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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (David Lowe)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 09:35:02 2001
This may not be news to most GM's, but I'm pretty darn excited about it.

So, the kid here is working on his twenty-second year of role playing
experience (no, that's not a typo, ouch!), and the one thing that has
always tripped me up is names for NPCs and other miscellaneous people
in my games. Over the years there has been a fair number of guards,
tavern owners, police officers, sec-guards, and starship captains
named "Bob" because I couldn't come up with a better name on the fly.
(There was a "Fusion Bob" once, but none of my players got the
reference).

What's the point of all this? I was working on populating a town for
my Earthdawn campaign, and I noticed this great book. You see, my
wife and I are expecting our first baby, and they make these great
books that have tens of thousands of names in them! You would think
that a smart guy like me would've figured this out a long time ago,
but no, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

With that said, these books are great. I recommend every GM pick one
up, especially a fairly modern one a lot of current and obscure
names. I have one that is divided into different Ethnic categories,
so that makes it even easier to find obscure, but cool, names.

There you have it, my GM tip for the year. Now, back to your
regularly schedule rant.

D,
--
David R. Lowe

c : 415.846.2338

dlowe@****.com
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Andrew Murdoch)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 11:30:01 2001
- David Lowe <11:22/21-Apr-2001>

> What's the point of all this? I was working on populating a town for
> my Earthdawn campaign, and I noticed this great book. You see, my
> wife and I are expecting our first baby, and they make these great
> books that have tens of thousands of names in them! You would think
> that a smart guy like me would've figured this out a long time ago,
> but no, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

My own personal trick was to frequently pick up the phone book...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hail, Centurion! toreador@***.bc.ca
Andrew C. Murdoch http://members.nbci.com/corvisraven
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 2 (b)
Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Michael Webb)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 13:00:01 2001
Would you mind telling me what the hell your talking about? Nowhere in your
post is there any reference to what it is you find so great.

-----Original Message-----
From: shadowrn-admin@*********.com
[mailto:shadowrn-admin@*********.com]On Behalf Of David Lowe
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2001 12:22 PM
To: david@***********.com
Subject: A big fat DUH!


This may not be news to most GM's, but I'm pretty darn excited about it.

So, the kid here is working on his twenty-second year of role playing
experience (no, that's not a typo, ouch!), and the one thing that has
always tripped me up is names for NPCs and other miscellaneous people
in my games. Over the years there has been a fair number of guards,
tavern owners, police officers, sec-guards, and starship captains
named "Bob" because I couldn't come up with a better name on the fly.
(There was a "Fusion Bob" once, but none of my players got the
reference).

What's the point of all this? I was working on populating a town for
my Earthdawn campaign, and I noticed this great book. You see, my
wife and I are expecting our first baby, and they make these great
books that have tens of thousands of names in them! You would think
that a smart guy like me would've figured this out a long time ago,
but no, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

With that said, these books are great. I recommend every GM pick one
up, especially a fairly modern one a lot of current and obscure
names. I have one that is divided into different Ethnic categories,
so that makes it even easier to find obscure, but cool, names.

There you have it, my GM tip for the year. Now, back to your
regularly schedule rant.

D,
--
David R. Lowe

c : 415.846.2338

dlowe@****.com
Message no. 4
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Augustus)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 13:10:01 2001
----- Original Message -----
From: David Lowe <david@*********.com>


> This may not be news to most GM's, but I'm pretty darn excited about it.

Baby name books are pretty good for 'normal' first names... you can also get
something like "The Book of Names" from your library (in the geneology or
history section, my library has a pretty big selection of books on last
names) that will give you little writeups and history behind most last names
(theres one at my library with tens of thousands of last names and a
paragraph on the origin/history of the name, from around the world)

You can also try the internet... most of the portal search sites (ie: lycos,
excite, etc) will have sections with links to online baby name sites...
these usually allow you to find something more exotic/different and give you
translations/origins of the name. (Plus they have search options... you
could say key in that you want a female name of japanese origin that is
derived from a flower, as an example... and it'll return all the names in
its database that match that criteria)

There is also phonebooks... if you live in a big city you can definitly get
a wide variety of names with many different ethnic origins (both first and
last). But if you wanted something more specific, you could try your local
library and use the phone books there (ie: if you want a bunch of german
names, you could use a phonebook from Germany)

There is also the internet again for this... some phone companies have their
phonebooks up on the net that you can browse through... or if you wanted
something specific again, say some Italian names, go to the main italian
government web pages and you can probably get a listing of government
officials (this works for languages that use the standard alphabet, symbolic
languages won't be of much help here for the average user)

Augustus
Message no. 5
From: shadowrn@*********.com (BD)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 15:20:01 2001
--- Michael Webb <phage97@****.com> wrote:
> Would you mind telling me what the hell your talking about? Nowhere in
> your
> post is there any reference to what it is you find so great.

Using a baby name book as a source of varied NPC names.

Oh, and next time, try to be a little more caustic. People love that
sort of tone.

====-Boondocker

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
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Message no. 6
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Shane Hyde)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 15:30:05 2001
> With that said, these books are great. I recommend every GM pick one
> up, especially a fairly modern one a lot of current and obscure
> names. I have one that is divided into different Ethnic categories,
> so that makes it even easier to find obscure, but cool, names.

I use the phone book as a random last name generator. Change a few vowels and consonants
and you have some lovely names.

Shane
Message no. 7
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Jeff Long)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 16:20:01 2001
From: "Andrew Murdoch"

> My own personal trick was to frequently pick up the phone book...

You do however want to take a slight bit of care with names in the
phonebook. I've actully had one instance where after I told the GM the
randomly chosen name, he quickly told me "NO!"

The name was his own.. ;)

Jalong1
Message no. 8
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Adam J)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Sun Apr 22 16:30:01 2001
At 14:26 22/04/2001, Jeff Long wrote:

>You do however want to take a slight bit of care with names in the
>phonebook. I've actully had one instance where after I told the GM the
>randomly chosen name, he quickly told me "NO!"
>
>The name was his own.. ;)

I once paused after randomly picking a name for a random chick in my game.

"Uh, you don't mind that this chick has the same name as your sister, do you?"

Adam
--
< http://tss.dumpshock.com : http://www.jillted.org >
< adamj@*********.com | ICQ# 2350330 | TSS Productions >
Message no. 9
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Marc Renouf)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Mon Apr 23 08:25:02 2001
On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Adam J wrote:

> I once paused after randomly picking a name for a random chick in my game.
>
> "Uh, you don't mind that this chick has the same name as your sister,
> do you?"

I think the weirdest one that I had was a random phone-book name
for a major villain in the campaign. This NPC was a total bastard, an
manipulative asshole of the highest calibre.
Six weeks later, one of my players met the guy whose name I had
pulled out of the book. He said it was really hard to interact with the
guy without hating his guts, simply because the NPC with the same name was
such a dick.

Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)

Other ShadowRN-related addresses and links:
Mark Imbriaco <mark@*********.com> List Owner
Adam Jury <adamj@*********.com> Assistant List Administrator
DVixen <dvixen@*********.com> Keeper of the FAQs
Gurth <gurth@******.nl> GridSec Enforcer Division
David Buehrer <graht@******.net> GridSec "Nice Guy" Division
ShadowRN FAQ <http://hlair.dumpshock.com/faqindex.php3>;
Message no. 10
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Graht)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Mon Apr 23 10:05:00 2001
At 11:22 AM 4/21/2001 -0700, David Lowe wrote:
>I was working on populating a town for my Earthdawn campaign, and I
>noticed this great book. You see, my wife and I are expecting our first
>baby, and they make these great books that have tens of thousands of names
>in them! You would think that a smart guy like me would've figured this
>out a long time ago, but no, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

<chuckle> Yep, I had pretty much the same experience a few years ago. The
baby name book is now an integral component of my GM resources :)

There are also great sites on the web. www.babynames.com is one of my
favorites.

To Life,
-Graht
ShadowRN Gridsec, Nice Guy Division
--
"Anything I have ever done that ultimately was worthwhile....
initially scared me to death."
-Betty Bender
Message no. 11
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Simon and Fiona)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Mon Apr 23 21:10:01 2001
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Murdoch <toreador@***.bc.ca>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Monday, April 23, 2001 1:35 AM
Subject: Re: A big fat DUH!



>My own personal trick was to frequently pick up the phone book...
>


The credits page in every RPG book is also a wealth of names, often unusual
or uncommon. Actually, several list members here have probably starred in my
games.
Alternately my mentally challenged friend who loved to GM despite having no
talent used to name NPCs after the players...
Message no. 12
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Gurth)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Tue Apr 24 05:25:04 2001
According to Simon and Fiona, on Tue, 24 Apr 2001 the word on the street was...

> Alternately my mentally challenged friend who loved to GM despite having no
> talent used to name NPCs after the players...

If you play in a room with movie posters or similar on the walls, those can
be a good inspiration, too, by using names straight from the credits or by
using the images fo inspiration. I used to name quite a few NPCs with a
variation on "Ed" back when there was an Iron Maiden calendar in the room
we used to play in, for example :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
If there are vegetarian hamburgers, why isn't there beef lettuce?
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+@ UL P L++ E W-(++) N o? K w+(--) O V?
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Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 13
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Chris Maxfield)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Tue Apr 24 10:20:01 2001
Records show that at 10:20 on Tuesday 24/04/01, Gurth scribbled:
>According to Simon and Fiona, on Tue, 24 Apr 2001 the word on the street
>was...
>
> > Alternately my mentally challenged friend who loved to GM despite having no
> > talent used to name NPCs after the players...
>
>If you play in a room with movie posters or similar on the walls, those can
>be a good inspiration, too, by using names straight from the credits or by
>using the images fo inspiration. I used to name quite a few NPCs with a

Similarly, I just flip on the TV and find a movie finishing (or fast
forward to the end of a movie I've videoed) and copy down names as the
credits roll. I think most of the stars of Japan's movie industry are Yaks
or Suits in my games, and Jackie Chan's co-stars are Triad family members. :-)

Chris
Message no. 14
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Anders Swenson)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Fri Apr 27 13:25:05 2001
----- Original Message -----
From: "Augustus" <shadowrun@********.net>
To: <shadowrn@*********.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: A big fat DUH!


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Lowe <david@*********.com>
>
Once I took the (legally confidential) list of clients on my caseload and
altered them slightly.
Some of those altered names made it into the CalFree book. --Anders
Message no. 15
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Anders Swenson)
Subject: A big fat DUH!
Date: Fri Apr 27 13:30:01 2001
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam J" <adamj@*********.com>
To: <shadowrn@*********.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: A big fat DUH!


> At 14:26 22/04/2001, Jeff Long wrote:
>
> >You do however want to take a slight bit of care with names in the
> >phonebook. I've actully had one instance where after I told the GM the
> >randomly chosen name, he quickly told me "NO!"
> >
> >The name was his own.. ;)
>
> I once paused after randomly picking a name for a random chick in my game.
>
> "Uh, you don't mind that this chick has the same name as your sister, do
you?"
>
I knew a guy who named his Call of Cthuhlu investigator "Sandy Peterson".
Sandy, of course, invented CoC, and lived within 12 miles of the guy who
stole his name (at the time). --Anders

Further Reading

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!