Oh for crying out loud! You're going to ruin me. I only got Classic Horrors today. ;)
Just become a subscriber, and it's painless!
It's like a reverse IV drip ... money flows from your bank account to Paizo and you don't even notice.
Well, unless you throw $150 of other stuff in your shopping cart and then go "Holy #$!@# my order is $208 this month??"
:)
Yeah.....that's definitely going into the "Must purchase ASAP!!!!!" list.
So let's see that's:
-A Gamemastery Guide
-A DM screen
-The book of NPCs
Wallet is going to have to go on a sudden diet.....
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Funny story: I am also currently running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Last week I also had to whip up a personality and background for an NPC... one of the hobgoblins in the old temple who is now a party tag-a-long.
Won't bore anyone with the details, just thought the coincidence was pretty neat.
CEO
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The funny thing about the whole Wil Wheaton thing was that it hung around for the whole campaign, because the guard ended up dying in a fight and so the group cut off his head, hit it with Gentle Repose, and carried it around in a bag. Whenever they wanted to ask Wil a question about the temple, they would pull out the head and cast Speak With Dead. So I was constantly reminded all campaign long about my inability to come up with names on the spur of the moment. The shame. The shame. :)
-Lisa
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Chief Technical Officer
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The funny thing about the whole Wil Wheaton thing was that it hung around for the whole campaign, because the guard ended up dying in a fight and so the group cut off his head, hit it with Gentle Repose, and carried it around in a bag. Whenever they wanted to ask Wil a question about the temple, they would pull out the head and cast Speak With Dead. So I was constantly reminded all campaign long about my inability to come up with names on the spur of the moment. The shame. The shame. :)
-Lisa
You mean other parties *don't* carry Wil Wheaton's head around in a bag? Seemed like an obvious strategy to me.
So I was constantly reminded all campaign long about my inability to come up with names on the spur of the moment. The shame. The shame. :)
Lisa, you gaming professionals don't know what TRUE shame feels like to a GM. When I was running The Forge of Fury...
And... my... mind... went... completely... blank.
All I had to do was make up any phony name, but all I could do was stare forward, blankly, like an idiot.
Of course, the player immediately realized that the woman was lying.
Now THAT'S real shame!
(Mind you, the party still fell for the trap. The player was wondering why the woman was so eager to kiss someone, and since he hated the party's dwarven cleric I was playing, he said "Let her kiss the dwarf!" The player regretted THAT for the rest of the campaign!)
I cheat...and print up a list of names ahead of time and cross it off as I go. :P
Heh. I do that for random encounters. It never occurred to me to do that with names. Thanks for the tip!
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CEO
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Lisa, you gaming professionals don't know what TRUE shame feels like to a GM. When I was running The Forge of Fury...
** spoiler omitted **
Oh, I've had my share of similar mishaps. Whenever I am trying to add something beyond the original adventure's parameters, I always get caught offguard by questions like the one you mentioned in your spoiler. What I have taken to doing is pretend to look through the printed adventure like I am trying to find the answer, all the while thinking of what the answer might be, and then pointing at a page (any page) and announcing the answer like it was there all the time. Most of the time I pull this off well, but sometimes my players notice and call me on it. :)
-Lisa
Email Spam folder is a great place for names, too. Just rearrange name syllables to make 'em sound more fantasy-ish. :D
Yeah!
I do that before every game, so that I have names that sound appropriate for different places (the different countries in my campaign have different naming conventions).
Several recurring villains started out as selections from the "random name list" :)
What I have taken to doing is pretend to look through the printed adventure like I am trying to find the answer, all the while thinking of what the answer might be, and then pointing at a page (any page) and announcing the answer like it was there all the time.
That's a good idea too!
If you get really ambitious, you can do lists by race and gender as well. Preprinted, this list can last you quite a few game sessions.
Good one.
Once, while I was making breakfast and simultaneously telling my daughter the Harry Potter story, I got to a part that mentioned a stone that could cure almost any magical poison. (This post is spoiler-free, by the way.) I was saying "...a stone, taken from the stomach of a goat, called a..." I couldn't remember what the stone was called, and I had to improvise a name, so I looked into the crisper in the fridge, where I was digging through fruits and vegetables, and saw the name "Dole." So I said "...Dolestone."
I've told my kids the Harry Potter story many times since then, and I've consistently used the word "Dolestone." I never even bothered looking up what J. K. Rowling called it, even though I had plenty of chances to do so.
True story!