did you pick ‘xander’? Is it derived from your own name? Or am I missing something here?
(This is especially weird now in the original article, since you explain that you were looking for a term reflecting the connection to Jaquays’ dungeons… and chose xandering. Maybe one of her dungeons used the name xander and I missed it?)
Sadly, I sat here for about five minutes trying to figure out where the term ‘xandering’ came from; why you would use that specific name as the replacement.
Five whole minutes.
It eventually sunk in.
And obviously, yes, you invented the word, the article still clearly honors Jaquays for being a pioneer of the technique, all is well and righteous.
(Of course, her having a swift recovery would make it even more righteous.)
I am glad that you were able to make this update, for both Jennell Jaquays and yourself. Here’s hoping that Ms. Jaquays makes a speedy recovery.
Jason,
That’s some heavy lifting you’re doing to both honor Jennell’s requests, and keep some very influential design theory content accessible and relevant. Glad that you two have been able to reach a mutually acceptable resolution.
Donated in her support, as well. I have a family friend recently diagnosed with G-B syndrome, as well. Good thoughts.
Props to you for trying to do the right thing and give credit for your inspiration for a good idea. I’m sorry it wound up costing you so much time and drama. Xandering is a way better name, though. Thanks for all you do. We get a lot out of the site.
The capacity of people to be self-righteous jerks on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. There’s a sad human desire to scream at someone and say, “You suck. I’m better than you!” that comes from a low place.
And it seems the Oeridian Goddess of Maps needs our help. I’d better start donating (and editing, and not for using her name as a verb, either).
Thank you for your hard and diligent work!
In this article
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/xandering-the-dungeon
I found this link (go to part 2) not working
http://xandering-the-dungeon-part-2-xandering-techniques/
Thanks for the heads up on the broken link! Should be fixed now.
Cheers lad ! These are some very clear processes
Ok, it took me 3 minutes 😂
To save anyone else… Xander is a shortened form of Alexander.
But as the concept involves cross linking dungeons, I think the leading X gives it a nice double meaning.
I’m still tying to make sense of why Xander Harris from the Buffyverse is involved…?
oh. (I kid)
I know you are acting with best intentions but is scrubbing away the person’s contribution so fully just for the sake of legal convenience really the good way to do this kind of change?
“Long story short, this created a legal question. Not an arduous or terrible one. But one that resulted in the conclusion, “There is some risk in using a word based on someone else’s name. Let’s not do that.” ”
How is using the proper noun “Xander” to form the verb “xandering” any different/less risky than using the proper noun “Jaquays” to form “jaquaying”?
You’re just shifting the risk of being called out by Ms Jaquay and other objecters to being called out by the Alexanders, and possibly others. I fully get the notion that Ms.Jaquay didn’t grant consent, but have you reached out to all of us Alexanders and the derivatives thereof?
Let’s make this simple, “I, Sandor, freely give you permission to verb my name and then refer to any aspect of non-linear dungeons with that verb: Sandor, Sandoring, Sandored, etc…”
Risk mitigated!
Sandor, a proud Son of Alexander
Completely understandable and clearly the right decision. Thanks for taking the time to break it down for us. Wishing Jennell Jaquays a swift recovery.
@David: Xander Harris did spend a lot of time in the “dungeons” under Sunnydale…
@Sandor: Oh, man. I wish you’d said something sooner. Could’ve saved me all the rigmarole of giving permission to myself.
@Iren: When people talk about “contributing” to an article or book, what they usually mean is writing some portion of that article or book. If that’s what you mean, I’ll note, again, that Jaquays was not a co-author on the article. I can’t “scrub away” her contribution, because she did not contribute to the article. This confusion over who wrote the article is exactly the problem I was talking about.
If by “scrubbing away [Jaquays’] contribution so thoroughly” you just mean to say that I removed references to Jaquays’ work… Well, I didn’t do that.
The word “delinearized” is crying in the corner, bereft of its rightful place in the ttrpg space.
Jokes aside, it’s matter of preference and you’ve the right to name it however you wish, I just find it a bit surprising such a (imho) perfectly fitting term was not chosen.
The reason I don’t like “delinearized” is that it implies you start by creating a linear dungeon and then de-linearize it. Whereas I think of these techniques, when they’re mastered, as being positive (a thing you do), rather than negative (don’t do that!).
This is also something that shaped the approach of my new book: I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time talking about stuff you shouldn’t do as a new GM. I wanted to focus on how to do the good stuff, because then you won’t need to, for example, railroad your players.
You, sir, are a frood who really knows where his towel is.
(And I’ll admit I spent a while wondering if Vin Diesel (ie. Xander Cage) had anything to do with the change.)
@Sandor. Come on, after reading all of that, you still misspelled her surname…
@Justin Alexander. I applaud your decision, but I’m sad you had to make it. We are a horrible species.
Or “looping”. “Looping” should be fine.
@Justin, us Defenders of Mankind have to look out for each other!
@Erik, thanks for catching my typos. I’m in post-op recovery for retinal surgery and am still adjusting to reading/writing blurred (to me) text. I apologize to Ms. Jaquays and hope for a swift mitigation of her illness. Having a health issue that can only be managed but not cured is a burden I wouldn’t wish on anyone else.
Super glad you made this change. I know it has been incredibly complex for you logistically and I applaud your comitment to ensuring Jennell’s wishes were met.
I have literally no idea what would motivate someone to make violent threats over such a thing. So, gentle readers, don’t take it me as supporting either ‘side’ — /I don’t know what the sides ARE/ — when I say it’s sad and pitiful that this level of acrimony is now routine.
Found an article that still used the old term, thought to bring it to your attention! Looking forward to your book!
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/40688/roleplaying-games/ptolus-running-the-campaign-dungeon-sequencing
@cygnus: Thank you! Got it!
Was there ever an effort to change the term to “jaquaysing”? It’s just a little strange to me that after all this time it’s being changed to something that isn’t explicitly what Jennell has gone on record to have preferred.
Comments attacking Jennell Jaquays for any reason have been and will be summarily deleted.
I cannot emphasize enough that I will have zero tolerance for this.
It’s her name. It’s my article. No one is the villain here. She has done absolutely nothing wrong. And there’s absolutely no excuse for being an asshole.
I comment only to add that I always thought it was “jaquaysing” the dungeon, precisely because of the “s” in her name. The new standard is already easier on my poor befuddled brain.
“Xandering” is easier to spell, anyway.
Your article on xandering the dungeon was one of the most influential articles on role-playing games that I’ve ever read and immediately converted me to a huge admirer of your work as a theorist, teacher and practictioner of role playing game design as well a huge admirer of Jennell Jacquays’ earlier work and influence.
I’m not sure which is the sweetest tribute, that you wanted to honour her orginally by using her name or that, now that she’s expressed her discomfort with how that ended up that you’ve put so much effort in to making the change in a way that still recognises her huge contribution.
I’m looking forward to the book very much and will chip in towards Jacquays’ medical bills.
I had heard that Jacquays wanted the term spelled properly, including the trailing “s,” but this is the first I have heard that she prefers to refuse the honor of the verb. I’m not challenging the validity of that preference but am curious as to its rationale. Can anyone summarize or better yet link to the explanation?
It feels like a bit of history and credit where credit due has been lost, and that makes me sad.
I came across xandering in your book (which brought me here) and it made me think of coming to a x-ing and having multiple options of which way to proceed, or at least that’s how I rationalized it.
uh… “interconnect”? To “interconnect” the dungeon? No?
I applaud your reasoning and efforts. I’m reading So You Want to be a Game Master and I was surprised to see you had changed the verb.
To those questioning why you didn’t use a generic verb like “interconnect”, I’d like to respond. “Xander” and “xandering” now refer to Justin Alexander’s theory and method of dungeon design. If one Googles “Xander dungeon” they are most likely brought to this website or another that references this website. You might think of this as the “Xander method” of dungeon design. If I adapted this method into my own distinctive version, I might call it the “Kendall method” or “ kendalling” for short. This way, potentially, several methods of interconnected dungeon design can coexist and be discernible from each other.
I’m here today in sadness to give silent appreciation one more time related to this article and the amazing body of work which Jennell Jaquays created to inspire it. Today is a sad day for RPGs.
RIP Jennell Jaquays, a sad loss. Caverns of Thracia (1979) will ALWAYS be my all time favourite D&D Module!
This was enlightening. I’m early in reading your book and in the light of Jennell’s passing, it’s all the more poignant. Thank you for your clarity and your sincere effort to memorialize Jennell’s amazing contributions.
“She wanted the term changed [to ‘Jaquays’ and ‘Jaquaysing,’ with an S, the correct spelling of her last name] so I changed it to my name!” come on man
Ummm… based on the screenshots of Jennell’s comments from this blog post: https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2024/01/xandering-is-slandering.html, it looks like Jennell was just asking that you not deadname her and just inlclude the “s” in her last name (ex. Jaquaysing the dungeon). Retroactively naming a dungeon design philosophy after yourself comes across as disingenuous. You say in this article that “After a bunch of back-and-forth, we finally settled on the term “xandering.” And so, from this point forward, my dungeons will be thoroughly xandered.” Can you provide evidence of this? Otherwise everyone is just taking your word on it that Jennell didn’t want her name used at all, when it appears that that isn’t exactly the case.
I was very eager to buy your book – until I saw how you misrepresented a request for proper spelling from on of my RPG heroes to turn around and try to steal their thunder for yourself FROM THEIR DEATHBED. You are despicable Justin. Misrepresent how you like, the truth always comes out and your weaseling explanation will come apart in a hurry.
I don’t fully understand the logic here. Your original article is an explanation and discussion of concepts that Jaquays pioneered. You quoted her and harkened back to her own designs in every chapter.
You may have provided a great service to the GMs of the internet by analyzing and breaking down her concepts to better their understanding of them, but I’m not seeing the justification for applying your own name to the term. It doesn’t read like you’ve developed her style into something that is distinctly your own. I spent a lot of time in school studying the works of Bertolt Brecht and writing essays about his style. I can’t imagine publishing one of those essays and trying to refer to his methods as ‘Magnian Theatre’. It would make me the laughing stock of my entire cohort, and permanently label me as a fool to every single person who was aware that I had attempted it. Pointing to other artists who used similar methods would not save me from this fate.
You are free to do whatever you want and use whatever terms you want – this is your website, after all – but I really think you’ve made a mistake here. This is going to have permanent negative ramifications for your reputation.
I mean this in good faith– Why change it to your name? It seems that she wanted it changed to “Jaquaysing” with an S, why not simply honor her wishes? I don’t understand the purpose behind altering it.
It really shouldn’t be a big deal, just change it to “Jaquaysing” and have done with it. It’s okay to make mistakes
I understand the POV of those who believe I’m some sort of crazy liar. If that were true, it would be “no big deal” to just change the name.
But, in equally good faith, Grant, since I know that I’m NOT a liar, what you’re asking me to do is ignore and change the outcome of my last conversation with Jennell for my own convenience now that she’s dead.
IMO, that would be the mistake. And it’s not a mistake I’m willing to make.
I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of Simon Magnus. This entire article seems to be a flimsy justificiation for taking the hard work of a tragically now-deceased transgender woman, misnaming her for years, pretending it is somehow a massive deal for you to fix said misnaming, and finally just pasting your OWN NAME over hers in published content.
She deserves better, Justin. And you can do better. Your sad actions have been making the rounds on the TTRPG tumblr community, and many of us GMs have consequently already vowed to use the term “Jaquaysing” in perpetuity. If you really can’t see the tragedy of overwriting a trans woman’s legacy by replacing her name with your own on a fundamental bit of game design, I’m not sure you ever really understood this community.
@Jay Smith
This is completely false. Justin credits Jaquays on this blog, in his book and in every stream whenever the topic comes up. In fact, if Justin didn’t originally took her as such an example, we could question how much recognition she would’ve gotten to begin with.
Like, you can criticize the name change on its own terms (I’m not happy with xandering myself), but claiming that Justin is some sort of evil schemer transphobe is vile and hits the wrong target.
It is exceedingly hard to give you the benefit of the doubt here considering your previous conduct over the name. You left her name wrong for years no matter how many times she expressed her discomfort about it, including posting a comment directly on your blog to request that you change it, decide to change the term to your own name when she consistently, repeatedly, and publicly only ever requested that you correct the spelling, and then ask everyone to respect your wishes by going back and changing the term to your new one? It’s a huge ask to go back and add an S, but it’s no big deal to completely redact the name and redirect the URL to Xandering? Why not follow her simple request the first time rather than fighting it for years and years and never have to rebrand in the first place? Your response to all of this has completely eroded the respect I once had for you.
She wanted it changed from “Jaquaying” to “Jaquaysing”.
Seems pretty simple. Just spell it with the S, you don’t need to do this huge stupid song and dance out of correcting a typo.
Why wasn’t this done with Melan Diagrams, named after Gabor Lux, cited right here in this very same article? Gabor is clearly credited, and the reader is directed both to where they can read more in the thinker’s own words and also more of Justin’s analysis of their thought.
This entire revision appears profoundly false, and embarrassingly self-serving.
Dunno where this brigade came from, but as someone who’s been following this blog since the first “jaquaying the dungeon” post was written:
(a) From the beginning, Justin made a big deal of crediting Jaquays as the inspiration for his analysis.
(b) At the time, Jaquays was more obscure than she is now (that article was literally the first time I heard of her).
(c) He could have called the idea anything anything at all, from the beginning, but chose “jaquaying” to give credit
(d) Caverns of Thracia was published under her deadname, and the original essay used her adopted name, so it’s not like it was a surprise that she’s trans.
(e) People hate change, and will complain about any change at all for any reason, so it would have been much easier to just leave it alone
(f) Justin has over the years repeatedly described Jacquays’ work with words like “pioneering”, “excelling”, and “timeless”. It’s clear he regards her as a role model.
(g) Jacquays was still alive when this revision was posted, and could easily have spoken up to object.
Given all that, I personally find it implausible to absurd that he would invent a last conversation with her in order to deface his own work, dishonor a living idol, and stir up an internet mob like you lot.
For what it’s worth, as a longtime reader, I’d always thought of “Jaquaying” as one of those compromises to the nominative form in the service of morphophonology. Sort of like how the theory developed by Richard Montague is “Montagovian”. If Jaquays didn’t like it, then she didn’t like it…but it’s not *automatically* a case of “HOW VERY DARE YOU DISRESPECT THIS PERSON’S NAME”.
Colin,
Per point d, your memory is not correct. See the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20120310034006/http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon
To clarify: Jennell was not out at the time. There was no way that the original essay could have avoided use of her deadname. Though when she did come out, and this fact was brought to Justin’s attention, it certainly could have been corrected much more promptly.
linearizing is a verb. What the heck was wrong with non-linearizing instead of naming it after yourself?
I agree with colin. This is a case of no good deed goes unpunished.
Justin did the analysis, wrote the articles, credited Jaquays for the inspiration, AND named it after her. He went above and beyond what most others would do.
But then there was a problem with the name he coined. Ultimately he changes the name of it. He still did the analysis, wrote the articles, and credited Jaquays for the inspiration, which is still above and beyond what most others would do.
Irrespective of what actually happened and how the people involved felt about it, I’d wager that there are risks in naming something after a well-known person who isn’t 100% satisfied with it. And those risks might change or become worse when the person dies and the estate may think differently about it.
just because someone is alive absolutely does not mean they can easily respond to discourse on the internet! she was hospitalized since at least the time of publishing, the article even says so! don’t you think that may make it a little difficult to make a statement?
@mzako could you please tell me where in the book he credits her? After going over the sections about “xandering”, I went back to go over the entire chapter about dungeons. I did not find her cited at all. I went over the index – no luck. Did I miss somewhere else obvious?
It is in the Acknowledgements: “Jennell Jaquays is the ultimate guru when it comes to xandering the dungeon.” (p.649 Kindle Edition)
@John thank you! That’s page 537 in the print edition I have.
For some reason I wasn’t expecting acknowledgements to be in the back. I will note that Arneson and Gygax, unlike her, are mentioned in the Dungeons chapter itself, in the Advanced Dungeons section, page 141 in the same print edition. It specifically cites their Castle Darkmoor and Castle Grayhawk as megadungeon campaigns. Which makes the fact that Jennell’s The Caverns of Thracia is not mentioned by name in the section about “xandering” all the more peculiar.
I’ve been reading this blog on and off since “Jaquaying the Dungeon” was first published, and I do credit you for raising my awareness of Ms. Jaquays’ contributions to the hobby, but this change feels real shitty. I’ll be sticking with “Jaquaysing”.
At first I thought that the new term is somehow derived from the logical operation XAND, where two Boolean inputs (TRUE or FALSE) of result in a Boolean result of TRUE so long as the inputs weren’t both TRUE (only inputs of TRUE and TRUE get a result of FALSE – any other combination turns up TRUE).
Now I’m trying to figure out how that interpretation could fit the definition whether you planned it or not!
“If the dungeon has multiple paths, then it cannot be linear, and if it is a linear dungeon, then it cannot have multiple possible paths.”?
Unfortunately, I have to second #59.
I am a very big fan of many of your posts, but the self-aggrandizement in naming the process of applying techniques others created after yourself (even if you categorized these techniques) is rather distasteful.
I’m not sure whether this will put me off buying your book, I haven’t kicked it off my wish list yet, but I might depending on the whims of my conscience in the future, and I will definitely not be using this verb form of your name you have coined.
*To be really clear here: I wrote the article. I invented the word (both the old one and the new one). I created the categories of techniques and level connectors. It’s my work.*
This is a take. She designed the dungeons and created the style. You identified it as an archeologist or software design pattern analysis, and suddenly her labor is your work.
And you doing this, claiming that Jaquays technique and labor is *your* work, isn’t trans erasure.
#63.
Jaquays created The Temple of Elemental Evil and also the sample dungeon from the White Box?
That’s a fuckin’ wild claim.
Ya got any supporting evidence for it?
#63:
Alexander does not claim her work. He claims the article, the invention of the word(s), and the classification of techniques. Mr Melvin Dewey did not claim all books when he invented the Dewey Decimal Classification.
I’ve read both the original article and Justin’s book, and I find them to be excellent. I support Justin and have had the opportunity to discuss his work with him on several occasions. He consistently acknowledges and references the contributions of others, demonstrating his depth of thought in the realm of TTRPGs and literature as a whole.
Justin’s ability to analyze and synthesize various concepts into a cohesive whole on his blog is both impressive and valuable to the community and he has been providing quality content for years. I’m also familiar with Jennell Jaquays’ work, which Justin has respectfully featured and credited in his book and blog. Her contributions to our community were significant, and her absence is keenly felt.
While I understand the sensitivity around the use of her name, I believe the focus should be on honoring Jennell Jaquays’ contributions, which Justin has consistently done, rather than the particulars of the debate over the name.
It’s unfortunate that the issue, which seemed resolved in November 2023, is being revisited. The emphasis should be on appreciating the lasting contributions of both Jennell Jaquays and Justin Alexander to our community, rather than on the controversy.
It’s a reminder that we should focus on the positive impacts of individuals like Jennell and Justin, who have both enriched our community greatly.
It’s ironic that you’d have fewer hate mobs after you if you’d never mentioned Jaquays in the first place.
This will teach you to show respect and admiration to historical persons! Take THAT, Justin! How dare you attribute your own article to an unknown celebrity years ago. How dare you spread their history and honor their legacy.
I hope this entire fiasco teaches you to never love or respect any person, especially a trans person, for any reason! How dare you! Villain!!
(To any reader, this is sarcastic to show that the needless drama and attacks on such a generous and kind person such as Justin is only teaching people in society to shun and avoid others, especially trans people, out of fear they will be canceled in the future over nothing. The IRONY is he would’ve been better off NEVER even mentioning her. Never letting anyone know of her legacy. And just calling it Xandering at the start. These outraged people are teaching everyone in society to fear being good and respectful to others. Bc doing so might being you pain.)
Maybe we should call you Gary, instead of Justin?
@C: Wait… is the implication here that I’m secretly Gary Gygax in disguise?
Huh.
I didn’t see that one coming.
What a thief. Nice dick move, Justin, stealing Janelle’s technique and branding it with your name. Of course you would take the bait of calling you Gary with an ego the size of yours.
Ah. Just a random troll who has no idea what they’re talking about and can’t even spell Jennell’s name correctly.
Suddenly the weird non sequitur you posted earlier makes a lot more sense.
New name sounds cooler! Thanks for the update, would have confused me otherwise.