Friday, February 19, 2010

Naming the Blog: This is not a euphemism

When I decided to open up shop here, I spent a fair amount of time considering a title for my site. I decided the best, cleverest, mildly-amusing-without-being-too-ridiculous name I could think of that wasn’t likely to already have been taken was Chaotic Nerd. The name has specific significance to me though possibly not for the reason you’re thinking—I do not pride myself on my lack of organization. When my older brother and I first started playing D&D as wee lads, we looked at the alignment chart in the Holmes edition and saw that elves and unicorns were chaotic good. Not knowing what “chaotic” meant, my brother proclaimed that, since these creatures were clearly the pinnacle of good, then chaotic good must mean really good; pure, unadulterated goodness. And therefore chaotic evil was unbridled evil, hindered by no order or conscience. Lawfulness—we did understand that one—somehow mitigated one’s goodness, evilness, or neutralness; the order of society acting as a restraint to true personal expression. As such, lawful characters were quite rare in our game.

Although—or, more accurately, because—I have long since figured out what chaotic means, I continue to (mis)use the term to mean "very"or "extremely" or "hella" if you must; as in “Man, that movie was chaotic stupid!” or “these brownies are chaotic delicious!” So, for its personal meaning and obvious gaming implications, I thought it would be a clever name for my blog; satisfying at least to me even if no one else cared.

Alas, some dude already took the name. And as far as I can tell—the blog is written entirely in Spanish—he doesn’t even have an alignment. I had to scurry for a backup name and settled on the Unfrozen Caveman thing—which I almost immediately regretted. Sure, there’s the Phil Hartman reference and the applicability to my personal gaming history—a lot of gaming evolution occurred in the years between ~1985 and ~2005 to which I remain almost completely oblivious. But dice-chucker? Sheesh, what was I thinking?

After reading some of the other clever and/or amusing names out there, I feel a bit humbled by the lackluster moniker I’ve saddled myself with. Below is a short list of names that I’ve come across that I find cleverly amusing; thanks for rubbing it in, guys.

Monsters and Manuals
sword +1
bite the bulette
I SEE LEAD PEOPLE
The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope
Curmudgeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Digressions
A Rust Monster Ate My Sword...
"It's okay; Gary sent us."
There's a Bugbear in My Kitchen!
Sham's Grog 'n Blog
The Sandbox of Doom

Special notice:

Playing D&D with Porn Stars
This one was originally on the main list, above, until I realized that, rather than attempting humor, this dude is quite literally playing D&D with actual porn stars! Mazel tov! With this premise you’d think he might be a bit distracted but, as far as I can tell, he’s a serious gamer with some really cool insight.

Addendum:

Asshat Paladins Just came across this one and had to add it, I particularly like the subtitle and the dude's stated intent to never even address it.

2 comments:

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  2. Thank you, Mr. Jordan, for your non-specific yet complimentary comments. Your broken English is very refreshing to read.

    Sadly, I cannot say that I like your shoes. In fact, back when I used to care about fashionable, high tech basketball shoes, I bought the Scottie Pippens, not the Jordans. They were much cooler looking; despite the name.

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