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Quillion |
Posted: Jan 19 2004, 03:31
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![]() Elder Scholar ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Moderators Posts: 126 Member No.: 11 Joined: 6-January 04 ![]() |
Names in a Hat By Dawn Ibach DM: "You're traveling the dark streets of the fabled city of Shemmith. The moonlight reveals a lone beggar curled up in the doorway across the road, other- wise the road is empty." Player: "I go over and put a few silvers in the beggar's hand and ask his name." DM: "He's just a beggar." Player: "He may know useful information and you never know - he might come in handy as eyes on the street. Nobody notices beggars." DM: (sighs) "His name is Bob." Coming up with memorable and interesting names on the fly can be difficult, even for the most experienced DM. This is especially true if the players regularly take an interest in the most obscure NPCs. A quick fill in the blank name can haunt a DM for the rest of the campaign, not to mention the rest of his DMing career. Here are a few simple tricks that will help any DM come up with a name for a NPC that he won't be ashamed of. 1. Change a vowel or consonant in an already exsisting name. Jonathan becomes Jorathan, Micheal becomes Macheal, etc. 2. Use consonants or vowels followed by a ' and then a name. Arron becomes J'Arron, Ethan becomes D'Ethan, Micheal becomes A'Micheal. 3. Female names are fairly easy. Any syllable or consonant followed by an -elle, -ana, -issa, or -y can become one. Or, in a pinch, a name of a flower will do. 4. Names from history can be used (if they're not too obvious) or modified if they are. Napoleon becomes Naleon, Mao Tse Tung becomes Mateun, etc. 5. For male names, use short two consonant with a vowel in between combinations, such as Mat, Gar or Dor, followed by one of these; -eus, -ian, -ior, -len, or -rim. That’s it! ã1999 Dawn Ibach Dawn Iback has worked for Alderach Entertainment she is the author of the D20 Toolbox, a co-auther of the Feats handbook, and has contributed a number of successful Dragon Magazine articles. She is the creator of the "Miscellaneous Mishaps" series in Dragon Magazine. An addition by aleshandre A note on names: For female names, another method is to modify the name of a bird so that it is phonetically the same, but the spelling differs (like swan becomes Siuan) Male names can also be created by simple phonetic substitutions as well (Marqus for Markus) Remember that even complex names in the WoT are variations on other names (Avienda for example is a variation on Avendesora). consonant combinations are changed as frequently as vowel combinations Oscar becomes Otar. The "in" is then added to give it a more foriegn feel. Patrick is modified by replacing the "t" with "e" Paerik and dropping the "c". I have noticed that most of the time, common names were altered by either using a Roman or Greek spelling or sluring multiple syllables into a single one or adding a syllable between the original syllables. This post has been edited by Quillion on Jan 19 2004, 10:08 PM -------------------- Quillion Ogre Sage of Pencil Pushers Publishing Mythical Gaming! Coming soon for 3P's the Last Dominion: Night of Fire by Randy Madden (Eosin the Red) Here There Be Monsters by Steven Russell (Quillion) "A hundred thousand lemmings can't be wrong!"--Anonymous |
Dortamur |
Posted: Jan 20 2004, 02:34
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![]() Learned Master ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 26 Member No.: 36 Joined: 18-January 04 ![]() |
Excellent! I suffer from the Bob syndrome a bit
myself, although I try and come up with interesting names, and have used
similar techniques (altering existing names) before. Now, does anyone have a really good software implementation of these suggestions? Might have a go at whipping something up for my PDA. ![]() |
Mantyluoto |
Posted: Jan 20 2004, 05:35
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![]() New Monster: Hairy Dragon ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 446 Member No.: 17 Joined: 15-January 04 ![]() |
i cheat, every book i read i write down most of the good names and compile them in a book of names. takes some work but i'm never stuck for names now. Also helps that my players don't read the same books as me. ![]() -------------------- For Those About To Rock, We Salute You |
The Great Gray Skwid |
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![]() Learned Master ![]() ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 58 Member No.: 39 Joined: 19-January 04 ![]() |
I'm pretty good at coming up with names on the fly,
but somehow they always sound French. ![]() -------------------- Evan "Skwid" Langlinais The Humblest Mollusk on the Net http://www.thehumblest.net/ Ask me for information about the Texas Darkfriends! |
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