A whole new world....

I love building campaign worlds.  Way back in my 2nd Edition D&D days, I'd create around three worlds a year, each one housing only one or two adventures before being abandoned to house my newest "masterpiece".  As I've gotten older and lazier, I've created simpler worlds that have become the background for longer campaigns... but I still get that "itch" from time to time to make something new.

That itch is sort of like herpes, in that it's infectious, you really want to scratch it, and odds are good you don't want people to see it appear on your face. 

Lately, I've had a bit of spare time, and I've considered making a world.  Of course, it'd be a completely pointless exercise - my current campaign shows little sign of ending anytime soon, and it's been universally agreed-upon (i.e., I don't care what those meddling players say, this is what I want to do!) that as soon as it comes out, we'll be playing Dark Sun..  But, what happens when that campaign ends?  Or, what happens if I want to run a one-shot?

So, the goal is to create a custom 4E campaign setting.  A sort of house-ruled to my heart's content, heavily modified fourth edition world that I can add to as the years go by, to satisfy that unusual "itch".

I know absolutely nothing about this campaign setting right now, except for the fact that I want it to be unusual from "core" fourth edition, have a different design aesthetic, and for it to limit the number of races and possibly classes available to the characters.  I want a game that, when players make characters, they'll feel as if they're playing in a major 4e variant.

But I need to give the setting a name, right now.  Mostly so I can give it a blog label for ease of organization.  So, since I've given little thought to a world name, and since I know absolutely nothing about the setting, I think I'll rely on a name generator.

There are so many random name generators, but I've always loved Serendipity.  It is a name generator, but it does without all those "take a bunch of random words and mesh them together".  Instead, it takes linguistic elements, and combines them to make a word that sounds... real. 

So, I hit "Create 25", and here's my list: Agror, Albon, Antymnur, Asur, Atlius, Casperion, Chinantur, Cypritrona, Daniania, Engandia, Engannor, Espus, Estene, Eurivona, Euron, Florantor, Manchynea, Namarias, Russilova, Spararcium, Tasmorius, Uga, Utannova, Xanacor, Zeelenova.

Making a top five, I'd have to single out Albon, Casperion, Espus, Estene, and Manchynea.  "Albon" gets thrown out because it sounds too much like Fable's Albion, a game I play probably a tad too much as of late.  "Espus" and "Estene" are a tad too Roman... and too many of my campaign worlds are Roman-derived.  Manchynea has a dark, swords-and-sorcery feel to it, which is something I'm always willing to get behind, and "Casperion" really rolls off the tongue.  I'm going to go with "Casperion" for now, as a world name, simply because it sounds cool.