Magazine Name Brainstorming Thread

I like including "travelogue," some of the PS boxed sets had books titled as "travelogues!"

Planeswalker's Travelogue
Planehopper's Travelogue
Traveller's Travelogue (haha)

Though I'm partial to short, one-word titles, like The Gate, or The Chant, or The Door.

I'm going to leave the window for name suggestions open for about a week, during that time - please put as many as you want in, make cases for them, form factions and argue... but we probably want to narrow the list down to the top five or ten if we can.

By Oct 19th I'll look over the thread and pull the top selections that it seems like the consensus has built. The 20th will be a bit of time for anyone to point out if I've missed any that really have to be in there. The 21st, I'll post a poll asking for votes and we'll get the name selected.

Then we get to the hard part - taking logo and masthead and 'zine design...

Through the Gate
From Across the Planes
The Planewalker's Guide to the Planes (keying off the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

@Wicke - Through the Gate appeals to me.

@Anerta - Like Turning of the Wheel, maybe change it to As the Wheel Turns or The Wheel Turns?

Heh, forgot about the soap.

Ohh I like Gatecrasher too

Not feeling Gatecrasher personally, but that's just one bloke's opinion.

The Portal Garden
The Nexus
Cadence of the Planes
The Forbidden Portal
Pages from the Codex

subtitle: PANIC

a few others:

The Planar Primer
Elements of Contemporary Etiquette & Not Dying on the Planes
The Planewalker's Almanac
The Planewalker's Useful Guide

I'm fond of The Gate, myself.

Ooh! How about: Gateways

I swear, not even the grave will stop Euclid from raining on the nearest possible parade.

I suppose that one wasn't an entirely serious suggestion, though I do really like the Victorian style of oddly straightforward instructional titles (which not only sound neat but also offer some natural aesthetic guidance). The Planewalker's Useful Guide would be my more serious suggestion along those lines.

While I like The Gate as well, I worry that it's a term that's not actually used terribly much. It comes up in 'gate-towns' but as a standalone it's almost always trumped by 'portal', isn't it?

I agree that gate isn't used as much as portal, but naming something "portal" or "the portal" doesn't have as much ring and, I feel, has more competition in the imagery department. There's video game Portal, referring to website front pages as Portals, etc etc... calling it simply "The Portal" is, I feel, not going to call Planescape to mind first.

The Gate has less competition, at least in my opinion. Other suggestions along the lines of The Gate that were not The Gate included Colour Pool and The Conduit. I'm not sure how I feel about Colour Pool, it seems a bit confused with what it wants to be, but The Conduit may suffice.

Regardless. I'd like to repeat my warning against using Gatecrasher, before people start maybe getting attached to that one. From 2004 to 2010 there was a Planescape NeverwinterNights server called Gatecrashers. There was a lot of bad blood on that server and, when it closed in 2010, it was not exactly on happy terms. Setting my own discomfort aside, I'm concerned individuals who took part in that server may not want to be reminded of all of the drama every time they think about reading a fanzine. Additionally, that server ... may not be something we want to associate our fanzine with, by giving it the same name? It had a lot of ... uh. Well, bad blood, like I said.

Oh no, sorry, I didn't mean to suggest The Portal in lieu of The Gate or anything like that. All I meant to say was that we don't really talk about gates round here.

Something else to consider: we'd obviously love to have this thing checked out somewhat widely - so what's a name that's going to be memorable while also conveying the flavor to folks who aren't planar fans and quite possibly haven't even heard of Planescape?

Done yammering - will post my five shortly.

The Codex sounds good too

I'm not feeling Greybeard much... for obvious reason.

Codex - short... snappy, very planey without additional baggage... I like!

Codex is cool.

Codex by itself, or ______ Codex?

Planar Codex?
Factotum's Codex?
Planewalker's Codex?
Cutter's Codex?
Mimir's Codex?

Voting poll is open at: /content/pw-quarterlys-fanzine-final-name-choice

Let me know if I missed any names that I shouldn't have.

8 days later and we have a clear leader in the works : Planewalker's Codex
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If we're good with that - we'll go forward with Planewalker's Codex as the official name. (Expect me to short hand it to Codex as I type )

Next task: Logo / masthead for the cover page. We're looking for something near professional grade if possible, and in color. (see the masthead at: http://www.firewall-darkcast.com/theeye ) To avoid copyright issues we need to avoid reusing the Lady's symbol if we can, and certainly avoid collages of professional work.

A good masthead would include the name, some sort of visual element to imply a logo concept, and be longer than it is tall (if it's on a cover it has to leave plenty of room below it for cover or content tables). This will also determine the overall visual tone of the 'zine - cooler colors / warmer colors, etc etc.

Detailed spec: color, 300dpi or greater, jpg, png, psd or bmp. Gifs don't handle the translation to PDF well. Please note any fonts used so they can be reused for other elements throughout the 'zine. Ditto color choices or texture elements used. (Basically, a psd file with all that information in your layers is going to be your best bet so we can develop further visual elements.)