Indeed!
First-Letter Pronouns (e.g. R for Roy, B for Belkar) can eliminate a lot of problems in complex sentences. For example, in "Roy asked Durkon for his share of the stew", "his" is ambiguous; "Roy asked Durkon for D's share of the stew" or "Roy asked Durkon for R's share of the stew" are precise, while not lengthier than the 1st sentence.
Another issue to consider is that gendered pronouns get awkward in a world with Shape-Change.