Naming Day

It's tough to think of names for things. Anyone in Role-Playing has first-hand experience with that fact, especially if they're the GM. Every character needs a name, and so does every place, and every object that doesn't exist in real life. There's even the joke where a player asks a character his name, then checks the GM's reaction: if he has the name written down, this is an Important Character.

Magic: The Gathering has an interesting approach to this problem, which is a huge one for their industry. Not only is it hard to think of names, they can never ever re-use a name for a card. The solution? Have setting specific prefixes. For every set, there's a new setting, with new countries and factions. For example, Mosswort is a recent name for green things, and boggart is a recent name for goblins. Let's say that Hasbro wants to make a card that is maniacal. Instead of naming the card "Maniac", they can name it "Boggart Maniac", make it a goblin, and they're set. Using this technique, they could make a new card whose name means the same thing for every set until the end of time.

Which seems to be roughly the plan.

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