For one of my current projects, I'm building an in-game glossary for people to refer to for background information on the world. It's got five categories:
People
Locations
Organisations
Technology
Society
Together, the first letters of those would make the acronym "PLOTS", but I'd rather give it something a little more...dynamic-sounding. I'd considered "PILOT" (Places, Individuals, L, Organisations, Technology), but that leaves me with the problem of not being able to find a word for "Society" that starts with L. Perhaps someone who's learned English more recently than I might be able to come up with an idea, or even a different acronym using those five concepts?
Maybe L stays for Locations and a P word for society is "populace?" Either that or maybe L for "Law", which governs society (perhaps a bit of a stretch, depending on precisely what you intend to put under the category). Other L possibilities could be the vaguely general category of "Life", the specific secular body of the "Laity", or naming society in your game something that starts with L (my preference in this case would be "Lololia").
It's more difficult than it looks. The best I could come up with was OPALS:
Organisaions
People
Applied Sciences
Locations
Society
P eapole
O rganisations
R esearch
T echnology
S ociety
or
P
O
R
T
A pplied Sciences
L aw
S
People
Organizations
Reasearch
Nano-technology
Gameworldname-PEDIA
Places
Environment
Discoveries
Individuals
Associations
People
Infrastructure
Locations
Organisations
Technology
Think Eric may have sussed it.
Or alternitively
Personnel
Environment
National Interests
Industry
Syndicates
Mm I agree along Baron's terms, you could perhaps make "society" - "lifestyle" or "legion" (populous). A little rough, certainly.
Hm, these are good ideas so far! There's going to be more detail later on, but here's an example of the kind of things I've got in each category at the moment -
People/Individuals/Folk
Regis, Charles M. - CEL case officer assigned to central districts of the city. Has worked for the organisation for the past twenty-six years, and while not making a great effort to be liked by his associates, his results cannot be argued with.
Locations/Places/Tourist sites
Newton's Cradle - An independent city-state in the Horn of Africa, Newton's Cradle was originally developed as a free-trade port by a number of surrounding nations. Thanks to its relaxed ethical approach, it was able to excel in a number of political and economic, eventually aligning itself with an association of similar city-states around the world. Currently one of the wealthiest geopolitical entities in the world despite its relatively minor size, it is governed by an elected council representing city wards, and a secondary council representing the operational services of the city under Central.
Organisations/Groups/Associations
CEL - The city's Centralised Emergency Logistics organisation, or "CEL", is the body responsible for all civic emergencies within the city. Nominally divided into "Enforcement" (handling peace enforcement and criminal investigation) and "Rescue" (covering fire, ambulance and disaster relief), there is a great deal of overlap between the duties of a CEL officer, and many corpsmen may find themselves in different work depending on needs.
Technology/Science/Inventions/Research
Wetware - As the science of nanotechnology progressed, the fields of physics, computing and biology became blurred into one another. Rather than metal and machinery, the building-blocks of nanotechnology are proteins and nucleic acids, not unlike those found in the human body. Wetware is the genericised term for this 'machinery' in its fluid suspension, and is used in purposes ranging from medicine to entertainment. By default, wetware exists in an unprogrammed state until given instructions from an outside source, when it will specialise itself and begin its assigned task.
Society/Groups
Neo-Nihilism - a disturbing social trend among the youth of the city, Neo-Nihilism arose from a wilful misunderstanding of philosophers such as Nietzsche and Kirkegaard, and has presented in widespread public acts of self-destruction. While technically seeking to draw attention to the perceived futility of action in a post-scarcity society, many media observers have suggested that it is simply today's manifestation of adolescent rebellion.
Cool. I kind of get it! Another suggestion then, how about Technology/Science/Inventions/Research becomes "Transportation/Trading/Freight" and you add in an I for "Innovation/Inventions/Research/Science", then you get PILOTS and get to keep Society.
Society
Organisations
Locations
Individuals
Discoveries
Another possibility for People is Who's Who, if that helps.
World
Organizations
Research
Locations
Dossiers
***
All D's:
Dynamics
Divisions
Developments
Destinations
Dossiers
***
Can you come up with an E and an R category too? If so, you could have DOSSIER, which would be appropriate:
Developments
Organizations
Settings
Society
Individuals
E
R
Or, a D and an E:
D
Organizations
Settings
Society
Individuals
E
Research
Maybe
Data
Organizations
Settings
Society
Individuals
Events
Research