Announcing JH NameGen...

[Maraxle]

I have just posted the first public release of JH NameGen on my website. It is a freeware utility that can be used to generate any kind of name that you can imagine - players, npcs, taverns, items, etc.

In its first release, it comes with the following rule sets:

Dwarven Names
Elven Names
Human Names
Orcish Names
Taverns
Magic Items

The rule sets are completely customizable through any text editor, or you can create your own. The format is easy to learn, and very flexible.

You can find JH NameGen 0.2.1 at jhanson.com in the software section.

 

[chilibean]

The name generator works nicely. The names it generates seem really good compared to some other generators out there.

One small quibble I had about it would have been to activate the popup text over the buttons on the tool bar.

Also, I didn't feel like letting it copy over some of my system files, so I commented those lines out of the install script. It still worked, so I guess the version difference it detected wasn't enough to crash it. Cool! Im always nervous about letting an installer overwrite files in my system directory.

One final note: dude ... what's the deal with blue text on a blue background on your web site? I had to highlight the whole page just to read the links so I could find the software page. Perhaps my eyes just suck, but it's really hard to read.

But don't think I'm complaining!!! The most important thing is that the output of the program is nice. Everything else is just fluf. Nice job!

It's also cool that you included the formulas in the .rul files. Great for customization! Now if only I could figure out what that bracketed number was beside the different formulas? Is it a percent chance for that variation?

 

[Maraxle]

Thanks for the quick feedback, chilibean!

One small quibble I had about it would have been to activate the popup text over the buttons on the tool bar.

Hmmm... When I hover my mouse on the buttons, I get a popup text. I'll have to check it again.

Also, I didn't feel like letting it copy over some of my system files, so I commented those lines out of the install script. It still worked, so I guess the version difference it detected wasn't enough to crash it. Cool! Im always nervous about letting an installer overwrite files in my system directory.

The VB package maker *should* prompt you when it comes to overwriting a file.

One final note: dude ... what's the deal with blue text on a blue background on your web site? I had to highlight the whole page just to read the links so I could find the software page. Perhaps my eyes just suck, but it's really hard to read.

Blue on blue? What browser/version are you using? I'm going to make some quick changes in case my style sheets are messing people up.

It's also cool that you included the formulas in the .rul files. Great for customization! Now if only I could figure out what that bracketed number was beside the different formulas? Is it a percent chance for that variation?

The numbers in parentheses are a weighting number. If there's three formulas, and one has a (50) next to it, that one will be chosen 50% of the time, and the other two 25% each. If the numbers add up to more than 100%, the program ignores your bad math and approximates for you.

As for some of the other special symbols:

^ = capitalize
[] = square brackets mean that something shows up 50% of the time. So if I have "cool[!]", half the time it will say "cool" and the other half it will say "cool!".
@ = random vowel

 

[Maraxle]

As a treat for those who go to download JH NameGen, I have added another one of my creations to the page. Though it's not D20-related, BlockDrop is a fun little game for wasting some time.