How cheesy are the names of your locations?

[Blackwind]

Go on, give us a couple of names from your homebrew so we can judge if your fanaticism has paid off

Well, I said I was almost as fanatical as Tolkien - but I'm nowhere near as good. My names are pretty standard for a high fantasy setting. There is an ancient city state called Tai Larak (officially the the Ancient and Illuminated Free City of Tai Larak). The Madani are one of the twelve ruling clans there. The human ethnic group that rules that area are the Kadasi. On the other side of the continent there is a sea called the Arktaian Sea, and the confederation of island city-states there is called the Arktaian League (different language, btw). If I can find the language notes on my old computer (sadly, many of the notes for this campaign are nowhere to be found) I will post them later.

I generally don't do apostrophes in names, and I can deal with silly names in moderation. I mean, my girlfriend used to live in a town called Rough 'n' Ready. Seriously! In my other, more vanilla homebrew, which I originally created to run adventures for my little sister, the names are more lighthearted and English-sounding. There is a town called Hawkgarthe, and a gnomish village called Durble's Folly, for example.

 

[Dragonbait]

Heh, after hearing about the "Kingdoms of Generica" in another thread (referring to "Vanilla" D&D), I think I'll be adding that into my homebrew

Damn. I thought I made that one up on my own. I must have seen that on the thread.. poo.

Anyways. My setting names are pretty bad. I favor a lot of kingdom names that end with vowels, especially the 'ah' sound. Also, adding "color" + "description" happens a lot. Blue sea, White mountains, etc..

Some of the silly and ugly names in the setting of Rhimm (yeah yeah, I didn't know that had a perverse connotation till much later): Pinlan, Naercia, Kenro, Pellion, Thont, Dragoven, Novia, Wyndia, the Blizzard Mountains, Hallvai, The Blue Sea, The Iron Mountains (how many settings have Iron in the name of a mountain range?), Gavrek, blah blah blah.

Some of my players remember the names of the locations, so I can't get away with renaming them and "cool"-ifying them. That, and I stole names from different sources like Cthulhu (Shaggai, Leng) and video games. I've lost track of my original names and those I stole.. Err.. Borrowed.

Edit: A friend of mine used heavy, repeated consonants in his names. Some were nearly impossible to pronounce: Hexkekkralli (Heks-skek-rally) , Felikkran were two I remember, but there were a lot more like that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wow, I like "Durble's Folly." I need a place where my gnome immigrants could have come from (their current settlement is Wit's End, which is both a reference to their mansion being a big puzzle box, essentially, as well as a shout-out to Elfquest). Stealing Durble's Folly for their original home.

 

[Chimera]

I'm still tempted to have placenames that translate to things like 'A mountain, you idiot', coined by having explorers grab natives, point to a thing and say 'What do you call that?'.

Or place names that translate as "what the hell is he on about?" or "I don't understand you"

Mount Verstehenzeenicht.

The river Que?

 

[victorysaber]

I think it's nice to use a variety of methods, because (for me at least) you run out of juice if you keep naming something using a particular method. The major continents/kingdoms in my world take a variety of naming methods.

Leaf - Well, it's a real word. And that continent is really a giant leaf.

Wegarfradt - Anagram of "great dwarf". A dwarven nation.

Fantasia - Just plain stolen from the movie. it sounds nice. aA fey kingdom.

Zeal - Also stolen from a CRPG. A floating magic kingdom.

Daiesthai - Latin for demon (i think). A kingdom of demons.

Tresaw - Anagram of "west" plus two letters added (A & R). Colloquially known as the Western Islands.

Nevah - Reverse spelling of Haven. Where the outcasted monsters live.

Babil - Taken from the Bible/CRPG (spelling wise). A kingdom of undead.

Well... using different methods generates more names than just sticking to one method, me thinks. Are some cheesy? Yes, but as long as it evokes the feeling, does it really matter?

 

[Rolzup]

I tend to remember Brust's Phoenix Guards at times like this....

What followed was ten years of almost constant war between the Dragonlords of the Empire and the Easterners, during which the Easterners occupied the area and fought from the surrounding mountains. The Serioli, who departed the area to avoid any of the unfortunate incidents that war can produce, left only their name for the place, which was "Ben," meaning "ford" in their language. The Easterners called the place "Ben Ford," or, in the Eastern tongue, "Ben gazlo."

After ten years of fierce battle, the Imperial Army won a great victory on the spot, driving the Easterners well back into the mountains. The Dragonlords who had found the place, then, began calling it "Bengazlo Ford." The Dragons, wishing to waste as little time on speech as possible, shortened this to Benglo Ford, or in the tongue of the Dragon, which was still in use at the time, "Benglo ara." Eventually, over the course of the millenia, the tongue of the Dragon fell out of use, and the Northwestern language gained preeminence, which rendered the location Bengloara Ford, which was eventually shortened to Bengloarafurd. The river crossing became the Bengloarafurd Ford, which name it held until after the Interregnum when the river was dredged and the Bengloarafurd Bridge was built. Should anyone be interested in finding this delightful city, it still stands, but the city was renamed Troe after the engineer who built the bridge, either because the citizens were proud of their new landmark, or because the engineer's name was short.

...which is damned near poetry. I tend to use actual English, for the most part, or slightly twisted versions thereof. My current campaign is set in the Free City of Stonhaven, whcih is bordered by Aestica (to the west) and Teswold (to the East). The deivations of the latter two are likkely painfully apparent, but at least I reversed them.

 

[rgard]

Looking through some of the homebrews that I have seen on the net, some of the names get pretty bad....

So for you homebrewers out there do you come up with cheesy names for your locations...ie. cliffs of insanity, lake of dread, The mount of no return or something like that. Or do you have pretty non cheesy names names?

Let's see, in my campaign...

1. Two towns. One named 'Turn Left' and one named 'Turn Right'
2. The 'Desert of Perilous Desolation'
3. The 'Jungle of Impending Doom'

Yep, Munster at minimum.

As players we re-name places the DM has already named.

A couple of the players have characters on an island off the mainland. I don't remember what the DM called it, but we use the following for the island:

1. Monster Island
2. Danger Island
3. Paradise Island

Thanks,
Rich

 

[MoxieFu]

I couldn't write or run a campaign world without at least some bit of whimsy.

The gateway to the wild lands west of the Motherflow river are the remains of a majestic bridge from ancient times that connect the southern extents of the Kahman Empire to the wilderness of Ro'an. This crossing of the river became known as Westway Ford.

Westway Ford is the name of a car dealership in Dallas, Texas...

 

[Zapak Vim]

when I was young and silly I named an evil villian Fork Knife, and he lived in a city called Spoon. 20 years later most of campaign names are more serious but the city of Spoon remains a central part of my campaign. Its been so long that most players are used to it so it doesnt matter any more.

I use my finnish dictionary to name a lot of places, usually using really basic place names like old town, big fish, green river, white mountain etc. when you put that into finnish it soudns cool, plus it helps me remember that the town called Satamatorni has a tower overlooking a harbour, as I am the only one in my group that understands a bit of finnish. I also use old english but cant find a good dictionary of old english or saxon words. let me know if you know of anyone who publishes one.

If the PCs mispronounce a particularly tricky name then that mangled version becomes the actual name used by NPCs too.

 

[Sejs]

DM: The barman tells you the next town down the road is actually the cultural hub for the region, a city by the name of Cappleston, about two days away.
Player: Appleston?
DM: No, Cappleston, with a 'c'.
Player: Ah, got it.

---

Player: Well, let's see if we can find some decent lodgings for a change. Depending on how things go, we may be stuck in Rapleston for some time.
DM: CAPpleston.
Player: Cappleston, I mean.

---

Player A: Man that was a sweet fight! Hey, let's skin this thing and see if there's any leatherworkers back in Appleston that can make us some boots or something!
DM: Cappleston.
Player B: Matching boots? C'mon, talk about tacky.
Player A: No way, it'll be like a memento.
Player B: Oh alright. Say, have we run across any cobblers or the like while we've been staying in Rapl...er.. Crappleston?
DM: Cappleston!
Player A: *to Player B* Did you just say 'Crappleston'?
DM: CAPPLESTON!!
Player A: No, I'm sorry, it's Crappleston now.
DM: I hate you all.