Sometimes you get stuck for ideas for characters or adventures or plots or what-not.

That's where random generators come in. I would caution against using the output of a generator straight-out, but they can be a good way to give your creativity a kick-start. Random name generators are probably the most common type, and they vary a great deal in quality.

My favorite name generator for a while has been Johan Danforth's Name Generator. He also has NPC and Village generators, which can be nice starting points. For some reason his page takes a long time and a lot of processor power to load; I guess there's something about the Java menus he uses.

Another fun site is the Page of Generators. It has generators for random anime-style characters, quest items, dark ritual names, lost civilizations, and many, many more.

Finally, there's Stupid Plot Tricks. Basically, this is a guide to using random selections from a categorized version of the Evil Overlord List.

NaNoWriMo progress: 3815/50,000 words = 7.63% finished