My pet peeves, indeed. Getting fantasy names sounding right and like they belong in the same culture/language. One reason I love GMing in the Old World of Warhammer so much is that naming NPCs is super easy, just take real German names and you're pretty much done (and French names for the Bretonnians, Spanish for the Estalians etc.). Also, I'm pretty sure the GW folk in the 80s used your footballer name trick as well, what with the Emperor Karl Franz being lifted from Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (at least that's my interepretation of it). P.S. You might want to get a shock mount for your mic or put something soft (like a mouse pad) under it to lessen the table bump noises (which are quite pronounced).
One thing I like to do when making lists of NPC names is to decide which names are common and double those on the list. It adds a layer of verisimilitude when players meet an innkeeper with the same given name as the wizard who hired them three sessions ago, for example. I'll often go so far as to ask players if their characters' names are common or not. If so, they might meet a blacksmith one day with the same name as them. Everyone remembers the lowly porter who happened to have the same name as the Crown Prince. His boss mockingly called him "his royal highness" all the time, but the bosses accent made it sound like "is real anus".
I hope you keep these short DM (GM) tips going. Very enjoyable and you bring up some very intriguing gaming topics. Where is your shop located in the UK, please?
I use something similar in my setting, but it is not uncommon for characters to have cross cultural names. Sometimes the parents just like it, and sometimes there’s another cultural or religious reason for it. Sometimes members of group A can be named like members of group B.
That has an ethnicity bias, i.e., that societies are monocultural. Clearly, a fantasy world would not be as globalised as the modern world, but raiding other communities for slaves and intercommunal marriages to strengthen peace were a real thing. Working with languages on a superficial level and without linguistic training, what I am seeing is the tendency to use certain sounds in each language. Because English has so many loan words, it is hard to see it from there. For example, a word containing an f in Lithuanian is going to be a loan word. Thus, I would start out with some letter groups as created by linguistics to define each language. For example, L in language A, R in language B. The first might have -il- and -el- while the second might have -ar- and -or-. Then, I would use sound shifts to show age. A relative might have -eil- or -aur-. And someone from outside the community would have perhaps -ul- or -ur-.
My pet peeves, indeed. Getting fantasy names sounding right and like they belong in the same culture/language. One reason I love GMing in the Old World of Warhammer so much is that naming NPCs is super easy, just take real German names and you're pretty much done (and French names for the Bretonnians, Spanish for the Estalians etc.). Also, I'm pretty sure the GW folk in the 80s used your footballer name trick as well, what with the Emperor Karl Franz being lifted from Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (at least that's my interepretation of it).
P.S. You might want to get a shock mount for your mic or put something soft (like a mouse pad) under it to lessen the table bump noises (which are quite pronounced).
One thing I like to do when making lists of NPC names is to decide which names are common and double those on the list. It adds a layer of verisimilitude when players meet an innkeeper with the same given name as the wizard who hired them three sessions ago, for example. I'll often go so far as to ask players if their characters' names are common or not. If so, they might meet a blacksmith one day with the same name as them.
Everyone remembers the lowly porter who happened to have the same name as the Crown Prince. His boss mockingly called him "his royal highness" all the time, but the bosses accent made it sound like "is real anus".
I hope you keep these short DM (GM) tips going. Very enjoyable and you bring up some very intriguing gaming topics. Where is your shop located in the UK, please?
I use something similar in my setting, but it is not uncommon for characters to have cross cultural names. Sometimes the parents just like it, and sometimes there’s another cultural or religious reason for it. Sometimes members of group A can be named like members of group B.
Yuck hate this
That has an ethnicity bias, i.e., that societies are monocultural. Clearly, a fantasy world would not be as globalised as the modern world, but raiding other communities for slaves and intercommunal marriages to strengthen peace were a real thing. Working with languages on a superficial level and without linguistic training, what I am seeing is the tendency to use certain sounds in each language. Because English has so many loan words, it is hard to see it from there. For example, a word containing an f in Lithuanian is going to be a loan word. Thus, I would start out with some letter groups as created by linguistics to define each language. For example, L in language A, R in language B. The first might have -il- and -el- while the second might have -ar- and -or-. Then, I would use sound shifts to show age. A relative might have -eil- or -aur-. And someone from outside the community would have perhaps -ul- or -ur-.
I forgot a dash and YT formatted it for me.