Confessions of a Game-Mistress

It’s Saturday, so just a quick note today. Forgive.

Stupid GM Trick #126 - How to get a Modern NPC Name on the fly - check the spam folder of your email. Spammers often use a random name generator to get the names they use on the messages, so think of it as a pregenerated list for you to choose from.

An amusing side note - I have it on good authority that the system of creating game titles and then making adventures to go with them is how the RPGA is creating its modules lately. Seems that way the titles of the adventures at least are ready to go into the convention listings for the major cons like GenCon, that need the info months in advance.

Thanks for the info, A.!

Given Names Listed By Meaning (McFarland, 1993)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0899507484/sr=8-1/qid=1153208744/ref=sr_1_1/104-7854325-2171141?ie=UTF8

This book caters to my obsession. I am hung up on names. I probably spend too much time on them. This book makes that a less-trying effort, by listing names in alphabetical order by meaning. I’ve spent a lot of time with this simple book, and I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth out of it.

The book lists both male and female given names alphabetically by meaning, and then a brief alphabetical section at the back lists all the names in one big list, so that you can find from the other direction. It lists country of origin for them, or ethnicity where appropriate. Browsing it is a fun game of picking a definition, and finding which names mean your choice.

The down sides are twofold. One, the book has lots of weird omissions, and only gives the simplest of origin info. There is no listing, for example, for the separate tribes of Native American names. There’s also no list by ethnicity, which makes naming a group from a particular culture more difficult. Two, and I find this one more glaring, there is absolutely no source information provided. I would appreciate knowing where the information she imparts came from.

Still, the book does an excellent job at its primary function, giving you wonderful ideas for characters and plots by giving you good names.

We’ve discussed why I like the idea of episode titles, and what they’re useful for. Now let’s get down to the basics.

What makes an evocative word? An evocative word is a word that creates a vivid image or a feeling in the subject. All words create something, but some words do it better than others. As I’ve experimented with the concept, I’ve assembled a list of words I consider to be evocative. This is a portion of that list:

Ebony Echo Elements Emerald Ether Expectations
Harvest Histrionic Homecoming Hunter
Rain Ravens Release Revenge Roam Rose Russet

With a handful of words like this, we’re ready to start assembling titles. You can go all creative and make a spreadsheet (I did, but just as a sorting mechanism), or you can just sketch down words you like in a notepad (what I did before the spreadsheet). Either way, just pick a pair of words at random. Let’s see : Emerald Rose. Okay, that’s a great place to start. One potential title could be “The Emerald Rose”, which could refer to a ship, an artifact, or a particularly infamous druidess. Or, you could decide that it needs more oomph and add the word ‘harvest’. That might give you the intriguing title “Harvest of the Emerald Rose”, which doesn’t eliminate any of the ideas I threw out, but suggests more action. Harvest, after all, creates a mental image of the reaping of grain, which suggests a modicum of completion. If you wanted to moke that more ominous, you could replace ‘harvest’ with the more evocative word I just threw out, ‘reaping’. ‘Reaping’ gains some evocation by association with the “Grim Reaper”, and in most people’s minds would seem more violent or dangerous. Another example would be picking the words ‘ether’ and ‘ravens’. “Ravens of the Ether” suggests itself, as does “Ether Ravens”. Add ‘hunter’ and you get “Ravens of the Ether Hunter”, or maybe “The Ether of the Hunter Ravens”. Replace ‘ether’ with ‘revenge’ and you get “Revenge of the Raven Hunter”, or “The Hunter Ravens’ Revenge”.

As you can see, just throwing things together will give you a point from which to launch your flight of fancy.

One last tip - Post the titles early. As a GM, I’ve found that players often spur my best ideas. And once your players clue to the importance of titles, they’ll pick them apart the week before, when the current session ends. Pay attention! Not only might they make a plan to squash your cleverly thought-out plans, you may find ideas for the following week or more.

I threw out a title at the end of the session. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but it sounded great. I was astonished at the depths of creativity they reached trying to find my non-existent plans. And I took notes.

If you liked the idea of the evocative words, let me give you a further seed with the idea.

Do the titles first.

Yes, I really mean it. Sit down and dream up interesting titles. If you have ideas for the flow of the game, you can pick some words that pertain to it to put in the mix, but don’t let it get in the way of your creativity. Once you’ve got some titles you like, then consider how they could fit your campaign. The title from the last blog, “The Elements of Decay”, actually was created before I thought to attach it to the adventure I described. After I’d had the idea to generate titles from evocative words for episodes, I made a list of cool titles. When I was done, I thought about what was upcoming, and realized I had a few that fit perfectly.

And what about the rest? That’s the beauty of making the titles first. The titles themselves suggest the adventures! Just examine what you’ve created, and let your imagination run wild. Here’s another example, right off my list of ideas: “An Invocation of Shadows”. What does that conjure up in your mind? Invocation - I see a powerful figure calling others to him. (Why? For what purpose?) Shadows - shadows is a great word. It could mean so many different things. It could mean they’re literally shadows. Or, it could mean they’re stealthy individuals. Alternately, they could be mages who simply send magical projections instead of their real forms. To be less literal, what if the invocation’s not a calling of things, but ideas? Maybe the invocation is calling something into being, say, a perceived threat or challenge that’s not really there. (When I first heard the title of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” I thought it sounded cheesy. Then I saw the movie. And decided it was brilliant, because that’s precisely what Palpatine did. He created a phantom menace, the Trade Federation, to conceal his real plans. At another level, it refers to Palpatine himself, the true phantom behind the actions of the players. What’s more, that theme is continued by the holograms he uses to communicate - digital phantoms.)

As you can see, a good title can both inspire a story or enlighten it. A carefully chosen title could be used to call subtle attention to the main thread of the plot, just in case your players might miss it. “An Invocation of Shadows” might be the clue they need in retrospect to figure out that there was one guiding hand behind a collection of powers/ incidents/ creatures that were all encountered during the adventure. If you wanted to hint more broadly, you could attach particular words to creatures or villains. If every adventure that includes a lich has the word “hollow” in the title, the players will eventually pick up on the idea, even if only subconsciously.
Next time, we’ll look at a list of evocative words, and put them together in titles. Then we’ll take one from idea to finished plot.

I’m a fanatic about names. My players can tell you, I’d sooner fudge an NPC that give a stupid name. Names have power. Names provide us with a preconceived image of what they’re attached to. Accordingly, I agonize over them.

It strikes me as odd that with my obsession, I’ve never spent time considering the names of my adventures. I don’t often name them. I think that’s a trend I’m going to change. I’ve been considering ways to improve my stories by looking at those writers I admire in the media. Three of my favorite shows are Babylon 5, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. In examining those shows I noticed several things that they had in common. The first of these was the episode titles. In fact another show that I’ve basically never watched stood out in my mind for the titles alone - Andromeda.

After that revelation, I began to look at the titles themselves. Why did they stick out in my mind? Evocative words. It’s no surprise to any gamer, especially a GM, that some words carry more weight than others. Which makes a better image in your mind: group or cabal?

Reflecting on that, I took a look at what I was giving the group to look at in the calendar: An endless repetition of the name of the setting, or maybe if lucky, the name of the campaign. When you flip into the TV Guide to decide your evening’s entertainment, are you disappointed when they just give you the show name, and no episode name? I am, and I think that game titles will help set player expectations for the night. Leaving the titles evocative but vague will give me wiggle room for short-notice changes, but give players an idea of what to expect.

Here’s an example: One of my current campaigns is the “Shadow Elite”, an ‘evil’ campaign. The characters are an elite ‘troubleshooting squad’ of the best the Shadow Thieves (Forgotten Realms) has to offer. They are handed missions which fall outside the scope of the usual Guild activities, and are expected to use any means necessary to complete them. (Think of them as the dark equivalent of the ‘Mission Impossible’ team - right down to their being deniable assets with no paper trail to their organization if they fail.)

Their current mission involves infiltrating a city outside of the Thieves’ control, and undermining the thieves’ guild there, in preparation for a Shadow Thieves takeover. Before, this would be one more “Shadow Thieves - 6 PM” line item in the calendar. Now, the name of the next episode is: “The Elements of Decay”. What’s going to generate more interest?