Benjamin Olson
Hero
So I have a 5e clone more or less ready to start playtesting, but it's provisional name Vagabonds and Varlets, while a fun conversation starter when talking about the game with friends, is that in part because of it's problem: as a title to actually market something with, the overwhelming majority of responses were "what's a varlet". And the additional problem is that a varlet is a term for a servant (related to "valet") as well as for a somewhat disreputable man, which was pretty clever wordplay when I was thinking the game would prominently incorporate hirelings in a context of somewhat morally ambiguous heroics. Our itinerant not-quite hero pcs are the "vagabonds", their hirelings are the "varlets". But I've yet to incorporate any rules supporting hirelings, and have no intention to shoehorn them in just to support a silly title for the game. In any case while the Vagabonds and Varlets moniker will probably still get its day in the sun if I ever create a hireling supplement, the game probably needs a rechristening before I go registering any domain names.
But this got me thinking: What's in a name? Some Hasbro executives seem to think the words "dungeons", "dragons", and an ampersand logo are the be-all-end-all of what makes a marketable RPG, but I think their market research is lacking on that.
What is a game whose name you have liked, and what did that name evoke for you?
I'm not actually trying to crowdsource naming my project here, I'm just curious about how people relate to the names of the games they play, which are appealing, which are unappealing, and why. What impressions did the names initially give you of the games?
But this got me thinking: What's in a name? Some Hasbro executives seem to think the words "dungeons", "dragons", and an ampersand logo are the be-all-end-all of what makes a marketable RPG, but I think their market research is lacking on that.
What is a game whose name you have liked, and what did that name evoke for you?
I'm not actually trying to crowdsource naming my project here, I'm just curious about how people relate to the names of the games they play, which are appealing, which are unappealing, and why. What impressions did the names initially give you of the games?