The name lists for the Dark Age playtest are part of what we're testing! Feedback is great!

We did our best first stab at names from the backgrounds we want in the book. Vincent says he copy-pasted the ones he did, my SCA background made me push harder for historically accurate or at least plausible names, but we fully acknowledge it's a first stab. Native speakers and folks with deeper linguistic or scholarly background into those languages listed would be super welcome to offer corrections.

If you are of a mind to submit a corrected name list, we would love to see it. If we decide we'd like to use it, we will ask your permission and of course credit you in the book.  As I said to DWeird over on anyway, I'd like the name lists to be solid. Names matter to me. My guiding principals in regard to name lists in Dark Age is as follows:


• Believable names of the common folks of that language/area/timeframe - follow customs on gendered endings, etc.
• Avoid names that would cause trouble in the culture or at the table, i.e. names that translate as insults or carry too much weight to get past, which is why Adolf is not on the Germanic list.
  
• In each list, aim for a balance of simple and more complex. Don't change spellings to simplify, find a different name.
• Weight the lists toward pre-Christian, but if some variant of John is the most common male name in the language by 500 AD, so be it.
• Occasional familiar variants help convey that this is an inter-connected world - Gwilym and William and Vilhjálmr might all appear.
• Each list can have a name or two that have come through intact to modern use, like Erik and Roxanne and Rachel and Matthew.
• Variety is good! The name lists should be diverse and indicative of the language and culture, so when I hear about your NPC I can know something about their background from the name alone - is it Binyamin or Stanislav? Camille or Hilda?

Thanks!

If this had been a thread before, i couldn't find it. I've been enjoying the weird animals we're coming up with in our games, and I thought it would be cool to see what other folks have. Contribute and take at will!

Pigmaggots - Many-legged low-lying greasy fleshy things with small eyes and snouts. We had these in Alison's Alley, used for food (?) and oil for lamps.

Metal-phage Tunnel Snake - Huge segmented things with tri-laterally symmetrical mouths, crawling through the pit-mines following metal veins to devour. Some weird rudimentary mind and a hunger for metal.

Blink wolves - About the size of a St. Bernard. Covered with mottled green/brown fur, and has one large pupil-less eye that's highly reflective. Their bite leaves highly infectious and corrosive mold that, if left untreated, will kill the prey in a fairly painful and not nearly fast enough way. Not really mammals at all.

Giant boar - Fucking huge mutant wild boar.

Sliders - Like a really big, flattish slug with a leathery top skin / soft shell. Good for frying, but they slime up everything and leave sticky trails. They eat plants, and are not too picky. To keep them out of your garden, either hire a kid with a stick to spear them, or make a solid metal fence that's a foot or more tall with razor- or barbed-wire on top. Clean the wires off regularly. Sliders aren't smart.

Using Staples-brand post-it strips in 5 colors and Staples-brand page flags (which are semi-transparent) in 5 colors gives me masses of mobility in my PC and NPC relationship map. PCs have black stars on them, and NPCs closely connected to them have a color-coded connection to them. This also allows for NPCs to very easily shift alliance or move into a different area of the map just by changing the flag over-lay. NPCs with multiple connections have little strips of pertinent color. Now I can start making notes about interesting triangles. And since everything is sticky-notes, I can reposition for maximum non-boringness. Heeheeeheeee.

This shall be the thread for the game I'm running.

Characters:
Barbecue, the Hardholder of Windmill Hill, played by Vincent
Burroughs the Brainer, played by Evan
October the Skinner, played by Kat
Hooch the Chopper, played by Jim

The hardhold is a fortified camp on the ridge of a mountain range, somewhere along the AT. There's a windmill that works, providing power for a manufactory that turns out pots and pans and other metal-goods. There are big stamping machines left from the mountain-top removal/strip mine operation down a bit from here, and in the first few years of the holding, when it was ALL little ragged tents and lean-tos, there were several really nasty accidents in the machines, while folks were figuring out how to use them, and folks got maimed.

There are several other windmills along the ridge; a handful are busted, most of them never got stood up, and one of them is working, but it invariably turns when the wind is not blowing, stops when it is, and faces the wrong way regardless. All but that last are good scrounge-grounds.

The windmills are (were) built in sections. If you are lucky, or have enough friends, or are mean enough to have claimed one of the three sections that were close-by when folks got here, you've got a totally weather-proof home! They have welded-on backs and fronts, with doors cut in and little vents for windows/airflow. Kind of like a trailer. The bottom floors are a few feet up, to make a wide level place, but with 15 feet of height, you can even get a short second floor in there no problem. Some folks keep their dogs in the 'below' space, some have root cellars or chickens or who knows what-all. Some of the tubes have blow-torched patterns along the sides, spirals and dots and distorted plants. One is covered with birds in flight. There's a tailor and his family who have two treadle sewing machines set up in the front of their tube, and the upper loft is full of different colors of industrial tarp. Lots of clothes in the holding are bright blue, and the seams are flat-felled on the outside, like inside out jeans, so it doesn't scratch. If you find a tarp, you get good trade with him; the rest have to work something out.

If you're not a tuber, you have a lean-to or tent. Barbeque rates the old ranger's 15x20 cabin, with it's nice wood cook-stove set into the stone fireplace and thick glass windows with shutters and a sturdy door that locks. It's set back by some big old trees, looks like it's grown out of the rock, and a handful of additions, lean-tos, porches and such have been jammed on over the decades prior. The latest modification is that the outside walls have been reinforced with metal sheeting brought up from below, and in a real pinch, it'll hold about 30 people for a bit - which is roughly half the holding. There's a half-story loft over half the main space, for sleeping and storage.

The fish aren't safe to eat unless you are so desperate there's no other option, and there's no songbirds anymore, but there are plenty of dogs and goatsheep and things called chickens that might actually be more turkey or goose or duck, but it's all chicken now. You can hunt, a bit, and every hunter worth anything has a tale about spotting Old Red-eye, the huge wild boar that roams the lower hillsides. Regular woodpig, that's a good meal for a good many, rabbit and squirrel of course, and deer sometimes, bear rarely.

Hooch and his gang berth in hammocks slung over their ATVs in The Garage - a wide, squat building that started out life as a picnic pavilion. You can tell who's up in rank, 'cause they bunk closer to the middle, farther from the elements. Probies rate the windiest outside corner. Weather's not so cold as it once was, so with a good sleeping bag any biker worth a crap can deal with the winter, and all you need in summer's a mosquito net.

There are plank bridges leading from the ridge off into several of the bigger trees, including October's home and place of business. Somehow, she's got an old school bus up there, all grown over with vines so you can hardly tell it's a buss, especially with the seats all out and the bed in the back. There's a Sun room and Moon room, and she's planning a Sultan's room, full of lanterns. She and her two 'ladies' have private quarters in the Tower when they are not entertaining customers or tending the herb garden.

Burroughs has claimed the top of the windmill as his own. The bats and the rats keep him company, and the rotating top gives him a lovely panoramic view. He's also able to keep an eye on the gears up there, when he's not watching the brain-web spread out beneath him like a little starry sky. Sometimes the wind whispers to him in his sleep.

What has gone before, from various viewpoints:

Plot summary from Burroughs POV:
* Hooch is checking over his bikes when confronted by Burroughs, who
suggests he can pry some information about a cache/stash of goods
hidden in the mines from one of Hooch's gang members, with the
ulterior motive of learning more about his past.  Hooch's greed gets
the better of him and he agrees for his gang to do a brief séance with
Burroughs.
* October is visited by the customer  Dremmer, who aggressively
demands sexual favors in exchange for a ring he found.  When October
refuses, Dremmer attempts to force himself on her.  October calms him
down with her "motherly" instincts and, upon discovering that the ring
was actually of value, eventually sleeps with him.
* Barbecue is overseeing the metal shop when a worker (Silver) gets his finger mangled in a machine.  This was on account of a
ring the worker was given by someone who meant to sabotage the
workshop.  After wrestling the screaming worker and severing the
remaining bit of finger so the worker does not lose his whole hand,
Barbecue goes to visit October for counsel on the matter.
* When Barbecue arrives, October shows him in for tea, only to
discover Burroughs having already invited himself in, suggesting a
peculiar attachment to her.  He leaves, and they communicate.  One of
October's girls (Dusk) later informs her that there are some
items missing from the jewelry box. A thief must be afoot!
* Burroughs conducts the séance, though one of Hooch's gang members
(Jackbacka) leaves the circle and runs.  Hooch intimidates
him back in.  Burroughs discovers that the gang member Bullet
grew up nearby and was one of the miners with Burroughs when he went
down into the mine that fateful day his head exploded.  Burroughs
suggests Hooch should take his gang down into the mine with him to
uncover that stash, and Hooch reckons he'll need to have Burroughs
followed in order to find out just what exactly he's up to.

Stuff from Hooch the Chopper:
The 'cuz who tried to ditch the seance was Jackabacka.

Hooch's gang ride on ATVs, the 3- and 4-wheel vehicles I showed in those videos. They congregate under an old picnic pavilion that's now called 'the Garage'. Each 'cuz has their own hammock stung in the rafters over their bike, with position closer to the center indicating rough hierarchy within the gang. You're responsible for your own bike at all times, including being able to right it and fix it if you get in a jam out on the Trail.

There's 14 riders in the gang (called the Trailjacks) right now, with half a dozen or so named so far:

NOTE: All the gang members are late teens/early 20s, none certainly older than 25, most look younger than they probably are due to poor nutrition and disease. Hooch is likely somewhere in the 18-21 range.

Jackabacka was the one who tried to ditch the seance.
Baby  is a similarly-to-Hooch ambiguously-sexed late teen who has the job description "Reminds Hooch of Home".
Tinker is a clearly male kid, tall and rangy with huge hands, who is the idiot savant of working on the gangs' bikes. He speaks in a fast-talking, slang-laden local accent so thick he's barely understandable, and is generally always working on bikes whenever he's not actually out riding.
Stinky is an obvious boy of maybe 15 or 16, and is the least trusted member of the gang because he's the newest, having just 'Run the Course' a month or so ago.
T-Bone is the best  in the group at finding stuff, she's a squat, thick, girl in her early 20s, and she translates Burroughs fancy talk into plain talk for Hooch, and Tinker's cant into plain speech Barbecue and others can understand.
Bullet is another ambiguously-sexed kid, a little older, average height and skinny, called that because of 'his' funny-shaped head, probably early 20s, who is a native of the area and was apparently present when Burroughs had his exploding-head incident.

The gang is outfitted in scrounged logging and mining gear, lots of flannel, demin, canvas coveralls, stuff like that. They all wear mining helmets with the lamps attached to see in the dark, instead of using headlights on their ATVs. They're armed mostly with hatchets, sledges, and other mining and logging equipment. Maybe one or two shotguns and a couple of poorly-maintained, scrounged hunting rifles. Hooch himself carries around a well-made carbon-steel hatchet that has been sharpened religiously over the years and has had its rubber grip replaced with a duct-tape facsimile.

We also established that someone had tried to Run the Course last time along with Stinky, but flipped their bike and was left to to die under it overnight. I can't recall that name off the top of my head.

(Run the Course: If you want to be a Trailjack, you need to birng your own ATV, which you then use to Run the Course, a nasty obstacle course the gang sets up with help from some of the 'Holders. If you can run it in under the time that Hooch sets, you're in. If you can't do it fast enough, you ain't. If you flip your bike or hurt yourself, you have to keep gong and no one's allowed to help you until you get yourself off the Course., no exceptions. The Hold comes out for these Runs, they're a sort of little festival with betting and a celebration if anyone gets in and they get the Two- Bits (Shave and a Haircut))

The Trailjacks seem to refer to Miss O's place as the 'Moolinor', and all of them call Barbecue 'Big B' and Burroughs 'Crazy B'.

Unless I'm mistaken, we (the Trailjacks) have also gotten word that Miss O is currently looking for stuff to make fancy lanterns out of.

As you may recall , last session was full of fightyness and quick cuts and ouch! This session, not so much. We skipped a bit of time, giving Amanual time to cool off a bit, Keelerand Mox and Rose time to heal a bit, and EOS some time to get used to the idea of Amanual bringing other people into the spaceship. It was a much more emotion-based session, and there was a nice parallel with two PC-NPC-PC triangles.

Play started with Mox in quarantine on EOS, while Amanual tried to convince EOS not to space Mox. Mox had agreed to help Amanual try and get to the bottom of the contamination that EOS was so intent on, and turns out that entails Mox being a conduit for the Maelstrom to come pouring into EOS. Eeeek! EOS was one scared computer!

A note on EOS: when we first heard the Voice of Eos, it was very flat, remote, clinical, distant. And it instructed people to do CRAZY stuff, like cut off their hands and decide Keeler was the fertility god and all sorts of weird. Always VOE had this cold detachment, except this one time when suddenly Vincent screamed "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME??" and we all jumped out of our skin. As Amanual started communicating with VOE, Vincent shifted the way EOS spoke, to show Amanual's personalization of the machine, and also because it's kind of a pain to actually think in code. I remember a 10 second discussion along the lines of 'yeah, it makes sense to just have Eos and Amanual talk, right.' So here's Eos, talking to Amanual about Mox and stuff. Kinda cool, kinda creepy, definitely still not a secure position for Mox.

Back at the Luxor, Rose and Keeler are trying to convince Exit that she and baby Pumpkin will really be ok. We roll well, and she's reassured. Thank goodness! Julia also nailed Rose's opening hardholder roll, so for once, everything's going pretty easy. Whew! Keeler's feeling like maybe it's time to check out some new folks for her gang, since she's down a few due to death and injury, so she's being a presence in the marketplace.

On Eos, Amanual has convinced Eos to separate the sick-bay - which is the most miraculous infirmary Mox has ever heard of or imagined or anything - and run the tests on Mox remotely, to keep Eos safe from contamination. The goal is to figure out how to 'fix' people, and clean the Maelstrom's effects off of them. When it gets down to it though, Mox baulks. Stripping himself of the Maelstrom's taint might also strip him of his ability to figure out how to help someone. There's no guarantee he'll live through the attempt, either. I think the odds were around 75% that he'd live.

A note on playing to the side of the spotlight: while Amanual and EOS were talking, Mox was technically not in the scene, as he was in quarantine. But we figured that Eos could open communications anywhere on-ship, so I would occasionally interject what was happening with Mox. Eos got really nervous and asked for permission to space Mox, I interjected Mox's heart-rate going up on the monitors. Amanual reassured Eos that Mox could keep the Maelstrom under control, I interjected Mox doing deep breathing and calming himself down purposefully. Also, there was a time when Julia narrated Rose calling Amanual while she was talking to Eos, which led to a great bit about Eos being jealous of Rose. Finding ways to be part of a scene when you are not in the scene is always a delicate thing, and I think this session we pulled it off well.

So Mox is in the detached sick-bay, opening up his brain. Thank goodness I roll well, and have good control of the fountain of emotion that spills forth. It freaks Eos right out! I roll to seduce or manipulate, and make it but just. I start pulling Eos's emotions to the fore! Crazy! He's like a little kid who's been left alone for a very long time and has tried to maintain some sort of order, only he knows he's not really safe, or supposed to be alone, and he's been making a lot of very hard choices that he didn't want to make. Mox talks to Eos and gets him to understand that he, Eos, is becoming human, and he has more in common with the people down below than he ever imagined. Eos accepts this, but needs a child's reassurance that he won't be left alone again. And that Mox and Amanual will keep him safe. And that Amanual will stay with him. Mox is whole-heartedly for all that, and Amanual agrees to stay with Eos so long as Mox can come and go, and maybe other people as needed. Eos is cautious about that, but agrees.

Vincent then says 'I think it worked, I think you guys just fixed the maelstrom.' Amazing! This felt really, really good, and I loved Eos as a little child.

Mox explaining what happened to Rose was weird though, because saying 'you know how when you were little and you wanted your mom to take care of you?' made Rose (who committed matricide a while back) recoil in horror. Funny, but in a sad way. And Amanual is probably not coming back down, maybe ever.

Best line of the session, IMHO: "I think Amanual is, like, his mom now." Apparently Mox had a good childhood. Who knew.

In the two games we've played so far, we've decided that short-wave radios/walkie-talkies are available to PCs. This is highly useful for keeping in touch and getting folks involved in various ways. It also leads me to wonder how other groups are handling PC communications. Do all the PCs travel in a pack? If you're not there, you're unreachable? Do you have runners? How does it work in your group?

Stuff to eat while playing ApW.

Vx Brand Apopalyspe Corn
Make popcorn.
Melt butter.
Add a whole bunch of sriracha hot sauce.
Stir sriracha hot sauce butter through popcorn.
Eat.

Elizabeth's Prepackaged Feast
Gather together food-like products that might survive an apocalypse. Must include Twinkies, Spam, and cheap junk candy. Fish paste in a tube is good, as is Cheez Wizz. Display on something incongruously lovely, like an antique silver platter or a tiered cut-glass cookie tree. Make up increasingly bizarre combinations as the night wears on. Bonus points to whoever first tries Twinkies with Fish paste icing.
 

Bret's Salsapocalypse World
Ingredients:
2 large tomatoes, cored
1/2 large white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 sarrano pepper
1/2 cup cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Dump it all in a food processor and blend to desired chunkiness. Just as tasty chopped up with a knife and dumped into a bowl, just more time consuming.

As we are playing with a set list of names, would it be a good idea to have a place to list our characters, since my hardholder Alison is going to be different than any other hardholder Alison? I also think having a place where we get to say "my character is *so cool!*" would be fun, if we kept it short.