Have to agree here. Macho posturing is much more irritating, especially if you force it upon others.
Whining & Complaining
Have to agree here. Macho posturing is much more irritating, especially if you force it upon others.
I think it's funny how this has become the "what you can name your PC and pets" thread. But to Oryan77, for what it is worth, I don't think anyone is judging your DMing skills, I just think people are providing their (very diverse) opinions on the matter.
I'm personally pretty wide open for pet names (especially since I happen to play with fair number of female gamers who also happen to like playing Sorcerers and Druids). Butterfly for a horse works fine for me. Heck, what if it is a female horse and the player names it Buttercup? Is that one to veto? I's a choose your battles thing. If a player wanted to use a vulgar name just to harass people, I'd probably veto something like that.
Everyone has their threshhold I guess. I just couldn't let Dudley Do Right the paladin get by me. Especially since he wanted to imitate the voice and dress like a mountie. Some DMs here sound like they'd be perfectly fine with it. I don't run fantasy-on-crack sort of settings...normally.
I'm personally pretty wide open for pet names (especially since I happen to play with fair number of female gamers who also happen to like playing Sorcerers and Druids). Butterfly for a horse works fine for me. Heck, what if it is a female horse and the player names it Buttercup? Is that one to veto? I's a choose your battles thing. If a player wanted to use a vulgar name just to harass people, I'd probably veto something like that.
Everyone has their threshhold I guess. I just couldn't let Dudley Do Right the paladin get by me. Especially since he wanted to imitate the voice and dress like a mountie. Some DMs here sound like they'd be perfectly fine with it. I don't run fantasy-on-crack sort of settings...normally.
Oryan77
Adventurer
Sure, whatever you think my man. Next yer gonna call me sexist, like the player did?
Good point though. I may need to make it a requirement that animal companions can only be named things like Spike, Harley, Duke, Dozer, Killer, Blaze, Ace, Hotrod, Switchblade, Thunder, He-Man, Champ, Mustang, Ron Jeremy, Budweiser, or Hulk.
I agree with you, that would be silly. Good thing that's not what I'm asking players to do.
Why can't I ever XP anyone? This needs to be XPed a lot!
The other thing that gets me is everyone is automatically conjuring up "Marshmallow" as a white puffy treat. A "Marsh Mallow" is a plant that grows in marsh areas and produces pinkish flowers. Taking that kind of perspective, maybe it softens everyone's stance, eh? If a druid names her Albino Croc with pink eyes "Marsh Mallow" I'm not sure anyone has a leg to stand on to deny it, heh.
Twowolves
Explorer
Given the explanation, I don't fault you one bit for putting your foot down on "Marshmallow". And I don't see any "macho posturing" about it. "Please don't curbstomp my verismilitude" sounds more like it.
Back on track:
In a 2nd ed game I ran, I had a bard (wannabe-archer) enter an archery contest at a tournament. In the preliminary rounds, the contestants got to fire 3 arrows at a target, total their score, then move up or be eliminated. This guy made it to the finals, but in the finals, the rules were different, and they each got 1 arrow at a time. Now, I must mention that in this particular game, the players only rolled dice for initiative and hp upon leveling, everything else was narrative and I rolled all the dice. He went first and scored well. The next roll was even better (natural 20, IIRC), but it wasn't his arrow, it was the next guy's. I had described the scene, and explained the change in rules, but he was not paying attention and got all freaked that the natural 20 was not his.
"That's my roll! I rolled that 20. That was MY roll!"
To this day, the other members of that group will drop that quote on me, even though we don't play "DM rolls all the dice" anymore.
Back on track:
In a 2nd ed game I ran, I had a bard (wannabe-archer) enter an archery contest at a tournament. In the preliminary rounds, the contestants got to fire 3 arrows at a target, total their score, then move up or be eliminated. This guy made it to the finals, but in the finals, the rules were different, and they each got 1 arrow at a time. Now, I must mention that in this particular game, the players only rolled dice for initiative and hp upon leveling, everything else was narrative and I rolled all the dice. He went first and scored well. The next roll was even better (natural 20, IIRC), but it wasn't his arrow, it was the next guy's. I had described the scene, and explained the change in rules, but he was not paying attention and got all freaked that the natural 20 was not his.
"That's my roll! I rolled that 20. That was MY roll!"
To this day, the other members of that group will drop that quote on me, even though we don't play "DM rolls all the dice" anymore.
Oryan77
Adventurer
I thought about starting a thread about the topic, but eh, I don't care when threads derail. It means less threads I gotta keep up with.
Anyway, I'm not taking it too seriously cause I really don't see any fault in my request at all. I started the thread to talk about all of the whining & complaining I have seen from gamers, and the amount of whining and complaining I'm hearing about my naming requirement is pretty ironic. I'll take on the entire D&D community on this subject matter if I have to. Bring it on guys! I've got all day!
Agamon
Adventurer
Anyway, I'm not taking it too seriously cause I really don't see any fault in my request at all. I started the thread to talk about all of the whining & complaining I have seen from gamers, and the amount of whining and complaining I'm hearing about my naming requirement is pretty ironic. I'll take on the entire D&D community on this subject matter if I have to. Bring it on guys! I've got all day!
I gotcher back, bud. I tell ya, these kids and their sense of entitlement. I'd tell 'em to go play their mamsy-pamsy marshmellow game somewhere else. Doesn't a pedigree of walking to the game uphill in the snow both ways mean anything anymore?
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Just think of the additional humiliation the BBEG will suffer after having been beaten by a creature named Marshmallow.
We had a wizard name his celestial badger familiar Buttercup. This badger was one of the most rudest obnoxious familiars I had ever met. But the wizard doted on him and would talk to him in baby talk. It worked because the character was an eccentric fruit cake.
On the whole though I don't go for cutesy names for animal companions or familiars. Mittens for a lion would bug the crap out of me.
It seems disrespectful to the animal. These animals are more than pets, familiars are intelligent and animal companions are not tame. So I would question why a player felt it necessary to mock the whole thing.
I remember a whiny moment in my game. The husband of a another player called me up all upset because in the last session his wife had failed a will save and was paralyzed with fear for three rounds. He thought it was unfair to her because the session before she didn't get to do anything either.
She rolled a 1 on the save an automatic failure. He thought I should bend the rules. The reason his wife didn't do anything the session before was because she decided her character would not accompany the rest of the party to the tavern and decided to stay in her quarters sewing.
On the whole though I don't go for cutesy names for animal companions or familiars. Mittens for a lion would bug the crap out of me.
It seems disrespectful to the animal. These animals are more than pets, familiars are intelligent and animal companions are not tame. So I would question why a player felt it necessary to mock the whole thing.
I remember a whiny moment in my game. The husband of a another player called me up all upset because in the last session his wife had failed a will save and was paralyzed with fear for three rounds. He thought it was unfair to her because the session before she didn't get to do anything either.
She rolled a 1 on the save an automatic failure. He thought I should bend the rules. The reason his wife didn't do anything the session before was because she decided her character would not accompany the rest of the party to the tavern and decided to stay in her quarters sewing.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Anyway, I'm not taking it too seriously cause I really don't see any fault in my request at all. I started the thread to talk about all of the whining & complaining I have seen from gamers, and the amount of whining and complaining I'm hearing about my naming requirement is pretty ironic. I'll take on the entire D&D community on this subject matter if I have to. Bring it on guys! I've got all day!
Yeah, I don't think I'd say it's ironic though since it's not really saying one thing but meaning another. But I love threads whining and complaining about how players whine and complain.
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