Naming Fourth Edition

[Khuxan]

Really? The first thing that springs to my mind is A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by Pan's Labyrinth, followed distantly by the Seelie/Unseelie Courts. The first two, at least, are things that a large percentage of people are aware of (Midsummer's has been required reading for most people I know, and Pan's Labyrinth was pretty popular). You'll note that all of them include the concept of less-than-friendly faeries.

Maybe I'm just weird though.

Midsummer's Night Dream might have unfriendly fairies, but they're still a joke. Save the town from the one they call... Mustardseed.

 

[Elphilm]

Save the town from Oberon's wrath...

 

[Hussar]

Ripping off mythology is exactly what they should be doing! That's what it's for! That's where D&D gets it's "mythological resonance"!

Mythological resonance is good; arbitrary, contrived and "kewl-sounding" names bad. There's also the technique of appropriating a real but disused word (say, paladin) and redefining it's meaning into a new mold, if there's no direct fit.

Meh. Again, D&D survived with a plethora of "kewl-sounding" names.

Hey, Drawmij, Alucard would like his schtick back thanks!

Come on, D&D is littered with anagrams, joke names, ridiculous, unpronounceable crap that's now cool. How do you say Tsojcanth? Mordenkainen? Who the heck was he? Ixitxatchitl (if I spelled that right)? Murlylynd?

There's no reason that we can't have both. I'm pretty sure that 4e will have the medusa. Or the gorgon. Neither of which look much like their mythological counterparts, but, whatever. Making up names for crap is what D&D has ALWAYS done. How is this any different?

 

[Cthulhudrew]

My question to those that don't like the names is: what names do you like? How should game designers come up with new fantasy names?

How about just using the old names and concepts that have been well established in D&D lore rather than creating new ones?

A wild, faerie plane?

Spirit Plane, probably.

The descendents of dragons?

Dragonkin- but I wouldn't have them be humanoids, in all likelihood.

The plane where dead souls go?

Limbo, if you're only using one plane.

The fey inhabitants of the Feywild?

Fey or faeries.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Thing is, new words don't carry meaning in and of themselves. Let us say I have a new race, and I call them the "quafoodle" - that tells you exactly zero about them. Without some reference, the names fail to be evocative.

Note that generally, the old names weren't new words. Dwarf, elf, and Hades were called what they were so that folks would have a handle on the thing. Sure, in each case the game's version differed from the mythological or fictional referent, but they retained enough similarities to bring up images in your mind.

"Shadowlands", btw, didn't originate with Exalted. That's another old name for the fey places in a good deal of literature.

True enough, but it's not like "feywild" or "shadowfell" are non-evocative. When I see "feywild" I think of a wild land inhabited by fey creatures... kind of like what WotC intends. When I see "shadowfell" I think of a desolate, shadow-shrouded moor or valley... kind of like what WotC intends. Works for me.

The problem, incidentally, with "Hades" is IMHO a bit different; namely, that its origin in classical mythology doesn't really quite fit with D&D's quasi-medieval default "setting."

All that said, naming conventions in D&D strike me as simply having to be campaign specific. A certain kind of name sounds right in the Forgotten Realms that may not be portable over to Eberron, etc. (I simply dislike Greyhawk names in general, but that's a separate issue.) A campaign world that is a mish-mash of different fantasy and folklore elements (like Arduin back in the day, or Greyhawk to some extent) works fine with using distinctively real-world folkloric names, whereas something like Eberron or the Realms really requires a new set of names that may be related to RW names for purposes of resonance, but not necessarily exact copies.

 

[LostSoul]

How would you name:
A wild, faerie plane?
The descendents of dragons?
The plane where dead souls go?
The fey inhabitants of the Feywild?

The Wild
Dragonkin
The Dark (or The Void)
Fey

 

[werk]

How would you name:
A wild, faerie plane?
The descendents of dragons?
The plane where dead souls go?
The fey inhabitants of the Feywild?

Fairyland.
Drakken.
Heaven (comes in 31 flavors).
Fairies.


The main thing here is to not make up names that are hard to read/remember or embarassing to say out loud. About the only thing worse than playing an elf would be playing a fairy.

 

[Talassa]

There's been a lot of complaints about the names used in Fourth Edition - stuff like Feywild, Dragonborn, Shadow Fell and Eladrin. My question to those that don't like the names is: what names do you like? How should game designers come up with new fantasy names?

How would you name:
A wild, faerie plane?
The descendents of dragons?
The plane where dead souls go?
The fey inhabitants of the Feywild?

1) Otherworld
2) Saurians
3) Underworld
4) Fae

P.S. But then again, my references are more things like Artesia and Chivalry & Sorcery rather than Exalted and Anime.

 

[Hussar]

Saurians aren't anime? Really? You sure on that one? Nor is Underworld? Then again, I suppose that's less Exalted and more WOD. ((And, yes, I am aware of the origins))

Reading this, I realize that, as bad as I might think D&D names are, D&D fan names are no better and are often worse. Heck, there's a whole breed of outsiders I refuse to take seriously because they're named for an Eastern European car.

Complaining about stupid names in D&D at this point in time seems a bit ... well... closing the barn door after the horse got out.