Charles Lowry
Explorer
rakshasa? They played an important role in one of the regions of my home brew campaign.
Since they are from real-world mythology, you can draw from names used in that mythology. Wikipedia has you covered:
List of Rakshasas - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
There are plenty of names from that page to make a solid name generator for Rakshasas. You'll note however that a lot of their names are just Sanskrit for words like "formidable", "headless torso", "stick", etc. You could find an English to Sanskrit translator and enter imposing words or phrases. Like "sundered limbs", which gives me "vicchinnaaṅgāni". Which I might simplify to Vichinangani for game purposes and making it easier for my players. Google Translate doesn't give the transliteration. I find it easier to use Chat GPT, "translate X into sanskrit along with the transliteration".
Prompt: "Translate bloody may into Sanskrit, along with the transliteration."
The phrase "bloody maw" can be translated into Sanskrit as "रक्तप्रद जिह्वा" (raktaprad jihvā).
You can use ChatGPT to generate random name lists for you:
Prompt: "Give me 100 authentic sounding names for Rakshasa, based on actual rakshasa names from Hindu mythology, but don't actually use any names used in real-world Hindu mythology. Include the meanings of the names in English."
Response: "
Certainly! Here are 100 original names for Rakshasas along with their meanings in English:
Etc.
- Bhayankar: Frightening
- Krudhagrima: Angry visage
- Durbhagya: Ill-fated
- Kalaratri: Dark night
- Vyathitaksha: Anxious eyes
This gave me an idea. Can ChatGPT generate a list of names with a value of how common each is, in a comma-delimited format so I can easily import it into a roll table?
First I tried: "Please generate a 1d100 random name table, using ancient Norse male names. The more common a name is, the more likely it should be the result of a role. For example, a rare name would should just have one number that would result in that name, whereas a more common name may be returned by a range of numbers (example: 1-10)."
That didn't work. It just gave me an ordered list of 100 ancient norse names.
So I responded: "That result doesn't increase the likelihood of rolling more common names. Please recreate using the following format:1. Name (rare)2-10 Name (common)11-12 Name (uncommon)13 Name (rare)"Name" in the example above represents where the ancient norse name would go."
ChatGPT:
Got it, here's the revised 1d100 random name table for ancient Norse male names:
Okay, not we are getting somewhere. My next prompt was "Great, now please do the same thing for ancient norse male surnames." And ChatGPT gave me a similar list but this time with surnames.
Sigtrygg (rare)2-20. Thor (common)21-30. Erik (uncommon)Gudleif (rare)32-40. Bjorn (common)...
My final prompt was: "Very good. Now please create a powershell script that will generate a full name, using those two tables based on a randomly generated number 1-100."
And it gave me a script that I copied and saved as a *.ps1 file and now I have have a random generator for ancient norse names that will return common names more frequently than rarer names.
I could also tell it to create a text-delimited list for importing into a Roll Table in Foundry. But if I want to combine two tables (e.g. surnames and given names), I'll need some time to thing that through. I think a macro may be a better way to go...
I had not thought of ChatGPT at all. Fantastic idea and a great time saver! Thank you.rakshasa? They played an important role in one of the regions of my home brew campaign.
Since they are from real-world mythology, you can draw from names used in that mythology. Wikipedia has you covered:
List of Rakshasas - Wikipedia
There are plenty of names from that page to make a solid name generator for Rakshasas. You'll note however that a lot of their names are just Sanskrit for words like "formidable", "headless torso", "stick", etc. You could find an English to Sanskrit translator and enter imposing words or phrases. Like "sundered limbs", which gives me "vicchinnaaṅgāni". Which I might simplify to Vichinangani for game purposes and making it easier for my players. Google Translate doesn't give the transliteration. I find it easier to use Chat GPT, "translate X into sanskrit along with the transliteration".
Prompt: "Translate bloody may into Sanskrit, along with the transliteration."
The phrase "bloody maw" can be translated into Sanskrit as "रक्तप्रद जिह्वा" (raktaprad jihvā).
You can use ChatGPT to generate random name lists for you:
Prompt: "Give me 100 authentic sounding names for Rakshasa, based on actual rakshasa names from Hindu mythology, but don't actually use any names used in real-world Hindu mythology. Include the meanings of the names in English."
Response: "
Certainly! Here are 100 original names for Rakshasas along with their meanings in English:
Etc.
- Bhayankar: Frightening
- Krudhagrima: Angry visage
- Durbhagya: Ill-fated
- Kalaratri: Dark night
- Vyathitaksha: Anxious eyes
This gave me an idea. Can ChatGPT generate a list of names with a value of how common each is, in a comma-delimited format so I can easily import it into a roll table?
First I tried: "Please generate a 1d100 random name table, using ancient Norse male names. The more common a name is, the more likely it should be the result of a role. For example, a rare name would should just have one number that would result in that name, whereas a more common name may be returned by a range of numbers (example: 1-10)."
That didn't work. It just gave me an ordered list of 100 ancient norse names.
So I responded: "That result doesn't increase the likelihood of rolling more common names. Please recreate using the following format:1. Name (rare)2-10 Name (common)11-12 Name (uncommon)13 Name (rare)"Name" in the example above represents where the ancient norse name would go."
ChatGPT:
Got it, here's the revised 1d100 random name table for ancient Norse male names:
Okay, not we are getting somewhere. My next prompt was "Great, now please do the same thing for ancient norse male surnames." And ChatGPT gave me a similar list but this time with surnames.
Sigtrygg (rare)2-20. Thor (common)21-30. Erik (uncommon)Gudleif (rare)32-40. Bjorn (common)...
My final prompt was: "Very good. Now please create a powershell script that will generate a full name, using those two tables based on a randomly generated number 1-100."
And it gave me a script that I copied and saved as a *.ps1 file and now I have have a random generator for ancient norse names that will return common names more frequently than rarer names.
I could also tell it to create a text-delimited list for importing into a Roll Table in Foundry. But if I want to combine two tables (e.g. surnames and given names), I'll need some time to thing that through. I think a macro may be a better way to go...
