Utalia: Yeah or Nay?

[Leopold]

It has come to my attention that the Utalia info might not be acceptable for everyone. If everyone can please look over it that has a concern about it and post what needs to be changed or altered and then we can either approve it or disaprove it, it would be greatly appreicated.

You can find it here:
http://www.d20reviews.com/Daemonforge/documents/Utalia.doc

 

[GreyOne]

I can't remember who wrote this. Was it Sidran? I think there's a ton of creative stuff in there, I just really don't like the anglicized names (or the Spanish ones). Whenever I see one it automatically creates a disturbance in my mental picture of the world.

Some of it is in the glossary, though I don't have time this morning to check.

 

[Leopold]

I can't remember who wrote this. Was it Sidran? I think there's a ton of creative stuff in there, I just really don't like the anglicized names (or the Spanish ones). Whenever I see one it automatically creates a disturbance in my mental picture of the world.

Some of it is in the glossary, though I don't have time this morning to check.

is this an issue with the names, if so why? What's wrong with spanish or anglicized names?


Other than that what other issues is there?

 

[GreyOne]

Like I said, it creates a jarring disturbance in my mental picture of the world. To me, it's like reading a Conan story and having him meet a Roberto or a Samson while travelling through Aquilonia.

 

[Leopold]

Like I said, it creates a jarring disturbance in my mental picture of the world. To me, it's like reading a Conan story and having him meet a Roberto or a Samson while travelling through Aquilonia.

ture, but you would get all sorts of linguistical oddities. I can see spanish names appearing as well as african, aborigninie, or perhaps french. As long as it coincides with the realm in questions is fine, I prefer a well rounded nationality to draw from so the player cannot just be limited to germanic/english type names. Heck we have names that sound klingon but they are in there. If roberto rodriguez is in there I have no issue with it, but it's on an island nation (picture puerto rico) and that's utalia. We can change the names if you like, feel free to edit them and send the draft to me. I don't think whomever did this is on here.

Rangerwickett what's your thoughts oh DF editor?

 

[RangerWickett]

What was everyone's problems with it? I would like to see a little more clarification on what the step-city looks like, since it's kind of vague right now whether the buildlings are built on the steps, or if they are dug into the island like caves.

As for the names, I'd like either a little more consistency ("I am Thomas Vespucci de Gato of the island of Utali, and this is my wife, Lalilulelo Stormwinder, from the Island of the Dragon's Teeth"), but that's a problem for the whole setting, at least somewhat. I kinda like eclecticism, and it certainly fits the feel of DF, what with the interbreeding and such, but I do know that some people don't like real world stuff intruding into fantasy. What I normally do is take real words and change them a little, or use Latin, since almost no one complains about Latin. Sometimes I might use more obscure languages, like the "Ken'onna warriors of Chi'niko," which is a slight twist on the Japanese for "Sword Women of Little Cat."

Maybe instead of things like "Roderiguez de la Loca," you could mess with them a bit and have "Roderages dal Loces." Keep a similar pattern to real-world languages, without messing with people's suspension of disbelief.

Wasn't there something involving psionics with Utali? Or am I confused? People might have been unhappy with the psionics, I suppose.

 

[GreyOne]

Okay, RW, I'm with you on that. Changing the real-world names enough so that they do not jar me out of my suspension of belief is good, similiar to George Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. ex. Eddard instead of Edward.

I don't think the campaign has a bunch of English sounding names either, and if it did that would be even more jarring. The names should be exotic and otherworldly. Names that you wouldn't encounter on Earth, especially in modern times.

Maybe we should come up with the languages spoken and build names from that for some internal consistency.

Example; Islandspecht (and its many dialects) is the language spoken in the Shattered Isles (is 'specht' a German word? I didn't know when I wrote it).

Common is spoken in the Kessel and is of course the mixed tongue that developed.

Kesselan is the ancient tongue spoken by the original Kessela before the other peoples came.

 

[Leopold]

Okay, RW, I'm with you on that. Changing the real-world names enough so that they do not jar me out of my suspension of belief is good, similiar to George Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. ex. Eddard instead of Edward.

I don't think the campaign has a bunch of English sounding names either, and if it did that would be even more jarring. The names should be exotic and otherworldly. Names that you wouldn't encounter on Earth, especially in modern times.

Maybe we should come up with the languages spoken and build names from that for some internal consistency.

Example; Islandspecht (and its many dialects) is the language spoken in the Shattered Isles (is 'specht' a German word? I didn't know when I wrote it).

Common is spoken in the Kessel and is of course the mixed tongue that developed.

Kesselan is the ancient tongue spoken by the original Kessela before the other peoples came.

languages: Hmm interesting topic. How do we approach it?

Sprecht is speak in german.

ok now someone is going to have to 'butcher' the names, maybe come up with a standard way to go about chaging the names. Anyone care to grab the 'offending' names and post them for us to go over? GreyOne you seem to know which ones are in question can you do this so we can discuss them?

 

[GreyOne]

Sure. People probably won't agree, but this has always been a sticking point for me.

 

[Leopold]

Sure. People probably won't agree, but this has always been a sticking point for me.

so far noone has DISAGREED so lets take RW's idea and go with it...make those changes as you see fit and then shoot me it via email bd_92@yahoo.com. I will then post the changes for one week. Any complaints we revise it. No complaints we post it as gospel.