Community Focus Poll - RPG Name Testing, Round 2

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:36 pm

echoVanguard wrote:
shadzar wrote:Dagger conjures a very specific imagine, a knife, storm conjures a lot of something surrounding the environment. Daggerstorm conjures the image of a bunch of daggers flying around in the air, or raining down.

is this the image you intended? is it the theme or concept?
It's fairly consistent with one of the core themes of the setting, which is uprising and conflict. Daggers are also iconic weapons in the game rules, in addition to being metaphorically potent as icons of betrayal and division.

echo

ok now there is a bit more theme, and dagger seems to fit, but storm doesnt as you further description conjures up assassinations with the betrayal...the storm COULD be the number of or plague of assassinations...

if that is the case, the Daggerstorm isnt quite refined yet to confer that at jsut looking at the name, but it connects to Nemesis Age...

I wouldnt suggest Nemesis Dagger though, as that doesnt make sense even though it seems to be closer to the theme i am understanding.

uprising, conflict, betrayal...with daggers as a symbol of this? hmmm...

im getting a TONS of ideas, need for one to come clear and i will give you a bunch of names that seem to conjure ALL of those bits from my POV.

right now i am seeing Game of Thrones a fitting title for the series as it focuses on the "game" of who gets to be in the "throne"..and trying to connect similar with daggers.

this requires food.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:37 pm

Echo wrote:The difficulty with that is that many of the understandings we possess of what differentiate a Tabletop RPG only make sense in retrospect.

I think that's OK to a degree, though. Otherwise, you run the risk of coming up with something overly generic.

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:42 pm

after rest and food, i came up with only one name that didnt have a spin off of D&D sounding...

Dagger('s) Point

it involves the iconic symbol of the overturning of power, as well the overturning itself. it implies lots of violent things, harsh social climate, you think stabby-stabby when you think of daggers, thanks to D&D.

Point also can infer a location like Lover's Point, so if the central government is being overturned, here again you have the uprising and conflict keyed to a specific place. You can even name the capitol Dagger's Point to really tie the central theme together if you wanted.

this is where it starts, but the game can go elsewhere.

sadly.. i am sure such a name has been used probably at least once...

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:31 pm

Why worry about a name? Why not focus on your game's timing? How often do you want things to happen?

Then the sorts of stories you want to tell, and how will their events be timed out. Having "plot time" and "combat" and "travel" time separated clearly from each other, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Then the sorts of characters you want to use to tell these stories. Is it spess freebootaz, or tiamat knights

Make sure you're using Frank's Game Design Flowchart to go anywhere beyond characters.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:45 pm

What makes you think they haven't already done that?

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:02 am

Still don't like any of them, but dislike Nemesis Age least. "None of The Above" should really be one of your options.

Daggerstorm sounds like a Katherine Kerr Novel.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 6:52 am

Bihlbo wrote:Nemesis Age : don't like it because a) I'm assuming a nemesis from the fact that it's a game, the title doesn't need it; b) mentioning an age is totally uninteresting because it has no context
Sevenspell : don't like it because a) now I feel like I have to know why there's a number in the name, and I assume it's a far-too-important number, like one I'm going to have to keep calculating over and over - and if I'm wrong and it's just there to sound cool, then it's infuriating and I'll get my money back out of spite; b) it being a spell is as interesting as it being an age, and for the same reasons
Daggerstorm : the worst of the bunch because a) it sounds like a spell title; b) are daggers really that important to the setting? they shouldn't be; c) unless the game preeminently features something called a daggerstorm or fighting with daggers this is meaningless and infuriating
Bootstraps : I like this one because it evokes the phrase "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" and that makes me think of something fun to do with a character. Because the word refers to an insignificant object, around which no one could really build a setting, it makes me want to explore it further.

This pretty much. Bootstraps is the only appealing one because it sounds like the name of an RPG that primarily features a gritty, low magic, hard scrabble setting.

Daggerstorm will do well in marketing shit because it's a dynamic name. It does honestly drive some interest for a moment until you think for a moment and realize, "wait, that makes no sense. Is there some world threatening storm of daggers floating around or something?"

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:10 am

Prak_Anima wrote: Daggerstorm will do well in marketing shit because it's a dynamic name. It does honestly drive some interest for a moment until you think for a moment and realize, "wait, that makes no sense. Is there some world threatening storm of daggers floating around or something?"

And that would be fucking awesome.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:25 am

Yes, it would. And then you look at the book and find "Oh, it's just some political bullshit court intrigue thing *thpbt.* Nevermind."

echoVanguard · Post by **echoVanguard** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:41 pm

Judging__Eagle wrote:Why worry about a name?

Primarily for reasons of copyright and trademarking at this juncture. In order to bring our product to market, we need to have our ducks in a row with regard to brand identity well in advance of actually selling printed books. That means that we need to have a very clear idea of what sort of name we want so that we can begin the lengthy process of negotiating an unclaimed one.

echo

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:16 pm

Sounds to me like you're pigeon holing yourself before you even know what your product is going to be. I took about... 8 months before I settled down on Gilgamesh and Sumer as the focus of my setting; and the history goes back on an other 2,000 years of history recounting "The Flood of Shuppurak", Shuppurak being supposedly a 9,000 year old city that the 7,000 year old Epic of Gilgamesh quotes and correlates with.

Telling people that they're supposed to help defend the first "anti-flood" bunker will be interesting. A wooden cube coated in pitch with a slate roof is not going anywhere; but it's sure as hell going to have a good chance of surviving a major flood.

Running my game as a Rifts-Senzar-Dungeons & Dragons; Heavy Metal; Screaming Metal story, "In the times of Before. Before the Epic of Gilgamesh was told." The Title of the story, obvious, the name of this product can be shortened to Before!.

echoVanguard · Post by **echoVanguard** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:07 pm

Judging__Eagle wrote:Sounds to me like you're pigeon holing yourself before you even know what your product is going to be.

No, we've got a pretty solid thematic scope - I just haven't discussed it too openly on this board. Rest assured that any names in the poll have been thoroughly vetted for relevance to the game's core concepts.

echo

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:22 pm

Sounds like Cloak and Dagger would be the obvious choice.

The Gaming Den

Community Focus Poll - RPG Name Testing, Round 2

Which name do you like most for a fantasy-based Tabletop RPG?