Dear WotC - You suck at names.

[Doug McCrae]

I prefer Gygaxian naming conventions

Seriously? You like Nosnra, Acererak, Stoink, Hochoch, Grygax and Ugdru Forest?

Admittedly not all of them are bad. Mordenkainen and the Theocracy of the Pale are quality but in general Gary doesn't have much of an ear for names.

Incidentally Crystalmist sounds just like a modern WotC fantasy name, like Icehorn or Thronehold.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Crystalmist sounds like a no-carb drink powder.
Acererak's not terrible.
Ugrdu puts me in mind of Ogdru Jahad, which is never bad. God I hope I spelled that right.
The rest are absolute pants, though.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'm not fond of shadow-anything, due to overuse, although I do appreciate the double (triple?) meaning of fell. How about sombrefell, greyfell, gloomfell, or just The Fell?

 

[RigaMortus2]

I'm not fond of shadow-anything, due to overuse, although I do appreciate the double (triple?) meaning of fell. How about sombrefell, greyfell, gloomfell, or just The Fell?

Why does it have to be Fell? Why not The Stumble or The Trip?

 

[rounser]

Why does it have to be Fell? Why not The Stumble or The Trip?

Or you could go for the War- theme, along the lines of -forged, -blade, -lord etc. with something like Warhuhwhatisitgoodforabsolutelynuthinsingitagainuh.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Why does it have to be Fell? Why not The Stumble or The Trip?

Because they're using fell as a noun or nominalized adjective rather than a verb.

 

[Doug McCrae]

And I still prefer them over pre-teen style creativity

Gygaxian name-reversing is very much the type of activity children do. I remember doing it.

Typical naming styles for teenagers would be changing 'i' to 'y', or 'c' to 'k'. Like Bill & Ted's band, Wyld Stallyns. 1337speak is a similar idea.

Apostrophes, unpronounceable names (like Drizzt) and compound names where one of the words is 'death', 'blade', 'dark' or 'fire' look rather teenager-y to me. Or maybe they're just crap.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Bob is a good fantasy name. Best of all, it can be Gygaxed as Bob as well.

Bobdale!

There's something about the particular way that the portmanteau is employed in "Feywild", however, that makes it sound modern and bland.

Feywild sounds like a subdivision to me. "Welcome to Feywild! 36 holes of golf, and a swim park, too!"

Feywild? or Emerald Dream?

Didn't they do the soundtrack for Ladyhawke?

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Didn't they do the soundtrack for Ladyhawke?

Alan Parson... *shudder*

Curse that name to the Nine Hells for ruining an otherwise enjoyable fantasy movie.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Alan Parson... *shudder*

Curse that name to the Nine Hells for ruining an otherwise enjoyable fantasy movie.

Whaddaya know, it was Alan Parsons. For some reason, I was thinking Tangerine Dream.