Whining & Complaining

[Wik]

I get Oryan's naming thing. It really can get in the tone of the game.

For example, in an Eberron-ish game I ran, I let the PCs name their airship. I left the room while they conferred, grabbing food or something. When I came back, I learned they had named their ship the "Milennium Falcon".

"No."

"Okay. Yesterday's Hummingbird". Or something to that effect.

This went on, with the whole group whinging (and they usually don't whinge) until finally I relented. Unfortunately, the fact their ship name (and I wanted the ship to be the central focus of the mini campaign I was running) made me cringe every time I said it. Ruined the game for me.

The side effect for my players? I will no longer put them in a position where they can name things. Which is kind of sad, because I would love to run a campaign where PCs could name geographical locations and castles and such. But they have shown they can't be trusted.

 

[Oryan77]

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.

Yer right, I was whining & complaining. You shoulda seen the sourpuss look I had on my face when I started this thread. It was actually hard to type with my hands curled up into fists.

 

[Oryan77]

I let the PCs name their airship. I left the room while they conferred, grabbing food or something. When I came back, I learned they had named their ship the "Milennium Falcon".

My players did something very similar. A Modron that the group befriended became rogue. He needed a name other than Unit 72 of Sector 7926, so I encouraged them to give him a name. They called him Johnny Five. I even had to laugh at that one. But sorry, I made them come up with something else. Unfortunately, they couldn't, so I had an NPC start calling him Boxy.

I guess that's what happens when you let players name things during mid game.

Hell, even Boxy is a sort of cutesy name. The thing is, this is a Modron of all things, and the name fits the character. Sort of like the Biscuit character I guess.

 

[Gentlegamer]

What's next? Naming a hard-ass adventurer after a dog?

I mean, who would take "Indiana" Jones seriously?

 

[Mark CMG]

I wanted my summertime Prince Valiant campaign to keep a fairly serious tone so I gave the players choices of crests and character names from the start.

 

[Richards]

My campaign has a human cleric named "Cal Trop." I decided any family with the surname of "Trop" who would name their son "Cal" wouldn't have stopped there - so I gave Cal a brother named "Trip" (who grew up to raise goats) and a sister named "Von" (who became a bard, and who loves "the sound of music").

The same campaign saw the (at the time) 8-year-old son of the "Cal Trop" player name his half-orc barbarian "Slayer." Fortunately, after a year or two, he decided (on his own) that "Slayer" was a kind of lame and generic name, so he renamed him "Galrich." We jointly decided that "Galrich" was Orcish for "Slayer," and he was so named by the orc tribe as a cruel joke when his human mother died giving birth to him.

I wasn't overly thrilled with either "Cal Trop" or "Slayer" as PC names at first, but I eventually found a way to live with them.

None of this is to be taken as a rebuke of Oryan77's views, however - I completely see his point, and fully endorse his views for his campaign.

Johnathan

 

[Oryan77]

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.

It's not unusual for a PC to stay in the room and not participate in the "tavern" scenario. My players do that on occasion (usually the PCs that don't drink or enjoy the tavern atmosphere. But to complain that you didn't get to do anything that session when you chose to do that is definitely odd.

None of this is to be taken as a rebuke of Oryan77's views, however

Thanks, I appreciate you making that clear rather than telling a story to simply prove that my way is bad DMing.

 

[Krensky]

Sounds to me that the name has to cross some kind of 'macho' threshold to be allowed. Frankly, I find that no less silly than a PC wanting to name their animal companion Marshmallow.

And even then there are pleny of examples. Take the Solothii warhorses in Weber's War God series. They all have impressive names like Furious Thundercloud or Light if War.

And most of them wind up with nicknames like Boots or Star or whatever.

[MENTION=18701]Oryan77[/MENTION] Nah, I don't think you're a bad GM or anything, despite your categorizing those who don't agree with you as childish whiners.

 

[Mallus]

In the AD&D campaign I'm running now, which is in part an attempt to conjure up all the great things about the D&D we started with, the Neanderthal (half-orc) fighter is named Web'r Grylle. Which is coincidentally enough, what the player was looking at as he rolled the character. Ah, tradition! Also, extra credit for using at least one apostrophe.

The cleric, Brother Bennindus, is named after the boxing priest who taught at the Catholic school the player's wife attended.

I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing other people's preferences, but I can't help but recall the sage words of Frankie Goes to Hollywood -- which are "Frankie Says Relax", in case you were forgetting.

 

[TarionzCousin]

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.

You should have said "You're right. She isn't completely paralyzed. She can still sew."