Fergus mac Róich had the sword Caladbolg, St. George had the spear Ascalon and Thor has the hammer Mjolnir. Naming weapon is an ancient and widespread tradition. I've been coaxed into playing a martial character (level 10 cavalier, constable archetype)and for what is probably the fist time have to serious consideration to weapons and armour. Since weapons and armour would take up a considerable portion of my character's wealth I though it could be interesting to come up with a name and a little history for the items. I'm even considering using stories associated with each item to guide and develop my character's backstory; he's a level 10 so I feel he deserves a more substantial backstory than what a might give to a low level character but presenting it as a single unbroken narrative could be a little tiring.
Do any other players or GMs like to name items? or do people consider a character's items too transitory to bother?
Yes I like the idea. Especially IF the weapon is magic and unique, or at least has some special properties beyond "+3 longsword"
It's a nice idea but often not practical. I may b~*#*#!~ something off the top of my head, but it's not something I write up for every weapon that crosses a character sheet of mine.
Not while planning the classes and feats, but I do have some characters that it would make sense to name their weapons. I have a prince, a princess, a high priest, and a swordsmith. Naming their main weapons could be something I can see them doing. Though not their backup weapons.
Depends on the character. I have a spirit oriented character who believes that items develop spirits, and gives them names based on events in their histories. I have characters who would laugh at her for this.
I believe all items require names only after being involved in a great amount of events. To give historical significance to these items, to be later displayed on a mantle above my fireplace.
I usually end up naming weapons and such. It just makes it more interesting, I can roleplay with it more, and it feels more personal.
"I brandish the Flame of the North, and shout to the orcs to run or face death this day!!" Is more fun to me than stating 'I ready my+2 flaming longsword to attack the first orc that comes in range.'
Most names are pretty simple too. Wayfinder battle-axe was the name of the weapon our dwarf would hurl, discus style, to decide which door we would pick.:)
I only name things that have int scores. As a result my weapons and armor do get names if I craft them into intelligent items. However, even then it's rare for it to come up in game since no one else cares that my cleric's armor has a name much less what it is.
Do any other players or GMs like to name items? or do people consider a character's items too transitory to bother?
As a GM, only if the character is wacky or the weapon is significant for historical or character reasons. Every intelligent weapon would be named and I would have some idea of who made it, just because those items are extremely rare.
As a player, only one of my PFS characters has named their weapons and they only named the guns. I was happy to have done it though since something weird happened to one of the guns.
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Gyre, as a Cleric of Cayden Cailean, uses a rapier. At various times in PFS modules he has flourished his 'jewel hilted rapier'. When other players at the table would ask what chronicle sheet that rapier came from I would give them a funny look, and tell them that when I spent 20 gp for the rapier, I dropped another 200 gp to put some small jewels in the hilt. The reaction to this was split; some people thought it was crazy for a second level character to spend 200 gold that frivolously and others were 'why didn't I think of that!?'.
As he has leveled, Gyre has taken to stabbing divers humanoids and asking "was that your kidney? 'cause that's where the kidney is in a human." The second stab is usually "say, if that was your kidney, then this is probably your spleen, right?"
Gyre has named his rapier Scapel, and has had that spelled out in Celestial along the length of the blade.
TL;DR - I name a weapon via roleplaying.
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There's a website that I use to name characters with its random generator. It has a section for weapons, divided by weapon types. Here are some of the names it produced for swords:
Stormfury Doomblade; Thunderfury Deflector; Godslayer, Voice of the Cataclysm; Bloodquench, Token of the Wretched; Godslayer, Soul of Infinite Trials; Soul-Forged Silver Sabre; Bloodsurge Carver; and Lightbringer, Skewer of the Light.
I'm the GM...always. So I don't get cool weapons to wield against my foes. So I name things the players might find in a loot heap. A few I've used are Silver Bride, Dreadsinger, Rib Splitter, Sinbreaker, and Tormentor.
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Occasionally; I typically reserve it for weapons with long names (such as a +2 Flaming Keen Longsword, for instance) or long-term weapons belonging to characters sentimental enough to name things.
And while this isn't my character, in one of the games I'm in my group's samurai named his first sword after his character's daughter and his second one after his character's deceased wife, and I think that was sweet.
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My weapons need to earn their names. My summoned minions all get names of course, but my equipment needs to earn names through deeds.
Like this one time, a player tossed a handaxe as their only option against a high level succubus caster. They were expected to lose, when out of nowhere this thing crit, and after a roll on the injury table, it completely disabled the enemy's arm. That axe became Trueflight, the Demonsbane.
Deeds.
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Yes!
My warpriest had 3 main weapons:
- Cuddles (+1 evil outsider-bane cold iron longsword)
- Kisses (+1 evil outsider-bane silver longsword)
- Kindness (+1 undead-bane silver longsword)
it was fun to kill vampires with kindness, slay demons with cuddles, and obliberate devils with kisses.
Where all other heros use epic names (not judging), I prefer silly names to mentally mess with my enemies. When we were facing a horde of demons, I pointed my sword at them and said "death by cuddles". They laughed, we laughed, the sword cut trough them like a warm knife in butter, the stopped laughing, we continued laughing....good times :')
Has anyone ever named items that were not weapons?
My first instinct is that it would seem weird, which in itself is sort of interesting. You do sometimes see names for objects, but they're often in the definite form (The Worldstone, The One Ring, The Dark Crystal, The Infinity Gauntlet) and often attributed to or referencing something else instead of having their own identity (The Tools of Kagrenac, Azura's Star, a Circlet of Netheril).
Has anyone ever named items that were not weapons?
I had a clockwork spider on a character (the magic item that's essentially animated thieves tools) and named them Rovatool. Though it was an item that looked like a creature (and was basically a construct( so not sure it counts. I also named a Goblin Skull Bomb "Greg". Again though, living thing-like.
Non-weapons are a lot harder to name in non-silly ways. Unless they're capable of doing great things.
Intelligent items always get names.
Occasionally I'll give a name to a non-sentient weapon or other item, if it's significant enough to the story, or if it fits the character to do so. For example, my Silver Crusade stonelord paladin recently upgraded his +1 dwarven waraxe to evil outsider bane, and he/I felt that it deserved a name at that point. So I looked up an old Dragon Magazine article on Old Dwarvish, and devised the name "Zakrukrul, The Axe My Foes Fear."
(I've also played Earthdawn, where all magic items with any real power have Names. In that system, Names work much like true names, and have real magical power. Some items get spontaneously Named because they played a key role in some hero's legendary deed, so the Name relates directly to that hero or deed. We once had a mundane eating utensil become the magical Windling Battle Fork after an obscenely high exploding damage dice result nearly killed some poor ork outright in one shot.)
my dwarf ranger Eisenarn swiftfoot wields the sword Glory of the Whitelocks, after the clan of the original owner, he obtained it after looting the clan's tombs, and (collectively) defeating the undead into which the Whitelocks had been turned.
then again, as a person, I'm currently typing this post on Suzan Mk V and behind me is the harp I call My Lady... whoever knows the reference to that one gets my respect free of charge.