Monday, September 19, 2011

Old School Module Name Generator


Taking note of Mythmere's observation about the sudden appearance of a wave of redundant sounding published adventures, I was inspired to offer this modest contribution to help speed up the OSR production process.

Naming Convention Chart
All names should be preceded by a random or chosen series of two capital letters and a number in sequence, such as “OG1”.

Roll d10
1 “Search for the” + [Place Chart] “of” + [Adjective Chart] +[Being Chart]
2 “In Search of” + [Place Chart] “of” + [Animal Chart] + [Being Chart]
3 “Journey to” + [Place Chart] “of” + [Adjective Chart] +[Being Chart]
4 “Journey to” + [Place Chart] “of” + [Animal Chart] + [Being Chart]
5 “Against the” + [Adjective Chart] +[Being Chart]
6 “Against the” + [Animal Chart] + [Being Chart]
7-8[Place Chart] “ of the” + [Adjective Chart] +[Being Chart]
9-10 [Place Chart] “ of the” + [Animal Chart] +[Being Chart]

Adjective List
Roll d12
1 Deep
2 Dark
3 Ice
4 Fire
5 Unknown or Forgotten
6 Lost
7 Eldritch or Elder
8 Mad or Insane
9 Stone
10 Skull or Bone
11 Sinister
12 Color of your Choice

Place Chart
Roll d12
1 Hall or
2 Tower or Castle
3 Tomb
4 Temple
5 Fane
6 Valley
7 City
8 Undercity
9 Island or Isle
10 Mountain
11 Hill
12 Maze

Being Chart
Roll d12
1 Master
2 Lord
3 Queen
4 Princess
5 King
6 Dragon
7 Mage
8 Demon
9 Giant
10 Vampire
11 God
12 [Animal Chart]-Men or -People

Animal Chart
Roll d10
1 Frog
2 Toad
3 Snake or Serpent
4 Bat
5 Hawk
6 Dog
7 Spider
8 Wolf
9 Bull
10 Wombat

21 comments:

  1. Looks like my players will soon be visiting the "Island of the Bat Princess". LOL!!!

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  2. If they survive that they can go on to "BP2: Mountain of the Dog Demon"

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  3. I know this is tongue in cheek, but I'm finding it quite inspirational, actually. :)

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  4. @Joseph
    It's funny as soon as I rolled up "Mountain of the Dog Demon" I instantly thought: "hey, that'd actually make for a cool adventure."

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  5. Hill of the Bull God - it even has it's own theme song. ;)

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  6. Hmm, where to adventure next?

    "Undercity of the Mad Demon" or the
    "Journey to the Tomb of the Snake Queen"

    Thanks for the chart!

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  7. "Against the Sinister Dog." Sounds like a winner.

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  8. This is always fun stuff -- I've got one of these in the Deskbook series I did, which was then renamed Ultimate Book of Adventure Design, and is now Tome of Adventure Design.

    Rolling up adventure names is not only inspirational, but every once in a while there's also something that's a hilarious double-entendre or is screamingly funny, too.

    This is a nice, compact table, by the way, from one table-tinkerer to another! There's a lot more to designing good tables than it appears on the surface!

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  9. I love it!
    That pretty much covers everything.

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  10. "Journey to the Tower of the Stone Mage"

    Sounds pretty awesome, actually.

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  11. Nice! I rolled "Against the Snake-People" and "Journey to the Maze of the Elder Giant".

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  12. Deep Dark, Ice
    Over Hill and Mountain
    Master rode ever long
    To face the God-Frog

    The dark forest waits, horse breath clear in the damp air, stamping in rhythm to the hum of of strange insects that lie just inside the shadows.

    He peers in, but sees nothing but shapes moving in the darkness. Laying his hand on hilt he gently leans the reins against the winded animals neck and they move slowly towards their destiny...

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  13. I Loved it! I will translate to portuguese in my brasilian RPG blog, with the credits of this woundeful blog. See you soon.

    http://www.cavaleirosdasnoitesinsones.com.br/

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  14. Sweet! Built a generator for Inspiration Pad Pro and now I can generate 100 modules in less than a second... Of course, added in a few choice adjectives and more placenames, woot!

    Battle of the Dungeon

    Ruins of the Horse God

    Island of the Insane Vampire

    Island of the Bone King

    Journey to the Catacombs of the Infernal Giant

    Journey to the Port of the Goat Lord

    Gigantic Hold of the Blackbird Dragon

    Port of the Lost Queen

    Utopian Catacombs

    Battle of the Bridge

    Lost City

    Heavenly Gate

    Search for the Basillica of the Ice Giant

    Stormy Keep

    Temple of the Leach Mage

    Journey to the Marsh of the Fire Demon

    Search for the Island of the Infernal Owl-Bear-People

    Gate of the Lost Vampire

    Maze of the Roc Princess

    Keep of the Shadow Vampire

    Battle of the Mad Eagle

    Forgotten Tomb of the Hidden Queen

    Bridge of the Tusker Vampire

    Journey to the Donjon of the Heavenly Princess

    Journey to the Mines of the Fearsome Queen

    Battle of the Catacombs

    Lost Harbor

    Journey to the Keep of the Fanatical God

    Battle of the Ice Valley

    Lost Valley of the Lost Mage

    Harbor of the Monkey Dragon

    Journey to the Mines of the Wolf King

    Journey to the Catacombs of the Stormy Dragon

    Against the Fiery Princess

    Journey to the Monastery of the Jaguar Demon

    Journey to the Sanctuary of the Sea Cow God

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  15. Very nice Chris, and a pleasant distraction. I, for one, am looking forward to having my players someday brave the dangers of "Against the Sinister Wombat"

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  16. Love it! I did something similar a few months ago, but more of a tongue-and-cheek deal.

    http://digitalorc.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-need-to-thank-me-repost_10.html

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  17. Nice! It can even help in writing sword and sorcery fiction!

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. I even went so far as to randomly generate the module letters, and ended up with what altogether sounds like a trilogy surrounding the Slaad:

    SL1 Against the Toad Lord
    SL2 Mountain of the Sinister Princess (I really like this)
    SL3 Fane of the Frog Vampire

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  20. Sign me up for Harbor of the Monkey Dragon.

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