kristof65 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 I'm currently working on an alternate universe setting for the Traveller RPG, and I'm having a problem coming up with a name for the setting. When I think about it, for that matter, I'm have a problem coming up with a name for any sci-fi setting. Fantasy settings seem easy - pick something that sounds fantastic or descriptive, and apply it in some fashion. Tons of game designers, authors, GMs, etc have done this. But it doesn't really seem so easy for sci-fi settings - look at the big two - Star Trek and Star Wars. It seems like most of the memorable futuristic settings have Star, Space or Planet in them: Stargate, Forbidden Planet, Lost in Space, and so on. If it isn't one of those three, it seems to be something that refers to the type of government - the Foundation Trilogy; or a war - The Posleen War series; or the capability of making war - The Lost Fleet series, or a person - Kris Longknife, Honor Harrington, etc. Not sure what I'm really rambling on here for - it's not like I want someone else to come up with my setting name for me - I guess I'm just looking for inspiration... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisler Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Nothing wrong with using a mythological name for a Sci Fi setting. After all the constellation names are based on mythological creatures even the home system in the Honor Harrington series is Manticore and one of the planets is Griffon (I'm sure its not spelled that way but you get the idea). In fact David Weber uses mythology names in almost all his books. Should work just fine for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristof65 Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 I suppose mythology would work, if it wasn't Greek, Roman or Norse. That would seem to contradictory to my setting's future history, which is dominated by India and China. Anyone know any good myths (or even history) from the Far East regarding smaller armies managing to utterly defeat larger, more powerful ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisler Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Wow talk about rich mythos. Both of those cultures have a substantial mythos. A quick google on either one should bring in to many hits to count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristof65 Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 A quick google on either one should bring in too many hits to count. Too many being the operative words here. After a quick google search, I feel like it's going to take weeks of research just to find a few myths that are appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars Porsenna Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Dai Kamikaze! Age of Warring Star Empires. The Cherry Blossom and the Space Squid. So how does spacetravel work in your setting? What's the name of the FTL drive? There's a name for you! You could be completely unoriginal and name it Kristofverse Damon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant_Crunch Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Or you could go for a pulp feel and call it "Star Warriors from Planet X in Space" I want 3.14% royalties on that if you use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Sundseth Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Romance of the Three Clusters? The Blaster is the Soul of the Samurai? The Starveda? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokingwreckage Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Name it for the mood. Pick an evocative line from a poem from a dominant culture and use that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimp Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 The Fiendish Star Empire of Fu Manchu Stellar Blossoms Dragons of the Stars The Qin Dynasty Wars Seven from Planet Xian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Blaster The Warring Stars Period The Emperor's Return Curse of the Terra Cotta Starships The Mongol Starmada Khans of the Stars Sun Tzu's Art of Stellar Conquest Shaolin Starships Swords of the Emperor Once Upon a Time in Qin Space Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epicenter Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Usually, when I name a sci-fi game, I name them after some specific quality about the campaign plot, usually with an "action-y" bent. For space travel, a nautical theme often works, especially if you're waxing poetic. This can seem a bit cheesy to some people, but usually those people don't have a romantic bone in their body, so who cares about them. "Across the Sea of Suns" is a good example of this. Your own title would work for a game about piracy: Sky Pirates. Or "Pirates of the Stars" if you want to be more lyrical. If you absolutely insist on naming a campaign world with something to do with the Asian theme, unless you're going to be running a tongue-in-cheek game full of stereotypes I'd say away from the more tongue-in-cheek suggestions. Unfortunately, there's a lot of combo-ideas in Chinese that sound really awkward to Western ears (see also, the title of the book "The Joyluck Club"). Chances are names like that would be the kind "really" used. For example, "The Romance of the Joyful Perfume Receptacle" (with the last part being the name of the starship) wouldn't sound too awkward in Chinese, but that's a very odd sounding name to Western ears. Even if you transliterated the name to something like "Tale of the Lucky Perfume Bottle" it still wouldn't sound that great, but imbuing a title or venture with a word of good fortune is big in naming, sadly. Though, "Tales of the Lucky Venture" actually doesn't sound too bad (especially if it's like Serenity and the ship's captain is anything but lucky a lot of the time, where the name starts to sound a little ironic). All that said, here's my ideas. Obviously they won't all apply to your universe (especially if your universe is balkanized and not under some united and ancient Chinese Empire): The Empire of the Dragon Throne (yeah yeah, I know *yawn* but it works) Traders on the River of Stars Tales of the Jade Stars Tigers of the Misty Nebula Mysteries of the Stars of the Jade Fan The Lantern of Stars The Dowager's Mask (which would be the name of a star cluster or something) More military-sounding titles might be something like: Letters of the Invincible Army Banner of the Immortals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristof65 Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Or you could go for a pulp feel and call it "Star Warriors from Planet X in Space" I want 3.14% royalties on that if you use it. LMAO. Wasn't there a B-movie named that? Your own title would work for a game about piracy: Sky Pirates. Or "Pirates of the Stars" if you want to be more lyrical. My board title actually came from one of my fantasy campaigns, Yrazul. I've been working on a RAGE based minis game dealing with ship to ship combat off and on. So I don't want to use that, for obvious reasons. Thanks all. I wasn't actually looking for specific suggestions, as this is potentially a commercial product, just trying to get inspired. And I was. I did shy away from the Asian names in the end, simply because I don't want to have to have the setting overall too heavily influenced by any one particular culture. I've got several possibilities now, though they may change later, primarly based on the nature of FTL travel, but ideas I wouldn't have come up with without reading the various ideas presented here. And better yet, I was even inspired for a little fluff piece for one section: "My dad tried to explain it to me once. "Johnny," he said, "the stars we visit are like flies caught in a spiderweb. And our little starships crawl along the strands like little spiders, plucking all that is valuable from those stars. But it's a fragile existance - fall off the web, and you could be lost forever. No, son, it doesn't take much at all." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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