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Alternate Name for Fantasy Hero


Armitage

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Back in 1984, Adventurer's Club #3 ran a contest asking readers to submit names for the upcoming Hero System fantasy game.  "Fantasy Hero" was just a working title.  The only limit was that they didn't want any "Blank & Blank" names.

Apparently, they didn't like any of the submitted titles.

 

What could the name have been?

 

At the time, the superhero game was "Champions", the modern spy game was "Espionage", and the pulp game was "Justice, Inc.", so maybe something equally short and evocative. 

"Quest"

 

Maybe something that invokes the genre and long-forgotten eras. 

"Undreamed Ages", inspired by Robert E. Howard's "there was an age undreamed of".

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I like both Quest and Undreamed Ages.

 

I think what it is called will depend on what is included in the product.

 

If it's setting neutral then a generic name like Quest (Adventure Quest. HERO Quest. Dungeon Quest. World of War Quest. The Hero's Journey.)

 

I do like Undreamed Ages. It's quite evocative. But I think that if one is going to go that route (evoking that is) one needs to put a bit more setting in the book. Not a fully fleshed out setting but something that can be built on and that has a specific style and feel to it.

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It's said that there are just three hard problems in computer science: naming things, cache invalidation and off by one errors.

It seems the same is true in RPG marketing, too. But honestly, HERO might not be at its utmost peak, but it's still a bit of a brand. Deviating from this would probably just ruin things. Never mind that pretty much anything mentioned here sounds remarkably similar to preexisting RPGs (probably even when the initial call for names was made).

 

You might as well go for an alliterative conjunctive title.

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Champions of Fantasy. Champions of Myth and Magic. Champions of Might and Magic (for a touch of that alliteration.) Dungeon Champions. Questing Champions. 

Dragon Slaying Champions of Dungeons!

 

Sorry, too much caffeine this morning.

Caffeine is the Breakfast of Champions. :)

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Champions is Superheroes. Don't drag it into other genres especially since I always thought that FH is kinda generic in its approach and not just for playing ultra-heroes who take the lunch-money from dragons on their way to "Evil Dragon School".

 

I like LEGENDS but there is a game called Legend by Mongoose. Quest is alos kinda taken.

 

Waht about going "foreign"? In Germany a lot of games (even games that originate in Germany) have English names, for instance Dungeonslayers, Arcane Codex, Freelancers, Private Eye, Space Gothic etc. Why not go for a German name (50+ Mio people in the USA have German roots).

 

German is not to outlandish (being ... well, of Germanic language roots), not to hard to pronounce correctly and would give the whole line a distinctive flair - maybe you culd even create a "generic" German fantasy setting for it (worked out great for WHFRP - but I would use a more medieval setting).

 

Here my two Pfennige:

1) Main Book: LEGENDEN (Legends), HELDEN (HEROES), Auf ins Abenteuer! (Forward to Adventure!)

2) Monster Handbook: Monster & Ungeheuer (Monsters & Abnominations), FEINDE (Foes)

3) Grimoire: ZAUBEREI (Sorcery)

4) Setting: Die Welt der Grauen Berge (The World of Grey Mountains)

 

Just to give the discussion a new spin.

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Champion is kind of a generic term for any heroic figure fighting for other people - a hero in other words.  And it has instant name recognition.  If the line had always been "x Champions" instead of "x hero" I think it might have helped sales, and still could.  Its not like the content of the book isn't immediately obvious from the cover and the subtitle.  Champions: Super Hero Role Playing (with superheroes blasing up the scenery).  Fantasy Champions: Fantasy Role Playing (with a picture of people fighting a dragon).  Pulp Champions: Adventures in the pulp era (guy in a fedora with a pistol), etc.

 

That way products such as Golden Age and Dark Champions are just part of a whole pattern rather than simply subsets of one genre.

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There's a "Might and Magic" computer game series. Strategy games, RPGs, and at least one multiplayer game. The company itself went defunct, but last I heard, the IP had been picked up by someone else. Also, name confusion.

 

A European company has the name and created a board game based on the computer game.

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