Character name issues with a player

[Sir Chuckles]

You're damn right if somebody comes into my house and eats my food I'm gonna tell them what is and isn't allowed if they wanna stick around, it's that or they can start paying rent

@OP, does she also shop at hot topic and think rick and morty and invader zim are good shows? Easiest solution is change the day you guys meet up and "forget" to tell her

If you're willing to go the passive aggressive nuclear route over character names and get excessively toxic over their choice in TV shows, you're going to have a healthy group for very long, if a group at all.

The easiest solution isn't to pseudo-kick them from the game in a very phallus-ish and teenagery way, it's to be an adult and use your words to tell them you don't like spastic joke names.

[Bohandas]

Maybe get her to change it to Quiche Lorraine

edit:

also, what the hell is the "new sincerity"?

It sounds like either a designer drug or a ufo cult

[kyoryu]

If you're willing to go the passive aggressive nuclear route over character names and get excessively toxic over their choice in TV shows, you're going to have a healthy group for very long, if a group at all.

The easiest solution isn't to pseudo-kick them from the game in a very phallus-ish and teenagery way, it's to be an adult and use your words to tell them you don't like spastic joke names.

I deleted about three responses to that person before I realized that there probably wasn't a productive conversation to be had.

[RazorChain]

How have people not figured out that no one cares about their characters by now? Why spend hours coming up with some dumb name that no one's going to use or remember anyway? My last couple were Lindsey, Sam, Ashley, Julie, Sharon. Random picks from census. Surprise, it made no difference to the game!

You know what, you are absolutely right.

In a deadly blackops game where PC's dropped like flies and my PC was the only one that survived the whole campaign while the rest of the group had burnt through a stack of characters despite he took insane risks. My character became a legend in our gaming group, THAT character has become the benchmark for resilience, luck and resourcefulness.

Doesn anybody remember his name? No of course not, he's just referred to as the Super Swede (he was based on Dolph Lundgren)

But that being said if I had named him Ike Andersen, Ike A, for short then he'd probably have died.

[FabulousFizban]

not one to mock fandoms, but i think you missed your mark there. shopping at hot topic and loving invader zim were code-words back in the day for what is now called an edgelord or a mall goth. basically your average stereotypical rebellious teenager.

oh, and for posterity, ross is wrong on that count: don't ever abandon a player like that over something so trivial. what are you trying to do? make somebody rage-quit pen and paper??

also, what the hell is the "new sincerity"?

had no idea.

as to your question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sincerity

[Guizonde]

had no idea.

as to your question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sincerity

right back at you for new sincerity. are you telling me that to fight against the ambient cynicism and ironic outlook of the world there's been an entire philosophical movement created to just be as spontaneously optimistic and cheery as possible?

seems... juvenile, but that may be because at face value it's a simple idea. i've read the wiki article but i'm not that learned in philosophy to understand everything in it.

[Bohandas]

I'm surprised my assessment was so close.

[Guizonde]

I'm surprised my assessment was so close.

frankly, i wanted to mention you about that, but couldn't think of something to post that wouldn't be cynical. which, incidentally, is more my school of philosophy. but seeing as how fizban answered courteously, i didn't want to seem like a wise guy with a snarky comeback all the while thinking that your assessment was pretty close and funny-appropriate.

[jojo]

I'm still all in favor of letting the group handle any naming issues. A player might think something is "clever" or "funny" but generally the result is just "annoying."

When I run characters you can bet I'm not going to waste time listening to their elaborate, thematic and ultra cool names.
Nope.
If your character has a name that I can remember then my character can and may or may not remember your name as well.
If, on the other hand, I need to whip out notecards and record your character's name for reference then it's way more reasonable to expect that I'll just hone in on one obvious feature of the character and use that instead.

For a recent example, consider the mononymous half-orc barbarian "Dench." My PC addresses Dench by his name, despite the fact that he could easily just name him "Dame Judi" and allow hilarity to ensue, especially as my PC is the only one that shares a language. But I don't, because addressing the character as Dench isn't particularly inconvenient.

On the other side of this scale is a character addressed by my PC variously as "Alliteration/Sarcasm/Charcuterie/Sarcoma/Alphabet the Elf." Neither my PC nor myself dislikes the Elf PC or Player. The issue though is that the PC has like eight different names which alliteratively alternate and when introduced I could neither spell, remember nor pronounce more than like 1/8th of them. So I didn't, until the PCs became closely allied enough to justify my PC considering the others' feelings in any way shape or form.

Doesn anybody remember his name? No of course not, he's just referred to as the Super Swede (he was based on Dolph Lundgren)

But that being said if I had named him Ike Andersen, Ike A, for short then he'd probably have died.

Bear with me here but you could have named him Ike Ericssen, I.E. for short. Then you could reference him as "My Character, I.E. the Super Swede..."

Everybody wins.

[weckar]

You know what, you are absolutely right.

In a deadly blackops game where PC's dropped like flies and my PC was the only one that survived the whole campaign while the rest of the group had burnt through a stack of characters despite he took insane risks. My character became a legend in our gaming group, THAT character has become the benchmark for resilience, luck and resourcefulness.

Doesn anybody remember his name? No of course not, he's just referred to as the Super Swede (he was based on Dolph Lundgren)

But that being said if I had named him Ike Andersen, Ike A, for short then he'd probably have died.

It's a sad truth that many characters quickly become defined by what they can do rather than who they are - especially outside the dungeon.

[Guizonde]

It's a sad truth that many characters quickly become defined by what they can do rather than who they are - especially outside the dungeon.

this is too true. i've lost count of how many characters on these boards are named "doc" or "father" (or padré). then again, i guess it's a case of "actions speak louder than words".

[bc56]

Have a quiet word and tell her that the goofy names are kind of bothering you for such and such reasons, would she mind going with something that fits the tone a little better?

If you can get some other players to back you up, that'll make your time a lot easier.

But this is why gnomes aren't allowed in my games. That zany nonsense doesn't fit at my table.

[Sir Chuckles]

It's a sad truth that many characters quickly become defined by what they can do rather than who they are - especially outside the dungeon.

Is it really sad, though? Is it not the proper order of things? If what you do is not who you are, why are you doing it?

Real world nicknames come from people's actions and what you see them doing. My friends call me Hobbit because I go barefoot 80% of the time and can eat and drink them under the table at any given moment.