I suck at thinking up names. I usually either hit a random generator or name them after streets.

Herp Derpington, every time.

Anagram's of character's personalities or important things in their life.

If the character is from a culture that is similar to a real world one, just go through baby name lists until you find some that sound good.

Start with a letter and then just mash other letters up to it and then rearrange so it's pronounceable.

Grab the middle of another word. Ancient. Cient. Pronounced: Chent.

For modern(ish) campaigns?: I go to wikipedia and check out the list of most common names for region X.
But how do I come up with names for fantasy and medieval campaigns?: http://youtu.be/t7e0777z7AY

>making arrow out of 15 lbs bag
>thinking the resulting explosion destroys a 10 radius sphere when it only teleports enemies inside and has no effect on terrain
>thinking its worth the money when anything strong enough to justify its use can plane shift back at will anyway
>thinking you'll ever hit with an arrow when there's so many ways to gain perfect defense versus them

I hate that image, OP. Please never post it again. I won't even sage.

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I use Gary Gygax's big book of names to find something that sounds evocative, and then tweak it so it sounds more like a superhero. Instead of being Pugnar, be Brother Pug, Scion of the Stone.

For example, I wanted to do a man of la mancha style knight for our last D&D game. The surname was the most important bit because I might have wound up being king eventually. Flipped to old english and came up up with Rodin Renzeïr. Pic obviously related. Evocative, unusual, easy to remember.

>>25642514
It's not difficult to construct a crossbow capable of firing the device, and while it doesnt create a explosion like you explained, it does tear a rift to the astral plane and suck things up within 10 feet, requiring a dc 25 str check to remain in place. Also, to counter your last point, you don't need to hit the arrow, you simply attack the sqaure they are in, which has an AC of 10. So unless they have the unarmed fighting feat, which they won't unless they're a monk, AND they have gone through the arrow catching feat tree, which is completely useless compared to other shit, then yes, this works.

I tend to steal a name from an anime, video game, or other fiction that I knorw the DM and most of the other players have no familiarity with, and then proceed to make the character almost nothing like his or her namesake.

Except the first time I played Pokemon Tabletop Adventures, where I stuck with the series' old naming convention and played a breeder named Cobalt.

ReCapsha, Okenat Plumes

1. Think of a word that relates to the character
2. Put into google translate and press random languages
3. Find a word that sounds cool, adjust it until it sounds like a name.
4. Add the name to the stockpile, for future use. (when i'm too lazy to do the other steps)

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Come to /tg/. Refresh Captchas until you find something you like.

pic related

/tg/ is the only board you will ever need.

>>25642583
Gonna pack a Shatter spell just for you.

>>25642244
>first name is a word with one syllable and violent connotations
>second name a word with 2-3 syllables and violent connotations

PUNCH BLOODSHOT

>>25642583
Firing an arrow that weighs over 15 lbs isn't going to happen, no matter convoluted, unsupported logic you present for your crossbow.

>>25642790
Listen here, cuntwizzler.

A crossbow's drawstrength can be fucking ridiculous, especially in settings with magic and shit.

As long as that shit is cranked, there's no human limit on the ridiculous strength of the crossbow, so the 15lb projectile is possible.

If you went to the trouble of making such a projectile you would be more than capable of making a crossbow to fire it.

Fuck your pessimism.

>>25642790
Are you kidding me? A large sized crossbow could easily fire the bolts. Again, your attacking the square, you really don't need practicality.

>>25642514
>thinking you'll ever hit with an arrow when there's so many ways to gain perfect defense versus them

This is more a criticism against bow rangers in general than it is this arrow in particular, and it's a good exemplar of why you need a good relationship with your DM to make some characters work.

I've used this arrow in games. It's good for getting rid of heavies like an ogre war hulk or the occasional war troll or smaller types of giants that fit in the 10-foot radius. To coutnerbalance that, it's easy for a spellcaster to render it useless and it has a pretty high price point considering it's a one-shot weapon.

It's never going to replace your entire quiver but it's a good thing to have one or two of at high levels.

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>>25642790
>arguing the physics of archery while device is predicated on shoving a portable hole into a bag of holding

>>25642244
Dead languages depending on the character type.
For some I use Sumerian, others I use ancient Greek or Latin. You know whatever works in the context of the character. For instance a witch is pretty close to the pagan concept so I used proto-celtic and did a bit of a custom compound word.
Usually I will make the name have a meaning that is based upon the character.

If I am basing it on a legend or an actual character, I take bits and pieces from the oldest sources, and depending on how recognizable the name is I may chop it up a bit, or track back and make it a more proto form. For instance if I base a character around the concept of a fictional character named stan, I go back and choose the original English root stan-leigh.
Of course that was for fantasy games, if I was to play a futuristic game I would likely work in the other direction, corrupting a current name.

I don't know how normal this is, anyone else do anything like this?

>>25642264
>Naming characters after streets.
THIS. THIS SO MUCH.

I remember one time in high school, another gamer and I wrote down the names of streets and small towns that we drove through on a trip to a marching band contest. We ended up with a fat stack of names we could just USE for things.

>>25643002
To be fair, we don't care how those two work, as they are explicitly stated in game, and if we are not attempting to replicate the outcome we can just use any substitute that has the same general properties as the material.

>>25643686
>naming characters after streets
as a first name, meh but this method is great for second names or titles
eg. george the second, paul the 7th
at least in usa

>>25645425
romans did that too,
gauis secundus (+familyname), paulus septimus ect

>>25642244
I use names from the region that they are based on.

My current character is from a Middle East like culture and is named Samir.

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for NPC's steal first names from odd or different movies shows and books. last names I am good at.
I normally am really good at naming my characters.

or I do ironic names like if I was to rename Wash (pic related) for a D&D campaign. so he would be a air ship pilot it would be:
Wesley Rhodes

I use minor characters from various mythos and then bastardize them.

Anagrams or making up a name that rhymes with cool like Morious the Glorious

>>25642244

I want a factory that churns these arrows out.

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>>25642244

More naming tutorials/methods plz.


I like this thread OP.

Any object can be functionally turned into a projectile, given the right medium.

Any object can have a one-time use, use activated Antimagic Field placed on it for 3.9K gold in PF.

Ergo, for 3.9K Gold, I can kill a 20th level wizard with a nonmagical crossbow bolt and a fighter.

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pump words and sentences through an acronym generator.

A lonely man = Noel Laymen


name for sorcerer who was marooned on a deserted island and went mad.

I mash together syllables until I come up with something that sounds appropriate for the character, and change up letters if I need to. All my character names have been made up from scratch.

Of course, sometimes I make up names and it happens that they already exist. For example, Ezias the obese illusionist gnome I'm playing right now, inadvertently shares his name with a prophet from the Book of Mormon.

>>25642244
Personally? Random foreign names, with (in the case of full names) absolutely no research put into how the actual naming structure works in that language.

>>25650481
Anagram generator, I assume you mean?

>>25650653

You are correct sir.

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>first name
Your first childhood pet

>last name
The street you grew up on

I am the Paladin, Woody Chaparral.

>>25650938
Casey South. The Ranger.

>>25642244
I use a translator and translate words that relate to my character in some way, then just go from there.

I tend to use names I've come up with before. Failing that, I like the first name to have the same letter twice in a row somewhere, and for the last name to start with the same letter as the first. For example, Luuin Longfrost, or Nirrin Newbrew.

>>25650938

Hobie Ricketts.

What kind of character does that sound like?

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>>25650938
Scooter the 33rd?
Brilliant!

>>25650938
Hunter Petrovitsky

Hmm not bad

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I either find a name with a clever second meaning that says something about my character, or I just cycle through captcha for nonsense words that can function as names.

Ju'Towa
Sura
Frenerl
Silenas
Kided
Ugivata

In the current campaign I'm running, there's an ancient language created by Dragons which they taught to the races of man. That language is Captcha.

Sometimes I write down typos I make, then insert an apostrophe somewhere.

I personally like creating characters with titles, even though the titles may not be necessarily true, self-bestowed or even accurate.

Doesn't have to be anything noble, just something interesting. Like Marvellous Jackson or Maximilian the Morose. Stuff like that.

>>25650938
Snacks Neuse.

I don't even know.

>>25651231

A gnomish nobleman?

>>25651888

Fuck no, don't dictate my character for me you worm, I should kick your ass for that.

>>25651905

I was guessing.

>>25650938
_____ Sunnyvale. no pets growing up

>>25651612

sounds like some elf chick biker with a caring but dim alcoholic father and a mother in the mental hospital.

She smokes and tends to smell like it, has a body to die for, jeans, biker boots, and a biker jacket with something stained or painted on the back.

She always sounds slightly drunk, even when she isn't, loves weed, and riding way too fast.


Her bike dosen't have much in the way of aesthetic modification but is powerful and fast as hell. She knows how to fix things and break people. Has no idea how to fix her life but isn't particularly committed to trying to right now anyway.

Genr'ic the Fantasyname

>>25650938
Tycho Stage, or Sam Stage (We got the two pets at the same time, and both before I was born.)

Both of these names sound like pulpy sci-fi characters, the sort that would wield ray blasters and pal around with Kimball Kinnison.

>>25642764
This.
Example: I made a doppelgänger, hiding in a town as a human. Hit Babelfish and started translating relating to lie, disguise, or similar concepts. Found some cool words, tried doing the redefining thing, because that's always fun.
Ended up going with Obragon, which meant "to obfuscate" and was coincidentally a traditional Spanish name anyway.

It must be true, the Internet told me so.

>>25652167

For a moment I thought it said


Gen'ric Fancymane

I was thinking. that sounds like some swashbuckling fob from a parody/lightharted/comedy campaign.

>>25652384
>Babelfish

wat dat?

>>25652424
Before Google Translate was a thing, Yahoo had Babelfish.

>>25652466
It's true, I'm usually outdated like that. And it's also kind of a janky translator so I like it for coming up with odd words that might be SEMI-related to what I typed in.

I amuse myself by choosing vaguely-meaningful names from online baby name sites.

Corrin means "spear", fitting for a militant Pointman.

Kelly's derived from Ceallach, possibly meaning "strife", "bright-headed", both of which are related to the character's circumstances/appearance. Fallow means "dormant" or "unharvested", which would have been more meaningful later in the game with plot tweest.

And the supersoldier SPARTAN named Sandra? Well, for a Halo game, it'd make sense for one to be a "defender of men".

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>>25642244
Okay, OP, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. This method works for naming people, places, organizations, whatever you want really.

Think of a word that sums up what you want the character to convey. Any word, really, though nouns work better (i.e. "wolf", "apocalypse", "falcon", "daughter").

Next go to the wikipedia article for that noun.

Down in the left sidebar there's a whole bunch of languages that the article is also available in. Just keep clicking different ones until the name of the article (a) is unrecognizable, and (b) sounds cool.

As an example, I went to the wikipedia article on wolves and clicked through the languages until I got one that I liked. In Danish it's Ulv, in Turkish it's Kurt, in Lithuanian it's Vilkas (which should ring a bell if you played Skyrim). These are all good names.

Bonus: If someone looks up your name to try and find out what it means, they usually won't get any results because it is in a different language.

Pic unrelated.

>>25652566

so because its outdated its more likely to kick out amusing stuff than google translate despite it's less than stellar capabilities.

I know I named my Gnome Roamin'

>>25652809

Is he lawful good?

>>25647440
this. Or wikipedia random articles about historical stuff. Or any word in German if its a dwarf. Mastaba, Seraphim, Mr. Feuerstein, Harald the Stray, Bonaventure O'Reilly, Johnny, Semko Ratcatcher, Generally, it depends on the setting.

>>25650938
Chip Piotrkowski
shit.

Sanskrit.

Bitches love sanskrit

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>>25655944
I KNOW that.

One time I had a group of people who were in the TANTO, which stood for The Aptly Named TANTO Organisation.

I was so proud of myself.

>>25656044
How delightfully redundant.