D&D General Yan C Bin is the worst name in D&D

[Bohandas]

Yan C Bin almost sounds like a name from Paranoia. Except there's no color in the= clearance system that starts with a "c"

The Realms are no better. I'd like to $%@$#^#& RA Salvatore in the eye for every unpronouncable drow name, unnecessary apostrophe, and comic relief dwarf name that he ever penned.

and don't forget Szass Tam. What kind of a name is Szass?

Lots of stuff are reviewed and adapted to please editors from original stuff to what actually see print. A novel might go over a dozen review before being accepted and in the process, sometimes, an inconsistency or two will sneak in. It is not such a big deal IMHO.

But the names... they could gave at least try to put something that we can actually pronounce or a phonetic help. Yep, a phonetic help like we have in dictionaries would have done the trick (and saved us a lot of headaches and tongue twisting)

Would it have though? I think the tounge twisting probably takes less time that it would take to look up the meanings of the martian characters that make up half of the international phonetic alphabet.

Earlier today I tried to look up the correct pronounciation of the word "Samhain" on Wikipedia. Wikipedia said that it's "ˈs̪ãũ.ɪɲ". What the hell is that!? Did Zalgo write that!?

EDIT:
And speaking of Zalgo, I'd like to point out that compared to the characters from Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms the names of Lovecraftian entities are relatively easy to pronounce.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

"Graz'zt" (Seeing those random apostrophes in fantasy names always makes me want to reach for a red pen)
"Yrag" (Is that supposed to be "Irag"? "Y-rag"?

 

[Bohandas]

"Graz'zt" (Seeing those random apostrophes in fantasy names always makes me want to reach for a red pen)
"Yrag" (Is that supposed to be "Irag"? "Y-rag"?

To be fair, the apostrophe in Graz'zt makes the pronounciation less ambiguous. It's clear that its two syllables.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

To be fair, the apostrophe in Graz'zt makes the pronounciation less ambiguous. It's clear that its two syllables.

I dunno, I think its pretty clear without the apostrophe since it is literally impossible to pronounce it any other way.

 

[amethal]

Cwlwmnwm.

That's easy enough to pronounce as a Welsh word, although I'm not used to seeing an M followed by an N, so I'd split it into Cwlwm Nwm.

Is it from somewhere?

 

[Voadam]

"Yrag" (Is that supposed to be "Irag"? "Y-rag"?

I pronounced backwards Gary as "Ee rag" or "Ear Ag" in my head but "Eye Rag" sounds reasonable too.

 

[Voadam]

I dunno, I think its pretty clear without the apostrophe since it is literally impossible to pronounce it any other way.

I hate the apostrophes too. But I can think of multiple pronunciations for Graz'zt that seem appropriate. Grazt, Graz zit, Graz zet.

 

[Bohandas]

I dunno, I think its pretty clear without the apostrophe since it is literally impossible to pronounce it any other way.

"grast"

 

[jgsugden]

Yeah, this is the bunch of "nerdy-ass voice actors" who continually pronounce the word "quay" as "kway". Even after one of their own number corrects them. Maybe their strength is less in the pronunciation and more about doing 3+ per hours per session of deep roleplaying about interpersonal issues like angsty teenagers!

They had the phonetic pronunciations provided.

Regardless, WotC hiring them to do it says that they give it some importance.

 

[Alzrius]

I hate the apostrophes too.

Hey now, I get that you're talking about a fantasy game, but some of us have apostrophes in our real name, and have faced anti-apostrophe prejudice in our actual lives.

(The obligatory in order to avoid Poe's Law, since you know someone would read that and actually take it seriously.)