D&D 5E Do you love Awesome Names?

[Waterbizkit]

I don't allow real world names, joke names, or names with superfluous apostrophes. This is one of the few hard and fast rules of my games and I will happily kill a PC with a bad name.

I have to ask: is this serious or just hyperbole? Like... you haven't actually killed a PC because you didn't like their name... right? Because, and I'm just spit-balling here, if you were that "offended" by the name it'd make more sense to say something rather than strike the character down. So yeah, hoping this is some sort of extreme exaggeration for emphasis.

I've gotta say, some of you guys really have a hard-on for this kinda thing more than I'd ever thought possible. Not criticizing to be clear, just having one of those "Huh... alright..." sort of moments.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't allow real world names, joke names, or names with superfluous apostrophes. is one of the few hard and fast rules of my games and I will happily kill a PC with a bad name.

With respect: in the context of the post I made regarding the myriad on names out there, how would you know?

I mean, what about something like "Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo"?

Or if someone went Xhosa (or other S. African language) with its clicks to name their PC?

 

[Lanefan]

The group I play with frequently laughs and jokes throughout a campaign. And yet our PC names are serious. Do you come back?

Quite likely.

Which leads to a tangential but related topic: serious vs. humourous characterizations or personalities. Some characters I play are quite serious. Some are completely over the top. Would you allow both?

Whät äböüt necessäry UMLAUTS?

If it's not METÄL, it's not D&D.

In a joke one-off we did a few years ago umlauts in the names for some reason became a thing. The winner, however, was the guy (not me) who simply named his character Umlaut and had done with it.

Lanefan

 

[BoldItalic]

Remember the innkeeper called Roland Butter ?

You will now.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Quite likely.

Which leads to a tangential but related topic: serious vs. humourous characterizations or personalities. Some characters I play are quite serious. Some are completely over the top. Would you allow both?

Absolutely. I have no problem with serious or humorous portrayals, so long as you are playing well with the rest of the group. That's the key, play well with the group. Know where those lines are in how serious or humorous you can push it. That I'm cool with. My frustration is every time discussions arise on these boards about character names I get told to lighten up or, worse, accused of being some kind of a dictator who only cares about my world and story! (Amusing since I run a sandbox.) It's a group decision to have a game with a particular feel, and I think it's disrespectful to try and subvert that feel.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Or if someone went Xhosa (or other S. African language) with its clicks to name their PC?

I'd be impressed if one of my players dropped an exclamation point in their character's name and could explain to me the significance of it. That's cool. But it would need to be in line and make sense within the overall game we were playing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I didn't go Xhosa, but one of the last 2Ed PCs I played (in the late 1990s) was a Ranger of an "African" culture. Osibisa was his name*. He was a shipwrecked explorer trying to find a way home.





* The way he was kitted out and roleplayed, he was more Zulu than anything else...but I liked the band from childhood, and the name popped into my head the instant I came up with the concept. So I didn't even look for Zulu names.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I don't allow real world names, joke names, or names with superfluous apostrophes. This is one of the few hard and fast rules of my games and I will happily kill a PC with a bad name.

I run Forgotten Realms normally and I have a spreadsheet with a list of nearly 5,000 names by Ed Greenwood so my players have a list of suitable names to choose from. (It also does double duty as a source of NPC names.)

Wait. You're opposed to superfluous diacritics and you run a campaign in Faerûn?

 

[SwivSnapshot]

My user name on most forums is Swiv or SwivSnapshot and is joke name I had for a PC in an online game- a gnomish assassin with a James Bond complex ("Swivel Snapshot"), so you can guess my thoughts on the topic.

I also play a wizard named Hamish Onfife in a game with a DM known for his over the top whimsy.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

With respect: in the context of the post I made regarding the myriad on names out there, how would you know?

I mean, what about something like "Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo"?

Or if someone went Xhosa (or other S. African language) with its clicks to name their
PC?

On the topic of context, look at the rest of my post which you did not quote: I run FR. That name doesn't fit with my vision of FR, nor that of my players (especially the French names - yeah, I would know). African names would, indeed, fit with certain parts of FR, such as Chult. I know we had at least one Chultan PC in our games during the 2E era but I don't recall his name other than it having some African flavour.

Wait. You're opposed to superfluous diacritics and you run a campaign in Faerûn?

Yes, but you're confusing the real Realms with that horrible pastiche written by R A Salvatore. A big part of being a Realms snob is holding Salvatore's characters in the same contempt with which Star Wars fans hold Jar-Jar Binks who, like far too many Salvatorean characters, also has a speech impediment.