Names are a small part of a character. A name doesn't confer with it any special abilities or statistics, but it is something that identifies the character to the other players and the game master. For me, I've had a few sources for names that range from role playing aids and articles in The Rifter and Dragon Magazine (anyone remember “What do you mean Jack the Samurai?), to The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook and 20,0001 Names for Baby.
Despite these resources, I'm always on the lookout for sources of names. With that in mind, I picked up the Extraordinary Book of Names at my local weird store, Something Wicked, in Evanston. It's supposed to be the ultimate source of names “With over 100,000 names, name generators and more”.
In a nutshell, good idea, good resource, poor execution and high price. At 208 black and white pages, the price isn't too bad at $34.95, but the interior is an ugly mess. Names aren't laid out in column or table style, but in paragraph style. The organization is useful, broken up by different regions and uses, but still falls on a lot of old advice and standbys. For example, descriptors. Old hat stuff like the cruel, the merciless, and other standard words. Not names, but everyday descriptor words.
The art and layout are another sore sport. In a book of names, is it really necessary to have all of this wood cut style art? I don't like it in Fast forward Products and I don't like it here. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't need a page telling me that this is the Extraordinary Book of Names, nor a blank page (page 5), nor whole page chapter breaks with a good quote on them. Internal advertising isn't as bad as some Sword and Sorcery books with one page for Troll Lord products and another page for Reaper miniatures. Interior covers aren't used.
The layout suffers due to the unusual spaces between headings. For example, Character Names looks like it was broken into two sections, one for each column, a problem suffered by almost every heading. The use of one paragraph breaking into two paragraphs on the same page is also highly distracting.
The good news is that the coverage is comprehensive. If you play Oriental Adventures or Nyambe, you'll find names on Asia, broken up into Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Mongol and Tibetan. Africa gets African, Berber and Ancient Egyptian. Good for those games and settings that are different than the standard.
One thing that done well was the use of places, epithets, titles and groups. Nothing too special, but a good listing of different titles and ideas on coming up with names. Some of it a little too standard but good for newcomers to the hobby or writer's without a lot of time to flip through different resources. For people who own several books of names and want more, the bibliography is fairly inclusive and includes authors, names, date of publication. Good stuff.
For me, part of the problem is that when I was a younger role player, I had a resource on names that were all fantastical. They broken the names down by class, according to the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules. So you had Fighters, Monks, Half-Orcs and Monsters and other goods. This was a comb bound book that I've copied over four times and I currently own only the copies. The art in there stunk but it was easy to use and easy to reference.
For the newcomer to the game or to the collector, the names here will prove invaluable. The background on names, the methodology of naming and other resources and truly valuable for such a Game Master, player or even writer. For someone more experience whose already familiar with naming conventions and is looking for a crisp clean and easily readable book, this one doesn't cut it.
