A questionable resource: Names for things in fantasy games

A clump of collective nouns

So we have collective nouns for animals, from the mundane “herd of cattle” and “flock of birds” to the twee “pounce of cats” and “cackle of hyenas”. Gamers have taken up the baton to suggest similar words for fantasy beings: “a band of bards”, “a convocation of clerics”, and what not.

I hereby suggest a few of my own, with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game foremost in mind. Below is my beginning (and not-too-serious) mess of monikers for your collective consideration. (You can expect – if not exactly look forward to – updates as more names come to mind.)

Characters

  • a quarry of dwarves
  • a gnest of gnomes
  • a snoot of elves
  • a pounce of cat-folk
  • a pinch of halflings
  • a fist of martial artists
  • a thicket (or henge) of druids
  • a slew of slayers
  • a dazzle of swashbucklers (also an actual collective noun for zebras, of all things)

Creatures

  • A sleuth of bears (real term)
  • A stealth (or a bag or a sack) of bugbears
  • An ossuary of ciuaclá
  • A crush of crushrooms
  • A slayground of doomchildren
  • A headcount of flaming skulls or horrid skulls
  • A floe of ice weasels
  • A jam of jellies
  • A troop of apes (real term)
  • A ludus (or contubernium) of gladiator apes
  • A pod of dinomen (a sauropod, if you will)
  • A bludgeon of ogres
  • A haunt of specters
  • A swamp of trolls
  • An arm-y of peshkali

Cockatrice, henatrice, and chickatrice?

The naming of this post itself is a bit broad, as the post could go on to encompass names for male/female creatures, names for young (a bugcub?), and more. Fortunately for us all, I lack the ideas and inclination to go there. But if you’ve got labels of your own, let’s hear ’em below!

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