Here's another random chart, this time to allow for quick Barsoomian Name generation. Barsoom-style games are becoming more and more popular, making a little generator like this one a nice addition for those who are running them, or even for players seeking names appropriate for their characters within that setting.
Using this chart is pretty easy. First, roll 1d6 to determine the format of the name itself. After that, roll on the appropriate table(s) as called for. The Prefix and Suffix table are both d66 tables. Those familiar with this blog already know how to create a d66 roll. For those that aren't, roll two d6s and read them similar to percentile dice. The first d6 represents the tens digit, and the second d6 represents the ones digit. For example, rolling a 2 on the first d6 and a 6 on the second d6 would create a result of 26.
So, by way of demonstration, let's create a Barsoomian Name. To determine the format of the name, I rolled a 3 on my d6. That indicates that the name should be formatted thus: "[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]". My three d66 rolls are, in order, 64, 26 and 51. That gives us a Barsoomian name of: Yerst Kantolian. Not bad, not bad. It's definitely not a name you'll see in a bog-standard fantasy game. (Okay, maybe Kantolian might make a good wizard's name, but I digress.)
This table was generated by parsing a list of names from the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and pairing down the resulting list of prefixes and suffixes by frequency and by flavor.
Table: Name Format
d6 Format 1 [Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix] 2 [Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix] 3 [Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix] 4 [Prefix][Suffix] 5 [Prefix][Suffix] 6 [Prefix]
Table: Barsoomian Name Prefix
d66 Prefix 11 Am 12 Banth 13 Carth 14 Dur 15 Flor 16 Gant 21 Haj 22 Ham 23 Il 24 Jad 25 Kand 26 Kant 31 Lan 32 Mat 33 Nast 34 Or 35 Pand 36 Parth 41 Roj 42 Sark 43 Sol 44 Sor 45 Tal 46 Tar 51 Tark 52 Tav 53 Thor 54 Thur 55 Thuv 56 Ul 61 Um 62 Val 63 Vor 64 Xax 65 Yerst 66 Zand
Table: Barsoomian Name Suffix
d66 Suffix 11 a 12 ab 13 ad 14 ah 15 ai 16 aj 21 ak 22 al 23 am 24 an 25 ang 26 ar 31 ark 32 as 33 at 34 ed 35 ek 36 el 41 i 42 ia 43 ion 44 is 45 o 46 ok 51 olian 52 on 53 or 54 oris 55 os 56 u 61 ul 62 um 63 un 64 ur 65 uren 66 us
Enjoy,
Flynn
7 comments:
Hope you don't mind I made a little generator using your data.
Looks great! About the only clarification I could make is that the entry "[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]" is intended to represent two separate names, a first name ([Prefix]) and a second name ([Prefix][Suffix]). It may not have been clear from the data above. :)
Thanks for putting that together. That is just awesome!
With Regards,
Flynn
Hmmmm, If I had noticed that I wouldn't have had spent all that time figuring out how to lowercase that 2nd prefix!
Fixed code. Generator is now much more Barsoomirific!
Hi,
I was wondering if I could use this table on my random tables site (www.apolitical.info/webgame/tables). If so I'll credit you and link to your site.
Yours,
James.
James:
I would be honored if you would include this among the tables that you've gathered. Thank you very much for asking. You may also use any of the other random charts I've created, if you find them useful for your efforts.
With Regards,
Jason "Flynn" Kemp
Thanks! I've added it to the site. I'll have a look through the rest of your site as soon as I can.
Yours,
James.
I tried to port your rules table to a kwet rules file, but it didn't work very well, but it spurred me on to create a lexical analyser shellscript so I could create my own rule set:
http://www.bondle.co.uk/?programming/kwet---rules-based-random-word-generator/rule-files.html
Thanks for the idea.
Jon
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