Instant Names: Mythic Flavor
Another instant name trick, this one for making up mythic titles on the fly while maintaining a strong cultural flavor. We just played a pre-Conquistador Aztec game (and by “pre” I mean, “hey, what’s that white sail on the horizon?”) so we got to whip it out. And now I share it with you.
First, think about the setting you’re going to be playing. Just imagine it. Now write down ten or a dozen words that come to mind. You’re looking for evocative words that really capture the flavor of the environment. Limp words should be cast out. If you’re GMing you may be doing this by yourself (particularly if you’re going to be the only one using it), but in a GMless game you can brainstorm your list together.
For our Aztec game, we had something like:
serpent, feather, obsidian, mirror, gold, blood, sun, smoke, jaguar, knife
Now any time during the game, when you need a cool title for a temple, a sacred place, or a god, just pick two random words from the list and combine them: obsidian serpent, feathered mirror, blood sun, smoke serpent, feather knife, and so on. Would you cross a warrior known as the Knife of the Sun? Dare you enter the Valley of the Golden Smoke?
These are names or titles, not necessarily the literal object (not everything in the world are mirrors, knives or jaguars). Pretty much any combination should come up with something fairly cool that also feels right for the setting. There’s a natural urge to divide your list into adjectives and nouns, but that isn’t necessary. If you’re feeling bold, number your list and get some dice ready.
Let’s try a different setting, something a little more Teutonic. Here’s a list off the top of my head:
iron, wolf, bone, grave, hammer, eye, storm, frost, axe, blood, rune
Just looking at that list, you probably have a good idea of the vibe I have in mind. It’s a recipe for the flavor of the setting all by itself.
Need a cool name for a warlord? Easy. Stormwolf, Bloodhammer, Wolf-axe, Bone-eye: they’re all good. Combine this with the one-letter name trick and you’ve got Lord Jharles Stormwolf, bearer of the dreaded sword Gravehammer.
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This is a great idea and we’re planning on making use of a slightly altered form of this technique to help further refine/define our own settings and adventures. Thanks for the inspiration!
@ Jamie: I haven’t, but it sounds like a perfect fit. I think even just gazing at the list helps put everyone in the same frame of mind for the setting.
You could also use them for descriptive detail – have you tried that?
Say you’re playing In a Wicked Age and adding that concrete detail to that thing you do, and you’re a bit stuck – turn to the word list – “My golden yet blood-flecked knife glitters in the sun” … “Storm clouds are overhead … the frost crunches under my feet” …
Or finding a detail for Annalise. Or just describing something because describing is cool.
Oh you know it — we had the Story Games Name Project open to the Aztec page the whole time to come up with proper names. We used this to give things nice comprehensible titles, or to make up mythical elements (“quick, I need a god!” boom, smoking mirror)
Just wanted to make sure you knew about this:
http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/projects/names/text_files/text_historical/aztec.txt