Does anyone ever have players making up stupid crap like that?
I have a group of friends that Ive been friends with since about 1990 and we all began playing D&D. When you are teenagers you dont really take the game seriously, I think. Its all 'bout collecting loot and fame.
We are all in our VERY late 20's now. Things have changed for me and 2 of the other players. 2 of them refuse to grow up. Well...actually one is really bad and tells the other guy, who is extremely susceptible to influence, to do stupid crap.
I try to run a serious game and one guy makes an old human wizard named....Strom Thurmond. He wants to put him in a wheel chair and have his friend, an elf he talked the other guy in to making whos name is Elfy McElfington, push him around. Now, outside of the game its actually pretty damned funny. However, inside the game he brings his "antics" in to the game at times. He is reliable during a battle but during the roleplaying aspects of the game is when he is not serious. This really irritates me at times. I spend my free time preparing stuff for these games. The other 2 players appreciate it and their enjoyment and immersion brings me enjoyment.
Anyway, I tried talking to him outside of the game about it. His excuse is that he is so serious in real life that he uses the game as a chance to act out.
He is my friend and I dont want to remove him from the game. I want him to become involved in the game outside of the realm of combat. I can see during the heavy roleplay aspects of the game, during the "downtime" inside the town, these two growing restless. I advised one of the guys (Elfy) to get involved, do something around town. His response: "Im a fighter, I kill stuff. They say enemy, and I kill it." :[
Any suggestions as to how to wrap my game around these 2 different types of players and put them both in the game for enjoyment?
Does anyone else have any "dumb player" stories? In a game I played in a long time ago a player challenged death, a la Bill and Ted's, to a khyber toss so he could be resurrected. Hahahaha, khyber toss!
YEah I know a couple. THe first was a friend in one of our first games that played a dwarf. He was a cleric of Dumathoin (You know the keeper of secrets!) and He would blab his mouth off at every turn. The DM got so pissed off by his antics that he had Dumathoin turn his back on his character. He got the message but never really changed his playing. Needless to say we have never played with him again. The other two, one is just a little silly during the games but a nice guy none the less. The third guy usually plays a druid(yeah, I know some of you don't like druids) and he had a bear he was second level. During a first level adventure for the rest of us we go up against a polar bear and we all charge in or do our part to deal damage. If i was a druid I would at least bring my pet in to help flank the damn thing. He just stood back and let us all get hammered on for the first two rounds. It took us and the DM to get him to do anything. Just stupid!
The next game we play the DM is going to give them all a little talking-to in order to lay out some ground rules. I mean this is fantasy and it should be a way to release from the real world. Hey I have my characters get rip roaring drunk during some parts of the downtime. but I never do it all the time. Knowing when it is okay to let go and have some stupid fun is great but it needs to be appropriate. I.E. the right place at the Right time and not all the time.
Sorry for the rant
I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but when I first started playing, I ended up as DM because I had the books. We had no experience, and no real clue what we were doing. Anyway, in our fledgling DragonLance campaign one guy asks to play a dwarf. OK, no problem. The best name he can come up with is: . . . no lie . . . Thorin Oakenshield. Even at age 15, I was embarassed. Well, I suppose I could give him credit for his taste in fantasy literature.
As far as your wayward players, sooner or later you will have to put your foot down. A few years ago, I was in the same position that you are now. Our group was mostly veterans (playing for 10 years or more) and we had a newbie as a late addition to the campaign. He was so disruptive that it started to ruin the game. Not just the inevitable rules questions; THAT we could've dealt with. No, his in-character bull$h!te drove me to distraction, and the rest of the group (even his friend that brought him into the game) to near-murderous rage. I finally had to throw him out. I felt bad, for a while, but everything smoothed out quickly, and we started enjoying ourselves soon after. I can only offer this advice: talk to your players. Tell them, in private but point-blank, that they are ruining your game, and ruining the fun for you and the other players. Ask them to be mindful of their actions and tell them that you'll have to take steps if they can't/won't cooperate. This will be very difficult, particularly if these individuals are your friends, but your game will be better off without them.
Dumb players... Check.
Two barbarians, supposedly raised in the wild. Daniel and Davy. As in, Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket.
Campaign before that: Animal companions: Balto the wolf, and a horse named Captain Nemo.
One sticks out at me from the past: An elven cleric that worshiped Thrym (I forgot the fact that only members of a racial deity's race could worship them; not that it mattered, since the campaign lasted only one session) that was VENERABLE, and used a greataxe, and didn't know a damned thing about being a cleric (as in, trying to cast while threatened without having the concentration skill). He kept climbing into the rafters at bars and jumping on people.
And the worst of all would take a long time to describe, but if you read the funny moments thread a few months back, you might remember this: "Pick me up and throw me."
Where: Gen Con
When: Several years ago
Game: MERP by ICE
Offensive Character Name: "Dildo Baggins"
Oath: "I swear it wasn't me." and/or "If you are still out there death isn't good enough for you."
Poster: G3
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How about a Dwarven bard name Elvis Ork-slayer? Does that suck or what? A friend of mine played him in a 2nd edition game that I ran around 12 years ago. He had side burns and my friend would always do his Elvis impersonation when he attacked. It got very old very quickly. I rejoiced when he ended up dying on the alter of Iuz!
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Superhero game, character with elemental based powers. The name: Elemento-P-O (sounds like the middle of the ABC song when you are a kid).
Of course, he hung around with the Flying Magnet and Guillotine.
Strom Thurmond is actually a pretty D&D sounding name. I guess it depends on whether or not it was a bard with a filabuster attack and three old-age penalties.
We were playing a Rifts campaign and one of the guys named his tatooed character Leonard Skinart.
Yep...
Oh, I almost forgot the drow named... Dar Kelf
Oh, and in another campaign (I was playing this one, not DMing like the others mentioned), the fighter bought an owl, had him awakened, and wanted to name him Mother Clucker. The DM ruled that the owl, being a sentient being now, would not tolerate such a name, so it became Schmidt.
As in, Schmidt Furniture. I've no idea if it's completely local or has franchises, but it uses an owl as its logo.
LOL at the bard named Strom.
This guys latest character is a 6' black guy named Jean Baptiste Emmanuel Tobias. :[
In a campaign a few years ago, we had a noob playing a ranger by the name of "The Mighty Pud"
As ever,
ACE
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Where: Gen Con
When: Several years ago
Game: MERP by ICE
Offensive Character Name: "Dildo Baggins"
Hey, there was a character by that name in a late night movie on Cinemax (Skinemax) once. If I remember correctly, the movie was "Lord of the G-String". And no, I am not lying (unfortunately).
Also, anyone who would willingly name their character Elfy McElfington should be sterilized so they cannot contribute to the gene pool. Did I say 'contribute'? I meant to say 'pollute'.
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How about a Dwarven bard name Elvis Ork-slayer? Does that suck or what? A friend of mine played him in a 2nd edition game that I ran around 12 years ago. He had side burns and my friend would always do his Elvis impersonation when he attacked. It got very old very quickly. I rejoiced when he ended up dying on the alter of Iuz!
I almost forgot! I GMed a Champions game with a character named the Blue Dart.
Hey, there was a character by that name in a late night movie on Cinemax (Skinemax) once. If I remember correctly, the movie was "Lord of the G-String". And no, I am not lying (unfortunately).Where: Gen Con
When: Several years ago
Game: MERP by ICE
Offensive Character Name: "Dildo Baggins"
And now I know why I don't spend $40 a month on extra channels.
Hey I saved $480 last year!
The Frugal Great Green God
Hey, there was a character by that name in a late night movie on Cinemax (Skinemax) once. If I remember correctly, the movie was "Lord of the G-String". And no, I am not lying (unfortunately).Offensive Character Name: "Dildo Baggins"
*groan* I've seen that. It's horrible.
I've got you one better, GGG. We had a party of three: 2 drow and a halfling (don't ask, it was a pickup game after a class was cancelled). The halfling was played by my brother (poor guy) and could /not/ make any of his rolls to save his life. The drow bard dubbed him Dildo Faggins, and to this day my brother has yet to play another halfling.
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Hey, there was a character by that name in a late night movie on Cinemax (Skinemax) once. If I remember correctly, the movie was "Lord of the G-String". And no, I am not lying (unfortunately).Offensive Character Name: "Dildo Baggins"
*groan* I've seen that. It's horrible.
Tell me about it. After just a few minutes I could feel my brain melting and leaking out of my ears. It was bad fantasy in more ways then one. There was another one with alot of the same people called Playmate of the Apes. Needless to say, things like that are the reason I got rid of the movie channels. Besides, with digital cable, I can order all kinds of movies anyway.
In my campaigns halfling society is heavily influnced by the Irish, "lot's of halfling O'Mallys and stuff."
A warsling sniper (prestige class that focuses on bouncing slingstones to hit multiple targets)
The name Rick O'Shay
Well, I´ve got a couple, too.
A good friend of mine plays one character named Häägen Dasz (you know the ice cream? he loves it...), and another one whose name is bavarian dialect for "where are we? there we are." it was in an arabic flavored campaign, and it sounds quite arabic at first: wosamma ibn dasamma. the ibn is arabic, of course, the rest bavarian...
My girlfried has a character named Yfoog - just read it backwards... She just couldn´t make up a name.
I cringed when I first heard these names, but I got over it...
Stefan
I had a gamer friend who loved to give me a hard time. One of the first games I DMed he wanted to name his character Lucas (my name) Sucks but I wouldn't let him. So he named his character something like Louixxxusssux; at that point I had too much of a headache to take up another half hour to tell him why he couldn't name his character that.
Thanks for this thread. My friends and I all got a good laugh out of "Elfy McElfington."
I had a Character with a Fisher for a familiar - The Fisher's name was of course King. Actually that character was sorta named after Starfire (of the Teen Titans) her full (alien) name sounded very elfin. So I butched it up a little and used it. I even stole the idea for the anglicized (commonized?) contraction on the name. Thus C'orin'stali became Cory to his non-elven friends.
But the worst name I had was Fernell Parcan. At the time there ws only one other peoson in the group who had done lighting for the theater, so he knew that both names are types of lights used on stage.
Director of Narrative
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Does anyone ever have players making up stupid crap like that?Well, there was Ivna Eydea ("I've no idea"); occasioned by a player who couldn't figure out what to call her character. That character lived for years.
I played with a guy who in a pinch named his character Noname'.
Most of the time in parties when someone chooses a dumb name they end up with an appropriate nickname.|
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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But the worst name I had was Fernell Parcan. At the time there ws only one other peoson in the group who had done lighting for the theater, so he knew that both names are types of lights used on stage.
That reminds of one DM who put us up against Mylar (sp?) Elves when he was tried to come up with a name on the fly. (The plastic used in balloons).
Ugghh... here they come.
Jax Daily, halflinf rogue
Nee'Chee, elven priest of dead god (Nietsche? get it?)
Finnegan, captain of the ship 'Wake' (yup, 'Finegan's Wake')
Ozweepay, dwarf (slipped right past me at the time as I hadn't seen the SNL skit with Nicolas Cage)
...Of course, some of these pale in comparison to some of my own attempts to come up with good, "well-thought-out" names. My last PC was a dwarven spellcaster named Yurian. According to the dwarven language write-up in Races of Stone, it meant 'strong in magic' or some-such, but of course 'Yurian' quickly became 'Urine,' which I ended up having to answer to as that's how the rest of the party referred to him.
Prior to that, I was playing an oriental-ish priest. Wanting to model him on Tibetan Bhuddist monks, I actually used what was a real, historically valid and proud name from the people I had taught in Nepal at one time - Sirham Rai. I was quite proud of this, until everyone at the table started referring to him as "Sir Ham-On-Rye."
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Director of Narrative
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Ugghh... here they come.
...Of course, some of these pale in comparison to some of my own attempts to come up with good, "well-thought-out" names. My last PC was a dwarven spellcaster named Yurian. According to the dwarven language write-up in Races of Stone, it meant 'strong in magic' or some-such, but of course 'Yurian' quickly became 'Urine,' which I ended up having to answer to as that's how the rest of the party referred to him.
Prior to that, I was playing an oriental-ish priest. Wanting to model him on Tibetan Bhuddist monks, I actually used what was a real, historically valid and proud name from the people I had taught in Nepal at one time - Sirham Rai. I was quite proud of this, until everyone at the table started referring to him as "Sir Ham-On-Rye."
There's a player in my games that constantly comes up with waht he thinks are great fantasy role-playing names, but once they get around a buncha dumb-a$& guys end up with silly rhyming puns. I constantly ask him if he sounds them out to himself before he writes them down.
Yeah you gotta say them out loud to yourself first. When I was in school me and another guy used to share DMing of a campaign, taking it in turns to take the party to different part of the world.
One week my friend had the party travel to the land of the mysterious weather-controlling Tahko people. He thought it sounded so cool in his head but man, was he red faced when he first said it out loud. It wasn't long till someone was asking the local Tahko chieftain if he had any guacamole.
I mentioned this before on an other thread a while ago;
Once, I created a 4th level fighter (a cavalier) called Sir Loin of Pond Da Rosa.
He died at the steak.
Ultradan
I ran a Top Secret/S.I. game in the early 90's. My friend Tina introduced her husband-to-be to me at the game and he rolled up a character named Joachim Pfeiffer and proceeded to gun down every single person he could put a bullet into, right out of the gate. The cops finally nailed him after he racked up a body count of about 14 NPC's...even the other PC's were hunting him.
Joachim Pfeiffer was the infamous SS commander who machinegunned 100 American POW's in the Battle of the Bulge. The player told me he was just trying to beat Pfeiffer's body count and he'd do better next time. I was going to keep him from rolling up another character, but the rest of the players had such a great time helping hunt down another PC that we did it again....however, then even HE tired of it and he rolled up a more serious character.
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I had a guy once play a character named Mesh Gilga. Must have taken him all day to come up with that one.
Also had someone insist on playing an Auramvorax named Dee O' Gee. (D-O-G)
Had a player named Todd play a character named Tod.
I did enjoy playing in a Heroes campaign where we were the Underground Pacific Superheroes. We flew around in a big brown van and sometimes delivered packages.
In my group, stupid names seem to be more of a DM problem than a player's. DMs loose notes, get asked the names of random NPCs, etc... When a DM can't come up with a name quick enough, the players lend a helping hand:
Steve, the prison guard.
Bob, a good-guy NPC draconic something-or-other.
Bob, Bobby and Bobbo, the three drow brothers.
Squee (that's right from M:tG), the captured party goblin pet.
You get the idea...
In my group, stupid names seem to be more of a DM problem than a player's. DMs loose notes, get asked the names of random NPCs, etc... When a DM can't come up with a name quick enough, the players lend a helping hand:
Same here.
ME: you burst into the tower and are confronted with a platoon of the foreign army that is occupying the city. The captian leading them raises his hand and 15 crossbows follow it to point at your group.
Sorcerer: I infiltrated this tower yesterday do I knoe anything about this captain? I want to ty and talk to him.
ME: Yes you spent the day being introduced to officers you know that his name is........*looking at my notes and seeing and NPC they killed before they new mis name ummm Morgan his name is morgan
Sorcerer: I Try to talk to Captian Morgan and ____________ and that was the end of the npcs dignity
I can sometimes avoid the stupid NPC name syndrome by using the following website Fantasy Name Generator
I usually print out several pages of random fantasy names ahead of time. Many of them are unusable or stupid themselves, but it helps.
Okay I just remembered this one in of of Saern's campaigns the ones that me and my friends did pick me up and throw me(which we never did because it was gonnna take to long for him to get out of his full plate) sexi golems rouge decided he was sneak along the side of the path in the brush which was gonna slow us down alot. So stephen decided he was going to borrow the wizards crossbow for a moment told the wizard it was so that he could shoot enemies before he got to them. then he loaded it and shot sexi in the butt with the crossbow. It was hilarious but uncalled for.
by the way Davy and Daniel were awsome names. lol
Well....Elfy McElfington has a new character, and elf named Zojak Quaguz.......
Anyone who has played Asheron's Call knows what that is. Flame bolt.
At least it's a little more....elfish?
worst character name I every used was in a semi non serious game back in college. I was playing a drunk dwarven fighter whose heraldic device was a green citrus fruit.
His name was Sir Gimlet of Lime.
I also have a tendency to come up with NPC names on the fly, when PC's ask for the innkeepers name or the, stableboys name, or the wenches name. Thinking very uncreatively, I came up with Robert DeNori one day.
These aren't as great as Elfy McElfington and Strom Thurmond, but my friends named their Age of Worms characters a bit strangely.
The ranger's name is "Slim", which isn't too terrible. Might be kind of strange after they hit 10th level or so and start to be well-known. The cleric of St. Cuthbert is known as Brother Shamas, like from the Big Lebowski. "A brother Shamas? Like an irish monk?" The gnome wizard's name is Moose. He's got a really terrible strength score, so the name works surprisingly well. Someone that used to play with us named a lot of his characters...Ratsmith. I have no clue to this day why. Strangely enough, this was the guy that found a wheelchair in real life and kept it in his dorm room to roll himself around in. Oh, college.
Not to be a killjoy or anything, but what's in a name?
Picking out a name for anyone can be actually really stressful. I'm sure those who have written any sort of fiction have felt a prickle of embarassment when some one questions a character name. ("Dan? Why Dan? Okay...")
When it comes to D&D, trying to pick a "cool" name is nigh impossible. Either it's too modern, too cliche, or already used... and just what is "cool" in relation to game of D&D? This creates a level of mental stress that no one needs for a game that's going to (hopefully) be fun.
If the silly name is symptomatic of silly play, I can see the problem. But for a one-off game I named a bard character Milo "Swingin'" Balzac... and had every intention of playing him as a character should the need arise. Of course it ended up being a hack and slash session, but hey...
Maybe silliness is part of the escapism these types of players are looking for? Maybe break things up with a game of StuperPowers, or transport them to a Monty Python-esque demi-plane and let their silliness shine.
Just ramblin'...
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Recently, some friends visited for the weekend. I decided it would be fun to run The Whispering Cairn, on the off-chance that we can play the whole thing through. Based on other people’s advice, I decided to let the players have six PCs in total. This is what we ended up with:
Half-elf ranger
Female elf fighter (eventually to become an arcane archer)
Human sorcerer
Duskling totemist with Int 6 (was originally going to be a dwarf fighter)
Halfling rogue
Human clericThe ranger was called “Agarorn”.
The fighter was called “Leggy Lass”
The sorcerer was called “Grand Alf”
The totemist was called “Dimli”
The rogue was called “Bodo Fraggins”
The cleric was called “Holly” (as in “holy”)Because they didn’t know what the campaign was going to be about, the players called the group “The Fellowship of the… Thing”.
When I saw the names, I thought that this was going to be a daft/goofy session. But despite the names they played the adventure seriously. They even let Filge live- and are willing to let him accompany them on the visit to the mines... (Evil grin.) Somehow, the halfling ended up with the magic short sword and the magic ring; I’m sure you can guess what they called the sword.
Thanks Erik for writing a great adventure- despite the occasional silliness of my friends, but you’re not responsible for that!
Can't, for the life of me, understand why your players picked names like that, ummm.. Eric the Cleric.
FH
I played a brother to another player's character in 2nd Ed in 1991; we randomly rolled our stats and they came out similar (good physical stats, good charisma, low INT and WIS).
Called ourselves Chip and Dale Larjloins.
Chip and Dale, not the chimpunks, but the dancers.
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Well...I started this post but I left out one of the worst names Id ever chosen.
Similar to the above, we were twin elves. Hack and Slash Bonesaw :[
That campaign lasted all of 3 hours.
A friend of mine said that one time they ended up playing all barbarians. One was named Thor, and then there was the every original Nanoc(Conan backwards).
As for coming up with names i would have to agree with a previous post, it is hard sometimes to come up with good names sometimes i just want to call my characters after furniture. or a random object in a room. The last character i played I liked but his name was kind of lame i thought. He was called Darion Mintrall, I thought he should belong in a Mentos commercial. But I digress. Sometimes they can work and sometimes they just don't try. But hey to each his own.
Later
A.
sometimes i just want to call my characters after furniture. or a random object in a room.
I have a player in my current game who has never played a Roleplaying game before and had a hard time coming up with a name for her half-elf rogue.
I and everyone else at the table offered many suggestions on good fantasy names, she eventually decided she liked something she saw written nearby on the table - and her half-elf was christened Loretadine. Last name - Tablets. She picked that up off of a pack of allergy pills.
Everyone gets a small kick out of it when NPCs call her "Miss Tablets".
One of the worst names in a campaign i was in was a Dragonlance, Tinker-Gnome:
Sonofab#*chIhitmythumbwiththehammeragainandbyallthatisgoodandholyitreallyre allyfreakinhurtssobadIthinkIbettergoseethepartyclerictogetitfixedbeforeitsw ellsupsobadthatwehavetogoallthewaydowntoicewallglacierjusttogetitbackdownto normalsize...
there was more, but I'm already tired of typing it!
Needless to say, we just called him Sonof.
Loratadine....that's not too bad.
I once ran a Traveler campaign where one of my players, an established long time role-player, couldn't think of a name for a SciFi character. He looked at his watch, looked at his beer and christened his character:
"Hamms Casio" --- which actually wasn't that bad of a name until the next player named his character "Bud Timex"
I really liked my halfling sorcerer, Tiny Tim. The DM didn't, though. He was dead within three hours.