Help me name my Runepunk RPG!

[blargney the second]

A little lateral thinking: I prefer games that are named for what you do. As names go (no judgement on the games themselves), Shadowrun is awesome for the exact same reasons that GURPS is not.

What do you do in your game?
-blarg

 

[Ilium]

Ooh. Good one Byron's Ghost!

Omegablade: Adventures under the Wyrm Sun

 

[Spinachcat]

Scanning the first post, the only unique term that lept out at my was Wyrm Sun. So, I say you go with that one. Sure, it's slightly close to Dragon Star, but a cover with a barbarian dude lasering a dragon on a blasted landscape should be enough to drive the point home..

I never picked up Dragonstar, but I read some good reviews. My understanding was the game was an OGL game inspired by Spelljammer. As my game is OGL game inspired by Gamma World, there are bound to be comparisons.

I do agree the Wyrm Sun is an interesting setting aspect (its the origin of dragon magic and the surrounding worlds are the long forgotten birthplace for the dragon races for the entire galaxy), I am concerned about the Dragon + Star vs. Wyrm + Sun associations for the title.

Maybe I shouldn't be worried?

As for "runepunk", I'm no musical purist, but I don't think these compunded buzzwords are good for marketing your game. Nobody knows what "runepunk" is, and it's not going to make them buy your book.

I have seen the term runepunk tossed about as Sci-fi + Fantasy and it is a better term than SciFantasy. I am not in love with the term either and since Runepunk is the title of a Savage Worlds game, I will not be using it at all to describe my game. I guess I'm stuck with "Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy" as the genre descriptor.

I once heard the game "Children of the Sun" explained to me as "dieselpunk." I never did get a solid definition of what that "genre" was supposed to be, and to this day still have no idea what the game is about. From looking at the cover, it seems to be about big glass globes.

THIS is exactly what I want to avoid. Too bad none of us knew what dieselpunk was and the big glass globes did not scream adventure. Such as shame because my friend read the book and said that it had some really wonderful ideas and a cool setting.

What do you do in your game?

Excellent question and if I can't get that across to players, then nobody is gonna want to buy my game!!

My game is a toolbox to design characters and monsters and even tailor the setting to the themes that are most interesting to the players and the GM. Here are a few styles of campaign that I envision. I expect GMs will do lots more.

1) Save the Enclave!
These campaigns will be focussed on the heroes of a particular enclave town who will deal with internal and external threats to the safety of the community, deal with political machinations among the enclave's power groups and possibly join sides in the possible faction wars that threaten to tear the enclave apart. This will be fun for groups that like some politics in their game. Since the current structure looks much more like Apocalypse Now than the USMC and the leadership is akin to Lord of the Flies, there are lots of opportunity for heroes to push their own agendas. It's sword & sorcery Sopranos!

2) Explore New Worlds!
These campaigns will be travelling adventures where like in the Kung-Fu TV show, the heroes will walk the earth like Kane kicking monster butt and visiting enclave after enclave as they explore one world after the next. These campaigns will be more about life on the road and seeing neat new weird stuff while helping strangers in need.

3) Treasure Finding in the Ruins!
When the Xylomorphs abandoned the worlds, the great cities were overrun. Now, the cities are monster infested ruins filled with much needed technology. For gaming groups that prefer dungeoncrawling to politics, this will be much fun as the heroes are designated as treasure hunters for their enclave. Let the Mordheim style adventure begin as the heroes explore the massive cities, deal with other treasure hunters, deal with demands from their enclave and of course, kill monsters and take their stuff.

4) Defend the Caravan!
The old enclave has fallen and now the heroes must lead a caravan of refugees across the dangerous landscape and maybe across worlds to find a new home. This campaign will include most of the challenges of both 1 and 2. It would be the Swords & Sorcery version of Battlestar Gallactica.

 

[Mark Hope]

The first one - imho, anything with "Heavy Metal" in the name is a winner, irrespective of what the game is actually about. But then I'm a bit biased like that.

\m/\m/

 

[Blackrat]

I voted for the first option but like many others, my first thoughts were also how much cooler "GOREBLADE: The Alien Dragon Apocalypse" would be.