The story-based RPG I've created, Kathanaksaya, is going through its next revision phase. For the most part, it is cleaning up the text, making it clearer and more precise. In addition, I have addressed the points raised by others in the thread about my game. After a few months of thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that Kathanaksaya is a bit too complicated a name for the game. It's five syllables, and it can be a tongue-twister even for people who pick up foreign vocabulary quickly. So, I went to my trusty dictionary (which has etymology on most of the words), and I looked through it and came up with some alternate ideas for titles. I would appreciate it if you would let me know what you think, what feelings and ideas it evokes in you.

They are:

Imago, from the Latin word for "likeness," ie. an image.
Creatus, pp. of the Latin creare, "to create."
Narratus, from the noun form of the Latin narratare, "to narrate."
Mythos, from Greek, meaning "word, speech, story, or legend."

Imago, from the Latin word for "likeness," ie. an image.

The term "Imago" has a very specific meaning in the context of relationship therapy, psychotherapy, and marriage counseling. Basically, it's a buried internal image of one's caretakers that we all create during childhood. It informs our mate selection later in life.

Paul

Evoked images aside, I like Imago the best. Creatus and Narratus look like faux latin (i.e., add "us" to the ending of a word to create a latin-ish wordus. Python fans will remember Biggus Dickus...) The fact that they are actual latin words makes no difference. Mythos, on the other hand, is overused, and there is (was?) a card game about Cthulhu with the same name, so you could be getting into trademark crap with that.

Go with Imago. It's cool.

Edit: Cross-posted with Paul. (Lot of that going around today, eh?) In that light, maybe Imago isn't such a good title...

An imago is also the technical term for the adult stage of an insect.

Imago sounds good, though -- so it leads me to wonder, hey, if you can somehow get the game to "own" those other meanings as well (perhaps by focusing character story on rites of passage from a metaphorical "infancy" to one of "adulthood"), then it becomes a deserving name.

This kind of thinking is why I went with Delta for the name of one of the games I'm tinkering together -- it's about three-sided war (delta's shape, a triangle) and also about how facing your enemy can change you to become more like your enemy (delta, signifying change).

At any rate, the point is, if a word has multiple meanings, hell, use them.

ethan_greer wrote: Mythos, on the other hand, is overused, and there is (was?) a card game about Cthulhu with the same name, so you could be getting into trademark crap with that.

Green

Hey, just thought I'd way in with my opinion on the subject. All of the alternate titles you suggested seem, umm, kind of weak and generic compared to the existing title, Kathanaksaya. That one seems much more exotic and evocative than the other titles. Which bring to mind like generic universal systems or something.

HTH

RobMuadib wrote: All of the alternate titles you suggested seem, umm, kind of weak and generic compared to the existing title, Kathanaksaya.

I'm biased, being a Sanskrit dork, but I'm with Rob here; you're writing a specific, interesting game with some unique setting elements. If you were writing a generic game with the same design goals, I'd lament that Story Engine was taken. But you're not.

Take what your game has to offer and run with it. I'm one of those people who'll pass up yet another game with "Mythos" in the title; Kathanaksaya catches my eye.