Creating Your Campaign: Thoughts on Names

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If we're still playing 1E AD&D then we're probably an older player.  Most of us grew up reading the Elric books, Thieves World, Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, The Lord of the Rings, etc.  So in our teens it wasn't unusual for us to make up really interesting names like "Altor" for PCs and NPCs.  As an adult GM, I hate these kinds of names.  I recognize that this is my problem, but I have some thoughts on how to get around this.

Where to get PC and NPC names from?

Fiction.  Huge resource.  I have Elrics, Corums, Hawkmoons, Toc, Whiskeyjack, Fiddler, and Prosperos in my campaigns that I DM as well as campaigns that I play in.  These are from Michael Moorcock's books, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, and the Conan books.

Historical.  Pull in some historical names from Egyptian, Roman, Greek, or other times.  Nothing wrong with having a Ramses, Caesar.

Have a theme:  I like something that Steven Erikson did in the Malazan Books of the Fallen.  He named the Fokrul Assail names like Sister Scorn, Brother Abide, etc.  So I've used this as the names for the monks in my campaign. 

Other languages.  My humans and the elves speak Latin.  The drow speak ancient Greek.  Dwarves speak German, gnomes Scandinavian.  So a lot of their names are from those languages.  Like I have Svens as gnomes, Karls and Gunthers as dwarves, a Fthonos as a drow noble, etc.

How about countries, cities, and other places?

Again, I go back to the language that the race speaks and then I may do it badly.  For example:

The Sea of Grass = herbae mare

The Sea of Danger = periculum mare

Dwarf city = Zwergenstadt

My Free Cities (city states that constantly war with each other) include Stella (star), Virdis (green), Ferrum (iron), etc.

Other options include historical names or using fictional ones.  


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