Inside Stories or References in DnD Names

[Andrew D. Gable]

I was fooling around on the webpage, putting together a little list of influences, inside things in the makeup of the world - and wondered if anyone has any similar things. Here's a list of mine to kind of show you what I mean.

1. The name of the ashin (one of the first men) Breum is also the name of an old wood elf warrior I played on Everquest for a while.

2. Of all the names in the history and gods, only M'shaak and creichthyan survive from the 1990 (earliest) incarnation of the world.

3. The names Signus (epic warrior, now demigod), Ichni (immortal wizard), and Nanotus (seneschal to the ruler of Korthet) are from an abortive novel I tried writing when I was 16.

4. Two more NPCs found in the description of Thane, Svannhilde Firehair and Delude Vivayne, are old characters I had on Dark Age of Camelot. They were a Viking warrior-woman and an Avalonian sorceress, respectively.

5. The capital of the nation of Langstrand, Lar Blace, is also the name of the first dungeon I created for the old HeroQuest board game, back whenever that was around.

6. The city-state of Cammerly in Thane is actually ruled by the PCs from my first 3e campaign, and the building of the city was done in-game. In addition, almost all PCs since then have "retired" to the backstory.

So how about it? Any fun stories of old PCs immortalized in-game or just fun references?

 

[caudor]

I must say you are much more thoughtful and contemplative than I am when it comes to names and associations

My first character's name was: Van Halen ... and it went down hill from there.

Now days, I usually go with names to leap to my tongue, or just sound interesting. For instance:

Caudor Quickcharm
Teggar Starglow
Anarexious Valdeeb
Moses Malone
Sauci-poo

Your connections are very interesting though.

 

[alsih2o]

well, similar but different?

several of the gods and places in my world are named after clays and pottery history.

balcla, the sun god- ball clay

fespa and kalin, the sister moons- feldspar and kaolin

i have a demigod lost in a nebula based on piratecat, the name more than the man.

the heroes are from the land of Maissen, i iwll let you make that jump yourself

 

[fnork de sporg]

Sauci-poo?

 

[shilsen]

I often have literary connections in the names of my characters (when I'm playing) and the NPCs and places (when I'm DM-ing). For example:

In the campaign I'm DM-ing, the PCs have been led into the wilderness by a ranger/deepwood sniper called Nathaniel. When a friend called him Hawkeye, one of the players worked out that they're travelling with Nathaniel Bumpo from James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales, most notably "The Last of the Mohicans."

The NPC who hired the party in the first place is a cleric called Marius Carlyle. I took the name and surname from Victorian author Thomas Carlyle and his compatriot Walter Pater's book "Marius the Epicurean".

A PC of mine in a campaign on hiatus is Marcus Suilerua, i.e. Marcus Aurelius.

My current PC in a RttToEE campaign is fond of literature, and always carries a couple volumes of poetry and the complete works of Shakespeare, greatest dramatist of Greyhawk. Some of his personal favorites are: "Hamlet, Prince of Dyvers" and "Othello, the Half-Orc of Verbonc".