a) nothing
b) non-rpg based reference
c) something thief based only
None of those is an accurate mental pigeon hole for my game.
As I work for a game company, I am familiar with branding and how important it is to successfully marketing and creating interest for your product. While Roguish may catch the concept to me, as a name it's not really working. The more I write and work on the game the more I feel it's a miss on a number of different levels. To that end I have come up with a few possible names to replace Roguish. Your vote is important so let me know what you think of:
Peril & Plunder
Sword & Shield
Tombs & Terrors
Adventurous
Roguish (hey I could be wrong)
UPDATE
Also I thought it worth noting (and posting with some pride) my wife will be supplying some of the art for my (TBD) Fantasy Role Playing Game, below is something I might use either as introductory pages or possibly as inserted chapter break pages for added "feel" in the game.
First vote! For me, Roguish works. I like it, it reminds me of the computer games, as it does for you, and it also connotes, to me at least, the idea that no matter what class you play, you're all a bunch of scoundrels scouring the depths to find "teh phat lootz" as the kids would say.
ReplyDelete@ Lord Gydion
ReplyDeleteNiz-ice! I can see the ad copy know
Roguish Fantasy Role Playing
"get teh phat lootz"
HOLLAH!
I like "Roguish: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game of Peril & Plunder" :)
ReplyDeleteBut, "rogue" certainly has a connotation within the hobby that probably needs to be shaken. There are already some OSR games using "sword", and you don't want to be confused with or lost amongst them. It may be best to avoid the & altogether. I think "Adventurous" is on the right track.
@Robert
ReplyDeleteThank you for the thoughtful feedback. I like the notion of a one word title and avoiding the ampersand altogether as well. So I liked Roguish immediately. Adventurous is a good word but almost too generic to hold any specific branded meaning I think. I still like Roguish but clearly am unsure if it will hold an value outside myself.
I go for Roguish, I think. Robert's right about the Sword business, and in general I'm kind of tired of alliterative titles.
ReplyDelete@Spawn
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, you and Robert do bring up a good point regarding the overuse of "sword" in RPG titles and the well known trop of alliterative titles also being played out. Yet when you hear an alliterative title "Archers & Alehouses" I think most gamers instantly assume "it's an RPG" if you tell your pal you picked up a new game called "Roguish" there is no instant frame of reference. That could be both a benefit and a loss.
I definitely side with "Roguish" (or maybe something more cumbersome like "Roguish: An Explorative RPG of Endless Vaults and Eltdritch Entities") for it has a vibe and carries connotations that are understood by those who I assume to be your target audience. And - of course - it'd be a plus if the graphic design was as unpolished and minimalistic as the source of inspiration you allude to.
ReplyDelete@schlossblick
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking time to provide good feedback! If I go with Roguish, or a similar title, I am going to assume it provides a strong enough connotation that it reaches its intended audience without the added descriptors. The inspiration is certainly part Roguelikes, and part pen and Paper RPG's. Both classically use lots of random events (tables) to generate their story line. That is a strength that later iterations of D&D seems to have abandoned, and some RPG's never fully exercised.
I like Sword & Shield.
ReplyDeleteJust a heads up, Simon Washbourne has a game called Tombs & Terrors on RPGnow.
@Narmer
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up, that makes the choices a bit easier to narrow down!