Busy, Busy - but not too busy to post a tip

Or what's in a Name

Not that I'm on a posting schedule or anything, I've been drafting posts for +Stellios V. Perdios February Blog Hop and writing a brand new adventure for my group for Saturday.  (I'm incredibly excited about how this one has come together and I intend to post it after we play test it.) 

Anyway, here's my tip for when you're stuck thinking of a name for an NPC. 

Turn to Google Translate, or the translation engine of your choice, pick a language and type in word that comes to mind.  If the language doesn't use Latin characters Google Translate will say it back to you and then you can write it down phonetically.  You get a name that sounds like a real word and unless they speak the language, your players will never know. 

For example, I needed a name for a Djinn. I selected Arabic as the language and typed in 'Random'.  What came out sounded like 'Ama Shwaria', it looks Arabic, it sounds Arabic, abracadabra, my Djinn has a [random] name.