- | - | - | - | - |
Dungeons & Dragons | - | Dragon magazine | - | The Dragon #34 |
A Dungeons & Dragons character
is as complex as the person
playing him/her. One of the easiest ways to create a different personality
in one's characters is to give them names with a little thought invested
in
them. The run-of-the-mill character is going to have a run-of-the-mill
name; hence, we see a lot of names like Fred the Swordsman or Barney
the Magician. One step better is the character whose name shows that
the player was thinking when he named him, but thinks he/she's going
to be cute, so we have a Cleric named Toogoo of the Holy Order of Fries
or a Ranger named Lone.
My favorite characters out of fantasy always had names there were
two other words of not neccesarily associated meanings that were put
together to make up a name of peculiar power. Death and Piper will
serve. Roll the combination around in your mouth for a minute.
Nice,
eh? Now add an appropriate forename, like Caine. See
what I mean? It
makes it so much easier to get into the persona of a character named
Caine Deathpiper. I mean, with Deathpiper around, Lone the Ranger
is
just a silly joke and Fred the Swordsman is a drudge.
Now, I'll bet you're wondering how you can get names like these for
your characters. It's simple. Take 1d6 and 1d20 and cross-reference
the
result; for example, a two on the d6 and a three on the d20 give you
"Death." Now roll them both again, a three on the d6 and a ten on
the
d20 is "Piper." See how simple it is? The words below can be
changed
to suit your fancy, of course. You can even roll until you get what
you
want (free choice).
Name Generation Table
- | 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. |
1. | Hawk | Fair | Spear | Eagle | Dark | Dreamer |
2. | Black | Stone | Singer | Gray | Star | Bow |
3. | Blade | Death | High | Staff | Brother | Strong |
4. | Wood | White | Bear | Moon | Silver | Claw |
5. | Sure | SLAYER | Helm | Free | Weaver | Wave |
6. | Shadow | Tiger | Shield | Sea | Fox | Sky |
7. | Dancer | Flame | Bone | Changer | Sly | Foam |
8. | Red | Horn | Soul | Gold | Cleaver | Fist |
9. | Wolf | Blood | Bane | Lion | Fang | Wise |
10. | Hammer | Storm | Piper | Rune | Heart | Wind |