Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neo" data-source="post: 1638638" data-attributes="member: 4139">It wasn't Xath who objected to the use of Rufus it was me... and just to clarify my objection it was not to people called Rufus it was to characters called Rufus and even then mostly in reference to the Village of Hommlet that has a veritable cornucopia of names that degenerate my group into fits of hysteria and just because of the disruption that name causes.However that aside those who GM can probably assosciate with this more, but If I take a week out of my time to plan and plot and produce adventures for my groups benefit to have all that time and effort, which is FOR them anyway! degenerated into a farce because someone wants to be called "Sputum the Wonderdonkey" then i'm afraid that person as far as I am concerned is not only wasting my time they being disrespectful to the work and effort i've put in for their benefit and not taking into considerations anyone else at the table whose wanting to play.As I said before a silly name serves no purpose other than to draw attention to itself and cause disruption and after the laugh has been had, all it does is continue to cause disruption.. it makes light of a game and the work that went into producing it.  It is all well and good if someone gets an embarrassing name or reputation through play as that is story based, but silly character names are just intentional disruptions that lend nothing to a game but disorder.Disallowing a silly name is not about stamping out your players fun, its about ensuring the fun is shared by everyone, and ensuring that its not at everyones elses expense or the time they have rearranged thier lives in order to free up so a  game can happen..and that includes the DM's.This is not to say silly names have no place in roleplay at all of course, as it entirely depends on the game being played.  In some like Paranoia, Toon, Hackmaster, teenagers from Outer Space etc.. you'd kind of expect parody names as that is the nature of the beast... But when i've spent a week preparing a session and countless months building the tension and the atmosphere of a setting to be a certain way and emulate a certain mood and ambience... then finding that when the heroes having fought long and hard to free thier people from the predations of the vile Cyric worshippers and their demonic hordes, only to come to stand amidst the burning ruins of another slaughtered village thier friends and loved ones dead or dying all around them... ONLY to then have all that hard work undone because one of the players finds it necessary to announce Furkin Pubewig is here to help save the day!!!..   I mean seriously instantly all that hard work and story development is undone and the atmosphere goes up in smoke.. the players instantly become squealing five year olds and the session goes to hell... four hours wasted out of everyones lives and all anyone will remember of that session is not the tragedy that occured or the lives they saved... but the introduction of some moronicly named character.So for me fun "through" play ... I'm All for it, but intentional disruptions whose only contribution to a game is to destroy play and make light of the work I have put in or the time people give up... not at my table, not in my house, not in my game.  and like the guy a few posts said earlier if that proves a problem for any participating player well.. they know where the door is.  For me anyway it hasn't been a problem for a long time, my players know what I expect and accept on that front, silly names were disallowed long ago for my lot because it became obvious to everyone in our group that they served no purpose other than to cause problems.  Their were no objections to thier being banned and had there been it would have been discussed but like the book says "DM's decision is final".  I have found through my 24 years of GMing however that silly names are a lot like people cheating at stat rolls, compare character sheets or wanting to start play at 20th level... they are traits of the young and new players predominantly and all part of the learning curve.  Once they get to the point where its more about the story and their part in it then those things inevitably cease to be a problem witha little bit of discussion and an explanaton as to how they take from a game as opposed to contribute to it.</blockquote>

Verification