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My brain coming up with mechanics: (smart) Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants looking through a microscope, taking some notes
My brain coming up with story and characters: (dumb) Patrick that accidentally nailed a board to his head
I know copying/adapting an already existing story/character isn't unheard of, but my goldfish memory can never remember any
For me, the story and characters are the fun bit, and I stick to the mechanics as they already exist for the most part. But the names... I struggle naming one character. Naming large numbers of characters in a way that feels cohesive is hell.
I always panic when it comes to names. Thus why Shmemeji, the bitch slapping bard came to be.
I used to share the struggle with names, until I started to learn Dutch and realized that I can just use common non-English names.
No more Bob the Blacksmith, Tom the Wizard Shop Dude, Jane the Horse-Mechanic; now there's a bunch of Noor, Sem, Yara, Mees, Saar, Bram, Lotte, Luca, Felix, Mia, Lia, Gerrit, Hendrika, Inaya, Mael, Manon..
I'm mostly using local names (Polish in my case), because they're easier to remember
Use a setting with robots/androids; that way you can use/reuse model numbers like in Star Wars. Or go Destiny-style and use a common name/callsign followed by a number.
If your adventures are headed to a city have a lot of names prepared
Same. I hate AI but I feel like using it to generate names is fairly ok? Literally can't be wrong and not really stealing content/work from anyone when used for this.
If Fantasy Name Generator isn't doing it for me, then AI is definitely not going to cut it.