I am making a game for a “present day USA city but with supernatural elements”. The rules are 99.9% the same but the character sheet, factions, and NPC’s still was a lot of work. I still have lots to do before it’s finished.
I quickly thought of the name Bump in the Dark, but the acronym is the same as Blades in the Dark, so I’m not really sure it’s a good name.
Does anyone have some advice for naming the hacks or games?
Is it really a problem to have a name with the same acronym? (I would think it was)
Any advice for a name?
I’m currently playing with two groups, one team of Cryptozoologists and a Hidden society.
The simple solution would be to just not refer to it by its acronym. “Bumps” is even easier to say than BOTA. Is there another benefit of acronym usage you’re interested in?
That being said, I don’t know if Bumps in the Dark is evocative of the setting you’re trying to describe. The name makes me think of a Scooby-Doo-but-actually-dangerous/Blades mashup. Is that what you’re aiming for?
I’m not sure what the focus of your game is. Do you have a couple of touchstones? That may help with advice. Having the same acronym could be a problem when it comes to marketing the book, but you don’t have to use the acronym like the other poster said.
It’s inspired by B.P.R.D./X-com/Ghostbusters/Delta Green/Men in Black and Cultist Simulator. To a lesser degree Supernatural/Buffy/Indiana Jones.
I think the name come from the Hellboy movie:
There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. And we are the ones who bump back.
—Professor Broom, Hellboy
The basic assumption of the name of the game is that they bump back, but they don’t have to.
The game is about a group trying to be succesful in a present day world where the supernatural is increasing in strength. The Cryptozoologists are for example primarily putting the critters in a private menagerie for profit.
So the starting situation (pretty much like Blades in the Dark) is a three way war between militant atheist journalists, drone building alien loving NASA rejects and colorful cultist.
It is still primarily set in one city.
There’s no hard and fast rule for naming games. If you want people to know right off the bat it’s a hack of blades, using the naming convention of blades is a fun and easy way to do that.
But note that the first official blades hack, Scum & Villainy, doesn’t follow that, choosing instead to evoke the source material it was designed around.
Dissonance has the right of it, here. A name should be evocative of the game’s subject matter: reading the name should put an image in the reader’s head that matches the kind of imagery you want to create.
Near-future supernatural US with an emergence of supernatural creatures, to me, prompts a blend of the modern and the mythical, something like Mythos Avenue or Shadows in Columbia.
I suggest that you try for less homage, and more something punchy that is descriptive of what you want. Let the tagline (Urban Fantasy Forged in the Dark) carry the Blades reference for you.
I’ve been using “Dying in the Dark” as the working title, and while it is fairly clear, I have frequently confused it with “Blades in the Dark” and “Forged in the Dark” while trying to explain how the three properties relate.
I don’t think I’ll stick to that convention for my final name, but so far inspiration hasn’t struck.
Here is the Alpha doc if you want to browse LINK
The idea is that it is a fantasy/western setting where the players are larger than life frontier characters who solve problems (often with tactical combat) to help their community grow. Individual characters are very mortal, but advancement is tied to the growth of the town rather than individual characters, so nobody falls behind.
Because of the hyper-lethal nature, I started with “Deathwish” as the working title (which is also the name of the new Position in my game that is even more perilous than Desperate) and then when I switched engines to Forged in the Dark I renamed it to match. I’m currently reworking some setting stuff, so I’m kind of hoping a cool name will pop up in that process, but if anyone has other ideas, I’m happy to hear them!
Edit: Something about “Tall Tales” might fit. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from that genre of folklore for both creatures and characters. I’m worried that would set the wrong expectations about tone though.
