{"id":1142,"date":"2019-04-19T14:37:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T14:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:39:02","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:39:02","slug":"quick-shot-on-deck-of-many-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/04\/quick-shot-on-deck-of-many-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Shot on Deck of Many Names"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have an interview with Jacob Kellogg today about the Deck of Many Names, which is currently on Kickstarter<\/a>! It looks like a useful table tool! Check out his responses below.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the Deck of Many Names, both as a product and as your vision?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nDeck of Many Names is a 120-card deck designed to help flesh out minor NPCs on\nthe fly during a game of Dungeons & Dragons (or similar fantasy games).\nEach card has a name, fantasy species, gender, rough age category, and quick\nroleplay tidbit. When players engage an NPC who was originally a faceless bit\nof background, you can just draw a card and immediately have enough information\nto handle that unexpected bit of conversation. The deck is big enough that you\ncould generate two such NPCs every week for over two years before repeating\nanybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve seen big names like Matt Mercer suggest having a list of names prepped for the same purpose, but I thought the solution could be better. After all, with a prepared list of names (or online name generator), you’re still left having to decide details like gender on the fly. In addition to that being a bit of work, I’ve seen too many games where every such NPC turns out to be a human man. With the Deck of Many Names, you can skip some of those decisions while also ensuring that your array of NPCs includes a spectrum of genders, fantasy species, and age ranges. Basically, it’s a project meant to make D&D games both easier and more inclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of information about the characters are on the cards so you can easily reference it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each\ncard includes a name (given name only), gender (depicted on a spectrum), an age\ncategory (young, middle, old), fantasy species, and a short bit of text\noffering a quirk or other roleplaying cue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information is not extensive, because things like combat stats or personal history\/occupation are likely to either not come up or already be established by the time you draw a card. For example, you may have just finished a combat against a group of bandits but your players surprised you by taking one captive to interrogate. You already know they’re a bandit and you’re done with their stats, but now you need to be able to play out a dialogue. Just draw a card and you’ve got their name and other relevant details. Or maybe you thought your players would just stop into the shop and get what they needed, but instead they try to start a relationship with the shopkeeper. You already know they’re a shopkeeper, but now you need those personal details that will enable a conversation; that’s what you get by drawing a card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you can use these cards other times besides on the fly. Are you planning a campaign about an evil necromancer and don’t know how to decide their name, gender, etc? Draw a card. Do you need a starting point for creating your next PC? Draw a card and go from there. It really helps with a lot of things! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of NPCs will we see in the deck, in background, ability, etc.? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might draw a card and discover that the NPC in question is a younger human man named Abdul, or an older nonbinary gnome named Umpen, or a medium-aged tiefling named Osah. Each would also include a minor roleplay hook, like “can’t stop moving their hands when they talk,” or “uses verbal fillers a lot”. There are all sorts of combinations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much to Jacob for the interview! I hope you enjoyed the interview and that you’ll check out Deck of Many Names on Kickstarter<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have an interview with Jacob Kellogg today about the Deck of Many Names, which is currently on Kickstarter! It looks like a useful table tool! Check out his responses below. — What is the Deck of Many Names, both as a product and as your vision? The Deck of Many Names is a 120-card … Continue reading “Quick Shot on Deck of Many Names”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[390],"tags":[25,77,61,8,15,12,192,23,18,56],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-interviews","tag-jacob-kellogg","tag-quick-shot","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-table-tools","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs","tag-worldbuilding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Cardface-Example-Labeled.png?fit=1088%2C733&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-iq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/09\/five-or-so-questions-with-rob-trimarco-on-fortunes-fool\/","url_meta":{"origin":1142,"position":0},"title":"Five or So Questions with Rob Trimarco on Fortune’s Fool","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"September 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out Rob's Kickstarter for Fortune's Fool Ultimate PDF Edition!Tell me a little about Fortune's Fool. 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