In your homebrew settings, what was probably the dumbest place-name you ever came up with. And why? Just general stupidity? Bad pun? Ridiculous overuse of apostrophes? Tried to sound too cool?
It's a toss up, between Sarkadia which was meant to be sort of a combination of Sumerians and Akkadian, and the Tolzec, which was a Toltec/Aztec mash-up.
Painsville and Moundsville
Real towns north and east of where I lived. South of that is Warsaw and Berlin west was Paris and Versailles.
I swear, whoever named the places around Ohio was a ancestor of Greenwood!
Sisterville, (Lots of -villes really.) Left Hand, Pound, Daisy, and a wonderful place to be born. Hazard.
Fishbelly. It was a small fishing town on an inland lake, and i thought it was kinda a cool name. Of course, it came to be known as "Fishguts" instead.
I had a habitable moon named Felicity that orbited the gas giant Kendal. That was probably my worst so far. I just brain-farted and could not think of anything better at that moment.
Any of the place names kid-me created with the word 'shadow' in them. Too many and too dull to list.
I wish there were some way of preventing the use of 'shadow' in the naming of fantasy ANYTHING. Probably the most overexposed word in the genre, and now bereft of all impact.
Quote from: Shipyard Locked;843305Any of the place names kid-me created with the word 'shadow' in them. Too many and too dull to list.
I wish there were some way of preventing the use of 'shadow' in the naming of fantasy ANYTHING. Probably the most overexposed word in the genre, and now bereft of all impact.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/03/20
A dangerous jungle island called Savagia.
Each of mine are lovingly crafted gems of wit and whimsy. :p
But if I had to currently choose something delightfully cringe-inducing I'd go with my TheRPGSite PbP game's mining boomtown bordello, Tunnels & Shafts. It rather wrote itself... :D
Mud
I had been watching a lot of black and white Samurai movies.
Started as a pick up game one night ran for 2 years. It had a real name but everyone just called it Mud.
Quote from: cranebump;843308A dangerous jungle island called Savagia.
This one made me laugh:)
I wouldn't hesitate to say that 99% of all my fantasy place-names were terrible. My worst names were for the 20 some odd kinds of elf I made up in my younger years.
The game is Fading Suns. In their published works, they have a planet named Gwyneth with a main continent named Paltrow. :rolleyes:
Yes, it's not my own, but it's annoyed me enough that I'm going to gripe about it here.
Probably my worst is bad use of Japanese when running L5R. Stuff like Kurai Village (Gloomy Village).
Well, I have a LOT of old maps I'd need to review, because I have a few continents with all the towns and villages and countries and rivers and forests etc named...
Ones that come to mind include:
Noorville (One player will probably still jibe me (decades later) about the whole country being called a ville. It was supposed to be an idealistic Christian country with legendary knights, which doesn't help.)
Terlaviv, an arid country. I must have subconsciously got it from Tel-Aviv, which I later noticed, after having given maps to players.
Oh, I have a gigantic wasteland of rough terrain, named "The Ruff" - that might be my prize-winner. Fortunately, it's pretty remote.
I think I have a Smucker Swamp, or something. Maybe it's Schmucker Swamp.
Orkenland is pretty bad.
So is Elvelle.
I have quite a few comedy names, though those are intentional, such as:
Teeb-Tab
Greater and Lesser Fumdrum
Oolga
Nornt
The fantasy world I created as a teenager had a desert nation called Nyerpt.
There was a Podunk village near a small oasis called Bumfucked.
I know someone whose home town had Old New Street.
There is a place in Austria called Fucking.
I think back in the day I had my players wandering in the Dark Realms. That's pretty shit. And a bar was named This Bites in a vampire game, although the vamp running it was an ass who thought he was clever (so, most vamps).
Published work, I'm giving it to Underdark. Really? Underdark?
Don't know about fantasy place-names but there are a few real-life ones with either odd or "duh!" names.
Like a town outside Lubbock, Tx named Levelland. If you've ever been there, you know what i mean about "duh!".
There's another south of Odessa-Midland named "Iraan". No, it's not what you think. Named after the couple who started the town with a store - Ira and Ann. That's how its pronounced, too.
And a restaurant here in Amarillo named "IDK". Threw a link into having lunch with a friend one time.
I recently called a town Kodi and realized it's a brand name of a popular media device. Maybe the players will take the train from there to iPhoneville. :D
We played RECON in the JROTC room when I was in High School. Both our instructors were Vietnam vets. LtCol Salvati was amused that our fantasy map of 'Nam included the "Phuoc Yu River"
Quote from: Omega;843301Painsville and Moundsville
Real towns north and east of where I lived. South of that is Warsaw and Berlin west was Paris and Versailles.
I swear, whoever named the places around Ohio was a ancestor of Greenwood!
Sisterville, (Lots of -villes really.) Left Hand, Pound, Daisy, and a wonderful place to be born. Hazard.
I see your Ohio and raise you Maine. There's a whole swathe of the state where towns are named after random foreign countries and cities because people just gave up and started throwing darts at an atlas or something.
The island I used to live on had North Shore Road, South Shore Road and Middle Road. And there's a thousand Long Ponds.
Beaver Lick, WV is just across the river from Big Bone Lick, KY.
Given that real world humans do dumb names as well, I have a hard time picking any one of mine, or any of the ones listed here.
I mean, seriously, there are a couple of towns in New York State, one is called Great Neck, which is literally down the road from Little Neck.
And then there's that wonderful German set of woods known imaginatively as The Black Woods.
Here's another American Town for you: Accident, Maryland.
Or, up here in Canada, we have Dildo, Newfoundland.
The UK have a bunch of real ringers: Penistone, Wetwang and Titty-Ho.
Here's one from Denmark, Middlefart.
Finally, we have Fucking, Austria. No really, that's the name of the town. The sign is the most stolen object in the country.
Once upon a time, I created a post-apocalyptic setting where the various towns were ruled by leaders referred to as "Mor" and the name of the town. Town names included Orles, Formee, and Ulmajority.
Quote from: BillDowns;843392Don't know about fantasy place-names but there are a few real-life ones with either odd or "duh!" names.
Like a town outside Lubbock, Tx named Levelland. If you've ever been there, you know what i mean about "duh!".
Yup. "Level Land." (believe James McMurtry sang about that, didn't he?)
IRL there is an Intercourse, PA. Google Maps says it's a 3.5 hr drive from Intercourse to Accident (MD).
In a setting I've worked on there is an Empire called Caria. I didn't know at the time but there is a real region of Asia Minor that had the same name. So it's not bad but I was kind of demoralized when a friend pointed out that the natives were "Carians" (pronounced "carrions"). I'm sticking with it, though.
Edit: another friend mentioned the IRL place known as Wetwang Slack. It's in Yorkshire.
There's also Dildo, Newfoundland.
Dumbest name I've encountered was Koob-nmyh.
Story:
I was running a 1-shot v3.5 adventure for my friends and the best place to do this at the time was at my mother-in-laws place (her nicely furnished, cool, basement). As we sat around the table playing, the group took off towards a nearby town. I, stupidly, hadn't considered them going there and thus didn't have a name for it. As I floundered on coming up with a setting-rich name that had some meaning and actual relevance the group wanted to just get on with the game and my friend suggested Koob-nmyh. A round of laughter later, I said OK.
The group had a fun time in Koob-nmyh even though two almost died from a terrible magical infection (the bases for the story) the party saved the small town and fought back the horde. As we were wrapping up I asked the player where he came up with the name. He pointed behind me to the small piano along the back wall with a book on it which read... "Hymn Book".
Doh.
In a wargame campaign, my baron had lands that included a mountain pass with three castles. I named them myself.
The one at the far end of the pass was High Enbehold.
The one at the middle of the pass was Mid Enbehold.
The one at the bottom of the pass was..... Low Enbehold.
Quote from: Daztur;843494The island I used to live on had North Shore Road, South Shore Road and Middle Road. And there's a thousand Long Ponds.
I think every place on the north east coast has a north and south shore.
There's a hell of a lot of Lake Lake in the world too. Mostly Lake [local word for lake] or [local word for lake] Lake.
Sort of irrelevant, but i think there's a Guinness world record entry for the largest lake that holds an island that has a lake in it that has an island.
Too many weird names in the UK to mention them all. You can't go 10 miles without coming across a truly strange one.
Quote from: One Horse Town;844296Too many weird names in the UK to mention them all. You can't go 10 miles without coming across a truly strange one.
I'm rather fond of Titty-Ho.
In Glorantha, there are two good examples.
In an early game, someone pointed to somewhere on the map and asked "Have you named this?", "Not yet" says the GM, "Ok, we'll go to Nochet ...".
Again, pointing to a small town, "What's this called?", the GM looks around in a panic and sees a bottle of correcting fluid, "Corflu ...".
My DCC game is full of terrible names, but that's kind of cheating since it's on purpose.
Quote from: RPGPundit;844836My DCC game is full of terrible names, but that's kind of cheating since it's on purpose.
I've heard that Warhammer universe, especially the Imperial lands, is full of silly puns but they're all in German, so most of us non-German speaking peeps don't get it.
Real place names
Mumbles and Splot (South Wales, UK)
Palladium Rpg had a place called 'Parp'
I had a halfling village in my 13th Age game called 'Borridge'
Oh well.
Oh, and whilst not a place name, surely special mentions have to go to these two rpg npcs (neither of which I can claim ownership for):
Killfuck Soulshitter and Snake Ghandi
Quote from: Christopher Brady;844962I've heard that Warhammer universe, especially the Imperial lands, is full of silly puns but they're all in German, so most of us non-German speaking peeps don't get it.
This is correct.