I suddenly had the urge to create a Minotaur Rogue (Spy) and spring him on my characters as an ally.
"Wellington...Beef Wellington"
Anybody else out there do this (of course you do)? What's the best(worst) punny name you've sprung on your players/GM?
The human rogue/duelist sailor in our current game named Captain Morgan. Like personal name Captain, family name Morgan.
For superhero characters, I probably have dozens of them. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Jaggedy Ann, Electric Bill and Little Bow Peep.
One of my players rolled up a sorcerer named "Elfton Jann". My friend wanted to join in with "Elrond Hubbard" for his elf ranger but I begged him not to. Once he got sick of Elfton, he switched to a halfling alchemist named "Furnish Dav"... after Elton John's partner.
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I really loathe punny names and generally won't allow players to use them (they can really destroy the game for me), but I had a player who slipped a good one by me.
He was playing an Aventi (aquatic human) Cleric who worshiped the primal force of the elemental plane of water. His name was Seamar. I thought that it sounded cool (still do, in fact). We were several sessions in before the player explained to me that "Mar" is Spanish for "Sea." So his name was "Sea Sea."
I accidentally name a character Morphail, not realizing the the phonetics until the end of a 2 year campaign. That character lived up to his name and succeeded at nothing he ever set out to do.
One of my players has Patterson, a blind oracle, named after the last govener of new york (who was partially blind). They have also named their adventuring group Club Mydia, much to my displeasure.
I have seen so many others, they just aren't coming to mind right now.
Oh, and who can forget Melf: Male Elf.
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I used to do this a fair amount, mostly in the old AD&D "Gold Box" computer games. I can only remember a couple of them off hand, though:
A Dwarf Fighter/Thief named Flint Anstiel.
Playing with the Forgotten Realms convention of priests often using "of [Deity]", I once had a Cleric of Tyr named Musk - Musk o' Tyr
Edit: Oh, and then there was my scantily-clad Barbarian in Neverwinter Nights: Buck Naechidh
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Somewhere over in the Rules Questions section, there's a thread investigating, in great detail, the ins and outs of the rules for donning armor - normally or hastily, with or without help, etc. Somewhere in that thread, an astute contributor (whose name I can't recall) observed the following:
"The important thing to remember here is that 'Don Hastily' makes an awesome character name."
I will forever remember that as the first comment I read on these boards that made me need to stifle my laughter to avoid causing a stir at work. :D
I once ran a Cleric with the express purpose of getting him to 6th level, then stopping his advancement in that class. Just so I could get the title "Canon."
Because his name was Faddir.
Yes. I wanted to play Canon Faddir.
You called?
Yes, dearie, I believe he did.
Uh-hunh
I've had more than a few inflicted upon me during my career as GM.
Sir Vivor
Sir Prise
Jenn Erick
Wuming-Shi ("No-Name-Person")
Annan Amos
I had a player with not so much a punny name, but if translated/spelled out (one of the words was an acronym), it would turn into something I couldn't repeat on these boards, as it breaks the vulgarity rule.
Yeah, he wanted it, so I let him. And, he survived the whole game.
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Frank Abrams Sherman, Sword/Board Fighter -> Stalwart Defender.
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My favorite character I've played to date is a gentleman by the name of Professor Hollow Graves Esq. A necromancer, teacher and freelance adventurer. He started a business to retrieve dead adventurers from dungeons and have them march back to the nearest temple for resurrection.
I'm currently playing a summoner in Legacy of Fire by the name of Ash Q'Asheem (Ash Katchem) and his eidolon is a fiery djinn by the name of Sharumander (Sharuman + Charmander).
I love punny names, especially when they are subtle enough to actually sound classy and fit in the milieu. It's just a game after all, not the next great fantasy novel.
As a GM I never liked punny player names (my BBEG's sidekicks tend to have them though). I was ok with Figaro the bard running away from his bride and in-laws. But when one of my players came with a character called "Noodle Soup", it went like like this:
GM: and the name is... huh? are you serious?
Player: yep, his name is Noodle Soup, or Noodles among friends.
GM: i dont think so! In fact, I think _this_ [writes down a long, boring fantasy name on the sheet] is the name your dear old parents gave you.
Player: no way, I hate that name, that's just not me!
GM: indeed, and that's why you insists on everyone calling you by your stupid nickname 'Noodles' instead.
Player: stupid parents, I hate them, no suprise I ran away to join the mercenary company. As if anyone says it's a stupid name, i'll punch them in the nose.
In the end, the silly name ended up with great roleplaying (noticed the change from 'him' to 'me'?). All the puns (strong as noodles, etc, etc) were in character, and villains were horribly punished for ridiculling his name. Finally, I had a new plot hook - a message adressed to his real name ("uh-oh, i'm in trouble now").
[/end oldtimer rambling]
Eric the Cleric
Sir Duction of the Innocent
Sir Loin of Steak
Names of electical goods companies for wizards eg Amstrad, Toshiba, Electrolux, Zanussi, etc
Bards named after obscure musicians; Moondog, Baron Brock of the good ship Hawkwind, Robyn Hitchcock, Grasshopper, Papa Nes
I just started a DMing a group of new players and after filling in all the stats, spells, skills and feats the bit of the character sheet they found the hardest to fill in was Name :-. I guess once that bit is done it labels and fixes the personality of the Character so they ended up putting more thought into that bit than any other.
oh yeah, I forgot Eldritch Cleaver.
The closest I got with puns with my paladin character was his last name: Lawson.
However, I chose his first and middle names so that his initials were PAL. =)
My favorite set of punny NPC dwarf names I've cooked up are...
The first time we bumped into an elf NPC shopkeeper or something, one of us asked him his name during the course of the conversation.
Our DM hesitated for a moment, then declared the elf was named "Gelfex".
Our immediate response was if the next half orc we met would be named "Ghalforcex" - pronounced "Gah-half-orc-ex".
The same DM, in a previous game in which he was one of the players, acquired a horse which he wanted to name in the style of Shadowfax. So he asked the group to blurt out two words. He got "Lamp" and "Game".
So we told him it could still work, he'd just have to play with the order and pronounciation. Lo, "Gamelamp" pronounced "gahm-ah-lahmp" was born. Every steed he's had since has been named the same thing.
I had a character in the Rifts setting that was name Hilton Folgers since his patents met at a legendary rest area with a refreshing beverage...
In Paranoia I had a character named Phyx-R-Upp.
I haven't made any phunny names for Pathfinder yet.
A friend of mine had a Warforged Artificer who owned a magic item shop named Shiny Silverman, as in "a shiny, silver man".
Years ago I played in a game store pick up game where the DM had us go hunting and evil minotaur bard name Pat Minotuar. When we got there to face him he challenged us to "hit him with our best shot." We hired two NPC archers to come and support the party in our attack. He started calling them Bill and Ted the Most Excellent Archers. On the way we had to forge a river on horse back. We were required to make three ride checks to get across with out getting unhorsed by the rough water. I had a hot night on the dice rolling two 20's and an 18 on those checks, while everyone else failed at least one of them. We dubbed the horse Aqualung. It was fun for a one shot.
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The German Roleplaying Game DSA has, unfortunatly a legion of punny character names in its World Aventurien. Some couldn't be understood in any other language then German, but some lowlights are:
The famous Relox Clock
Phileason Fogwulf, a world famous explorer travelling to faraway places for a bet
Omer Shadiff, an aging actor
Errik Dannike a paramythologist
G'dzill, the monster of Loch Harodrôl
Ferrarra, a family of famous wagon builders
The Demon Quitslinga (Quisling was the name of the leader of the norwegian fascist party during ww2)
Seemond & Karfunkel, famous bards
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Briefly toyed with the idea of having a monkey familiar with anger management issues, named Furious George. Thankfully decided against it...
I had a player's wife who wanted to join us and for the name of one of her first characters picked Starburst D' Fruitwist. But she turned out to be an awesome roleplayer, who really got into the game and took it seriously. I just took it as part of her quirky sense of humor.
I played a Barbarian/Fighter/Druid for a short while... Called him Dredd McBane, though sadly the campaign, Eberron I think it was, didn't last long due to DM-batteries going flat...
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I just thought of another one. I played in a superhero game (I forget the system) that was supposed to be silly, kind of like The Tick. We had fun character names. Mine was a cow that could stand on her hind legs, let out sonic moos and shoot napalm from her utters. Her name was Utter Chaos.
Ba'az Astor - Dragonborn paladin
Huge Badaxe - Orc barbarian
Fleetfoot Feathershaft - Elf ranger
Dono Farigo - Imperial scout (Travler)
Vim Fuego - Fire adept (Shadowrun)
LeChon de la Sangre - Clan Toreador (VtM)
Yellowleg Two-Fathers - Native guide (Boot Hill)
And probably a dozen or more I have forgotten.
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In TMNT, I had a 350lb. sumo mouse named Squeakyaki.
Vim Fuego! He's my favourite guitar player evah!
I had a second edition D&D character who was a half-ogre named Big Og. Someone convinced him to put his initials on the front of his shield...B.O.
Generally my players forget names, so in a zombie apocalypse game i called a military man - Major Peace
I played in a 3.5 game as a ranger with a wolf pack mentality. I struggled with the name and everyone was making me hurry. I latched on to the wolf aspect and the first name that came to my mind: Nicholas Wolfwood.
His wolf companion: Millie.
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I once met a gnome named Deplume.
Pally Dan the Paladin
I saw a warforged once "Steely Dan"; the player's name? Dan.