So forget about their merits. I'd like to discuss villain names. We got a wide variety in this round.
Naming is a difficult thing. You want names that are:
* plausible
* not wuss-sounding, if an overt villain
* not suspicious, if it's supposed to be an undercover villain
* at any cost - not easily corrupted and mocked
Plausibility - To paraphrase a Tick episode (I consider it a failing of the Internets I can't pull up the exact quote in Google),
"What kind of a name is that?"
"Uh... French. We're from France."
"That's funny, it sounds more made up to me."
Also in this category are people named strangely appropriate things. Did their parents really name them "Arcano Necrophage?" And then they turned out to be a necromancer? I guess those pop psych studies about your name affecting you when you grow up are true. Good thing he didn't grow up to be manager of a day care or something, that would be embarrassing.
Not suspicious - Often, your subtlety isn't as clever as you think it is. In Rise of the Runelords, there's a traitor named Kaven. The second my character met him, I thought "Kaven = craven = coward = traitor, time to interrogate him." Annnnd sure enough.
Or a sci-fi game I played in where we kept getting rumors and hints about a space pirate captain called "Rojo Beluga." I humored the GM by not mocking him, but again, "rojo beluga = red whale = big red herring = false rumor." Annnnd sure enough. "I wondered why you all never bit on those rumors." "Because we're not retarded?"
So some comments from the Top 32!
Names With Issues
1. Volner Tain. This guy immediately becomes "Volner Taint" and the players laugh like Beavis and Butthead every time his name is mentioned.
2. Gulga Cench. Gulga Stench. Being a poo-beast in the bargain - nuff said.
3. Archibald Graveleaf. He's supposed to front as a benevolent protector, but that doesn't last long with "Graveleaf." And what, his last name was Graveleaf and ironically he grew up to be a killdruid?
4. Paradigm Theoguard - apparently his parents were both prescient and sadistic? Many groups will find this name high on the mock-factor and call him "Synergy Godbuddy" or the like (changing the exact name each time).
Now, there's names that ride the line. Mockable, or just appropriate for a one-liner?
1. Father Avon begs for an "Avon Calling!" line. Might be OK, depending on how often the players do that.
2. Bracht Darkhouse, when defeated, might be deprecated with a "More like a dark *room*!" from a player. But they're stretching, so it's probably OK. Same deal with Gale - if they really are pushing for an Schwartzenegger-style kill one-liner that's their problem.
3. Sharina Legendsinger, being a bard, is going to be treated to many a rendition of "My Sharina," but as she is spending a lot of the time being the party's "friend" this might just be played as a fun bonding experience/inside joke among friends. And a nice positive "Legendsinger" name; hopefully an appellation and not an actual last name.
Then you have your standard spread of "sounds like a made up name from a fantasy novel" names. Which isn't that bad.
Contributor
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I'd like to discuss villain names.... We got a wide variety in this round. ...
There's some good advice here that could be applied to any NPC, not just villains.
I'm not too worried about a villain having a "strangely appropriate name," myself. When I see such things, I usually take that to mean that the villain has changed his name to something he considers more appropriate. This is not at all unheard of in fiction or real life. It also makes finding information about the villain a tiny bit more difficult.
To use one of your examples: If I were to use him as a villain in my game, the PCs would not find a birth record for "Arcano Necrophage" in the bowels of city hall. There may be folks who know who the man is and that he used to be named something more "normal," but that would take some detective work.
As for "trick names" I think there could be a time and place for them. The "anagram name" trick was used with some effectiveness in Silence of the Lambs. Sometimes, it's fun to throw in things that you know your players are capable of figuring out, just to see if they're paying attention. I agree, however, that it should not be used frequently, especially not as a major part of the plot.
I don't completely agree with your assessments of all the names above, but I definitely think you're correct in advising contestants to think about how a character's name can be used, misused, and interpreted before submitting it for publication.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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2. Bracht Darkhouse, when defeated, might be deprecated with a "More like a dark *room*!" from a player. But they're stretching, so it's probably OK.
Funny story ... I'm proofreading my entry in church (not during the service, just was there on other business) and I kept feeling like someone was watching me. Looked behind me and there was a picture of a minister on the wall ... His name was Parkhouse. One letter substitution later ...
I'm not too worried about a villain having a "strangely appropriate name," myself. When I see such things, I usually take that to mean that the villain has changed his name to something he considers more appropriate. This is not at all unheard of in fiction or real life. It also makes finding information about the villain a tiny bit more difficult.
I agree, having an appropriate name is usually a pseudonym and her parents used to call her Susan.
Or the other reason might be that trades go in the family, son of a smith is trained as a smith and thus has a name appropriate for a smith. So maybe Arcano Necrophage is then son of Vlad and Morticia Necrophage (highly suitable for sorcerers, at least).|
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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I'm not too worried about a villain having a "strangely appropriate name," myself. When I see such things, I usually take that to mean that the villain has changed his name to something he considers more appropriate. This is not at all unheard of in fiction or real life. It also makes finding information about the villain a tiny bit more difficult.I agree, having an appropriate name is usually a pseudonym and her parents used to call her Susan.
Or the other reason might be that trades go in the family, son of a smith is trained as a smith and thus has a name appropriate for a smith. So maybe Arcano Necrophage is then son of Vlad and Morticia Necrophage (highly suitable for sorcerers, at least).
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
It's a bit of an aside, but one thing I've found with naming villains is that you have to be especially careful in naming a villain who is not supposed to be immediately identified as such by the PCs.
True story: In a game I was playing in, the party entered a meeting of the town council, and met the following people who were identified exactly as I have them below.
Jer the Merchant
Kern the Guard Captain
Stephan the Noble Lord
Balthazar Maldrave the Wizard
Anna the Cleric
How long do you think it took us to draw a big red mental circle around "Balthazar Maldrave?" It was even worse when the GM had to scramble to invent names for the other two people in the meeting ...
CR
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
If they named him Susan, wouldn't his new name be Mandark?
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Star Voter Season 6
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yeah yeah, like I said, there was a different injoke with Avon. I even put the word 'called' in the description and didn't see the obivious.
I'm also the guy who named a Templar Simon Wargrave, and didn't see it.
I feel in good company. Apparently Keith Baker really didn't expect people to see the Thranish Inquisition. And for the play with a creator he named the bugbear fighter Garuff. Which was cool until he failed his save vs ignition from the fire elemental. Then it became 'Garuff, Garuff, Garuff is on fire!"
I often take names of drugs (benefits of working in an insurance industry) for villians and heroes. Everyone thinks Tis'neva is a cool name, but no one knows it comes from Avantis. Enodoc sounds foreign, it's Codone backwards, etc.
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
Oi. I'm having horrible flashbacks here.
Funny story about my name. My parents weren't expecting a boy. So the only name they had picked out was...you guessed it, Susan. Lost for a boy's name, thank goodness their doctor suggested they name me after the first man to walk on the moon.
So yeah. I'm named after Neil Armstrong. And yes, I always wanted to be an astronaut. That didn't pan out. But, hey! I'll settle for RPG Superstar! ;-D
--Neil, aka "Don't-Call-Me-Susan" Spicer
Now you see... my players often called NPCs and characters "the paladin", "the elf", "the goblin" and so one. Sometimes I included more than one of the same type of character, but they would always find a way around it.
Then once I named one of out long-lasting villains, a powerful wizard who eventually became a lich, Gonf. Just that. Surprisingly, it worked. It's probably the only long-lasting NPC they actually remembered the name...
On the whole susan thing.
While my parents where waiting for my happy arival, entirely unaware of my gender, they picked out names for both boys and girl. I discovered in my early twenties that should i have been a girl, my name would have been Victoria. Now this isn't to big a deal, save that my surname is Wenham and that my parents Pet name for me before my birth was 'Beetle'.
On the whole susan thing.
While my parents where waiting for my happy arival, entirely unaware of my gender, they picked out names for both boys and girl. I discovered in my early twenties that should i have been a girl, my name would have been Victoria. Now this isn't to big a deal, save that my surname is Wenham and that my parents Pet name for me before my birth was 'Beetle'.
I can, sadly, trump that. My full name is Philip Paul Snyder. My folks, unsure of my gender before I was born, planned to name me Amanda Susan if I were a girl. So growing up, my mom would always say "Aren't you glad you're not a girl, instead of being peepee, you'd be an ass!"
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How long do you think it took us to draw a big red mental circle around "Balthazar Maldrave?" It was even worse when the GM had to scramble to invent names for the other two people in the meeting ...
CR
when that happens to me... and I create characters or villains form nothingess... and they are forced to prescent themselves... I go for the easy "my name is unimportant atthe present time" :P sometimes even before Isay the name i already had in mind my players mock me using this same phrase :P
I should thank my parents for naming me first after my father and then with a nice and not overly common second name...
Ernesto Ivan... also a cool Paladin name from my youth: Otsenre Navi... and yes I hated Link's fairy :P
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
"How do you do? My name is Sue! Now you gonna die!"
I thought the Flesh Peddler was a great name, I can see that on the cover of a module.
At the local gaming store in Twin Peaks, perhaps?
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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"How do you do? My name is Sue! Now you gonna die!"
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
I love Johnny Cash.
I love Johnny Cash.
Oh yeah. And perhaps even more appropriate for RPG Superstar...
"...I fell in...to a burning ring of fire...and it burns, burns, burns...the ring of fire...the ring of fire..."
;-D
--Neil
I love Johnny Cash."How do you do? My name is Sue! Now you gonna die!"
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
I love Shel Silverstein. I love Johnnie Cash, too, but give credit where credit is due.
In all seriousness, there might be a seed of a villain in here: a character who spends his whole life striving to avenge some perceived wrong (something much worse than a gender-inappropriate name, of course), destroying anyone who gets in his way, only to discover at the end that his motivation is invalid. The most fun part would be deciding how he responds to such a huge psychological blow when he learns the truth. Most real-world villains think of themselves as heroes (just think of just about any 20th century despot), so you can have a lot of fun with that moment when he realizes, "Whoa...I'm the bad guy." Some might seek redemption, but others might embrace the role and revel in their evil; still others would simply break under the strain of such a major psychological blow, and go stark, raving mad.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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I love Shel Silverstein. I love Johnnie Cash, too, but give credit where credit is due.I love Johnny Cash."How do you do? My name is Sue! Now you gonna die!"
Or, maybe his parents named him Susan. That could explain a lot about the anger and the renaming and the villainy stuff. In fact, I'd guess that is the case with most of the Mr. Obviously-Evil-Name villains.
Hey, I'm just tellin' ya what the name on the 8 track read. I know who wrote it but it was Johnnie that sung it to me.
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While in the real world few people will name their children "Arcanus Necrophage", and rarely would a "villain" give him/herself similarly sinister sounding appellations, we are dealing with fictional characters and stories. "Darth Vader" was not born such, as we all know, and few people would have accepted "Anakin Skywalker, aka Anni, Dark Lord of the Sith" as the villain of those works. In fiction, a subtle name can forshadow a villain, while an obviously villainous name can immediate invoke dread from the reader. Thus, while I doubt any NPC would knowingly travel as "Arcanus Necrophage, friendly shopkeep", I would expect to see "Arcanus Necrophage, Lord of the Undead" as the villain. As was pointed out in some of the judges' comments, one of the items that could help make or break a villain is the name. In the words of Ruby Rod, "It must, pop, Pop, POP!"
While in the real world few people will name their children "Arcanus Necrophage", and rarely would a "villain" give him/herself similarly sinister sounding appellations, we are dealing with fictional characters and stories. "Darth Vader" was not born such, as we all know, and few people would have accepted "Anakin Skywalker, aka Anni, Dark Lord of the Sith" as the villain of those works. In fiction, a subtle name can forshadow a villain, while an obviously villainous name can immediate invoke dread from the reader. Thus, while I doubt any NPC would knowingly travel as "Arcanus Necrophage, friendly shopkeep", I would expect to see "Arcanus Necrophage, Lord of the Undead" as the villain. As was pointed out in some of the judges' comments, one of the items that could help make or break a villain is the name. In the words of Ruby Rod, "It must, pop, Pop, POP!"
Are we green?
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Earlier today, I was going over some old issues of Dungeon, and I ran across an adventure with one of the lamest villain names I've seen in quite a while: Grubby Stinkhorn. Now, most halflings have humorous names - Stubby Proudfoot, Rosy Tanglehair, Tabby Brambleweed, and so on. But Grubby Stinkhorn? Why not Smelly Nosewart? Or Stinky McStinkerson? I mean, come on... If it had at least been Gruber "Grubby" Stinkhorn I could have accepted it a little better.
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Contributor
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Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9
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Earlier today, I was going over some old issues of Dungeon, and I ran across an adventure with one of the lamest villain names I've seen in quite a while: Grubby Stinkhorn. Now, most halflings have humorous names - Stubby Proudfoot, Rosy Tanglehair, Tabby Brambleweed, and so on. But Grubby Stinkhorn? Why not Smelly Nosewart? Or Stinky McStinkerson? I mean, come on... If it had at least been Gruber "Grubby" Stinkhorn I could have accepted it a little better.
That sounds like one of the "lesser" characters in the Harry Potter series. :-)
One of my favorite fantasy series of all time -- Glen Cook's Annals of the Black Company -- had a good, implicit logic for nicknames and hidden names. If you were a wizard and someone who gained knowledge of your real name could use that information to strip you of your power. The novels were filled with short, descriptive nicknames; One-Eye, Goblin, Raven, Captain.
I have a horrible time with names -- that was the last thing I came up with in my submission. I had a horrible fear that I'd actually leave one of the <name>s in when I sent it in. =0
What I finally used: Dalatai Shontrick.
Cheap, yes. But at least in round TWO, I didn't get any name complaints! =0
-S
I think my biggest flub with names was when I named one important npc Issac and another Issik, confusion ensued...
I teaching some highschool kids to play at a local school gaming club and I asked what the character names were going to be. The first kid yelled "Death!". I said, "Really? So you're gonna spell it Deth or something?" He said, "No that's what I call all my characters in any game I play."
With some encouragement he changed it to "Black Bones" and agreed that it was a nickname and he never told anyone his real name. When I asked him how he got this nickname he said his character saw his father burned to death. Kids these days...
Long story on why a badly chosen name isn't all bad:
I had one villain who had a complicated plan that involved infecting the city's zoo animals, releasing them, spreading a disease to which his branch of the evil corporation had the only cure and making a fortune. He had set up druids to take the fall. (You know how they are...)
Anyway, the PCs bust it up, capture the guy, and turn him over to the police. The cops interview him. He denies everything. Then they interview the party barbarian, a local celebrity in arena wrestling. The player only vaguely understood what they had been doing and then, to top it all off, couldn't remember the bad guy's name. With every player watching with bated breath, the player guessed it was "Antoine Tawawah?"
The next day, the villain's newspaper's headlines ran in huge font: "Who is Antoine Tawawah? Local wrestler alleges mystery man behind zoo break!" The villain's pull allowed him to escape after getting bail due to the uncertainty, but the controversy had gotten him fired for PR reasons from the evil corporation, Straptan Industries.
Much later, the PCs face a group of Tucker's Kobolds, barely surviving. They make their way through the warren to find their kidnapped friends in a science lab, bound to tables and experimented upon. The villain turned around and screamed at them...
"My NAME is T'Loa T'Lann!"
He wrote it on every surface of the lab and tattooed it all over the bodies of their friends.
He decided on revenge not only because he had been thwarted and fired, but because the heroes couldn't even remember his name. And he'd been damned if they were ever going to forget him again.
The PCs killed him. But they knew his name when they did it.
The PCs killed him. But they knew his name when they did it.
That's awesome -- great story! It's proof positive that the best gaming is born out of the little mistakes and pitfalls into which GMs and players inevitably fall.
CR
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I often take names of drugs (benefits of working in an insurance industry) for villians and heroes. Everyone thinks Tis'neva is a cool name, but no one knows it comes from Avantis. Enodoc sounds foreign, it's Codone backwards, etc.
"Tremble, foolish mortals! It is I!
Quaalude Benzedrine! Master of Time! And of Matter!!!!!"
(...and my familiar, Tixylix...)
For names I usually grab a dictionary of some obscure language and just pick words from there and then hope nobody I play with knows Bulgarian or Urduallows me to also make some kind of in-jokes only I understand (like naming a villain "evil guy" or a location "dark forest")
I am obviously not the only one who does this because it is not once or twice I have come across Finnish names used in similar way, even in professional RPG products (*cough* Forgotten Realms *cough*)
For me, the biggest clue a guy is an evil villain used to be them having at least two letters in their name which were Z, X, Y or K.
The more they had, the more evil they were.
Using them next to each other meant it was likely they were wizards. (I think Rich Burlew knew this rule).
And elves also got Q as a bonus 'evil letter', but only if they didn't use a U after it.
Honourifics are also a good way of putting extra oomph into a villain. Warmaster Kain Inverstalt, Herald of Discord, sounds better than Kain Inverstalt of Hextor.
In my opinion anyway :-)
And any villain worth his salt has another pseudonym for 'real life' interaction, which is plausible, but not terror-inducing, normally completely unrelated to his alter-ego.
Don't go making it wussy like 'Niall Dobson' or something though...
Don't go making it wussy like 'Niall Dobson' or something though...What did Niall Dobson ever do to you?
Nothing. Exactly that. He is only on Facebook AFAICT.
Wuss - not a villain's name.
Chief Technical Officer
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I just want to say that every time I see "Malgana the Twistwood Lich," my brain substitutes "Malgana the Kissing Bandit."
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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Don't go making it wussy like 'Niall Dobson' or something though...What did Niall Dobson ever do to you?Nothing. Exactly that. He is only on Facebook AFAICT.
Wuss - not a villain's name.
It appears that Niall Dobson ran in the 'boys under 10' race at the KILMYSHALL FIELD DAY in 2004. So, I guess Niall's about 13 or so now.
Don't take offense, Niall. We're just saying your name is not a good villain name. If you become a arch-villain, you might want to change it to Necros Dominasson or something along those lines. We'll understand.
P.S. Hope you kicked some serious butt in that race.
Don't take offense, Niall. We're just saying your name is not a good villain name. If you become a arch-villain, you might want to change it to Necros Dominasson or something along those lines. We'll understand.
Nyrill Dethsynn!