Is there value in PDF lists?

#1

Quick poll from you guys. I am planning on putting together some PDF files that contain lists. Pregenerated Inn names, place names, ship names and so forth. I have a couple of questions regarding this small project:

First, is there any need for it?
Second, should the layout be in American Letter or A4 or both?
Third, how would these lists be used? Just on computer or tablet? Or in a three-ring binder?

All generated lists will be Creative Commons.

And lastly, is there any interest in a sci-fi setting? I can knock together some scifi sounding location names.

#2

Hi Friend!

I personally always love new lists, particularly when they are presented in Roll Tables. Generally I dont like having screens at the table so I will print them out (Letter) and stick them in my binder.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

#3

Many thanks for the good intel!

I was planning on Inns, Mountains Ranges, Swamps and Forest names. Does that seem worth while?

#4

Here is a sample of some Inn Names. Several dice rolls will be required: d6, d8, d12 and a d20. The final output will be in PDF format.

— TABLE D (B2C5D5)—
1: The Two Wyverns Inn
2: The Two Hawks Tavern
3: The Rose Spoon Inn
4: The Hat and Ghoul Tavern
5: The Bowl and Elephant Tavern
6: The Barrel and Ogre Tavern
7: The Green Sack Inn
8: The Jade Staff Inn
9: The Wagon and Elephant Tavern
10: The Halfling and Wagon Tavern
11: The Three Chairs Inn
12: The Pixie and Flail Inn
13: The Moonstone Scorpion Tavern
14: The Pike and Cyclops Tavern
15: The Iron Manticore Inn
16: The Crimson Wyvern Inn
17: The Cat and Wagon Inn
18: The Goblin and Axe Tavern
19: The Twelve Kobolds Inn
20: The Sword and Dragon Tavern

— TABLE D (B2C5D6)—
1: The Three Axes Inn
2: The Fighting Dog Tavern
3: The Copper Cyclops Inn
4: The Fork and Dragon Inn
5: The Mug and Duck Inn
6: The Tin Kobold Inn
7: The Fork and Banshee Tavern
8: The Sack and Mermaid Tavern
9: The Iron Knife Tavern
10: The Quartz Mace Inn
11: The Three Spears Tavern
12: The Centaur and Mug Tavern
13: The Pearl Dragon Tavern
14: The Copper Ghoul Inn
15: The Copper Mug Tavern
16: The Elephant and Crossbow Tavern
17: The Gold Pixie Tavern
18: The Almond Sack Tavern
19: The Jade Barrel Inn
20: The Green Pixie Tavern

— TABLE D (B2C5D7)—
1: The Three Hammers Tavern
2: The Glaive and Minotaur Inn
3: The Cat and Barrel Tavern
4: The Emerald Dragon Inn
5: The Axe and Elf Inn
6: The Pixie and Hat Tavern
7: The Glaive and Elf Inn
8: The Five Centaurs Tavern
9: The Onyx Sphinx Tavern
10: The Staff and Werewolf Tavern
11: The Chair and Wizard Tavern
12: The Purple Horse Inn
13: The Griffin and Staff Inn
14: The Almond Cyclops Inn
15: The Purple Serpent Inn
16: The Mouse and Mace Inn
17: The Almond Pixie Inn
18: The Purple Cup Inn
19: The Rose Table Tavern
20: The Pegasus and Flail Inn

#5

Have you thought about breaking each table up into 3 columns each and randomizing each column as well? Could make for some fun and interesting names!

#6

The plan, when I get back to it next week, is to have a series of tables: d6, d8, d12 and d20. You roll each die once. With that many tables, it should give me a little over 11,000 entries to choose from - which is how many I have.

In the above example, last table, the rolls would need to be:

d6 -> 2
d8 -> 5
d12 -> 7

Then roll a d20 for the name.

#7

I think this could be really compelling if the lists implied a setting - little bits of worldbuilding, not so specific that they’re confusing or unusable, but not so generic that they could be any fantasy or Sci-Fi setting.

#8

Ah, my brain didn’t quite connect the dots originally. :wink: That will be a lot of tables and options for sure! My original thought was around tying to simplify the creation and use of those tables. This seems like a lot of work for you. Not that that’s bad, especially if you enjoy it (and it looks like you have them all created)! If you’d like to introduce a little more randomness into it all, I’d still recommend you play with what I originally mentioned and see what you like better. One thing this does is allow a little more “flexibility” with the results of a table. For example, your final table D, what if I wanted “The Almond Barrel Inn”? Sure, there’s nothing stopping me from just mashing those together myself, but having the dice randomly choose pairings can add all kinds of interesting ideas/challenges. Here’s what I was thinking (you roll a d100 for each descriptor and one for the type and put them together (you could even swap the position of the descriptors if need be)):

Roll	Descriptor1	Descriptor2	Type
1		Purple		Barrel		Inn
2		Griffon		Dragon		Tavern
3		Mouse		Werewolf	Inn
4		Rose		Cyclops		Tavern
5		Pegasus		Staff		<possible other type>
...
100		Onyx		Mace		Inn

I like The_Merlitron’s idea as well - at least what I understand is that maybe each d20 list could imply something unique to that list. To me, that’s where having more focused lists would come into play, otherwise, larger, more random tables can give loads of ideas. But that’s the fun of this hobby, you can play around and figure out what you like and then share with others. Good luck and happy creating! I look forward to what you come up with.

#9

That’s what I’m doing on the backend. I have the computer shove together a bunch of words that make up the names.

I have over 10k inn names right now. This translates to a bunch of crazy tables that link to other tables.

Yes, that is part of my problem right now. It’s really generic. I’m going to need some feedback to dial it in.

And thank you for the replies! This feedback is exactly what I needed!

#10

Cool! I think to make the list feel less generic, you want to make each word choice as specific as possible, so “crook” instead of “staff”, “throne” instead of “chair” - even something like “lemming” or “shrew” instead of “mouse”. The more specific the word, the more evocative and suggestive of a specific story/history/myth it will be. Th other thing you may want to consider is whether you are letting the worldbuilding emerge from the language of the list, or generate the worldbuilding, and make your list out of references to your own lore. The feeling might end up being the same to the reader, but the process is different for you as an author.

#11

Made those changes. Sweet! I’ll dig through some books on old English words. Thanks for the lead!

12017: The Barrel and Soldier Tavern
12018: The Copper Lemming Tavern
12019: The Throne and Dragon Inn
12020: The Blue Pegasus Tavern
12021: The Silver Wizard Tavern
…
12033: The Black Imp Tavern
12034: The Hawk and Flail Tavern
12035: The Tin Duck Tavern
…
12042: The Griffin and Crook Inn
12043: The Fairy and Throne Inn
12044: The Knife and Hellhound Inn
12045: The Thief and Anvil Inn
12046: The Dog and Spear Inn
12047: The Sword and Witch Inn
12048: The Werewolf and Anvil Tavern
12049: The Elf and Pike Tavern
Wrote 12050 lines to file inn_names.dat

#12

These are great! Some variations you may use or discard:

The Cooper and Hoop
The Rocker and Drake
The Lapis Sphinx
The Silver Sage
The Devil’s Shadow or The Impish Mirror
The Falcon and Flail or The Hawk and Thrasher
The Mithril Mallard
The Griffin’s Shepherd
The Sprite and Stool
The Beast and Leash
The Fool and Furnace
The Bitch and Bill
The Whore and Hotspur
The Wolf and Iron
The Pixie and Pike

Not certain if this is helpful, but it is fun!

#13

I’m totally stealing some of those words! Thank you! The generic names were driving me nuts which is why I bailed on the project. Then I remembered the Shield Wall!

What I did was write a small Python program which mashes words together. I’m going after the quantity approach. As the cost of distribution (PDF via the internet/website) is cheap, I can go with that approach for now. I might swap things up abit. I also need to start working on worldbuilding.

#14

If you look up a list of medieval professions, that’ll give you a whole bunch tasty words that will feel right, and is a good jumping off point for other details, like tools, materials, etc. Good luck!

#15

Cool! I also have several no longer used English words books that I need to peruse.

All good stuff. I have laundry to do, then I’ll start working on this.

:grin:

#16

UPDATE: I rewrote the program to give me more flexibility

Latest results:
Inn Name Module:
All descriptions in container:

  1. Inn Name Postfix [ 3 items]
  2. Mundane Animals [ 18 items]
  3. Mythical Creatures [ 19 items]
  4. Common Humanoids [ 16 items]
  5. Common Weapons [ 13 items]
  6. Common Items [ 13 items]
  7. Common Colors [ 13 items]
  8. Common Gems [ 14 items]
  9. Common Metals [ 6 items]
  10. Inn Colors [ 33 items]
  11. Adverbs [ 11 items]
  12. Numerical [ 4 items]
  13. Inn Nouns Singular [ 79 items]
  14. Inn Nouns Plural [ 79 items]
  15. Inn Noun-1 [ 53 items]
  16. Inn Noun-2 [ 26 items]

Malkin’s Library
Generated Inn Names
1. The Almond Ogre Inn
2. The Five Queens Inn
3. The Crying Dog Tavern
4. The Sad Werewolf Inn
5. The Sad Scorpion Tavern
6. The Shield and Imp Inn
7. The Three Medusas Tavern
8. The Vampire and Hat Alehouse
9. The Kobold and Elephant Alehouse
10. The Three Bowls Inn
11. The Halfling and Soldier Tavern
12. The Two Elephants Inn
13. The Five Thrones Inn
14. The Singing King Alehouse
15. The Three Donkeys Alehouse
16. The Twelve Elephants Tavern
17. The Three Basilisks Inn
18. The Amber Wolf Inn
19. The Crying Mermaid Tavern
20. The Archer and Sphinx Alehouse
21. The Banshee and Donkey Tavern
22. The Crimson Shrew Inn
23. The Lavender Pixie Alehouse
24. The Anvil and Mage Tavern
25. The Witch and Ogre Inn
26. The Laughing Mug Tavern
27. The Crying Minotaur Tavern
28. The Teal Lion Tavern
29. The Green Werewolf Alehouse
30. The Five Spears Inn
31. The Burgundy Dagger Alehouse
32. The Almond Dog Alehouse
33. The Laughing King Alehouse
34. The Citrine Serpent Tavern
35. The Hidden Kobold Alehouse
36. The Five Crooks Tavern
37. The Copper Spear Inn
38. The Bowl and Wagon Inn
39. The Hidden Glaive Inn
40. The Barrel and Donkey Alehouse
-end of program-

The downside is that I now have lots of inn names to choose from:
29859. The Citrine Fork Alehouse
29860. The Werewolf and Wolf Alehouse
29861. The Hellhound and Centaur Tavern
29862. The Wagon and Cup Alehouse
-end of program-

Over 29,000 entries. I also did some digging and will update the word lists. The goal is to give the names a little more color. Thank you to all of the responses. It has helped tremendously!

#17

New problem … how to organize this many entries:

  1. The Becket and Fiddle Tavern
  2. The Shrew and Queen Tavern
  3. The Mug and Axe Alehouse
  4. The Hammer and Tankard Tavern
  5. The Sack and Pike Alehouse
    -end of program-

One thought I have is to place 6 or 8 d20 tables per page. Thoughts?

#18

I got the finalized version done and uploaded to my (tiny) website. The final version has over 1,000 pages of content. Many thanks for the help!

Here is my article post here on RuneHammer: Inn Names (PDF)