This is the blog. Click here to go to the Zenopus Archives website.

Note: Many older posts on this blog are missing images, but can be viewed at the corresponding page in the Internet Archive

FEATURED POST

The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave: Index of Posts

An index of posts describing the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave, an adventure for Holmes Basic characters levels 2-4.                    ...

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Holmesian Random Names


Meet & Greet at the Green Dragon Inn? Illustration by DCSIII from B1

Often I have trouble thinking of interesting character names on the spot, so I've put together a table of 100 syllables for generating random character (player or NPC) names. The syllables are drawn from the proper names in Holmes Basic Rulebook and the module B1 by Mike Carr (mostly the many pre-gen characters in the back, but also some from the text). B1 was included in the 2nd edition of the Holmes Basic set, so this list generates what someone having only that set might have come up with for D&D names. This list could be used with B2, the other Holmes module, which has no proper names at all for the many inhabitants of the Keep.

 First, roll d100 for the # of syllables in the name:
01-10 One syllable (double the last letter if desired)
11-70 Two syllables
71-90 Three syllables
91-100 Four syllables

 Syllables can be placed together to form one word, or separated by spaces or hyphens.

 Second, roll d100 for each syllable:
    1. Af
    2. Al or Ael
    3. Baf
    4. Bel
    5. Ber or Berd
    6. Bes
    7. Bo
    8. Bor
    9. Bran
    10. Bru
    11. Car
    12. Chor
    13. Cig
    14. Cla
    15. Da
    16. Do or Doh
    17. Don
    18. Dor
    19. Dre or Dreb
    20. Eg or Feg
    21. Er
    22. Es
    23. Ev
    24. Fal or Ful
    25. Fan or Fen
    26. Far
    27. Fum
    28. Ga or Gahn
    29. Gaith
    30. Gar
    31. Gen or Glen
    32. Go
    33. Gram
    34. Ha
    35. Hag or Harg
    36. Ho
    37. Ig
    38. Ka
    39. Kar
    40. Kra or Krac
    41. Ky
    42. Lag
    43. Lap
    44. Le
    45. Lef
    46. Lis
    47. Lo
    48. Lu
    49. Mal
    50. Mar
    51. Me
    52. Mez
    53. Mich
    54. Mil or Mul
    55. Mo
    56. Mun
    57. Mus
    58. Ned
    59. Nic
    60. No
    61. Nor
    62. Nu
    63. Os
    64. Pal
    65. Pen
    66. Phil
    67. Po or Poy
    68. Pos or Pus
    69. Pres
    70. Quas
    71. Que
    72. Rag
    73. Ralt
    74. Ram
    75. Rin or Ron
    76. Ris
    77. Ro
    78. Sa
    79. See
    80. Ser or Sur
    81. Sho
    82. Sit
    83. Spor
    84. Tar
    85. Tas
    86. Ten or Ton
    87. To
    88. Tra
    89. Treb or Tred
    90. Tue
    91. Vak
    92. Ven
    93. Web
    94. Wil
    95. Yor
    96. Zef
    97. Zell
    98. Zen
    99. Zo
    100. Vowel (roll d6: 1=A; 2=E; 3=I; 4=O; 5=U; 6=Y)

      Finally, if desired add a title (pick or d20):
      1. of the North/South/East/West/City/Hills/Mountains/Plains/Woods/Coast
      2. the Bold/Daring
      3. the Barbarian/Civilized
      4. the Battler
      5. the Black/Blue/Brown/Green/Red/Yellow
      6. the Fearless/Brave
      7. the Fair/Foul/Lovely/Loathsome
      8. the First, Second, Third, Fourth etc (roll d20)
      9. the Gentle/Cruel
      10. the Great
      11. the Merciful/Merciless
      12. the Mighty
      13. the Mysterious/Unknown
      14. the Old/Young/Boy/Girl
      15. the Quick/Slow
      16. the Quiet/Silent/Loud
      17. the Steady/Unready
      18. the Traveller/Wanderer
      19. the Unexpected  
      20. the Hooded/Cloaked/Robed
      Options:
      The character's class or race can also be added: "Old Magician", "Loud Dwarf" etc

      Clerics can roll for the name of their deity using the same process, and then add, "Servant of" (see example below).


      Examples:

      Bru Preslap
      No Yar the Loud
      Fan-lo the Merciful
      Tenron
      Eg Tasharg
      Mezron the Mysterious
      Posten Milberd
      Borr the Unexpected
      Nu Berd 
      Raltig Os, Foul Wizard
      Donsur the Old
      Da Fen of the Woods
      Ralt the Steady
      Nuglen
      Ragg the Wanderer
      Mez-Feg the Green Halfling
      Milterkagram 
      Tar-gahn, Servant of Gram Al
      Posted by Zenopus Archives at 7:01 AM
      Labels: , ,

      19 comments:

      1. Vile TravellerJune 13, 2013 at 7:29 AM

        Wait, you missed out "the Lovely"!

        ReplyDelete
        Replies
        1. Zenopus ArchivesJune 13, 2013 at 9:54 AM

          Good catch! I added it to the line with Fair. I also added more alternates titles that might be used with evil NPCs, and an option for Clerics.

          Delete
        2. Sean RobsonJune 13, 2013 at 2:14 PM

          I feel like 'the Blessed/Damned' should be added, but then you'd need a 21-sided die.

          Delete
      2. bliss_infinteJune 13, 2013 at 7:37 AM

        Ha! Love it! Most entertaining charts I've seen in a while!

        ~signed, Zengram Farcig the Bold

        ReplyDelete
      3. Sean RobsonJune 13, 2013 at 8:01 AM

        Nice! But you know I'm just going to keep rolling until I get Bruno the Battler!

        ReplyDelete
      4. Jason ZavodaJune 13, 2013 at 8:36 AM

        That is damn cool.

        ReplyDelete
      5. Brutorz BillJune 13, 2013 at 12:03 PM

        Very cool!

        ReplyDelete
      6. Clovis CithogJune 13, 2013 at 4:13 PM

        MY quick and easy way to get a Fantasy sounding character name  go to the white pages of your phone book, and place finger on any page (randomly);
        Take first five or six letters of last name (space)
        followed by first three letters of first name
        examples
        . . .

        Charl Mic Hilli Lar
        Tompk Deb Watso Ali
        ....

        OR if you don’t like these, try rearranging
        . . .

        Mic Charl Lar Hilli
        Deb Tompk Ali Watso
        ...

        ReplyDelete
      7. Desert ScribeJune 13, 2013 at 4:39 PM

        ZA, this is eight flavors of awesome sauce! If I ever get around to running a Holmes game, I'm using this.

        ReplyDelete
      8. Sean RobsonJune 14, 2013 at 9:42 AM

        I just rolled up Robeszen the Robed. I might just have to keep this one for future use!

        ReplyDelete
      9. velaranJune 29, 2013 at 11:16 PM

        This is the best name generator I've seen yet! I'll certainly be using this in my games as a player and a GM. In fact, I need a Cleric for DCC, so...

        -roll-
        -roll-
        -roll-
        -roll-
        -roll-

        which yields: Dor Que The Cruel, Servant of KaGar

        Cool!

        Thanx for coming up with this!

        ReplyDelete
      10. Johnn FourMarch 19, 2016 at 6:13 PM

        This is awesome Zenopus. I've made a JSON generator out of this. May I post it on my site? Cheers, Johnn.

        ReplyDelete
      11. Johnn FourMarch 19, 2016 at 6:14 PM

        I forgot to mention, I'll link back to you and credit you as the source, of course!

        ReplyDelete
        Replies
        1. Zenopus ArchivesMarch 23, 2016 at 11:28 AM

          Yes, that would be fine. I just added your blog feed to my list. I'm a fan of your Five Room Dungeon concept.

          Delete
        2. Johnn FourMarch 23, 2016 at 6:24 PM

          Awesome. Thanks! Would you be interested in a free one year license to our Campaign Logger web app where we've hooked up the name generator? You can see it in action! If so, email me at johnnfour@gmail.com and I'll hook you up.

          Delete
      12. iknycesarJuly 2, 2016 at 6:40 PM

        WOW!! This is really really cool. Congratulations!!

        Yours Truly
        Rozomar Dafumphil, the Brave, Servant of Nocar-Dobran

        ReplyDelete
      13. wolftonesAugust 14, 2023 at 8:33 PM

        I was surprised no one has made a website out of this, so I went ahead and made it myself: https://holmesian-name-generator.netlify.app/

        Please check it out and let me know if you have feature requests/if you like it!

        ReplyDelete

      Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)