Comments on: NPC Names – Celebrity Cameos

By: Citizen Keen

Citizen Keen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:26:57 +0000

I keep a list of names prefabbed when I GM. About 20 for the prominent culture for that adventure, and about another 10 for each other culture that might show up. Half 'n' half for boys 'n' girls. Takes about twenty minutes of prep, just once. From there on in, when you use one, you cross it off, and after the adventure add another one. Ta da!

By: The Stray7

The Stray7 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:18:57 +0000

One of the most useful resources I've ever found was Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names, done as part of the Lejendary Adventures line but useful for damn near anything.

By: Kurt "Telas" Schneider

Kurt "Telas" Schneider — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:44:36 +0000

For fantasy games, I have a list of archaic (or archaic-sounding) names, like Lucas, Quentin, Tomas, and Genevieve. I also have a list of names culled from spam. A selection: Tiff Lash Edwin Rowe Vilma (just Vilma, apparently) Bertram Zrus Mercy Hsasr Elsie Lok Calculus A. Censer

By: Lee Hanna

Lee Hanna — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:50:17 +0000

When I'm running Martians on Space:1889, their names are often mash-ups. My favorite was when driving home and thinking about an NPC to appear, the car radio was playing "Champagne Supernova." Ah, ha! Shamisovaar the archivist was born. Looking at terrain names also works, too. I once saw a map of a mountain range in Turkey named Goneydoglu Toroslar. Sounds like a barbarian or his tribe, no?

By: Snargash Moonclaw

Snargash Moonclaw — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:59:20 +0000

Well, those I can think of off the top of my head: In Panisadore the dwarven god of truth is Ri(chard)mil(house)nix(on), working off his karma. (He and his priests are incapable of telling a lie.) The god of bards is Hendriszt, "Undoubtedly the greatest bard to ever live, Hendriszt is said to play his lute better with his teeth than anyone else can with their hands. He is also credited (probably correctly) with the invention of the harpsichord and developing from it later (probably incorrectly) the posthumous invention of the Hundred Harmonic Horizontal Hammered Harp (or the Five Hand, which is how many you need to play it like he does. . .) The latter was most likely invented by a Rimenoshan priest of his, Kristoforix Stonepath, who, after inventing music wire actually constructed and played the first instruments to make use of it, casting the iron frame himself in order to handle the unbelievable tension (times 275 strings) which the wire could sustain. . ." (The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco.) The two minor gods, commonly referred to as The Friends are named Durmahd and Jehlhakh. (Okay that's actually an STTNG reference rather than an actual cameo.) The god of soldiers is Nuhveen (who likes to yell and shoot- I can't recall the name of the cheesy 80's sci-fi series he appeared in). Those who have read of Crowley will recognize the goddess of Karma, Thelema, while the goddess of insanity's name is Bedlam scrambled as Behldamh. One of the major GM Alterego NPCs is Duke Lono “The Hunter” R. Boche of the House of Thomas; D.R.,C.; C.,S.L.V.X. (Doctor of Rumour, The Collegium; Curate, Sacred Library of Varrul Expositor); Political Anthropology Staff Writer, "Mossless Journal of Contemporary Culture" (Church of Hendriszt); Head of Entheogenic Research, "Poets', Fools' and Madmen's Really All-manac, Daily Meditation/Prayerbook/Hymnal and Garderobe Utility." (The library, commonly called The Burrows, is contained in catacombs below Mt. Williams. . .) Finally, (Peter will probably appreciate this one,) while not really a cameo, any absurdly large axe is commonly referred to as a Hatchet, while the proper term is a mah'li.

By: thelesuit

thelesuit — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:21:58 +0000

This can also be a tools/prep issue. I rarely game without my laptop anymore and I rely on the EBON application for creating names for fantasy settings. I like to use the phonebook for more modern games. http://ebon.pyorre.net/ CJ

By: GeeksDreamGirl

GeeksDreamGirl — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:05:29 +0000

This reminds me of the episode of Family Guy when Peter is trying to come up with a fake name... PEA.... uh...uh.... TEAR....uh....uhhh.... (rawr!)... GRIFFIN! Peter Griffin!

By: Idran

Idran — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:43:39 +0000

Tyler Perry wasn’t really a good example for non-celebrity names, that’s the name of a fairly well-known comedian and actor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Perry

By: Walt Ciechanowski

Walt Ciechanowski — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:09:31 +0000

In my campaigns, we also go a step further. The PCs usually select a celebrity to play them, lol. My current Witchcraft 1983 group includes three PCs, played by Alicia Minshew (All My Children), Jason Castro (American Idol 7), and Richard Biggs (Babylon 5). We've only had about four sessions so far, but NPC celebrities have included Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy, Billy Zabka, Vanessa Williams, Michael Jeter, Phoebe Cates, Lee Horsley, Sarah Sutton, Rick Astley, and Paxton Whitehead. Hmm, I think I'm losing my Gnomie street cred here.

By: drow

drow — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:36:38 +0000

i'll either steal a name from anime (anime cameo!), a past campaign (meta cameo!), or use a random name generator.

By: Patrick Benson

Patrick Benson — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:27:04 +0000

I think I’m going to name the BBEG of my next campaign Jon Barock or Cain O’Bomm because of this article.

I use the Deck O’ Names Generator from Tabletop Adventures. Good stuff!

http://www.tabletopadventures.com/

By: Martin Ralya

Martin Ralya — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:35:49 +0000

I could see this backfiring, but used sparingly I could also see it being totally awesome. I love the idea that a celeb mashup NPC will take on some of the characteristics of her namesakes -- that's a great roleplaying handle for you, the GM.

By: John Arcadian

John Arcadian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:56:08 +0000

@Peter: Oops, wrote it down wrong. Thanks for correcting it. @Rafe: Depends on how you run your D&D/fantasy game. I try to shy away from fantasy sounding names for general NPCs. It depends on the role that the character is supposed to fill. If they really are generic townspeople I'll use regular names. If they are supposed to be something more important, or should have some impact on the player's minds, then I'll aim for a memorable sounding name. @Walt: That's what I like best about this approach. I think I might have even snagged the idea from one of Martin's TT posts from way back in the day. I prefer to cast actor's as opposed to characters. You don't want to have a pirate who looks like Inigo Matoya, but a pirate who looks like Mandy Patinkin. @EKB: I've used the actual scooby gang in a modern game. I've also had them star in a Ninja Burger session I ran. Players tend to look at you like WTF and then proceed to beat up every janitor or old man caruthers they find.

By: ekb

ekb — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:36:00 +0000

One of the conventions I use for pregen PCs in convention/tournament games is that they're based around the Scooby gang. It works because the characters are all pretty distinct and perform pretty specific roles in the party. They're also recognizable and easily understood roles. What helps this out was that in one era of the show, there was a series of "guest stars" of wildly varying type. Makes it easier to say that the fence the rogue is taking the ill-gotten gains to looks like Danny Devito in "Jewel of the Nile" but smoking a smellier cigar than usual... As to the previously mentioned idea of the mismatch: since I tend to run investigative scenarios, I'd think that the mismatches would be best used as a flag to lead the characters where I'd want them. If Fr. Frehely, Dr Simmons and Officer Criss direct them toward Judge Izzard, they might be onto something more than if they were even sent to Rabbi Stanley Eisen... even if the players didn't quite get the joke.

By: Walt Ciechanowski

Walt Ciechanowski — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:08:48 +0000

One method I use is a baby name generator (for first names) and an online translator for last names. In my fantasy games, I'll often make a real world language the "base" for a region, so most names from that region will sound similar. Sometimes I'll massage pronunciation or edit the names a bit for flavor. I often cast celebrities as my characters. If I tell my players "the Spanish pirate steps off the boat and smiles at you, hands on her hips. By the way, she's being played by Catherine Zeta Jones" it instantly puts an image in my player's minds that is far clearer than any physical description I might whip up. The big benefit of this method is that I can pull celebrities from any time or medium. I can have a young Richard Dawson playing cards with Axl Rose and Robert Downey, Jr.