Giikari

[muckefuck]

I finally got around to digging out my old OA campaign notes last night--an inevitable consequence of seeing Onmyoji last weekend. I'd been scribbling notes on the train all week. Monday I got a terrific idea for--

Know something odd? I don't want to post it. Not out of embarrassment (I am so beyond that at this point), but out of fear of spoilers. See, even though the campaign has been lying dormant for over ten years at this point, I've never entirely given up on it. Me and my brothers still game and still see each other from time to time, so there's always a chance we'll start things up again, isn't there? I'd hate to have bunj know what was in store because he read it here first. Silly Da!

As usual, I got distracted by the names. When I first drew the map, I didn't know crap about Japanese--and the GM who drew the map it was based on knew even less. So what did I do? Try to rationalise them, of course! Sure, I could just rename everything properly, but that would be too easy. I have access to such good reference material now that I can spin out suitable and interesting names without half trying. There's more challenge in tweaking these naïve creations.

For instance, one of the villages was called Yeijo. (The syllable yei doesn't even exist in modern Japanese.) I sat down with Nelson's and went through almost every character with the on reading ei or jo until I found two I liked that worked together: "wide pillar" and "barn; villa". Now suddenly the village has the sketch of a history: Clearly, at some time in the past, someone important built a large, noteworthy structure there. Who was it and what became of the building? More questions to answer, which in turn will add depth to the setting--even though it will just go back into the folder within a few days to be pulled out again next time something makes me think of it.

Comments

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

You're lucky Eijo/Yeijo turned out so well; I've done this in the past where I've made names up for places/people who were Japanese, only to then KNOW the language and get stuck with a name that can only be written in the worst, most illogical kanji groupings. :: laugh ::

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

You have a great brain.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's HUGE!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That was one of the easier cases. Many of the names aren't even pseudo-Japanese, they're pseudo-Chinese--or some hideous amalgam. Some were purposely distinctive, like a demon named "Fnom Pa", which is not a permissable name in any East Asian language I know of, not even Tibetan!

I had two towns name "Cho'Hite" and "Cho'Hine" (note: not mine but the other guy's) which I was kind of stuck on until I decided to read "Cho'" as chou in choume, i.e. an awkward designation meaning "town" as opposed to a real part of the name. I lucked out an "Hine" just happens to be located in the easternmost part of the map!

[princeofcairo.livejournal.com]

As usual, I got distracted by the names. When I first drew the map, I didn't know crap about Japanese--and the GM who drew the map it was based on knew even less. So what did I do? Try to rationalise them, of course! Sure, I could just rename everything properly, but that would be too easy. I have access to such good reference material now that I can spin out suitable and interesting names without half trying. There's more challenge in tweaking these naïve creations.

This is as good a summation of the way I feel about writing STAR TREK game material into a continuity, or making up conspiracy theories, or pondering the Cthulhu Mythos, as any I've ever seen.

In particular, "There's more challenge in tweaking these naïve creations" should be on a T-shirt, and if I didn't already have an Inspirational Mantra, this would be it.