Well, I am now in the formatting stages of a list of names for gameplay usage. I currently have a word document that is compiled of a list of names from the following books:
PHB 3.5
Player’s guide to Faerun
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Arcane
Complete Adventurer
Complete Mage
Complete Scoundrel
Races of the Wild
Races of Stone
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness
Draconomicon
Complete Psionics
Heroes of Horror
Cityscape
Dungeonscape
Player’s Handbook 2
Eberron Campaign Setting
Races of Eberron
Player’s Guide to Eberron
Secrets of Xen’drik
Races of Destiny
Races of the Dragon
Player’s Handbook 4e
The names are organized by race (each race being split by gender and/or surname if applicable). Each race has it’s own page.
I used Dragon names for Dragonborn and I condensed Orc/Half-Orc into Orc with the idea that Half-Orc’s will use either Human or Orc names. I do not promise that I have found every name in the books I have listed, but I was pretty thorough. Any suggestions on further formatting or help with additional sources is welcomed. Attached is the word document copied into Open Office and then exported to PDF.
*Edit: The pdf using images seems to be giving me upload problems so I uploaded an image free version. (images were name tables from the Races of books).
That is a impressive collection of names. Well done.
As for formatting, I think the list would be much more readable, and thus usable, if the names where in several small columns. Putting them together in a paragraph makes them run together to me. I understand that your way is similar to how names are presenting in the source books. But that formatting choice is about conserving space, which you do not need to do. You have abundant space, especially if this is uses exclusively as a digital resource. Thus switching to columns would be better. I also wouldn’t mind combining smaller pages, using just a visual divider (like a thick heavy line) rather than page breaks between every race. This cuts down on the excessive white space, which I find a bit distracting. Though it is possible that your pictures will use some of that white space, and that problem will disappear because of it.
Thank you for the suggestion. I will work on the columns. As for the name generation tables (the current images), they only cover a few races, but I am thinking that I will find some various images of the races and put them in the document. I am kind of worried about copyright laws though.
Also, any suggestions on the image issue? Would it be easier for me just to find my old copy of an old edition of Acrobat (I currently am only using the Reader, but think I have an old full version somewhere)?
The Hero Builder’s Guidebook from 3e has a pretty huge list of names in the back as well. It would probably double the numbers in some of your entries.
That said, I was about to start doing something similar to this for myself. Thanks for saving me some work!
My solution for it might not work quite as well for everyone since my races are slightly different than they appear in the PHB. I’m rolling eladrin and elf names into one list. I’m also considering adding drow to that list as well and giving them some basic prefixes to tack onto the standard elf and eladrin names.
I’m also uncertain on the gender split. The HBG just has one big fat list for each race and doesn’t split it by gender. I guess I might go through and sort them out by which ones look masculine or feminine.
Is there a general consensus about the gender split? Would there be an issue with me doing it manually? As far as Eladrin vs. Elf goes, what about writing a disclaimer in the Eladrin section that says to look at the Elf section for additional thoughts?
I don’t think there would be any problem with you doing it manually. I mean if you were willing to spend the time to help people out I couldn’t see any reason people would complain at all. And there is always a need for more names for characters and NPC’s so it would be much appreciated
And I haven’t read specifically over the Eladrin or Elven names yet but I think your way would be fine, just to split them up but make a note saying, “Hey, they are all elves, just different kinds” that way people who don’t know understand that the names could go both ways
I’m looking at various elf and eladrin names and having a hard time seeing any noticable differences between them. “Aramil, Arannis, Berrian, Dayereth” vs “Aeren, Argyll, Belaereth, Daellin” seem pretty close. The disclaimer seems like it’d work pretty well.
