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Dynamo

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Super Names

 

Dave,

 

Thanks. However just before the old boards went down I asked why some of the names were gone. I concede the funny/humerous ones but with others there was no reason I could see as to why they went. Now the boards went before I saw an answer if one was given.

 

There is no point in me adding these in Dribs and Drabs. Rather I will bundle them together in groups and you can say yay or nay if the reasoning behind their going is right ie too controversial, too silly, actual name etc

 

There are a few I would like to see go back but I will reason these and they can be verified.

 

I have only got as far as P.

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Re: Need an opinion...

 

Originally posted by aylwin13

ICESHRIKE

I don't know; I'm kind of on the fence with this one. The transition between the two word parts doesn't slide off the tongue well without a little practice. What kind of villain wants reporters tripping over his name on national television? On the other hand, once you've got the pronunciation right, it sounds very cool.

 

I think you can count on your PCs mocking this guy's name based on their initial verbal trips, which may result in souring the flavor you want him to have. I'd recommend substituting a different word part to denote cold. How about Arctic Shrike or Coldshrike? Or perhaps a different predatory bird, like Icehawk.

 

I like the notion of broadening this thread's purpose to include discussion of superhero/villain names rather than just accumulating a monster list.

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Re: Re: Kitchen Woman

 

Originally posted by Dynamo

If the first publication that comes to mind when I read a name is Too Much Coffee Man, said name is unlikely to make it to the next roundup.

 

What a bizarre rule. This is your game so no objection, just strikes me as odd, given in particular that Too Much Coffee Man is one of the coolest names out there and a decent book.

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Non-alpabetical ordering

 

It seems to me that in order to make this list into a really useful resource it would have to be ordered in other ways. Alphabetical is useful to determine if a name already exists but people needing a character name are not going to particularly want one begining with 'S'.

 

I propose two other kinds of ordering:

1) Power base - Categories could include Fire/Heat, Cold, Animals, Weapons and the like.

2) Period - Golden Age, Silver Age, modern.

 

This would be hard work though, I have to admit. The list of names I keep on my own PC could really do with such ordering but I've always put it off as too much effort. Of course the longer I leave it, the harder the job becomes.

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Re: Kitchen Woman

 

Originally posted by zornwil

What a bizarre rule. This is your game so no objection, just strikes me as odd, given in particular that Too Much Coffee Man is one of the coolest names out there and a decent book.

That was more of a tongue-in-cheek expression of a much more subjective selection system. Project 3000, as I stated at the opening of the thread, began as an effort to name enough supers to populate Champions Earth, which is a serious comicbook setting. To that end, I felt that outright silly or stupid names just didn't belong.

 

Don't get me wrong. I really like Too Much Coffee Man, but when in comes to serious settings, it doesn't even make the list.

 

I would prefer to make the current list a tool for more serious games. When I get prospective players who are new to the genre, I'd like to able to hand them a printout of the list and not wind up with a bunch character names that sound like rejects from The Tick. Players who prefer silly names and character themes don't need help coming up with them, but newbies could use an aid that doesn't give them the wrong impression.

 

I hope this helps explain my selection criteria without alienating any would be contributors.

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Re: Non-alpabetical ordering

 

Originally posted by Doug McCrae

I propose two other kinds of ordering:

  • Power base - Categories could include Fire/Heat, Cold, Animals, Weapons and the like.
  • Period - Golden Age, Silver Age, modern.
The problem with a system like that is that a given name can carry different connotations for different people. Even if I were omniscient and could predict every useful category that others might attach to each name, the list would balloon out of control as each entry would have to appear in several places.

 

Perhaps in the future, the list might be taken to a database format that would allow each name to have several keywords attached in aid search by theme, era, style, double entendre, or what have you. But that would require that every be able to access the same database format, and that's probably not happening any time soon.

 

On my Skills-to-Acquire-Soon list are SQL and some other database-oriented skills, both because they interest me and because they're in the second half of the IT program I'm taking in the evenings. So later this year, I may import the list into an open format that will let me render an alphabetical list for plaintext posting with the raw file attached for those with the right database capability.

 

For now, there is only one organization that allows each name to be listed only once and still maintain the list in a reasonable order, and that's alphabetically.

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Re: Re: Non-alpabetical ordering

 

Originally posted by Dynamo

Perhaps in the future, the list might be taken to a database format that would allow each name to have several keywords attached in aid search by theme, era, style, double entendre, or what have you.

 

My thinking is that the best place for the Soon To Be 6000 Project is as a website in its own right or perhaps as part of a website containing resources for superhero gamers. The name list on this putative site could, but would not necessarily have to be, database driven. Everyone would be able to access this as the end product seen by the user, whether driven by a database or not, would be HTML pages.

 

You're right that every name could probably fit within many different categories so the user would see a long list of buttons with all these, click the one required eg. 'Fire' and get all the fire names. Alternatively he/she might click 'Energy Projector' and would get a much longer list.

 

I've seen something similar with a list of gods from many cultures, ordered by category e.g. War, Fertility, etc. A damn useful resource for we gamers. The url is http://web.archive.org/web/20011012083319/raven.cybercom.com/~grandpa/chapter6.html

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Corrections (?)

 

Kamikaze is down twice at 2351 and 2352

 

Killowatt is 2402 but Kilowatt is 2405. What's the difference ?

 

Lastly 4795 Titania. How can she be King of the Fairies and Husband of Titania ? (OOOPS !!)

 

Have now finished going through and working out what was axed. Will put up these and ask for confirmation but there quite a few and I need to organise them first. Then we add new ones. Well I have two new ones so far.

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Re: Corrections (?)

 

Originally posted by death tribble

Kamikaze is down twice at 2351 and 2352

 

Killowatt is 2402 but Kilowatt is 2405. What's the difference ?

 

Lastly 4795 Titania. How can she be King of the Fairies and Husband of Titania ? (OOOPS !!)

Thanks.

 

Yanked the extra Kamikaze from my master file (along with the extra Mind Blade noted above).

 

Kilowatt and Killowatt both stay, since they are distinct, one being spelled correctly and the other extending the first syllable to "Kill", substantially changing the connotations of the name by giving it a psycho quality.

 

Fixed Titania on the master file. I must have been getting tired and just copy/pasted from her hubby Oberon and forgot to edit.

 

I'll be dropping off the boards for a couple days, so don't think I'm just ignoring your next few posts. I'm so sick, I'm lucky I didn't have to take a nap while typing this. Judging from how long my wife was down with this crud, I should be back on Sunday.

 

Oog. Somebody wake me when the floor stops tilting.

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Missing Master Criminals

 

Dave,

 

We have Moriarty and Fantomas on your list. Both are major master criminals from popular fiction. But two others are missing.

Fu Manchu or Dr Fu Manchu

and Dr Mabuse.

Both have been in films and Fu Manchu is in books by Sax Rohmer. I cannot speak for Mabuse as he is German and I have never seen English translations of any books about him.

Any plans to exclude either or both of these notables ?

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Rejected or Missing Names Part 1

 

Dave,

 

Here is the first batch of rejected or missing names. these are all places or people and I am assuming that they were rejected for this reason. I will warn you now that the Silly Name one is quite big. These did not seem to qualify for that so I put them here instead.

 

Alabhama Montgomery

Albert (partner of Victoria)

Alcar West

Andarra

Basque (part of Spain)

Biscay

Blucher (German Pocket battleship)

Bonnie (and Cylde)

Bucephalus (Alexander the Great's horse)

Cannae (Hannibal's Great Victory over Rome)

Catalan (part of Spain)

Citizen Chauvelin

Clyde (and Bonnie)

Commander Zzak

Deutschland (Germany)

Eric the Red

Gneisenau (German battleship)

Graf Spee (Pocket Battleship)

Herr Krebs

Hipper (German Pocket battleship)

James Cole Younger

Juukinzoku the Mistress of Robots

Ki Gun Djinn

Kubla Khan

Limehouse Leopard

Lydon 'Brains' Johnson (Gang Boss)

Major Kessler

Marquis De Sade

Meneleus

Mersey

Mississipi

Missouri

Mister Otto

Mollock the Eater of Children

Montgomery

Nile

Norfolk Broads (waterway in England)

Oliver Twist

Oraclese

Oscar Wild

Pantagruel

Parsifial

Pericles

Phantom of Salt Lake City

Pretty Boy Fleming

Prinz Eugan (German Battlecruiser)

Rhianna

Robespierre

Scharnhorst (German battleship)

Seker

Serephena

Shalandra

Stella Polare

Sutekh

Thames

Tiblisi Miracle, The

Tiffany Jones

Tirpitz (German battleship)

Ulric

Verdun (WW1 battle between France and Germany)

Victoria (partner of Albert)

Volga (Russian river)

Wild Bill Hancock

Zama (Hannibal's defeat by Scipio)

 

In the case of the German battleships they were named after famous Germans ie Scharnhorst and Gniesenau were active in the Napoleonic wars.

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missing or rejected 2

 

I believe that these were rejected on the grounds that they are or were under copyright to another company (gaming or otherwise)

 

451

Al Khayal Min Allah

Al-'Ain min Allah

Argurous Astraph

Big Boss Man

Big Daddy Cool

Brooklyn Dodger

Celebrity Skin

Chicago Bear

Chicago Bull

Doctor Strangelove

Don Giovanni

Flamin' Jane

Hawkeye

Johnny Ripp

Karate Kid

Lord of the Flies

Manic Street Preacher

Mighty Aphrodite

Minnesota Viking

Mississipi Burning

Mister Freeze

Ms Tree

New York Giant

New York Jet

New York Yankee

No 6 (for fans of the Prisoner)

Oakland Raider

Pittsburgh Steeler

Poison Ivy

Power Girl

Power Princess

Punisher

San Diego Charger

Shadowfax

Shrinking Violet

Universal Soldier

Wasp

Wild Fire

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Re: Missing Master Criminals

 

Originally posted by death tribble

We have Moriarty and Fantomas on your list. Both are major master criminals from popular fiction. But two others are missing.

Fu Manchu or Dr Fu Manchu

and Dr Mabuse.

Both have been in films and Fu Manchu is in books by Sax Rohmer. I cannot speak for Mabuse as he is German and I have never seen English translations of any books about him.

Any plans to exclude either or both of these notables ?

Moriarty got the nod for obvious reasons.

 

Fantomas went back in after you mentioned him the first time because a quick web search revealed him to be a popular literary character, a fact I'd not known when I axed him the first time, thinking it was just a nonsense word.

 

I left out Fu Manchu for the same reason I left out Thor, overdone. In my opinion, the good doctor failed the originality test.

 

When I do a web search for Mabuse, the only sites on the first page of the search engine results in English are for a German R&D corporation and a Flemish renaissance painter, so Mabuse got the axe. Looking further after you brought him up again, I found more appropriate sites, but still wasn't inclined to include him, as he didn't seem a good name choice for a comicbook genre super. Then I found this at dvdjournal.com. OK, I'm convinced.

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Re: missing or rejected 3

 

Originally posted by death tribble

I believe that these gun related ones were rejected for that reason. Why I don't know but would appreciate confirmation that this is the reason that these did not make it onto the list.

 

AK47

AK74

BAR

Luger

Kalashnikov

Martini Henry (rifle)

Mauser

M16

Smith

Sten

Wesson

Yup, whacked these for being genre-inappropriate.
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Re: missing or rejected 2

 

Originally posted by death tribble

I believe that these were rejected on the grounds that they are or were under copyright to another company (gaming or otherwise)

 

*LIST OMITTED*

Some of these got axed for being genre-inappropriate, but most for being unoriginal.
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Re: Rejected or Missing Names Part 1

 

Originally posted by death tribble

Here is the first batch of rejected or missing names. these are all places or people and I am assuming that they were rejected for this reason. I will warn you now that the Silly Name one is quite big. These did not seem to qualify for that so I put them here instead.

 

*LIST OMITTED*

 

In the case of the German battleships they were named after famous Germans ie Scharnhorst and Gniesenau were active in the Napoleonic wars.

The majority of these were axed for being genre-inappropriate. Some failed the proper name test. Some were merged with other similar entries (e.g. Wild Bill Hancock is on the list as Wild Bill, which is more genre-appropriate).

 

I'm aware of the German naval ship naming tradition, but that doesn't make a name genre-appropriate. There are no superheroes named George Washington Carver or supervillains going by Benedict Arnold, despite their historical significance.

 

Regions as name got the axe for the same reason. Captain America doesn't go by America now that he's a civilian. Though, that made me think to throw Deutchland back in as Hauptmann Deutchland.

 

I put Commander ZZak back in. He edges into my silly name filter, but only barely.

 

Feel free to post the list of silly names, and I'll review it. But I stand by the silly name filter. See my earlier posts on the subject.

 

Fresh roundup tomorrow with the above changes and some brainstorming I did last week for "power armor"-type names.

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Teen heroes and Villians

 

Heroes

Prince SAGA,the Tommorrow Teen-Flying brick,a cross between Superboy and Kid Supreme[from Awesome Comics]

Dataswipe-Cyberpsi with telekenesis

Rokk(pronounced 'rock']-the ultimate immovable object,a almagation of Juggernaut[from X-MEN] and Maul[from WildC.A.T.S]

Starblaze-Energy projector,cosmically powered

Dreamstar-Mystic,Magical girl with abilities to travel in dreams.

Roll-one half of the team "Rokk-n-Roll",ultimate speedster,irresistable force,speed90 mps.

Liona the She-Cat -Feliniod fighter with beastal features and temper.

Tempest-wheather manipulator,grandaughter of west cost superhero,Mealstrom,Daugther of Thor ,norse god of thunder

 

Vortexx-air elemental

 

Villians

AXE

Crazy Eight

Grenader

Deathscream

HellFyre

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