Names on the Borderlands

Each name is better than any name in Forgotten Realms.

The lack of NPC names in Keep on the Borderlands, that famous starter adventure for early Dungeons & Dragons, is a feature, not a bug. So often names in adventures are so goofy that there is no way that I’d be able to say them with a straight face. I’d rather give characters my own names that fit with whatever milieu I am going for and don’t want the adventure text to pressure me into saying “Sildar Hallwinter” or “Winko Battleblade” for their NPCs. For an adventure that is very specifically tapped into a setting, there is definitely an argument that adding names heightens that sense of setting, but Keep on the Borderlands is no such adventure; it is generic to the extreme. Winko Battleblade would dilute that appeal.

However, if we apply the “D&D is Always Right” principle, perhaps the lack of names implies something interesting about the setting of Borderlands. My favorite explanation for the lack of names in the module comes from the article “Borderlands” by Nicolas Dessaux, published in Issue #1 of the Knock Magazine. The article provides several fascinating conclusions (such as the fact that the Borderlands must exist in British Columbia, based on the flora and fauna of the adventure) drawn from the text of Keep on the Borderlands, using a “D&D is always right” mindset. The first such conclusion is that:

“In the Borderlands, it would be very rude to address someone by their name rather by their title, and knowledge of a personal name is a mark of real familiarity. Asking someone their name would be considered as offensive, and asking someone the name of another, a mark of silliness. So, people find absolutely natural to speak about the Castellan or the Money-lender.”

Nevertheless, I understand that it is convenient to just have the names right there in the adventure. Sometimes the referee just wants to be able to read something aloud, even if that thing is “the dwarf is named Winko Battleblade.” There is enough referees have to keep bouncing around in their head as they run games that even the slight burden of having to name NPCs on the fly could result in more “loading screens” (which is what I call it when the referee has to stop to think about something). My colleague, Luka Rejec of the Wizard Thief Fighter blog, has a post describing a process for inventing names, but referees often lack the computing power to do something that detailed on-the-fly. So if you are unconvinced that the namelessness of Keep on the Borderlands is a feature, or an interesting lore-implication, and just want the least friction in running the game, you want names.

When writing Barkeep on the Borderlands, a module inspired by that aforementioned ur-adventure (currently available for pre-order), I wanted to continue the tradition of not using proper names as much as possible. However, it wouldn’t spoil the purity of that adventure if I at least had an online list of names for referees to use when they run it. So this is my attempt at that. If you are running Barkeep and curse me for not including names throughout, you may refer hereto for all your naming needs. You could perhaps also use it for naming NPCs in other situations too.

As a starting point, Keep on the Borderlands does at least have a tool for generating NPCs. Not names, of course, but it has a d20 table to roll NPCs, which includes their race, class, ability scores and personality. What is nifty about it is that it is a backdoor way at looking at the demographics of the Keep: 70% of its residents are humans and 10% each are elves, halflings or dwarves. Of the humans, 50% are fighters, 21% each are thieves or clerics and 8% are magic users. My own Keep is the same place, but over 200 years in the future, in which the Keep has grown into a metropolis, absorbed the various “monsters” of the Caves of Chaos, recently fought a bloody war against the remaining tribes of lizardfolk to the east, and founded the Academy of Sorcerous Sciences, a school for magic users. So I think magic users will have become somewhat more common, but the big change is that I need to include goblins, orcs, lizardfolk, etc. in my table to represent the demographics of the modern Keep. I’m going to have to use a d100 table, aren’t I?

d100	Name	Ancestry	Class
1	Acerit	Human	Fighter
2	Aegward	Human	Fighter
3	Aeliot	Human	Fighter
4	Algatha	Human	Fighter
5	Bigag	Human	Fighter
6	Branderan	Human	Fighter
7	Buckard	Human	Fighter
8	Dohram	Human	Fighter
9	Dwarzon	Human	Fighter
10	Farro	Human	Fighter
11	Feggar	Human	Fighter
12	Glenda	Human	Fighter
13	Hargo	Human	Fighter
14	Hewit	Human	Fighter
15	Keolynd	Human	Fighter
16	Norron	Human	Fighter
17	Ricketh	Human	Fighter
18	Sporra	Human	Fighter
19	Surful	Human	Fighter
20	Aftad	Human	Cleric
21	Dova	Human	Cleric
22	Gordo	Human	Cleric
23	Hargal	Human	Cleric
24	Murak	Human	Cleric
25	Muromus	Human	Cleric
26	Norra	Human	Cleric
27	Opal	Human	Cleric
28	Tashue	Human	Cleric
29	Arnno	Human	Thief
30	Dohener	Human	Thief
31	Glegar	Human	Thief
32	Gorl	Human	Thief
33	Hewel	Human	Thief
34	Mohm	Human	Thief
35	Muld	Human	Thief
36	Postig	Human	Thief
37	Yorron	Human	Thief
38	Aegatha	Human	Magic User
39	Alhamazard	Human	Magic User
40	Danner	Human	Magic User
41	Drebb	Human	Magic User
42	Mezza	Human	Magic User
43	Nupo	Human	Magic User
44	Philt	Human	Magic User
45	Shobaffener	Human	Magic User
46	Norbin	Dwarf	Fighter
47	Zagar	Dwarf	Fighter
48	Ziganili	Dwarf	Fighter
49	Jelbyn	Dwarf	Cleric
50	Zeffilint	Dwarf	Cleric
51	Kroger	Dwarf	Thief
52	Gnoin	Dwarf	Magic User
53	Cyamar	Elf	Fighter
54	Eclavalay	Elf	Fighter
55	Mezebele	Elf	Fighter
56	Marande	Elf	Cleric
57	Dalana	Elf	Thief
58	Alto	Elf	Magic User
59	Elvis	Elf	Magic User
60	Bingle	Halfling	Fighter
61	Melfo	Halfling	Fighter
62	Penderhoff	Halfling	Fighter
63	Shobbo	Halfling	Cleric
64	Lindam	Halfling	Thief
65	Tasselica	Halfling	Thief
66	Remboph	Halfling	Magic User
67	Chitz	Goblinoid	Fighter
68	Gribbek	Goblinoid	Fighter
69	Nurk	Goblinoid	Fighter
70	Olrek	Goblinoid	Fighter
71	Ugrumps	Goblinoid	Fighter
72	Dinze	Goblinoid	Cleric
73	Oogle	Goblinoid	Cleric
74	Grabbit	Goblinoid	Thief
75	Grobbiggle	Goblinoid	Thief
76	Squetch	Goblinoid	Thief
77	Hornswinkler	Goblinoid	Magic User
78	Jesh	Goblinoid	Magic User
79	Gekkon	Lizardfolk	Fighter
80	Sauridae	Lizardfolk	Fighter
81	Hoplocer	Lizardfolk	Cleric
82	Iguanid	Lizardfolk	Cleric
83	Lacert	Lizardfolk	Thief
84	Trogon	Lizardfolk	Magic User
85	Bruno	Kobold	Fighter
86	Max	Kobold	Fighter
87	Greta	Kobold	Cleric
88	Frieda	Kobold	Thief
89	Otto	Kobold	Thief
90	Hans	Kobold	Magic User
91	Aurgugha	Orc	Fighter
92	Golgoth	Orc	Fighter
93	Xurek	Orc	Fighter
94	Virgha	Orc	Cleric
95	Rogeth	Orc	Thief
96	Truha	Orc	Magic User
97	[your name]	Doppelganger	Thief
98	Delonae	Harpy	Cleric
99	John Bull	Minotaur	Fighter
100	Grinelope	Medusa	Magic User