For that I am glad. I'm glad you had fun. Hell, I wouldn't have given you
too much flak for it, though I would have raised an eyebrow.
Side note: Kalvin's player has gone on to a reasonable career in the industry: he now co-owns Moon Design/Chaosium/Runequest/whatever-it-is-this-week.
There's where you're coming a cropper, mate. It's not about "taking it seriously." It's about not being a wankpuppet. If you look around the table at characters with appropriate names and deliberately trot out "Sir Kalvin of Hobbes," you're just being a jerk.
OK. let's look at what else was in the party when dear old Kalvin showed up: (note I allowed players to run two characters at a time...still do, for all that; also note the party had just gone through some massive turnover due to deaths, retirements, and player changes; only 4 characters held over from the previous adventure)
Dwalin the Steadfast - Dwarf Fighter/WarCleric, senior surviving member of the party
Judah MacAbee - Dwarf Assassin, named - I think - after a comic book character
Tabatha Greenbuck - Hobbit NatureCleric (Druid), party NPC healer-type, was originally Dwalin's hench
Thorn - Dryad WarCleric/MagicUser - same player as Kalvin (oddball character that had just joined before the previous adventure)
Jack Napier - Elf MagicUser - same player as Judah and same source for name I think (just joined now)
Lorithen of Ravenwood - PartElf Ranger/Illusionist (dead, revived just before Kalvin's first appearance)
Moth - Elf Fighter/Assassin, sent by Judah's guild to spy on him, same player as Lorithen (just joined now)
Steng, Pira and Boregod - all NPC warrior types just now recruited by the party as a front line. I played Boregod as a joke; Steng and Pira were more serious
and last but not least, the module I was running (WG4 Forgottem Temple of Tharizdun) gives the party an NPC with a pun name who they'd met just before Kalvin was found.
And then in comes Kalvin. Sir Kalvin of Hobbes, found chained to a wall deep inside the dungeon.
Depends. If you're* so self-centered you impose your humor** on people who don't really want it, if the only person amused is you, then yeah, you're a wankpuppet. That's what I'm talking about.
Well, one of the tests I'm going to do if-when joining a new group is to try a bit of humour...the results will go a long way to determining whether I come back, for in my eyes a game without humour is a game without life. If that makes me a wankpuppet, well...can't help you there.
As difficult as it might be to believe, I don't have a problem with any of those. Those are at least suitably "fantasy," even Elena, which is somewhat exotic. It's not Sir Kalvin of Hobbes, or Fighty McFightface, or Bob the Cleric.
Elena = ELENA = Elf Lawful Evil Necromancer Assassin. She came in as a Thief/Magic-User (thus hiding both her real classes); when she was recruited and someone asked what she was all about her answer went something like "It's all in my name, mate" - took 'em ages and a few "Charm" spells to figure it out.
Somewhat amazingly, now I think of it, I've never had or seen a character named Bob. Haven't had a Fighty either, though close: Fightsky went by early in my current campaign.
And yes, my tolerance for names does have a limit, somewhere way out there. A character played in another game had the dubious moniker of "Mr. Giggles", which goes beyond even what I'll put up with.
Let me put it like this. For me, if it's my regular Wednesday AL game (like I'm off to in a matter of minutes)
Have a good game, eh!
who cares? Nobody at that table is invested in Storm King's Thunder. We're scalpin' Nazis, not creating a collaborative story. Hell, nobody really roleplays; it's an exercise in killin' giants, more of a wargame than an RPG. So names don't matter even one little bit. If you want to try to be funny, have at it.
That sounds like the type of game I tend to run, play in, and enjoy.
My home table is different. There, we're engaged in collaborative storytelling.
Which is already much more serious than anything I've ever run, or am ever likely to.
Side observation: you've managed to do in reverse what's always been my perception of how home games (fun) and AL games (serious) relate to each other. Neat trick!
It's just plain rude to insert Fighty McFightface into an exercise where everyone else is committed to the story. It shows you care more about your cheap joke than anyone else at the table. I don't think that kind of behavior is defensible. It's not about BadWrongFun, either, in terms of the game; it's about being able to interact with other human beings with sensitivity, i.e., not being a selfish wankpuppet.
Put another...perhaps kinder...way, it's about being the right player for the right game.
Lan-"my only regret about the name 'Sir Kalvin of Hobbes' is that I didn't think of it first"-efan