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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7507496" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I feel the same way. I find it hard to make the world my own. It feels like I'm playing someone elses world, and I get annoyed easily by badly named characters and locations. It is also hard to play the role of an npc when his backstory seems cookiecutter/dime a dozen. It makes it feel like I'm holding up a cardboard cutout of an npc and making sounds that some what resemble speech.</p><p></p><p>Heck, I didn't even make it past one of the first blocks of text in Lost Mines of Phandelver before my eyes started to roll over. Phandalin, Cragmaw tribe, Gundren Rockseeker and his escort named Sildar Hallwinter, villains called Glasstaff and The Black Spider, Old Owl Well, the town of Thundertree, Wave Echo Cave... Those names, every single one of them, is TERRIBLE. I'm sure the adventure itself is fine (I've heard positive things about it), but I cannot get past the bad names. </p><p></p><p>If I as a DM do not believe these people and places can exist, then I cannot convince my players that they do. I know this is a fantasy game, and the adventure will obviously have fictional characters in them, but those are not real names. They sound fake and uninspired. The first thing I would do is change the names, but at that point I might as well write my own adventure.</p><p></p><p>I don't think my players would make it past the first chapter of Lost Mines of Phandelver without constantly forgetting the name Gundren. What kind of name is that? That doesn't sound like a real person. I have a dwarf in my homebrew campaign called Ulvar. At least that sounds like an actual name that they can pronounce and remember. Or Beler the Blessed. Perfectly fine (And it works because it is an alliteration).</p><p></p><p>And what kind of name is Glasstaff? That doesn't inspire any mystery or fear. I have villains in my campaign called Sharokina, Karagoz, Lady Yori, Aram Seen the Unseen, Sahastra. A villain-name has to sound kind of cool, right? It may very well be that Glasstaff is a really interesting character, who plays a very cool part in the overal story, but I cannot get beyond that name. I can't run a module with poor names.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7507496, member: 6801286"] I feel the same way. I find it hard to make the world my own. It feels like I'm playing someone elses world, and I get annoyed easily by badly named characters and locations. It is also hard to play the role of an npc when his backstory seems cookiecutter/dime a dozen. It makes it feel like I'm holding up a cardboard cutout of an npc and making sounds that some what resemble speech. Heck, I didn't even make it past one of the first blocks of text in Lost Mines of Phandelver before my eyes started to roll over. Phandalin, Cragmaw tribe, Gundren Rockseeker and his escort named Sildar Hallwinter, villains called Glasstaff and The Black Spider, Old Owl Well, the town of Thundertree, Wave Echo Cave... Those names, every single one of them, is TERRIBLE. I'm sure the adventure itself is fine (I've heard positive things about it), but I cannot get past the bad names. If I as a DM do not believe these people and places can exist, then I cannot convince my players that they do. I know this is a fantasy game, and the adventure will obviously have fictional characters in them, but those are not real names. They sound fake and uninspired. The first thing I would do is change the names, but at that point I might as well write my own adventure. I don't think my players would make it past the first chapter of Lost Mines of Phandelver without constantly forgetting the name Gundren. What kind of name is that? That doesn't sound like a real person. I have a dwarf in my homebrew campaign called Ulvar. At least that sounds like an actual name that they can pronounce and remember. Or Beler the Blessed. Perfectly fine (And it works because it is an alliteration). And what kind of name is Glasstaff? That doesn't inspire any mystery or fear. I have villains in my campaign called Sharokina, Karagoz, Lady Yori, Aram Seen the Unseen, Sahastra. A villain-name has to sound kind of cool, right? It may very well be that Glasstaff is a really interesting character, who plays a very cool part in the overal story, but I cannot get beyond that name. I can't run a module with poor names. [/QUOTE]
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