Saturday, May 11, 2013

What's in a Name?

My friends are encouraging me to write more so here I am writting more :P. No but really what's in a name? I think one of the more important aspects to designing a game is to name the campaign you want to run.

Why is this important? Well I think the name conveys the games themes. It helps the players get an idea of what to expect and what to look forward to in relation to character creation and story.

Take my new tag Honor's Shadow. It was/is the name of a game that I was setting up for some friends who had never played L5R before. Sadly life being what it is means the game may not get run (moving). But that doesn't mean I can't share the game idea's right?

So why did I go with a name like Honor's Shadow? Well it conveyed a double meaning to me. On the one hand I wanted to set up a game in which the Scorpion and Crane were rocketing towards a war over the insults laid between Shosuro Jimen and Kakita Noritoshi. Neither men acted with the utmost of honor and such a conflict took place in the shadows. In the game I was setting up the conflict grew to be larger but still occurred in the shadows of Rokugan. No one wanted to consider the possibility that the Emerald Champion and the Kakita daimyo were waging a private war using both their clan and the Emperor's resources.

On the flip side the name was also intended to be a bit more sinister  If the players had explored this option the game would take a more ..... supernatural bent. The Shadow Dragon would rear it's ugly head as the Sparrow Clan slowly became corrupted from the inside by Daigotsu and the Spider. The players would be given the chance to stop it but if it went unchecked a new age could dawn on the Empire and the Sparrow could become a cautionary tale of vigilance.

And there you have it, Honor's Shadow.


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