Believe it or not, one of the most difficult tasks you face as Dungeon Master is dreaming up cool names for all those places, gods, monsters, and NPCs you create. As superficial as this chore might seem, nothing kills interest in an AD&D game faster than goofy
names. The minute your players are attacked by Gargathrank the Unclean, a great deal of
the credibility you've carefully fostered flies straight out the window. Don't forget that the
players' first impressions of your game world are based, in part, on the names you
choose.
Here are a few simple techniques to help you choose the right names easily.
1. Never append adjectives to your character names.
I've listed this suggestion first for a reason. Garrok the Bold, Dobbin the Swift, and
Peebold the Wise all sound silly and immediately call to mind "Knights of the Dinner
Table" strips. Maybe, somewhere, someone once invented an adjective name that
sounded as cool as it was supposed to sound, but-in twenty years of gaming-I've never
heard it. The easiest way to avoid cluttering your game with silly adjective names is to
rule out the adjectives altogether.
If a player chooses an otherwise okay name with an appended adjective, most of the
people he meets in your game world should simply refuse to address him by his selfproclaimed
title until the player finally takes the hint and drops the silly thing. It's likely
that many NPCs will form a bad impression of such a character. After all, there's
something presumptuous and downright arrogant about a young whippersnapper of an
adventurer wandering around calling himself "the Strong," "the Brave," or (especially)
the "All-Powerful." If the player persists, a little bit of mockery from NPCs or
increasingly difficult challenges to prove his right to bear the title should put him in his
place. ("So you're Gabel the Tough, eh? Well why don't you show me how tough you
are!").
One workable alternative to appending an adjective to your names is appending a noun
instead as a sort of surname. Thorvin Backbiter is not a bad name for a Thief, so long as
Thorvin is one of those guys who doesn't mind walking around with a name that
immediately says, "Hey! I'm a Thief!" If you go this route, aim for an interesting, nonstandard
noun-"backbiter" instead of "backstabber," "spellshaper" instead of "magicuser," etc.
2. Borrow an existing language.
Remember this number: 400. That's the Dewey Decimal classification number for
language. If you go to your local public library and browse around the 430s through
about the 490s, you'll find plenty of foreign-language dictionaries, each of which can be
strip-mined for good names. Flipping open just about any foreign language dictionary to
a random page should either provide you with a number of usable names or at least a nice
collections of syllables that you can re-arrange to form usable names. The advantage of
this approach is that the names it generates don't sound like a clunky collection of sounds,
since words in most languages naturally evolve to please the ear. In fact, it's not a bad
idea to fix on one particular language and use it to generate the names of all the places
and NPCs in one particular region of your game world. That way, you'll establish a
continuity and make your names sound like they were derived from a single, common
tongue (because, in fact, they were). Later, you can select other real-world languages to
use as the naming blueprints for other regions in your campaign, giving each locale its
own individual "feel."
Note that this approach is particularly recommended if you selected a cultural hook for
your game world (as described in Dragon Magazine issue #256). If you're building a
Viking world, find a Norwegian dictionary. If your world is based on ancient Roman
culture, find a Latin dictionary.
3. Don't be afraid to use English names.
For some reason, many people presume that AD&D character and place names should
consist of random, nonsensical syllables. What's wrong with good, old-fashioned English
names? What sounds better to you-The Knights of Gligathrax, or the Knights of the
Blood Throne? Similarly, Jason, Elaine, and Thomas are all perfectly good character
names.
You can also form interesting names by combining a couple of descriptive English
words. Tanglewood is not a bad name for a dense, scary forest. A town that lies along a
river and was once the site of an important battle might be known as Bloodwater. The
local pixie king might be named Skitterfeet. The idea here is to select interesting words
and avoid cliches. Orcsmasher, Bigtown, and Meatrender are not good names.
Remember that the names you choose tell your players a lot about your game world.
Sticking to English names tends to reinforce a medieval (almost Arthurian) atmosphere.
If that's what you're aiming for, then this is probably the naming strategy for you.
4. Mercilessly rip off good names.
This is the age of the super-sized bookstore. Just about every community in America
boasts at least one Barnes and Noble, Borders, SuperCrown, or other mammoth
bookseller. Typically, these bookstores feature two or three enormous shelves stuffed
with science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. Every book on those shelves is likely to
contain at least a handful of usable names. A bit of idle flipping through these books is
bound to turn up some workable concepts. Similarly, a quick glance through a detailed
world atlas or two is likely to conjure a few usable place names. Get in the habit of
bringing a notebook along when you go shopping and jot down anything that strikes your
fancy. When swiping names, though, never use the names of well-known characters no
matter how cool they sound. Naming shopkeepers and town guardsmen Conan or
Gandalf not only confuses your players, it usually sounds just as silly as a "random
syllable" or "appended adjective" name.
One of the very best secret resources for Dungeon Masters is your local bookseller's
children's section. Not only are the children's books stuffed full of great names, they often
contain useful, imaginative ideas for entire adventures. In the past, children's books have
inspired me to design adventures that take place in giant trees, in the belly of enormous
sea creatures, and other unusual and imaginative locales.
One last point to make about swiping names from other sources: If you need a great name
for an elf, dwarf, halfling, or other demihuman, consider going directly to J.R.R. Tolkien,
unless you have a compelling reason not to do so. Not only did the good Professor derive
his names for these creatures from complex invented languages he derived from real ones
(thus lending the names that same sense of continuity mentioned in rule number two),
just about every Dungeon Master who has preceded you ripped off his elf and dwarf
names from Tolkien. Thus, Tolkienesque elf and dwarf names sound "correct" to many
AD&D players.
This isn't to say that you should take your names directly from Tolkien's works-often,
your best bet is to pull a few syllables from a collection of three or four names and
rearrange them to form a new name.
5. When all else fails, turn to the local phone book.
If you don't have immediate access to a foreign language dictionary or a Barnes and
Noble, you can often glean useful names from your local phone book. Open to a random
page and take a look at the surnames. To illustrate, I've just opened the Seattle Metro
White Pages to page 401. Glancing through the columns, I can see a couple of usable
character names (Finzer, Fiori, Fiscus) and a couple of decent place names (Firnburg and
Firth). Obviously, those in large cities can employ this tactic to greater effect than ruraldwellers.
6. Work with the players to name their characters.
All the hard work that you put into keeping silly names out of your game world can be
destroyed by a couple of unimaginative players. It seems that every group has at least one
or two jokers who want to name their characters Soupy, or Bullwinkle, or even ...
(shudder) ... Kramer. Usually, these folks are just trying to be funny, but sometimes
they're just terribly unimaginative. In any case, you should be aware that as minor as this
issue sounds, such names can wreak havoc on your campaign. The first time a
particularly fun and dramatic moment arises and you must address one of your players as
Bullwinkle, you'll see what I mean. Don't be afraid to rule out any names that have the
potential to trample the tone of your campaign. If your players are having difficulty
inventing usable names, try suggesting some of the techniques outlined in this column.
You might even suggest some names yourself. In any case, you don't want to go
overboard. In the end, the players should have the right to select their own names, just so
long as they don't select something unworkable.
), and the same player used another drug name for a new Living Greyhawk character but I can't remember what he used. Our DM's mom is a nurse and there's always pharmaceutical company swag or a "mammoth reference book o' pharmacy meds" laying around for inspiration. (All will fear my elven evoker, Levitra!)
