Tools to help create player characters for fantasy, and give life to a group of characters and their hirelings, pets and companions.
Fantasy Tools - main | chars | city | dungeon | hinterlands | otherworldly | sea | wilds
[Image by Patrick Pullen]
Starting Points
adventurers | pdfs | groups | companions
The adventurers of fantasy roleplaying games are the most important part, being the conduit for player to influence and experience the game.
Then there are groups. Of mercenaries, swashbucklers, scoundrels, misfits and friends. Serving a faith, faction, patron or themselves. And the extended family of hirelings, allies, pets, mounts and other companions.
Related Guides includes Fantasy Tools Guide and PDF Titles for Adventurers & Groups.
Adventurer Tools
adventurers | pdfs | groups | companions
Jabbar is a man short stature with a skinny body . He has an appearance clean, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. In his day-to-day life he prioritises ideals charity and careless. Leads a rhythm of life modest. He has a virtue and a flaw: healer but suffer from scoptophobia.
...from Random Character Generator from Role Generator. Creates an entire statless character, including name, occupation and detailed description. Can optionally specify race or profession.
For a character concept with a D&D tone, D&D Flavor Generators has a Character Generator. Here Be Taverns also has a Characters generator with portraits and a D&D theme.
For a complete character using a name, try the Character Composer (choosing Fantasy genre). (sometimes this generator might get stuck)
Naming characters can be a time-consuming process. Donjon has a single Fantasy Name Generator covering humans, elves, dwarves and halflings. 7Tools also has a Name Generator covering many fantasy races. And Names Nerd has several different Fantasy Names categories such as centaur, elf, hobbit, ogre and warrior cat.
To visualise a character, Meiker has Fantasy RPG Character Maker with a random option (the die icon under options). Or Anvl has a 3d Miniature Generator with a "Generate a random character" option, with options such as stance, weapons, bodyshape and mount adjustable.
Then there are some particular things for characters.
- Trinkets have been popularised by 5E D&D, with Trinkets at Donjon, 100 Interesting Trinkets from DnD Speak and Fantasy Trinkets (with themes) at Chaos Gen.
- Voices can be an unusual thing to specify, with 7Tools having a Voice Generator.
- Defining Life Events is a dark-fantasy themed generator from Glumdark
- Personalities can be hard to encapsulate, with Fantasy Name Generators having a Personality Description Generator with a detailed one.
Random PDFs
adventurers | pdfs | groups | companions
There are many titles to help with creating charaters and groups, here is a selction from the PDF Titles for Adventurers & Groups.
- For questions to ask about a characters backstory, try 5 Questions by Roving Band of Misfits Press, with d100 tables for 5 categories.
- For hirelings, allies and possible PC portraits, Inkwell Ideas has NPC Portraits Deck: Henchmen & Hirelings, a deck of 54 cards with portrait and details.
- To figure out how adventurers came together, Blackstone Entertainment has 47 Fantasy Adventure Hooks: Bringing Your PCs Together With Style. Pay What You Want.
- Black Falcon Games has D-Percent - 100 Character Traits for PCs and NPCs.
- What does their campsite look like? Inkwell Ideas has Infinite Campsites with several d12 tables to help out.
Group Tools
adventurers | pdfs | groups | companions
The Children of the RestlessDead. Evil Roses. The Bright Rug Comrades. Flaming Lantern Guard. Pale Fellowship
... from Adventurer Group Name at Chaos Gen (most popular tool at my site).
Adventuring groups can take on a life of their own, living on even after members have died or retired.
7Tools has a Group Generator (choose "adventuring party") with a name, sigils and other details. They also have a dedicated Group Name Generator.
To create a shield emblem for a group or character there is a Random Shield generator with a fantasy vibe and lots of options.
Companions and Pets
adventurers | pdfs | groups | companions
Your magical pet is a large white male parrot with the ability to sense evil. He has a forehead marking in the shape of a star. He gets lost easily and is not very neat.
...from Magical Pet Maker at Springhole.net
People love their pets in real life and in RPGs too. Faithful mounts, witch familiars, beast companions. So here are some tools to create and customise pets for your games.
f you want more complete pet descriptions then you can find earth-like versions at the Pet Generator from RanGen or more fantastical ones in 100 Familiars/Pets from DnD Speak.
For a pet name try the Pet Name Generator from YourPetName with results such as "Eclipse", "Sasha", "Voltron", "Buffy" and "Rush"
Dogs have been companions of humanity since we were hunter-gatherers. And that continues into fantasy and space games with the Pet Dog Name Generator at Fantasy Name Generators. For a wolf or more ferocious dog consider the Random Wolf Generator from Springhole.net. For new dog breeds try the Dog Breed Generator at Seventh Sanctum.
Cats have been with us for thousands of years too and were revered in Egypt. Name your felines with the Pet Cat Name at Fantasy Name Generators or create a complete one with the Random Cat Generator from Springhole.net.
If your rpg character has a mount, it's more likely to be a type of horse than not. If you want to get attached to your horse then the Pet Horse Name Generator awaits at Fantasy Name Generators. As does it's companion the Horse Name Generator which has more heroic-sounding names. There's also a fascination for magical horses, with an option for several Magical Legend Ponies at Seventh Sanctum or one at a time with the Marvellous Technicolor Pony Maker at Springhole.net. Finally there's d100 Horses at Chartopia.
For other pet animals and the option of multiple results there is an Animal Companion Generator at Chaotic Shiny or a more detailed Animal Description at Seventh Sanctum.
For familiars look at the Witch's Familiar tool at Magic Gurll. If you want owls in particular then the Companion Owl Generator at Springhole.net is for you
Adventuring Tool Recommendations
I'll come back and update the Guide so send me any recommendations for tools, tables and pdfs.
