JackRackham
2014-10-17, 07:18 PM
I'm putting together a campaign, and I need help with names.
As anyone who's read my recent posts may have noticed, I'm sick of my current DM. In fact, I'm so sick of it, and so frustrated by the way he runs a game, that I have an overwhelming urge to put together a game EXACTLY the way it should be done.
This campaign world is going to be fairly vanilla. I've been playing around with concept worlds off and on for a couple years now, and I want to get back to story and character (not that they can't go hand-in-hand, just that your campaign disintegrates if the players don't love your concept).
The basic idea behind the campaign (This is fluid) is a hidden pyramid of control utilizing leadership, control of undead, and probably homebrewed mind-control rituals that control fey (or something). Mechanically, I'm talking about the leadership cheese where the cohorts and followers also take leadership, control undead, etc.
At the top of the pyramid is a party of adventurers who are themselves acting at the behest of a demon-prince (or a balor, if I decide I want the party to kill the demon). So, I guess there are four pyramids. Anyway, what's ultimately going on is that this party is infiltrating the power structures of the world to eventually lay the ground for a fiendish (or Drow, but fiends feel more likely) invasion. The underlings are not necessarily aware of this ambition, but are bound, in some way, to the chain of loyalty and control.
Structurally, the idea is that it appears to be a fairly basic low-level story at first. The party is sent to hunt down a necromancer in a cave, or there have been a series of disappearances and the party tracks it down to a village big man. Or maybe they are sent to find out why travelers have been disappearing lately in an enchanted forest inhabited by normally harmless (if mischievous) fey.
The party will develop an attachment to the plot organically, long before they suspect that they are involved in something so sinister and big. Ultimately, they will find clues on bad guys they beat that lead them up the pyramid. At some point, hopefully they figure out a way to jump ahead and to realize that the pyramid of power they are following is one of four, and they can skip to murderizing the evil party members (one at a time?) and figuring out what's behind them. Whether they want to kill the fiend (or whatever) or they're satisfied with undermining the plot is anyone's guess.
TL/DR: A party in league with fiends abuses leadership and necromancy to gain followers with leadership and necromantic abilities, infiltrating the power structures of the world. The PCs murder their way to the top.
I intend for this to be an ongoing post, as I come across those handful of names that really have to be right, but that I just can't quite put a finger on.
DECIDED: Reginald Umber
First up is an aging melee-type (human; in his 60's). He's a local war-hero, gregarious and lovable in the way that Greatjon Umber from "A Song of Ice and Fire" was. Or, maybe he's something of a combination of Greatjon Umber and an older Robert Baratheon. He's a tough old bastard, still powerfully built, but paunchy and beginning to weaken. He'll say bawdy things and make ribald jokes and act like a badass and the party will love him.
So, of course he's a bad guy. He's involved with the evil pyramid scheme and knows that this organization is nefarious, although he will express genuine regret if the party breaks him. If the party fights him, I plan for him to be several levels ahead of them, but with low DEX and CON. He'll hit hard, but won't last.
As far as names go, I'm looking for something kind of strong and regal, maybe a little traditional, but not too common. It can't be anything that feels too low-brow or even the tiniest bit soft. It should probably sound English. Maybe something with a strong R, or something with hard K or G sounds that still manages not to sound too brutish. Robert and Richard are too common, but the right feel.
Bard: Marlo Alain. 43-year-old human male. I'm currently trying to decide what sort of PrC to give him.
Sorceror: Avrae Teneth, adult female 1/2 dragon (green). Necromancer, but I'm trying to decide what the rest of her spell selection will look like.
Cleric: Hilario Garcia. 38-year-old human male. His name is intentionally all wrong for a cleric focused on necromancy.
Blackguard: Merick Martel; 45-year-old human male; he should look and talk like a classic Paladin. I'm thinking adamantium full-plate, but plated in gold. I'm actually using Pathfinder Antipaladin for the class, in order to allow him to dabble in necromancy.
As anyone who's read my recent posts may have noticed, I'm sick of my current DM. In fact, I'm so sick of it, and so frustrated by the way he runs a game, that I have an overwhelming urge to put together a game EXACTLY the way it should be done.
This campaign world is going to be fairly vanilla. I've been playing around with concept worlds off and on for a couple years now, and I want to get back to story and character (not that they can't go hand-in-hand, just that your campaign disintegrates if the players don't love your concept).
The basic idea behind the campaign (This is fluid) is a hidden pyramid of control utilizing leadership, control of undead, and probably homebrewed mind-control rituals that control fey (or something). Mechanically, I'm talking about the leadership cheese where the cohorts and followers also take leadership, control undead, etc.
At the top of the pyramid is a party of adventurers who are themselves acting at the behest of a demon-prince (or a balor, if I decide I want the party to kill the demon). So, I guess there are four pyramids. Anyway, what's ultimately going on is that this party is infiltrating the power structures of the world to eventually lay the ground for a fiendish (or Drow, but fiends feel more likely) invasion. The underlings are not necessarily aware of this ambition, but are bound, in some way, to the chain of loyalty and control.
Structurally, the idea is that it appears to be a fairly basic low-level story at first. The party is sent to hunt down a necromancer in a cave, or there have been a series of disappearances and the party tracks it down to a village big man. Or maybe they are sent to find out why travelers have been disappearing lately in an enchanted forest inhabited by normally harmless (if mischievous) fey.
The party will develop an attachment to the plot organically, long before they suspect that they are involved in something so sinister and big. Ultimately, they will find clues on bad guys they beat that lead them up the pyramid. At some point, hopefully they figure out a way to jump ahead and to realize that the pyramid of power they are following is one of four, and they can skip to murderizing the evil party members (one at a time?) and figuring out what's behind them. Whether they want to kill the fiend (or whatever) or they're satisfied with undermining the plot is anyone's guess.
TL/DR: A party in league with fiends abuses leadership and necromancy to gain followers with leadership and necromantic abilities, infiltrating the power structures of the world. The PCs murder their way to the top.
I intend for this to be an ongoing post, as I come across those handful of names that really have to be right, but that I just can't quite put a finger on.
DECIDED: Reginald Umber
First up is an aging melee-type (human; in his 60's). He's a local war-hero, gregarious and lovable in the way that Greatjon Umber from "A Song of Ice and Fire" was. Or, maybe he's something of a combination of Greatjon Umber and an older Robert Baratheon. He's a tough old bastard, still powerfully built, but paunchy and beginning to weaken. He'll say bawdy things and make ribald jokes and act like a badass and the party will love him.
So, of course he's a bad guy. He's involved with the evil pyramid scheme and knows that this organization is nefarious, although he will express genuine regret if the party breaks him. If the party fights him, I plan for him to be several levels ahead of them, but with low DEX and CON. He'll hit hard, but won't last.
As far as names go, I'm looking for something kind of strong and regal, maybe a little traditional, but not too common. It can't be anything that feels too low-brow or even the tiniest bit soft. It should probably sound English. Maybe something with a strong R, or something with hard K or G sounds that still manages not to sound too brutish. Robert and Richard are too common, but the right feel.
Bard: Marlo Alain. 43-year-old human male. I'm currently trying to decide what sort of PrC to give him.
Sorceror: Avrae Teneth, adult female 1/2 dragon (green). Necromancer, but I'm trying to decide what the rest of her spell selection will look like.
Cleric: Hilario Garcia. 38-year-old human male. His name is intentionally all wrong for a cleric focused on necromancy.
Blackguard: Merick Martel; 45-year-old human male; he should look and talk like a classic Paladin. I'm thinking adamantium full-plate, but plated in gold. I'm actually using Pathfinder Antipaladin for the class, in order to allow him to dabble in necromancy.