D&D 5E Do you love Awesome Names?

[AaronOfBarbaria]

*Ahem*
"They can be nicknames, but not your full name."

So... can I write "Nikki" on the character sheet under name and have the character tell people, should they ever ask, that it is short for "Nichola", or do I have to write "Nichola" on the sheet and repeatedly tell people "Call me Nikki"?

 

[Yunru]

So... can I write "Nikki" on the character sheet under name and have the character tell people, should they ever ask, that it is short for "Nichola", or do I have to write "Nichola" on the sheet and repeatedly tell people "Call me Nikki"?

Either or, as long as you have the full name, that's all that matters.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Either or, as long as you have the full name, that's all that matters.

...so wouldn't you save time and effort just assuming that anyone who writes "Bob" on their character sheet is playing a character who has a full name, rather than getting in a twist about whether or not the player thinks the full name of the character is "Bob"?

 

[Yunru]

...so wouldn't you save time and effort just assuming that anyone who writes "Bob" on their character sheet is playing a character who has a full name, rather than getting in a twist about whether or not the player thinks the full name of the character is "Bob"?

Not really. A player writing another name doesn't take very long, neither does asking them what their full name is if they don't. \it also allows me to have bad guys do the whole "Mr. Anderson" thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That one is absolutely brilliant! Love it!

Lanefan

Agreed.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Awesome, maybe not. But definitely not any truncated names. It's Thomas, not Tom. Lucretia, not Lucy. They can be nicknames, but not your full name.
Otherwise you end up with Gimli, Aragon, and Bob.

As an aside, BehindTheName is awesome for finding good names.

Truncated names are just fine by me, usually.

There was an NBA player named God Shammgod. One of his college teammates was interviewed, and was asked if they called him "God."

"Nah," he responded, "we call him 'Sham'."

See also TV's Lucifer (from the eponymous show), often called "Lucy" by his brother Amenadiel.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Not really. A player writing another name doesn't take very long, neither does asking them what their full name is if they don't. \it also allows me to have bad guys do the whole "Mr. Anderson" thing.

I'm not seeing how it being an easy hoop to jump through makes it not jumping through a hoop.

I guess I'm just thinking of the times when things don't go perfectly smoothly, and the following sort of exchange happens:

DM: "What's your character's name?"
Player: "Bob."
DM: "Is that short for Robert?"
Player: "I don't know. He goes by Bob."
DM: "He has to have a full name."
Player: "Okay, fine, his full name is Robert. He goes by Bob."

When it could have easily just been the first two lines and then actually moving on to playing the game, and I'm not seeing a gain that is worth the risk that the player is annoyed by what appears to them to be wasted time.

 

[Yunru]

Whereas I'm not seeing the risk with the asking for what is basic information about a character.

 

[JonnyP71]

Hmmm, it's a bit of a leap to assume a name which is commonly a shortened form is always a shortened form.

There's a guy in my gaming group called Ritchie, that's his name, it's not a nickname based on 'Richard'.

My son is called Jake. It's not short for Jacob. His name is Jake. We have a Millie in our family, it's not short for Millicent.

 

[Yunru]

Hmmm, it's a bit of a leap to assume a name which is commonly a shortened form is always a shortened form.

There's a guy in my gaming group called Ritchie, that's his name, it's not a nickname based on 'Richard'.

My son is called Jake. It's not short for Jacob. His name is Jake. We have a Millie in our family, it's not short for Millicent.

... Right?
I'm not assuming that Tom is called Tom or not. I'm saying that if your character's called "Thomas Dragonbane" they put that for their name (on their character sheet) rather than "Tom".