I've owned Shadows Over Bogenhafen for nearly twenty years and I've only just spotted the pun...

...sorry, I just had to share.

Bertolac said:

For the pun oblivious, care to elaborate?

Once upon a time... in the west!

You will be amazed at how many puns fly over our heads.

Edge of Night Bretonian named Something De Cadance

I've seen a lady (bretonian) named Something De Bauchery

From TEW Luigi Pavarotti (does he have a brother?), Edam Gooda aka The Big Cheese, Salahd Bar.

Von Jungfreud are a pun on psychologists Jung and Freud

Gathering Storm: Jungfreud appointed Adler in Stromdorf. according to wikipedia "Adler is considered, along with Freud and Jung the fathers of Depth Psychology

Dying of the Light' - a demon named Zahnarzt (dentist in German)

Even midenheim is a pun. The whole city looks like a giant toilet.

and some lizardmen names from WFB: Xilicuncani (chili con carne), Xhilipepa (chili pepper), Manquoxutni (mango chutney).

Also, the merchant Klaus Von Rothstein, i think is a reference to the Gangster of 1920's (also appears in Boardwalk Empire). In WFRP, Klaus seems to be morally flexible since he allied himself with the Saponatheim (in Edge of Night); am sure it's a coincidence but in Boardwalk Empire there is another character named Kessler who is German. (Eddie Kessler. Nucky's bumbling and often overwhelmed German assistant and butler. It was weird watching a saw and seeing WFRP names here and there.

Spivo said:

Ahhhh

Im an idiot.

I've always spotted and chuckled at the other puns. It was simply the fact that I've never said 'Von Saponteim' out loud until I started preparing for Edge of Night. The groan of realisation from myself was so big, it felt like I'd been punched.

Bertolac said:

Was reading the second Dark Heresy "tie in" novel Innocence Proves Nothing when I looked carefully at one of the characters' names. It is Donauld Drake. AKA Donald Drake. A Drake is a duck. He is fricking Donald Duck!

Well i dont know what to say, i didnt realize any of them until now lol. Thanks for sharing!

Gitz

I am not sure about people outside of Germany, but if you call an innkeep Gudrun Ensslin, as is done in Horror in Hugeldal, you get quite some spoiler (if the innkeep turns out not just to be an innkeep but something else too):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensslin

I never got the pun with Von Saponatheim, because I never pronounced it like an english speaker. I alway wondered why they chose such a boring name. But now I am really amused!

Well...I still didnt got the Von Saponatheim pun.

But Drake isnt "dragon"? Or it is Drahen that is dragon and I´m mistaken?

ah, nevermind...I read out loud ad understood...DUH

There is a fun article in an old (2000/2001) issue of Warpstone (#15) about secrets of the WFRP writers in which they admit their punning and the fact they weren't German speakers - relying on a English-German dictionary. Many names also are in-jokes for other reasons.

The dark ages started with Empress Margaritha is a nod to Margeret Thatcher (then PM of Britain for seven years and very unpopular), Countess Emmanuelle von Liebewitz is a tip of the hat to the cinematic Emmanuelle, The Cannon Ball Coaching Company to the Cannon Ball Express movie, Pfiefraucher (love that name, I want to make players curse it like Kirk "Khan") means pipe smoker and the original NPC was Bruno Pfeifraucher - there being a brand of Bruno pipe tobacco being heavily marketed at time, Graeme Davis takes "full responisiblity" for von Saponatheim, Drak Wald is actually a typo that stuck because it seemed "right", originally it was Dark Wald (dark forest) put transposition got us Drak, the Seer Unserfrau is Nostradumus translated from Latin into German.

Apparently there was almost a Pissdorf but cooler heads prevailed. Many names are actually those of company employees at Games Workshop after being faux-germanized.

The legend of Sigmar itself with comet at birth comes from Shakespeare's Henry IV (in which there is a welshman whose birth was marked by comet).

I've just finished reading 'Empire in Flames' for the first time, and there's a Slaaneshi cultist called 'Fleschflasher'... How rude!

korknadel said:

LoL i didnt knew those facts, but i've readed your post today, and the very same day italian tv broadcasted "The Baader Meinhof Complex"...life is just a big coincidence! or a tzeeench scheme!!

In the well-known German RPG "The Black Eye" (it is in Germany what D&D is in the USA), there is a NPC called "Abu Terfas Ysasser Shenesach" – some kind of arabian wizard. If you read his name fast, it sounds exactly like "A Butterfass is' a sehr scheene Sach" – a German slang for "Ein Butterfass ist eine sehr schoene Sache" (what means as much as: "a butter churn is a very nice thing").

You can't imagine how it feels when the GM introduces his big, mighty and arch-evil blackmage called "a butter churn is a very nice thing" and everyone is laughing – because most GMs first notice that ridiculous pun when they speak the name out aloud for the first time.