Dear 4e, Please Stop with the Horrible Portmanteaus!

[Rechan]

In the real world, things are named one of three ways:

1) Named after someone.

2) Named for a descriptive characteristic.

3) A word chosen from a native language to describe it.

Using place names as a running example, Jamestown after King Games. Virginia was named after the "Virgin Queen". Georgia after King George. Washington after... guess.

As for descriptors... I live near a place called "Middletown". I can think of others: Grey Rapids, the Rocky Mountains, Capetown (town on the cape), White Plains, Strawberry Fields. The list goes on.

As to native langauges: Chicago is just Native American for "onion field". Chattanooga is Muskogean for "rock dwelling".

This happens all the time with animals too. "Kangaroo" is just Aboriginal for "big animal". Pretty sure the Prevost squirrel was named after some guy named Prevost.

But you see this the most with descriptive names: Big mouth bass, red snapper, snapping turtle, prairie dog, ground squirrel, red-tailed howk, ringtailed lemur, ringtail (a different animal), red wolf, grey wolf/timber wolf, maned wolf, red fox (and silver fox and so on), mountain lion (or Florida panther), FLYING squirrel, mountain goat, barn owl, musk deer, mule deer, white tailed deer, black backed jackal, big horned sheep, brown bear, black bear, grizzly (that's an adjective) bear, polar bear, honey badger, snow leopard (real inventive there), laughing/spotted hyena, striped hyena, ghost bat, flying fox (another bat), kangaroo rat, dung beetle, stag beetle, praying mantis, black widow spider, wolf spider, brown recluse, camel spider, water beetle, water spider, diving beetle, trap door spider, jumping spider...

Or we could just pick animal names that are smooshed together: hedgehog, bobcat, polecat, rattlesnake (there's even a DIAMONDBACK rattlesnake), reindeer, funnelweb spider, whiptail scorpion, grasshopper, dragonfly, anteater, ladybug, bumblebee, mockingbird, yellowjacket...

And of course folklore did the same thing: werewolf, bugbear, hobgoblin.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I heartily approve.



Szponburza works well enough. Since szp doesn't occur in English, I'd probably happily shorten it to Sponburza.

I'd just call them "spooning scorpions."

 

[The Ghost]

I think that WotC does quite well with their naming conventions on the M:tG side of the company. Consider the creature names from their Zendikar expansion:

Bala Ged Thief
Blood Seeker
Bloodghast
Bog Tatters
Crypt Ripper
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Giant Scorpion
Guul Draz Specter
Guul Draz Vampire
Hagra Crocodile
Hagra Diabolist
Halo Hunter
Heartstabber Mosquito
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
Malakir Bloodwitch
Mindless Null
Nimana Sell-Sword
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Surrakar Marauder
Vampire Hexmage
Vampire Lacerator
Vampire Nighthawk

There seems to be a nice mix between portmanteaus, real words, and made-up words. Nothing too difficult to pronounce and everything seems to fit well together. I would prefer the D&D side of the company follow suit.

 

[Garnfellow]

I think that WotC does quite well with their naming conventions on the M:tG side of the company. Consider the creature names from their Zendikar expansion . . .

Yup, MtG has generally had very cool names, so it's not like there's something in the water supply at Renton. Sengir vampire: What the heck is Sengir? Probably a place. The word sounds nasty, and since it has vampires it must one bad-ass place.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I think the problem lies not in the names themselves, but in the sheer number of them. An Owlbear is cool, but when you have Owlbears, goatpigs, cowdogs, and dragonlemmings behind every tree, it gets annoying. Who needs that many monsters?

 

[Garnfellow]

I'm afraid I'm finding these arguments of "hey, I found a stupid name once from 1e" or "hey, here's a real-life example of a portmanteau" profoundly unpersuasive defenses of the bad 4e portmanteaus.

(And keep in mind, I'm not objecting to any & all portmanteaus, just the boring/uninformative/unimaginative ones which seem to be legion.)

 

[Scribble]

I think the problem lies not in the names themselves, but in the sheer number of them. An Owlbear is cool, but when you have Owlbears, goatpigs, cowdogs, and dragonlemmings behind every tree, it gets annoying. Who needs that many monsters?

No one, and everyone.

When I envision my D&D campaign world, I don't really envision it crammed to the brim with ALL of the available monsters. That would just be downright funny.

It would be like a clown car full of teeth, and fireballs, and acid damage...

But it's nice to have such a wide choice in what IS eventually included in the world.

 

[Rechan]

And your argument consists of "I don't like these! They sound bad!"

So? I don't mind them. I much prefer them to "here's a non-pronouncible word that's an alphabet soup factory explosion of letters."

It's a matter of taste.

 

[Ourph]

In the real world, things are named one of three ways:

1) Named after someone.

2) Named for a descriptive characteristic.

3) A word chosen from a native language to describe it.

Not to mention that #3 is almost always #1 or #2 if you look at it in the context of the original language.

 

[Rechan]

No one, and everyone.

When I envision my D&D campaign world, I don't really envision it crammed to the brim with ALL of the available monsters. That would just be downright funny.

It would be like a clown car full of teeth, and fireballs, and acid damage...

But it's nice to have such a wide choice in what IS eventually included in the world.

This.

Hell, I do the same with races. Whatever races my PCs want to play with their first PCs are the only common races in the world. Other than that, everything else is rare/one of a kind, unique in some fashion, or new on the scene.