Thursday, March 17, 2011

totally optional campaign specific name charts

Players are free to name their characters anything they think is appropriate.  These charts are mainly in case they get stuck.

Male Names
1-3 William
4-5 John
6-7 Robert
8-9 Richard
10 Roger
11 Ralf
12 Thomas
13 Henry
14 Geoffrey
15 Walter
16 Hugh/Hugo
17 Gilbert
18 Peter
19 Adam
20 Simon

Female Names
1-3 Matilda
4-5 Alice
6 Joan
7 Agnes
8 Emma
9 Isabella/Isabel
10 Margaret/Margery
11 Rohesia
12 Juliana
13 Cecily/Cecillia
14 Avice
15 Beatrice
16 Amice
17 Sabina
18 Sarra
19 Mabel/Mabillia
20 Albreda

[The probability spread on these are based upon a couple of items I found online looking into naming patterns in English documents in the 13th century.  I'm also working on an extended table, mostly for NPCs.  Most players don't even need a chart like this, but I often strain to come up with good names.  The extended list currently has almost 1200 male names on it.]

Bynames (substitute 'of' for 'de' as desired)
1 de Naimes
2 d'Aigremont
3 d'Evre
4 de Giens
5 de Didol
6 de Yair
7 de Mordpellier
8 de Morven
9 de Valneres
10 de Nointel
11 of Midwich
12 of Lufton
13 of Barset
14 of Hoggle
15 of Framley
16 of Worsted
17 of Greshamsbury
18 of Marling
19 of Puddingdale
20 of Sodor

Rolling a 1-10 on the table indicates you come from the other side of the Channel (i.e. France), from a region on the Norman/Angevin border.  Locations 11-19 are all in England, somewhere vaguely to the north of the campaign area.  Item 20 is an island in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and the Isle of Man. 

[The explanatory text at the end is a pack of lies.  Items 1-10 are places on a map of Poictesme, the fictional province where James Branch Cabell set some of his fantasy fiction.  Item 11 is from the sci-fi/horror novel The Midwich Cuckoos, which was made into two films, both titled Village of the Damned.  Items 12-19 are based upon locations in the Barsetshire novels of Anthony Trollope and later Angela Thirkell.  Sodor Island is from the kid's show Thomas the Tank Engine.  The point to all this rippery-offery is to provide authentic-esque locations off the map that suggest something useful in terms of color without tying anything down to actual history.]

8 comments:

  1. nice charts. Very handy for any English themed game, really.

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  2. "Sabina of Dildo" is actually the name of my Edwardian erotic novel.

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  3. Sodor shows up in my milieu too.

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  4. Very nice. I've made use of charts like this myself, though not for a history-inspired setting. (I had a very strong idea of how names worked in my world, so I provided a lot of possibilities and also let players come up with ones that fit the same feel.)

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  5. Excellent charts. Even if people make up their own names this gives them an idea for what kind of names are typical for the campaign world.

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  6. Sodor ain't fictional; it's a whole chain of islands.

    /pedant

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  7. Yes, yes. But I'm specifically talking about this Sodor.

    I am aware of the Diocese of Sodor and Man. And while were at it, I've read the entire Holmes rulebook as well.

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