hello! i'm a new dm that's planning to run terrors for a few friends, and i got curious about something reading through - how did you come up with each hermit reference/character? more in-depth things like their exact role, but also some simpler things like coming up with alternative names that aren't just the hermits' normal names spelled differently. everything seems to have its place in here, and i'm genuinely a little in awe of how you've crafted this whole story holy fuck. (and hey, feel free to be as vague and unspecific or as detailed as you'd like! i'm happy either way :D)
Hi, thanks for the question!
Let’s start with the names, because I remember more about that.
First off: I wanted to have the names start with the first letter(s) of their name (VintageBeef = Varin Bell), or otherwise letters that stand out in their names (Docm77 = Dorias Miro). Those letters was always what I started from.
Also important to me was to disregard the real names of Hermits if they are known. Not doing that.
In a few instances, I tried to keep to naming conventions, with Dwarven and Halfling last names being the most obvious examples: ImpulseSV “Simeon Veinbreaker” and Mumbo “Marlon Joybringer”.
In most cases, I thought about what would sound nice. And in most of those, it was just saying random things out loud. If it sounded a little like it could be a name, I’d further try to finesse it. I’d put (Salaena) Mirrialdestin, Thomiscia, and (Barthes) Debnar in that category.
Some are definitely clear references to the hermits themselves or characters: Tango as (Thaddeus) Holsten, referencing his supercomputer, Welsknight as Garrett Wells for obvious reasons
Looking back, I really seem to enjoy two-syllable last names. That was wholly unintentional.
It was also fun to give relatively normal first names to some characters: Jonas Hyffal, Garrett Wells, Carter Grummins
Don’t know where Soren Tidrostir came from, but I liked it so I kept it
Not all hermits are named, though all hermits who were members at the time of writing it (+TFC) are represented. Three hermits remain unnamed in the module - they show up in the first half in the module. For them, it made more sense story-wise to have no names for obvious reasons.
Melena, and most unrecognizable names in the crypts are fully original characters.
As for hermit references and roles: it was important to me that I didn’t take it too far and that it was still possible for people to spot who I was referencing. From what I’ve seen, people have already figured out completely which hermit is which character, which is what I was hoping for.
It’s been a year and a half since I wrote it, so I don’t necessarily remember all these details. However, I do know I wanted an even spread. I wanted Thaddeus to have had a previous adventuring party. I wanted Hermits across all the levels except the Burning Dark to populate the place a little and to make it fun for people to meet these hermits (even if some are clearly telegraphed as enemies). Specifically for the Black Mines, I wanted traces that folks left behind to make it feel lived in, but also devoid of any type of non-sculk life.Then I also needed enough people in Hermilthan to make the town seem lively enough, despite all the terrible things that have happened. I think I did a pretty good job on that.
Then there’s specific roles that I wanted to assign to certain characters. Thaddeus Holsten is the owner of Deepfrost Citadel. Simeon is the Dwarven blacksmith, Exander Veldt is the mayor. Hal Terris and Xanthos Barian run Horsehead Provisions. Garrett Wells is a knight.
Most everyone else I assigned based on where I needed or wanted them to be, with the usual pairs not being separated from each other (such as Joe and Cleo). Keralis was an especially fun one to figure out and place into the module (if you know, you know)
Anyways, thanks for the question and the chance to ramble about this, and good luck running the game!
