Being orginal

One thing about being orginal, don't copy other people.

People Names

Being orginal with names is easy. But getting a good name is harder.

Try reversing names e.g James becomes Semaj
E.G. there's a company that sells mints called trebor, which is robert backwards
Names can be descriptive of the character, etc...
E.G. Cloud was a bit 'out-of-it or high in the clouds' so calling him Bob wouldn't have been as good.

Place names

Try using actual place names of existing places, but try to be clever.

E.G. A waterfall could be called the Nigaera falls, but if you could find out the name of what it was before...
For example Bristol used to be called Bridge-town before it was shortened to Brigstow.
Basically descriptive words that got broken in the years...

Storylines

Well to make an orginal storyline you can do a couple of things.

Don't just use the first thing you think of.
You could try doing the opposite of what you think of...
E.G. An abandoned railway... but why is it abanoned?
Which could become a active railway... why is it active?
(the best here would be both, a active railway that should be techinically abandoned)
The thing to remember is your telling a story.
And 'techically' everything about the story should be answered by the end.

Try coming up with a basic storyline first.

Then ask yourself questions, like 'but why is he an orphan?'
Try not to answer with things like 'because he is'
Eventually you'll have a basic storyline and you'll have gone back into your games past.
Like what happened ten years before your story takes place?
A really big war?
Why? Who annoyed who? Who won\winning?
make sure you don't go off the main plot or include everyday boring things...
E.G. Lets all go to see the wizard of oz, and end up going all over the world for no real 'it's helping us get to the wizard of oz' type reasoning

Characters

Try basing your characters on the most unusual people you know.

Characters can be like thier name or maybe not
(Not everybody called Bob is a builder)
Do your characters meet or break sterotypes?
E.G. A RPG stereotype is 'old bloke' therefore 'a wizard'
Break stereotypes, use them etc... (make up your own?!)

What culture does your character live in? (or used to)

Does his culture effect him? How?
E.G. 'Lives in a wizard town... therefore a wizard of some sort?'
How does the character see other cultures? (why?)
E.G. Hitler saw other cultures as not as good as Germany so he decided to destroy them all (honesty, some people hey?)

Remember:- It's your RPG so just make it so you like it, and therefore other people like-you will also like it.