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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D+1" data-source="post: 1638307" data-attributes="member: 13654">I am also reminded of a rule I'd seen some game designer somewhere espouse in an article.  I think it might have been Robin Laws' series in Dragon, but it might have been a writing seminar.  Names must be pronouncable.  It immediately struck me as being worthy of RULE #1 status because I recall at the time having become fed up with coming across characters in games and fiction named Urth'k t'vlit'ktvlk and similar crap.  It was kind of a watershed moment for me because I started getting more serious about naming characters.Prior to that I would occasionally get lax about it, and thus get characters with names like Nikoteen, and Casio.  Nikoteen at least seemed to be liked by others at the table at the time but I'd never allow it now as a DM.  Both of those choices I now see as HIGHLY lame and uncreative.  After reading Rule #1 about character names I started making lists, looking for lists, and collecting names used by others, even though I've never been "stuck" for coming up with names on my own.  I had also noticed that other players did seem to get stuck quite often on so simple a thing as inventing a name for a PC.  I finally found a sample printout from a name generator someone had.  CURSE me until the day I die I did not note much less save for posterity the actual program.  But the output was perhaps 10 pages CRAMMED with names, generally falling into a few "regional" conventions.  For example it has a section that seems Italian in origin, one that's Slavik, one that's more Spanish, etc.  I guard it carefully and may never make it publicly available I consider it that valuable.  Players always get handed that list when stuck for a name.I occasionally go through and make "short lists" out of the names I've accumulated.  I went to it just yesterday for a name for a new MMORPG character.  I wound up using something not ON the list, but having the list - ANY list - available is an incredible help.  I heartily recommend that players/DM's accumulate such a list.  If, for example, a DM wishes to encourage certain naming conventions in a given campaign he shouldn't say, "Follow these guidelines and rules," he should present players with a nice, long list of possibilities - with great variety - to choose from or be inspired by.</blockquote>

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