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Author Topic: Naming Themes and Conventions  (Read 1328 times)

MicroclineHat

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Naming Themes and Conventions
« on: May 30, 2011, 07:59:44 pm »

What do people like to name their Liberals and squads? Do your go for self explanatory, humorous, or simply reduce them to numbers for the glory of the people's party? Post your whole roster or just one or two.

I usually do a pun or reference on the squad member's (Squadette? Squadling?) original name, or just let it devolve into pop culture.

For a while, I had a squad of psychologists who did all their own seducing, armed assault, and brainwashing. They were the "PsychoSquad." In the previous game, there was a group of converted agents and soldiers named "Team Awesome" that effectively won me the game and wiped out the CCS all by them selves.
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Bdthemag

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2011, 08:00:52 pm »

I pretend my squad is a group of superhero's, I give them all superhero names based on their skills. The starting founder's name is always "Captain Liberalism" though.
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Kay12

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2011, 12:37:10 am »

Founder is the only one who always gets a code name. It's usually some funky thought that crosses my mind during game setup, and more often than not related to his/her intended role. You can pretty much guess what NinjaKing does. And Gandhi. And Molotov.

The other characters I tend to name are very precise though:

Black Widow is a high-charisma character, mostly male for easier club access, whose job is to get good at seduction and kidnap Conservatives. Black Widow will get caught at some point because of bad luck - rescuing him isn't top priority, but most of his crimes are low enough to make some law training sufficient.

The Yoda is a soldier, an agent, hardened veteran - anything with good combat skills. The Yoda's true purpose is to train five Jedis - people who are good attribute-wise but have little or no weapon experience. They form a unit nobody's ever heard of but one that's capable of destroying the CCS within a week of their appearance.
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Elodie Hiras

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2011, 04:53:25 am »

Most of the times, I don't bother with codenames. But one recent game had me based my LCS codenames from the Phoenix Army (the good guys for a tabletop RPG I am creating). So we got the founder, Phoenix Commander. The one with First aid skill, Phoenix field medic... Well, you got the idea.
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Jamini

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2011, 04:00:36 pm »

Generally I give codenames to my squad based on function. Most of the time I type them as "Function" "First or last name"
 
Squad Functions are generally:
 
Warrior <Firstname> - A frontline fighter. Often a melee character, but in games with a smaller squad this can also refer to gun users.
Gunman <Firename> - A character with high agility and gun skills. Generally only used in games with very large squads.
Writer <Lastname> - My writers. I always try and keep them together in a safehouse with a printing press away from all my other characters. That way when the firemen raid I don't need to worry about losing the REST of my squad when I [g]ive up. In C+ Law Enforcemnt this is how I train Lawyer sleepers.
Artist/Musician <Nickname> - Generally high-heart hippies. I generaly keep them with my hackers or in the industrial apartments. When death squads are about, Artists are a bad idea (they'll get killed for vandalism), but any other time they are great for training Lawyers
Hacker <Lastman> - I try and keep them seperate from my main squad and writers. Early on they train up nicely and safely. Hackers with a bit more experiance may move in with my active squad to keep them from getting brutally murdered by agents.
Shadow/The Master/The Student - My security/stealth guy. Generally my founder. These guys are the backbone of my organization and as such need to be watched closely. Generally The Studnt is my backup founder (with ~100 juice from some lesser crimes) in case everything goes to hell.
Madam/Sire <Nickname> - My sleeper lawyer.
Honorable <Lastname> - Sleeper Judges
Automon ##### - Hostages and enlightened who aren't important enough to rename.
Liberal Baron <Lastname>  - Sleeper CEOs, Anchors, Eminant Scientists, and Radio Personalities.
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MicroclineHat

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2011, 12:22:21 am »

One other thing that can be useful is not giving your liberals their own names until they've reached a certain juice or competence level. It makes it much easier to keep cannon fodder separate from the people you actually need to keep a close eye on, and it makes it much easier to remember who's skills you don't have to check through if you've just liberated a group of sweatshop workers.

In my latest game, for squads, (and some of the more memorable names) I had:
Leader
-Laughing Man
Deckers/Techies
-Machete
Magical Protector Squad (combat)
-The Law
-Langley
Folk Song Army (all musician team conversion team)
-Heart and Soul
-Second Chair
> the Sword (writers, tailor, first aid)
-Strike Writer
Ninjas
-North Star
Noobs
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Kay12

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2011, 12:46:13 am »

Honorable <Lastname> - Sleeper Judges

Funny Fact: I usually get enough sleeper judges each game to have at least one with the surname "Judge".
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MicroclineHat

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2011, 04:18:17 pm »

I have a four man team of child workers, all liberated from oil refineries. They are armed with katanas. They know no fear. They are... the tykebombs.

I'm considering changing it to something else. Any suggestions?
« Last Edit: June 05, 2011, 04:33:01 pm by MicroclineHat »
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Bdthemag

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2011, 04:35:47 pm »

I have a four man team of child workers, all liberated from oil refineries. They are armed with katanas. They know no fear. They are... the tykebombs.

I'm considering changing it to something else. Any suggestions?
The Little Rascals.
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Your drunk posts continue to baffle me.
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Jacob/Lee

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2011, 04:49:16 pm »

My founder is always named Stone Cold. Apart from that, only squads get special names. They always have names that describe their contents in some way (The Barkers is the writing squad (maybe canine hero squad?), Pro Hacker Dudes as the hacking squad etc. etc.)

Jusman

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2011, 06:15:58 pm »

I have a four man team of child workers, all liberated from oil refineries. They are armed with katanas. They know no fear. They are... the tykebombs.

I'm considering changing it to something else. Any suggestions?
The Little Rascals.
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klingon13524

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2011, 04:39:01 pm »

Alpha squad is my fouder, sometimes with body guards accompanying him.
Bravo and Charlie are basically terrorists that run around with military equipment and strike fear into the hearts of conservatives.
When I need to make a temporary squad to move people from safehouse to safehouse, I call the squad temp or Move yo' ass.

For enlightened members, I call them E# profession, here's a few examples:
I kidnap a judge, and I call him/her Honorable E1
The next judge I kidnap is Honorable E2 (who dies)
Then I kidnap a janitor, who is called Janman E1
after that, secret(ary) E1 is enlightened
Now I kidnap honorable E3, E2 is dead, but that designation was/is taken nevertheless.
So now I have honorable E1 and E3 in service, honorable E2 is a corpse, and I still have Janman and Secret.

I do the same thing with liberals, but use their last name rather than R1 R2 ect... My founder and some high ranking/unique people get more unique, cleaver, and descriptive names.
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Biag

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2011, 05:17:02 pm »

I typically name my liberals "<Purpose> Drone." Knife Drone, Rifle Drone, Writer Drone, Hacker Drone, etc. I don't usually name the cannon fodder, but sometimes I go with "Grunt."

For my next game I might give them dwarven professions. Liberal Hammer Lord Squad! All mithril armor, all the time!
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nenjin

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Re: Naming Themes and Conventions
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2011, 05:27:27 pm »

Everyone gets a code name that plays into the theme of their squad, so something combat-related, PR-related, crime-related, income-related.

So I end up with code names like Werewolf, Jezzabelle, Voltaire, Sunshine. My squads tend to get named stuff like Black Hat, Silk Road, Phantom, ect.... The primary squad of action under the leader is always Squad Raven though.

I like to think of my LCS squads as made up of liberals with very different motivations. That's how I rationalize my squad of bloodthirsty killers alongside my band of guitar-playing, peace-loving highschool drop outs. The left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is up to. Which is good, because if they did they'd probably get pretty demoralized.
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