"Creating a random name generator for Wild West games..." Topic
34 Posts
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mmitchell | 28 Oct 2007 9:28 p.m. PST |
I need to create a random name generator for some Gutshot adventures. I want something fast, easy, and capable of generating "normal" (Abe, Joe, Zeke) names, as well as "special character names" ("Crusher" Joe Flintlock, "Wildman" Bill Everett, "Nine-fingers" Smith). It must be based on standard six-sided dice and can use 1d6 or more. I'm picturing a matrix/grid of some type, but I want to create something that does not work on a bell curve with names clustering toward the center. Any ideas for mechanics AND for name suggestions? |
shelldrake | 28 Oct 2007 9:53 p.m. PST |
Very easy – i made one for Japanese names using a spread sheet. I can email you a copy if you like
it can be adapted very easily. Do a search on christian names and then another on surnames. Depending on the type of names, make the search for American, English or Irish etc (and so on) names and then they are placed in the spread sheet. Adding "special names" shouldn't be too hard either. email me at ij_downunder at hot mail dot com and i will send you my sample that you (or the pair of us) can work on. |
bullant | 29 Oct 2007 2:14 a.m. PST |
You can also do this in javascript using a couple of arrays and a random math function. If you look at the source code for any of the random name generators you see online it is pretty straightforward to swap the existing names with the ones you want to use. |
bandit86 | 29 Oct 2007 4:22 a.m. PST |
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John the OFM | 29 Oct 2007 6:29 a.m. PST |
Monosyllable first name. Second name: 35% Scots Irish 35% English 35% Anglicized German, or French 10% "Other" Nicknames if you roll doubles. |
mmitchell | 29 Oct 2007 8:25 a.m. PST |
Thanks guys (especially bandit86 -- I'd forgotten about those links). This needs to be a paper-based, dice-driven name generator for use offline at a gaming table. OFM: Roll doubles and you get a nickname! Love it! Very simple and clean.
shelldrake: I'd still love to see the spreadsheet (might be usable for other applications). Please mail it here, and please put the word GUTSHOT (in all caps) in the subject line (otherwise my spam filter might eat your e-mail):
mmitchell [AT] hawgleg [DOT] com Thanks! ------------ I'll try to post something tonight to give you guys an idea of what I'm thinking about doing. |
coryfromMissoula | 29 Oct 2007 9:00 a.m. PST |
How about using the d66 chart that was popular in early RPG's? |
The Shadow | 29 Oct 2007 9:39 a.m. PST |
"I need to create a random name generator for some Gutshot adventures. I want something fast, easy, and capable of generating "normal" (Abe, Joe, Zeke) names, as well as "special character names" ("Crusher" Joe Flintlock, "Wildman" Bill Everett, "Nine-fingers" Smith)." Don't the people you play with have any imagination, or am I missing something here? |
adub74 | 29 Oct 2007 9:45 a.m. PST |
"Don't the people you play with have any imagination, or am I missing something here?" Ouch! Often these are useful for unplanned NPCs. |
John the OFM | 29 Oct 2007 10:13 a.m. PST |
In populating my Irish village, I wrote down names from Clancy Brothers, and Dubliners songs. Then, I went to "The Quiet Man". I surprised myself by coming up with almost a hundred names. Some songs were of course more helpful than others. "Finnegan's Wake" was a gold mine, especially with the variants. And most songs name names, some 2 or three. For example, "Muirshin Durkin" has the hero ("Sure as me name is Carney/Kearney
") and his brother Seamus. "Oh, me name is Mick McGuire
" then in comes Katie Donahue, and a verse later her brother Johnnie. Do the same with cowboy songs, even the Beatles. "Her name was McGill, and she called herself 'Lil'. But everynoe knew her as 'Nancy'." If songs draw a blank, there are MOVIES! |
mmitchell | 29 Oct 2007 11:21 a.m. PST |
Guys, it's not ME who has trouble coming up with names. Nor is it really for the people I game with. This is, as noted above, a resource to help GMs and inexperienced players come up with decent names very quickly. This sort of things is particularly useful for younger gamers, most of whom don't actually roll the dice but like to pick something off a list. Cory: This is for publication (and possible inclusion in a paid product in the future), so I don't want to crib from any previously published or copyrighted material. As I said, I thought I'd ask to see if anyone had any suggestions, but I do have an idea and I'll try to write it up tonight
modified to include the OFM's "doubles" suggestion, of course! |
SeattleGamer | 29 Oct 2007 11:45 a.m. PST |
Well, it's not what you had in mind Mike, but I think this work deserves the plug anyway. Knuckleduster's Cowtown Creator (an excellent book and resource for western skirmish gamers) has a table with 371 first names, 982 last names, and 155 nicknames, plus 52 first names for women. With some effort, those names coul dbe used to populate random tables. As for the mechanics of it all, if you have the players roll 2d6 and use different colored dice, then the first color can be the "ones" and the other the "tens". That will get you 36 different possibilities, all with equal chance of turning up. Do the same thing with two D10s and you get 100 possibilities. And you can make your tables themed around different nationalities. John mentioned having Irish, English, Germanic, French, etc. So you can arrange your names this way, even having one for nicknames (when you roll doubles). Of course, if you don't want to use the actual names from this book, grab any book you have on the old west, and just start on p1 and work your way through. In no time you will have dozens of names. Steve |
The Shadow | 30 Oct 2007 10:11 a.m. PST |
Pick a western sounding place like Tombstone, Alamosa, Nevada, Arizona, Hondo, Sonora or Tucson. Add Smith, Johnson, Jackson, Slim, Jones, or Williams. Any combo will do. For example: Tucson Smith, Tucson Slim, or Tucson Jackson. Or Alamosa Slim, Alamosa Smith, or Alamosa Jackson. Alternately pick any western sounding place and put it between "The and "Kid". For example The Hondo Kid, The Alamosa Kid, The Nevada Kid, or The Sonora Kid. And there ya go. |
The Shadow | 30 Oct 2007 10:12 a.m. PST |
I can't go along with your nicknames added to places. |
The Shadow | 30 Oct 2007 10:17 a.m. PST |
Nick-names – same approach where each matrix or each line in a matrix might be of a certain type, i.e. color, size, animal, location etc. with a special roll allowing for combinations (Turkey Creek Johnson) 1. Big / fat / skinny / short / tall / tiny 2. red / black / green / blue / grey / white 3. wolf / bear / dog / horse / snake / gopher 4. one-eyed / three fingered / lefty / hairy / bald / gimpy etc. Those combos just aint gonna work. "Big Green Gopher"? "Fat Gimpy Whale"? I would also avoid "Bugsy", "Bingo", and "Susan". |
mmitchell | 30 Oct 2007 10:20 a.m. PST |
Steve & John: You guys hit EXACTLY what I was thinking of, including the colored dice. I actually started this last night and printed a PDF of it to post online, but the danged PDF won't open correctly, so I can't post it right now. The process is, as described above, based on 3d6, each of a different color: black, red and white. Roll the dice and the individual numbers tell you: Black = table number Red = column number White = row number As pointed out above, this gives me 216 first names and as many last names, fully random without a bell curve weighting it toward the center. I haven't yet decided about the nicknames table(s), although John's suggestions ARE great (mind if I use ‘em?). I don't want to break out suffixes or prefixes into their own table (although it's a good idea and I may use it). I'm also don't know how I'm going to address very foreign names (I have a table for foreign and odd names like Ivor, Piotr, Blue, Dubin, etc.). If I went with a completely random set up, you could wind up with a name like Piotr O'hara. Funny, but probably a bit weirder than I'm shooting for here. Tonight I'll probably finish it and post a sample tomorrow. Talk to ya later! Mike |
Judge Bean | 30 Oct 2007 11:55 a.m. PST |
Steve- I think your probably wrong about the inappropriate nicknames. Opposite nicknames are often given. "Big Texas" Nurville, may have napoleonic ambitions. Fat Sebastian might be on the thin side. Peter "the Gimp" Williams, may have been the ringer for a dance contest. Soapy Jake probably bathes once a year if you make him. Scout McGee may have a history of gettin' lost. Toughy Fauntleroy may fall apart as soon as it gets rough. Contrary naming is a very popular source of nicknames. |
mmitchell | 30 Oct 2007 12:40 p.m. PST |
I'm with the Judge on this one. Contrary names are quite the norm, such as the fat man with the ironic nickname "Slim," or a 6'5" goon called "Tiny" (of course, if the local soiled doves gave him that nickname, he's apt to get nasty if you call him that to his face). Also, the player and GM are free to mix and match names as they wish. These tables are just there to jump start things and help players who can't (or won't) think of a name. So I wouldn't put a "Player's Choice" option on the table. If they were willing to choose, they probably wouldn't need a set of random tables like these. ;-) Thanks again, guys. I'm gonna finish cranking this out tonight, I hope. Talk to ya later! |
mmitchell | 30 Oct 2007 10:16 p.m. PST |
Okay, here's my rough draft (still working on the "Rough-N-Tumble" names, and haven't done the nicknames yet, but it's a decent start. PDF link Let me know if you see any glaring omissions. I purposefully didn't use a lot of Mexican and foreign names (I'll probably do a bandito table set, later). Comments and suggestions are welcome! |
Hombre | 31 Oct 2007 10:43 a.m. PST |
I was going to suggest the d66 that CoryfromMisoula and SeattleGamer suggested, along with some of the other nice suggestions. You've probably got enough input, but you have to include my favorite name: Utah Johnny Montana, from Wyoming. He used to be Utah Johnny Cougar Montana, but he dropped the Cougar on account of feeling it was a bit pretentious. Brownie button for anyone who knows where that's from. |
SeattleGamer | 31 Oct 2007 11:44 a.m. PST |
Very cool, I love the tables. If you're looking for some additions to the rough n tumble table, how about: Baer, Blaze, Brass, Graves, Hawke, Knight, Lyon, Payne, Ringo, Rock and Ruff. For nicknames: Ace, Albino, Big, Bitter, Black, Bloody, Bronco, Cactus, Dandy, Diamond, Dutch, Eagle Eye, Little, Old, Rattlesnake, Red, Whiskey and Wild. Steve |
Judge Bean | 31 Oct 2007 3:06 p.m. PST |
Justicar – d'ya mean John Cougar Mellencamp? |
evilcartoonist | 31 Oct 2007 3:41 p.m. PST |
Hey Marshal- Did you mean to put Kane twice in the Last Names table 5? Or do you just admire Sheriff Kane that much? :-) First full name I rolled btw: Butch Reichardt. Reckon' I'll have to use it. |
Hombre | 01 Nov 2007 11:22 a.m. PST |
Judge -- It's a line from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and yes, they were making fun of Mellencamp. Mike -- So right now, the only way to get a nickname is to roll doubles? I'm personally not real fond of that. I realize that nicknames might not be super-prolific historically, but to my mind it's one of those things that really helps with the feel (in addition to the jargon used throughout the book). I wouldn't go so far as to say that *every* character needs one, but that maybe it should be an option for anyone who wants one, without having to roll on a table. Other than that I think the table works fine, though it does occasionally give odd results. And on a peripherally related note, are you guys still working on a more full-featured campaign system? If so, please don't base it on the one in LotOW. Random advancements are stupid (I've done nothing but shoot for the last 3 games and oh, look! I'm suddenly better at brawling
). That's probably a topic better served by its own thread or off-list. |
mmitchell | 02 Nov 2007 9:37 a.m. PST |
Steve: Those are great names! I shall incorporate them into the table! And yes, Kane in there twice was an error. Justicar: Utah Johnny Montana is an excelent name. I'll make sure those combintations are on there. I'm also open to other options for the nickname table. THINKING OUT LOUD: Perhaps only NPCs get a nickname on a roll of doubles. Perhaps PCs get them on a roll of 5-6 on 1d6? Or perhaps I should make another "PC Nickname Table" that has "none" on some of the spaces? Every PC rolls on this table but might not get a nickname? Again, this is really just a tool for players and GMs in a hurry. The intro text will clearly state that players are free to use any combination of names they want. ----------- We are working on the full-blown campaign setting (I'll be starting work on the maps shortly with the graphics tablet I bought for my computer). But character advancement is already covered in the Campaign Guide section of the GUTSHOT CORE RULE BOOK. Like you, I hate random advancement, so we use a point-spending system that lets you customize your character's long-tern development. |
mmitchell | 02 Nov 2007 9:38 a.m. PST |
evilcartoonist: That's particularly funny since Reichardt is my supervisor's last name! He's a gamer, so he'd think that was funny. |
Hombre | 02 Nov 2007 1:51 p.m. PST |
As you say, the name generator is really just a tool for those in a hurry, so at the end of the day some of the specifics might not be all that important. As a player, I'd give it a read through to see if anything jumps out at me. As a GM, I'd probably want my bad NPCs to have nicknames (gotta have a Black Bart in there). The point-spending system, to me, is just as bad as the random one. Worse, actually.* That's because it still allows you to spend points on skills you haven't been using. Chaosium's house system (Basic Roleplaying -> Call of Cthulhu) is just about the best answer to this: If you successfully use a skill in a critical event** during a session, you get a single tick. At the end of the session, go back and roll against every skill with a tick, with rolls equal to or greater than their current level resulting in a 1pt advance. It's nice and simple and makes it harder and harder for character's to improve high skills. You can handle attribute increases in a somewhat-similar fashion. The random nature may be too difficult for some, so you could add a series of boxes for each skill level. Still one tick per session, but when all the boxes are filled the skill automatically improves. Naturally, the higher the skill, the more boxes. Yes, this is similar to spending points, except that it's directly related to only improving the skill that was used and isn't based on any "award." *I don't actually have Gutshot yet so am commenting purely from a theoretical standpoint. If your point system limits spending/improvement to skills that have been used then you can ignore me. Or you can ignore me anyway. **You don't get to stand around shooting at a straw dummy all day and build tick marks. You only get ticks for using the skill at a time when it actually matters. There's also the old adage that we learn from failures, so maybe an X for any skill that was attempted but was unsuccessful, with post-session advancement on a roll of 12 on 2d6 (Gutshot is a 2d6 game, right?) or something like that. Save experience points (character points, whatever) for buying in to new skills, role-playing events to garner goodwill when trying to get new equipment, fudging a die roll in-game, etc. |
SeattleGamer | 02 Nov 2007 3:26 p.m. PST |
The point-spending system, to me, is just as bad as the random one. Worse, actually.* That's because it still allows you to spend points on skills you haven't been using. I've gotta disagree with you on this point Justicar. The ideal system you describe is nice, and well suited to games where long lists of skills are present, and you can tick-mark them, and then roll lots of dice later to see if you got better at anything. As a sidebar though, shouldn't you therefore ALSO roll for anything NOT ticked off, and if you roll under your skill, you get worse? This is "use it or lose it, right?" Anyway, I dislike random gains completely, but points based is fine. After all, who is to say that "The Kid" who isn't blazing fast with his gun so is relagated to holding the horses when the gang pulls a bank job, isn't actually practicing like crazy every day? He's getting better and better, and working up the nerve to actually go head to head with some mean hombre. Finally, he thinks he's ready (he managed to gain a quick draw skill impreovement). I think that's a possible situation, and the "use it" method prohibits you from doing it. Besides, I can see a "use it or lose it" game mechanic having players decide to do things a bit out of "character", just so they can have a chance at improving a skill. So for full-blown RPGs maybe the system you describe works well, but for low-bookkeeping skirmish gaming, I think points-based is the way to go. Steve |
Hombre | 02 Nov 2007 5:20 p.m. PST |
Attempting a skill and failing would not be grounds for the skill deteriorating, IMO. At least you're trying. NOT attempting a skill COULD be grounds for it, depending on the time scale (months or years between attempts). Though "use it or lose it" does make sense, I personally would probably not use it, if for no other reason than people generally don't like to see their characters getting worse at something. Then again, if you're not using it then it's obviously not something that you place a lot of value on, so you shouldn't complain if you get worse at it. I wouldn't complain if the system had it. And if you use it out of character for the sake of gaining a tick, you deserve it if you get shot. Sorry, I've got to completely disagree with your Kid example. Shooting at tin cans that don't shoot back doesn't make you a good gun-fighter. It just means you can shoot a tin can that doesn't shoot back. That sort of practice would get you a basic level of ability, but real experience is what will decide if you progress. I'd be Ok with using a CP to buy that basic level. My system is low-bookkeeping. Put two boxes next to each skill: first one is Used This Game and the other is Cumulative Ticks. When Cumulative Ticks equals current Skill Level, the skill goes up one level and Cumulative Ticks is erased. That may not be as little bookkeeping as straight points, but it's low enough and IMO gives better results. |
evilcartoonist | 02 Nov 2007 7:56 p.m. PST |
Ya both have valid points. But Gutshot isn't about realistic accuracy (IMO), it's about cinematic fun- YEEEHAWWW!!!! :-) |
Hombre | 02 Nov 2007 9:03 p.m. PST |
Nothing says you can't have both ;) Anyone know how to break this off to be its own thread? I'd prefer to not hijack Mike's thread any further. |
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