Drop Dice

So typically when you read a lot of fantasy novels especially those with Elves, Dwarves, and Werebears (oh my!) you tend to come across some odd naming conventions out there. You find things like this little gem I made where the name is designed to be ridiculous so that its unique. Now most people would simply break up the word and say the sword's name is Tal-ganz-fik-narf, but lets say I am one of those authors that really want to through a wrench in the works. Say its an Elven sword and in the Elven/Elvish language for this word maybe I have special rules like you only pronounce the consonants after vowels with the exception of z, which is always said and sounds like a hard S. So now its al-anS-ik-ar. Then the reader has to ask why all the other letters? No explanation given. Either way you get my point. Sometimes naming things and characters can be the hardest part about playing a game like D&D. A bad name can instantly detour a person from your game, I know for me if I feel like I cant say the vast majority of names of locations in a setting I usually put the book down immediately. So this time I am talking about some handy tips for naming things in your game.

I usually look to real world names as a good source for humans and their half-breeds. This can also be used if you are saying that your Dwarven Culture has a Tibetan feel to it. You can reinforce the campaign setting by picking a name that is appropriate, or in the case of a foreigner, picking a name that is appropriate for you people but will stand out here. I tend to use the same website for every character I make simply because I like the interface, 20000-names. For more exotic races I will often look at the suggestions in the book and build something similar, or if they seem too complex perhaps try a common name your friends would use and a formal name that would match your race. Its not uncommon to have nicknames among friends.

Here is a short checklist I do to make sure I like the name:

• If you are a player work with the GM to find an appropriate style name if things are not "per the book" exactly.
• Can I say the name without having to put a lot of thought into it?
• Can others figure out my characters name by just hearing it? (especially if your game is going on YouTube.)
• What does your name mean? ( I like to make character's name be a reflection of my RP for that character.)
• Is your name very close to another characters? (for ease of everyone at the table I recommend against having similar or same names, it would be realistic to have two Chris' as characters in your story but it can be confusing, if you do go that route use last initial as you do in the real world)
• Found a good name? Good. Sleep on it, do something else, come back in an hour... Do you still like it, because you may have to use that name for the next six months?

Making Language Matter

If you do have a unique guide to the way things are said in a language it might not matter too much in game play beyond names so make it work. If you use the Elven Sword idea then you have to build a strong pronunciation guide make it publicly aware. You players should have a reference they can call on, but it should be more well defined than what I presented earlier. The guide I gave did not let the reader understand the choice of letters used. Perhaps in the Elven language they have a letter that would be "Ta" and another the is "l" now it makes more sense where that came from. Don't just put apostrophes in to break up a world, give them reason too. Maybe the word for sword is "Tal" and the apostrophe is the short hand equivalent to "of," so now its Sword of... Giving the weapon a name that matters and a easy alternative to use for the players. Unless they really like calling it "al-anS-ik-ar," which luckily isn't that hard to say, but it could be worse. Another tip is if you do have special letters like a sideways P with a christian cross superimposed on it always have the pronunciation written down near it, and spell out the things name so your players know if its something they will have to come back to in a later game or you have a note taker in your party.

Consistency

The important thing when playing with language is to establish rules. If you happen to be an native English speaker don't model it after English, way too many contradicting rules. Keep it simple. The more consistent you are with your naming conventions and language rules the easier it will be for players to buy into your story. Plus when someone comes along with a really strange name like Charles in a Korean themed Elf game its going to be weird, in fact they may say his name with their pronunciation at first if he writes it for them, so "ar-es." This can be fun if you want to try a traditional exploration into a foreign land campaign. You could teach the players the language rules while also teaching the characters. For a great example of the kind of thing check out the first season of the History Channel's Vikings, they learn English as the story goes, but it is a strange tongue to them. If you have the ability to I would suggest making up little rules and following them about the language, but only provide a translation to the player with that language. That may be a lot of work but it could be a vary interesting game, especially if you only have to worry about one or two languages in the game.

So as I mentioned in the original post about camping for benefits, the campsite is often over looked as a good place to have RP and could provide mechanical benefits for the party. So I am updating it for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Again this should work for any setting using the Dungeons & Dragons rules.

Extend your rations with hunting. The basics are the same think about the game in the area and can be treated as a random encounter. You can also use survival to actively track game or gather food supplies.  Using the chase rules (DMG 252) can also make the encounter more interesting, most animals will have a fight or flight reaction to hunters and most will take to flight making the chase even more important. If the players fail to drop the target with one hit have a chase ensue. As for cooking since D&D5e has streamlined the mechanics for skills you can just let the players say what they are cooking. This may be a great chance to work in their backstory and background, say they come from a land that is like Mongolia, but they are from the lower class. Their food is most likely some sort of delicious grilled food with sauce flavoring or grains and gathering related. Where as if they were from a wealthier background they may not even know how to cook well because of the pampered Noble life they were leading before adventuring. Same food just burned and they may know about some expensive dishes the Urchin could only dream of. Again this can lead to some interesting RP as not every character may love Mongolian Barbecue (for reasons unknown, because it is sooo good).

For an added mechanical benefit to help motivate players you could allow fresh food to give players increased resting benefits for the next day. Normally a long rest restores half of your total Hit Dice after a long rest. So I would give them the normal half total hit dice for a long rest plus one extra.

One of my favorite things from Savage Worlds was the interludes, basically you would get a moment to tell people about you background in character or have the spot light to further develop your character. I mentioned it could be music as well or some other common feature of your worlds campfire traditions. Normally in Savage World this get you a Bennie (think Inspiration). 

I mentioned in that last post that I would give more bennies for more creativity, for D&D I like the idea of awarding the players with Inspiration for this, but keep in mind they can only have 1 Inspiration at a time unless you change that for your table. So I would give inspiration to the player who did an interlude and allow one player a chance to do an interlude each campsite. The rules for what type of interlude from Savage Worlds may still be used if you want to keep it random, if not story-tell.

If you use gear maintenance this would be a good time. I will be putting up a post about gear quality in D&D in the future, I will revisit camping with these gear quality rules in that post.

This by far was my favorite part from the last post. The idea of increased healing is awesome but it should do more than just add hit points since the way resting recover works. I would have it add 1 Hit Dice to those you recover during a rest if they carry a stone from the previous nights hearth with them to the new night's hearth. A prayer to the god of the hearth would be use to bless the  hearth, no spells needed. If using the fresh food option that is up to 2 Hit Dice extra after a long rest.

If you are using the optional healing rules feel free to tweek these to fit the options to your healing rate in game. Since often its a a change in what a short rest/long rest is defined as.