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13:36, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Need help naming a cyberpunk city.

Posted by CrazyIvan777
CrazyIvan777
member, 315 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:00
  • msg #1

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The only relevant things fully established about the city and the 'world'-

The world is pretty standard cyberpunk- governments exist, but they're superseded by corporations.

There's a stark line between haves and have-nots. In this particular city, the stark line exists due to a rampaging bit of plant life in the lower cities (kudzu, but also contact-poisonous- sort-of a kudzu-mixed-with-poison-ivy-on-lethal-steroids).

A generation ago, -something- happened with a batch of android / AI's. Since then, robots haven't been built, and androids are considered something of a 'boogieman'. There are creepy warehouses in the city loaded with rusting, deactivated androids.

The city proper is famous for having a beanstalk- an elevator to low-earth-orbit platforms. It was made a decade or two ago, and quickly became a tourist attraction, but just as quickly was 'one up'd' by other cities, and now is sort-of a decaying hulk of itself. The locals still love it, but there's always someone proposing to tear it down and make it better.

The city is coastal.

I'm looking for an evocative name that ties in with the plant growth and the beanstalk, but I'm stumped for something appropriately cyberpunk-sounding.

Whatcha got?

(Oh, and if it helps any; this is Cyberpunk 2020 as seen from the view of the 80's - 90's)
locojedi
member, 192 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:05
  • msg #2

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Monsanto

;-)
MrKinister
member, 106 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:07
  • msg #3

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Well, you could call it "New Hope City", from the times when the 'beanstalk' promised jobs and progress, but now that it is just a shadow of its former self, 'New Hope' makes it sound nostalgic, or, for the right person, cynical.
Eur512
member, 844 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:23
  • msg #4

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

You can go the other direction and assume a "cyberpunk city" wouldn't have a cyberpunk name.  After all, although you can find exceptions (Mechanicsville, PA) how many towns are named for a technology trend?

Who founded it and why?

Maybe they named it for a local geographical feature, or a sponsoring politician, or a historical figure they were impressed with.

If it was founded by a corporation or government, the name would reflect the image they wanted to send, not necessarily the reality.

"Paradise Beach" could be a hell hole.  "Progress" might have an utter lack of it.  (Russia has 35 towns named Progress!)  Let your players enjoy the irony of a name which is a complete mismatch.
artexercise
member, 97 posts
middle aged gamer
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:24
  • msg #5

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

A quick trip to Wikipedia...

"The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" => Springtown

classified by folklorists as ATU 328 The Boy Who Stole Ogre's Treasure. (or Giant's Treasure) Latin for Giant=Gigas => Gigasburgh

Canavalia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family...Members of the genus are commonly known as jack-beans. => Canavalia City or Canavalia Complex
engine
member, 816 posts
There's a brain alright
but it's made out of meat
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 21:35
  • msg #6

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Ask your players.

If I were one of your players, I wouldn't name it anything to do with the plant life. It wasn't founded by or because of the plant life, was it?
Zag24
supporter, 667 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 22:13
  • msg #7

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

An elevator to a geosynchronous platform implies that your city is very close to the equator.  If you're on a future Earth, that says a fair bit about where your city is located.  Perhaps that helps in identifying a name.  (An elevator to low-Earth-orbit platforms isn't possible.  They are zooming past the ground at an alarming rate.)  Quito, Ecuador is a great choice, because not only is it on the equator, but it has the altitude to be above a lot of that pesky atmosphere, which is the second biggest problem in creating a space elevator.  (The first is having materials strong enough to go that distance, supporting their own weight, but I figure you're just going to assume that.)

My usual approach when trying to come up with names is to start with an important feature, and then change letters or phonemes slowly until I like it.  So, if the killer kudzu is your important feature, you might do this:

Killerkudzu
Billermidzo
Binnemadzic
Binmeradzic
Binmeradica
Binmevadica
This message was last edited by the user at 22:49, Thu 21 Jan 2021.
CaptainHellrazor
member, 102 posts
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 22:32
  • msg #8

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Cyber McPunk face!
OakMaster
member, 133 posts
"Choose you this day
whom ye will serve..."
Thu 21 Jan 2021
at 23:52
  • msg #9

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Cyberpunk + Beanstalk + City = "Jackedton" (or some variant thereof) :)
Alyse
member, 705 posts
Pretty, witty, and gay
[married since 2011!]
Fri 22 Jan 2021
at 01:26
  • msg #10

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

'Garden City' is a common enough name for a city (there are twenty-one  in North America alone!), and it plays off the fact that part of your city has a slight problem with weeds.
steelsmiter
member, 2124 posts
BESM, Fate, Indies, PBTA
NO FREEFORM! NO d20!
Fri 22 Jan 2021
at 01:43
  • msg #11

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

OakMaster:
Cyberpunk + Beanstalk + City = "Jackedton" (or some variant thereof) :)

Jacksyn, Jaxyn
tmagann
member, 694 posts
Fri 22 Jan 2021
at 02:00
  • msg #12

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Root City. Most equatorial spots appropriate for a beanstalk to root are Spanish speaking so "Ciudad de Raiz". Raiz for short. it gives the double meaning of where a Beanstalk is rooted, and what is does (Raises).

Well, if you're English speaking and don't much care about the local language, anyhow.

Oh, it could be Arabic, as well (North Africa) or possibly Indian, but I don't know enough about the relevant languages to make the appropriate English puns.
Dirigible
member, 234 posts
Fri 22 Jan 2021
at 02:38
  • msg #13

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Clarke had a story about an orbital beanstalk that was built in a version of Sri Lanka that was closer to the equator. An old name for Sri Lanka is Serendip.

Serendip City? Serendipity?

Playing off the apparant plant-theme of the city as Alyse did and good old fashioned irony, perhaps New Eden (New Edenburgh?) or Paradise.

Aspiration, Ad Asteria, or Star City suggest a former optimism about its orbital future.
This message was last edited by the user at 02:40, Fri 22 Jan 2021.
lensman
member, 202 posts
Crestline, CA, -8 GMT
Fri 22 Jan 2021
at 03:30
  • msg #14

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Foil Ciry
Kid_Midnite
member, 127 posts
Scanning For Solution Now
This Just Might Work.
Sat 23 Jan 2021
at 19:10
  • msg #15

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Toxic City

Welcome to Toxic City where the people are more poisonous than the plants!
This message was last edited by the user at 19:11, Sat 23 Jan 2021.
Yaztromo
supporter, 418 posts
Sat 23 Jan 2021
at 20:24
  • msg #16

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

'Settlement 369'
Balthazar
member, 208 posts
Roleplaying since 1986
Sat 23 Jan 2021
at 20:38
  • msg #17

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

New Jack City

Freeport
Ramidel
member, 1378 posts
Err on the side
of awesome.
Sat 23 Jan 2021
at 21:12
  • msg #18

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Midgard. The station at the top of the beanstalk is Asgard.
Gaffer
member, 1662 posts
Ocoee FL
45 yrs of RPGs
Sun 24 Jan 2021
at 02:06
  • msg #19

Need help naming a cyberpunk city

Springfield
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