A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Genius Guide to Name Traits

The Genius Guide to Name Traits by Owen K.C. Stephens is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games (originally Super Genius Games) for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 10-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at a reduced price thanks to a special discount. Two thirds of a page is the front cover and one the Credits and Open Game License.

The supplement begins with a bit of fiction regarding naming a child before looking at names themselves, and how a name can give a different impression of an NPC and how in a fantasy setting names can have actual power. Name traits are designed to have a real impact on a character.

What’s a Trait? And How Do I Use These? explains that these were introduced in the Advanced Player’s Guide and that these can be selected at character creation or with the Additional Trait feat. A GM may also allow name traits to be acquired later thanks to characters’ actions.

Assembled Name Traits explains how the tables used to generate names work. Following this are the tables, which are Name Prefixes, Male Name Suffixes, and Female Name Suffixes. The first table is d100, though with less than 100 results, and has a prefix, their meaning and their game benefit. The second tables are similar, but are only d20 and are for suffixes.

Thematic Name Traits are used instead of the tables. In these cases, a name is chosen and then a thematic name trait is chosen. There are 12 in total, all “Name of…” with their meaning – Name of Strength means “Of great strength”, benefit and make and female name examples.

The Genius Guide to Name Traits in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. Navigation is good. The text maintains Super Genius Games’ old three-column landscape format and seemed to be free of errors. As well as the cover, there are some stock colour images. Presentation is okay.

This is an interesting supplement. Traits themselves are an interesting concept, especially when they are used to tie characters to a setting, and this is a way of creating names that characters can be remembered by that have an actual in-game meaning. The tables themselves could just be used as a starting point, as could the thematic traits, as both could be adapted to a specific setting, using in-game languages to come up with names. The Genius Guide to Name Traits is an interesting supplement and it can be found by clicking here.