Tag: lists

More Inspirational Reading

If you copy from one book, that’s plagiarism; if you copy from many books, that’s research.

(Professor Wallace Notestein, 1929. Much re-quoted)

I’m often asked about sources of inspiration, and while my previous article mentioned some forms that I use, it still leaves out a lot of the details.

When I am hoping for a particular theme, I will research other literature and media from that theme. For example my previous Fates Worse Than Death game had a dark, gothic feel to it, and so I included characters named Patricia and Dr Avalanche.

Other names come from mangling themes. In this game, we had a Gang named the “Tea Drinkers” (after their predilection for Soma tea, that supposedly improved their Psychic Powers). Major Players included Cam(from chamomile), Tets (from Tetley), and Ty (from Typhoo).

In Mathematics, an “abelian group” is defined as “a group for which the elements commute“. So  my group of Math Addicts, who lived outside of Gang Turf, took the name “The Abelians”. A subtle in-joke that only I got, but I used nonetheless 🙂

Foreign Languages:

The first port of call here is Latin. I was recently asked about a name for a character that was a Butterfly. I instantly brought up a page of Biological Latin Names to choose from, and/or alter to suit.

In D&D, there are creatures called Illithids (or Mind Flayers) that have tentacled faces, making them look like an octopus or squid (similar to the Ood from Dr Who). My natural tendency when I got to play one of these monstrosities was to call him “Ceph“.

Lists of foreign names are plentiful across t’interwebs, so browsing for one with a particular meaning is quite fruitful. My “Spanish” ex-noble in a fantasy-based New World game was called Sancho (“sainted. holy”), to clash with his obviously-tainted appearance (albino).

Others:

Some of my favourite names have included:

  • Brian’s Little Brother. (We never knew who Brian was)
  • Billy-O (he was run out of town)
  • Santiago (From Alpha Centauri)
  • Hexametric Ice (a group of Math Addicts. Considered to be “special snowflakes” by their peers)
Place Names

Several of my games are set in Urban areas, with large housing blocks. Often, I name these after politicians. A previous Cyberpunk game centred around Tebbit Block, with Lawson Towers, Lamont Park, Hurd Housing and Howe Block all playing their parts.

Pub names are usually randomly generated, but occasionally I manage to mangle something well enough for my needs. The latest is “The Happy Greeter”, where a gang of Bikers hang out. A mix of “Happy Eater” motorway services chain, and “The Salutation” (a biker bar in Nottingham, UK).

Summary

Overall, I take inspiration for any and every place I can get it! Mix it up, mangle it, twist it until it fits!

Take a favourite TV show, poem, song, and change it just enough that it is not instantly recognisable, but still traceable. Draw on your own hometown, or places you have visited (when I re-ran B2 – Keep on the Borderlands, I cribbed all the names from a local street-map!).

Do not be afraid of your players finding out where you got the ideas! It can be good to watch them look out for other references!

Where do you get your names from? What have you been pleased with?

Whose Dice Is It Anyway?

(Inspired by This Thread)

Some GMs are masters of making things up as they go along. Winging it. Improvisation. They are never short of new, interesting locations, and characterful NPCs. Plot lines seem to grow organically as the game moves along.

I am not one of those GMs.

Players will, inevitably, come up with new and innovative ways to side-step challenges, derail story-lines, and chase tangent-bunnies. When they do, I tend to run into the GMing equivalent of writers’ block. Over my many years of GMing, I have come up with coping-strategies to keep the game flowing, rather than stumble through, uming and erring over details.

The first tactic I use is to try to keep the geographic scope of my campaigns quite small. This allows for locations to be reused many times, and detail to build up over time. The NorthHills sprawlzone that I used for my cyberpunk campaigns started as a rough map, and as we played, built up into a well-detailed area. The Mall had shops (with staff) noted, and was visited many times. I ran several adventures using The Crow Bar, and it has built up a history of its own. I particularly like Fates Worse Than Death for this, as it is set exclusively on Manhattan Island. Large enough to allow quite a lot of scope, but small enough to keep coming back to the same places, meeting the same people.

Another ploy is to keep sets of lists handy. People’s names. Business names. Emotions and attitudes. Some of these I pen myself, between sessions. Others I pull from many sources. Particular favourites are Lee’s Lists and Random Generator.  Vajra have some good random creators, specifically for their FWTD setting, but it can easily be used for other games.

Some games produce very good source-books for this, and I particulalry like Shadowrun’s Sprawl Sites. Containing details on quite a few potential locations, plus a whole list of encounters, it provides useful inspiration should ideas dry up.

Also, keep a thesaurus handy. Treeware versions are fine, but nowadays I tend to rely on thesaurus.com for getting good words appropriating superior lexicons.

And, of course, I have my many years of experience to draw upon! I have been known to use ‘similar’ NPCs from game to game, even radically different settings, and tweak locations from one game to fit another. Even plots and adventures are lifted wholesale! Sometimes it is obvious, even highlighted, other times more subtle. (Notable example: When I ran an AD&D campaign many moons ago, one player created character sheets for the 30-40 NPCs in his care (the “We Hate The Dark Lord” club). As they, in turn, inevitably met their fates, they were handed to me, to re-use as ready-made NPCs for that, or any other, game. I still have that folder.)

With these tools at the ready, I tend to spread my preparation thinly, sketching several fledgling ideas, ready to develop the ones that the players interact with, adding detail as play progresses.

So, my improvisation is not about on-the-fly winging it. It is the result of much preparation. Roll a dice on this table. Choose an appropriate item from that list. Pull a character sheet from that folder. All prepped beforehand, ready to be improvised on-the-spot!