Do you name your campaigns?
I do. It’s a major part of campaign building for me. Coming up with something suitably descriptive and evocative — and I’m not above stealing. My original Mage game was “Between the Candle and the Star”, intentionally referencing Babylon 5’s Grey Council and hitting themes of light, darkness, and an epic scope. A short-lived Orpheus game was called “A Very Small Boat”, a reference to Dante’s Paradiso. A more recent Mage game (which I may still go back and do something with) called “Where Murphy Rules”. I think of it as a bit of free flavor for the game, setting a note right off the bat.
It’s also worth noting I’m easily entertained by little things.
The Shadowrun campaign I’m half-working on has recently acquired the title “Penumbral Emanations”, which probably sounds extra-stupid, unless you find dubiously-relevant quips about 4th Amendment case law as amusing as I do.
A lot of fantasy games, particularly older-style D&D games, just go straight for a place or event name that tells you fairly unambiguously where you’re going and what you’re going to do when you get there: “Tomb of Horrors”, “Keep on the Borderlands”, or the much- (deservedly-so) maligned “Faction War”. Other genres like horror (“Masks of Nyarlathotep”) or sci-fi (WW’s various Trinity modules) seem to be a little less concrete, though you get some of those in fantasy as well (WFRP’s “The Enemy Within”).
I’m not sure this actually amounts to anything meaningful, but it seemed like an interesting point of distinction between games that are more location-based vs. those that are more plot-oriented. Plus, naming things is fun.
Hm. Yes. Usually after the nickname of the adventuring party. For example, The Travelers. Or The Revelers of Faerun. We often speak of the ‘Revelers campaign’. That’s probably a byproduct of the fact that our campaigns tend to focus on the party and its interrelationships much more than any particular location.
Names are absolutely important. My past/current campaign was called “The Gods Themselves” and was an epic in which the characters eventually meet the gods / become gods (or at least destroyers/creators of worlds). I named each chapter and put it on a banner across my DM screen so players could see it.
My upcoming sand box exploration game is “Gold & Glory” is about gathering enough of those by name(9th lvl) to either retire rich and famous or build castle/tower/church.
Great names inspire players, convey flavour, and remind DM what his campaign/game/module/dungeon/??? is all about.