Character / Screen names and stories.

[Sysryke]

Hi folks. Don't want to violate any thread/forum rules, nor encourage imprudent internet oversharing. If I'm doing either of those, please feel free to smack my cyber-hand and call me a bad monkey.

With that out of the way, we're all gamers here. I'm curious about people's screen names. I assume that at least some of them are characters people have played, concepts they enjoy, and or references to some other beloved bit of nerd-dom. So, in that vein, if you care to share:

1. Where does your screen name come from?
2. If it is a character, have you ever played the character in any games (single, multiple, different systems)?
3. If it's something else, what?
4. (Only if it's not against the rules) Country of origin (just country), to help give a SMIDGE of cultural context to any ideas or references.

[Dox of the ParaDox twins]

My screen name is an NPC from a one shot a ran years ago. He's part of a set of twins loosely based off of a yugioh character. Para and Dox are twins that have control over space and time respectively. They went on to become recurring NPCs in most of my campaigns (when they get to the point that they take off anyway. Most of my campaigns flounder) I'm American. From TN

[Sysryke]

SYSRYKE (size-rick)

This is a character that I came up with back in junior high. I was on a real kick for mixing and matching traditional tropes of fantasy races with aspects "against type". The original version was a wood-elf prince. I had kind of a druidy-barbarian idea of him, but this was before I'd even really considered classes. The big thing was that I wanted him to be a classically STR character who wields a giant hammer, even though he's an elf (for contrast I had a dwarf conceptualized to speed and swords). Aside from that, he is/was thematically linked to the element of earth. Respect and awe for the "nature" aspect, but with a skill/magic focus to earth as rocks/ground/crystals. Also, tigers, but that's a different tangent. His starting call to adventure dealt with the sacred trees of his peoples' holy grove. They had stopped singing, and he'd need to find out why.

Never got to play that original concept, but have tried several inspired permutations over the years. Sometimes an elf, sometimes not. Always seems that any campaign I try him with derails after a few sessions, or someone else is playing the "big strong guy", so I keep him on the bench. I've done a few short lived druids, and an enjoyable 4e Warden. The closest shortly played build that had potential, was a WereTiger from the WhiteWolf game systems.

I still hope to make this character and play him someday. Build advice welcome, but maybe do direct messages and/or a new thread. I don't wish to derail from other peoples' characters and stories.

I'm from the U.S.A. for reference.

Looking forward to other folks' stories.

[Neriathale]

OK, I'll bite.

Neriathale, is my original Golaron character, an elven bard I played through Rise of the Runelords (under 3.5 rules). the other two party members were a barbarian and a druid (abusing the shapeshifting rules to high heaven), so she was the 'sensible' one in th party, following the clues, worrying about the plot and becoming a world expert on ancient Thassilon.

We made it through the AP with the same three characters, start to end, so at the time she was the highest level D&D-esque character I'd ever played.

Not particularly relevant to the character name, but I'm from the UK.

[VoodistMonk]

Let me tell you a story back from the days of 2001...

HALO came out, right? So that was THE thing. Back before the industry got greedy and eliminated split-screen play as a viable option... you could hook up 4 controllers to an Xbox, and LAN link as many Xboxs that you could find. So we were all racing to create profiles at my friend's house...

All the good names, like Butt-Sects, were taken... so a monk of the voodoo was born as a play off of Buddhist Monks. Nothing more than that, really... just whatever I thought was silly and fun when I was ~16yo.

Have yet to put the name into concept or theory for a PF1 character (Witch/Monk???)... but I probably should.

From the US. For what that matters.

[Sysryke]

Ha! Thanks to all who've answered so far. Loving this.

VMonk, I remember those days. Only kind of high school party I ever went to. I completely sucked at the game, so I mostly watched or busted out an old Dragon Warrior 3 on Nintendo. But, the screen name/player "YOURMOM" always generated much juvenile giggling.

[Name Violation]

Another site didn't like my name, so the moderators changed it to Name_Violation. I liked the sound of it, and it doesn't get banned unlike some of my previous choices

[Sysryke]

I love the tongue-in-cheek of that, but now I'm dying to know the banned name.

[Scott Wilhelm]

My name is Scott Wilhelm. Hello everybody.

I have named characters for many reasons. My character names have been inspired by former students, song lyrics, porn stars, and war heroes, to name a few. I have a character that was sort of inspired by my sister and also an Asian social problem.

[LightSide]

My screen name is a reference to the Light side of the Force in Star Wars. It’s also meant to convey a positive vibe and be a guide to me when I post anything in these forums. I chose the icon because it resembles a Jedi holocron.

I’m from the USA.

[HighLordNiteshade]

Sysryke wrote:

1. Where does your screen name come from?
2. If it is a character, have you ever played the character in any games (single, multiple, different systems)?
3. If it's something else, what?
4. (Only if it's not against the rules) Country of origin (just country), to help give a SMIDGE of cultural context to any ideas or references.

1. I saw "Niteshade" somewhere back in ~1991 when I was creating a Good Necromancer under 2e in Forgotten Realms and thought it would make a cool character name. I have no idea where I stole the name from...that was a really long time ago.

2. I played Niteshade in 2e, and he returned to adventuring in someone else's hands in 3.0, when I DMd the Bloodstone Lands series of modules. As a result of those adventures, he became the Chief Counsel to the player character who became King of the Bloodstone Lands (hence "High Lord"). He is still in that role in my home-brew version of Forgotten Realms (which is now played under Pathfinder 1.0 rules) and occasionally puts in an appearance as a plot point. But he is retired from adventuring.

3. N/A

4. USA

[Sysryke]

Bump. Sorry, couldn't resist. Loving the input, and I'm insatiably curious . . . . . . (Does anyone else smell dead cat?)

[Name Violation]

Sysryke wrote:

Bump. Sorry, couldn't resist. Loving the input, and I'm insatiably curious . . . . . . (Does anyone else smell dead cat?)

I you really want to know, send me a PM

[PCScipio]

PCScipio is short for Publius Cornelius Scipio, also known as Scipio Africanus, the Roman general who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC.

[Sysryke]

Bump. Thanks to last round of respondents. I'm just too curious. Want to get to know more members of our community a little bit more.

[MrCharisma]

I dunno how I missed this thread.

Mine was a character name for the 2d, chibi-style, MMO-RPG, MapleStory. All usernames had to be less than 14 characters (or something) and had to be unique, so I went through a lot of others (ZoeyTheCamel, LittIefinger and MrCharisma were the ones I played the most).

I liked it so much it stuck as a screen-name for most things online, but I haven't actually played a character with that name since the original since it doesn't really sound like a person's name. When I joined the Paizo forums it seemed appropriate since Paladins have been my favourite class since forever (now possibly 2nd favourite after Occultists).

I'm Australian, but it's not remotely relevant to my username.

[Ghostwheel]

Ghostwheel is the name of a character (sort of...) from Roger Zelazny's second set of Amber novels. It's one of my go-to screen names, and has been for years.
I am from Maryland, USA.

[Sysryke]

Nearly a year later, but I have to bump this one. Check the OP, then tell us about yourself

[Algarik]

My online name manage to have even less of an interesting story than my real life name. ''Algarik'' is just something i though sounded fantasy enough and used as a summoner name for league of legends. It's now been my defacto online moniker.

I could have used my real name, Joric, which sounds fantasy as well, but i don't know, it felt weird so i didn't.

I'm from Quebec, Canada. Although but both names have nothing to do with our general naming conventions.

[Mudfoot]

Mudfoot is a character from David Brin's Uplift Saga (highly recommended, though book 1 takes a while to get going) which I was reading years ago when I needed a user name for the SFB forum.

Hampshire, UK.

[*Thelith]

Character on a MuD, circa 90's: Lith, based on the suffix for stone.

WoW came out and Lith was already taken, even in Beta.

The Lith (thelith) was born.

Not sure how the * happened?

USA! USA! USA!

[Sysryke]

Yay! Thanks for sharing all.

[Scavion]

It was the name of my brother's Infiltrator in Dark Ages of Camelot. His account became mine and I kept the name forever. Later it was the name I used for a 4e Dragonborn Paladin that I played and even later a 5e Dragonborn Paladin that became the spiritual successor. I think my first paladin on WoW and Everquest have the same name too.

I think it sounds Dragony. The character itself is Scavion Brasstail whose dull scales are of no particular color except his tail. He'd be from the lowest caste of commonfolk of the Dragonborn since his draconic heritage isn't prominent, but his blessing from the Platinum Dragon makes him a folk hero amongst them.

USA, but I've moved a lot over the states when I was young.

[Sysryke]

Scavion wrote:

It was the name of my brother's Infiltrator in Dark Ages of Camelot. His account became mine and I kept the name forever. Later it was the name I used for a 4e Dragonborn Paladin that I played and even later a 5e Dragonborn Paladin that became the spiritual successor. I think my first paladin on WoW and Everquest have the same name too.

I think it sounds Dragony. The character itself is Scavion Brasstail whose dull scales are of no particular color except his tail. He'd be from the lowest caste of commonfolk of the Dragonborn since his draconic heritage isn't prominent, but his blessing from the Platinum Dragon makes him a folk hero amongst them.

USA, but I've moved a lot over the states when I was young.

I can hear the dragony bit now, but because of your avatar, I've always associated your name with goblins. In thought of skittering, scathing, or scabies. Funny how our minds take different paths.

[Scavion]

Pathfinder's Goblins are cool so I use a Goblin profile image. I had a different one a long long time ago.

[Andostre]

I used to play World of Warcraft, and... I don't want to say that I got my wife (girlfriend at the time) into it, but when she would be sitting there trying to work or whatever, she would end up just watching me run around and clicking little icons on the screen, and so that inevitably led to her playing herself. Of course, we ended up making characters to play and level with together, and that's where "Andostre" came from. I sat down and created a Human Priest for WoW, and clicked the button that would randomize the name. However, these were all just pre-generated names that pulled from a database, and they had all been used by this point in the game's history. So, I stopped on the name "Andros" or something similar, changed it around a bit and stuck with "Andostre." That character ended up becoming my main character that everyone called me by (that or "Ando"), and so I started using it whenever I had to come up with a username for any geek-related account.

It's actually pretty cool to have a unique* name used long-term. I can google the word and relive nearly 15 years of internet geekery. I have a DeviantArt account that I have no recollection of ever creating. I often forget about my time on the CivFanatics forums. A few other games and forums as well. All of my comments on the WoW Insider blog are only captured on spamware sites that mirror the old articles, however.

* (It's apparently only most unique, because there's a character on the Final Fantasy MMO that uses the name, apparently. My lawyers will be in touch.)

[DungeonmasterCal]

My handle is very simple; it's who I am and what I do!

I also think it's cool that this thread started on my birthday last year. That has nothing to do with your topic but I rarely manage to stay on topic for anything...LOL

[Oli Ironbar]

My college friend said, ‘Hey, do you want to play DnD?’ I said ‘Yep!’ And rolled up a bard who looked suspiciously like Vin Diesel and had a horribly voice acted Norwegian accent, so that when I introduced him as Oli Ironbear, what everyone heard was Ironbar.

[Sysryke]

HA! I love bad accents. Led to one of my most memorable characters years ago.

Thanks to all who have shared this time around. Looking forward to more.

[Sir Belmont the Valiant]

Sir Belmont the Valiant is taken from a character I played, a Paladin of Iomedea.

Let me quote my earlier comment in the 'does any character have a happy background' thread: "Iomedae called me when I was very young; I don't remember a time that I didn't want to go out into the World and Smite Evil. My noble family accepted and supported me in this.

I joined the Pathfinder Society rather than wander Golarion randomly... Ha ha! my Venture Captains provide plenty of random travel. As I seem to be hunting monsters and Smiting Evil just about everywhere they send me, this arrangement is working out splendidly. I have organized support and comrades-in-arms all over the place. I am living the Dream!

Oh, and I am from the USA.

[Lathiira]

Let's see....

Somewhere, way back in 2E Forgotten Realms, I wanted a character that was a chronicler of history. I wasn't too fond of old Elminster. So who makes a good chronicler? A bard. Who lives long enough to be a good chronicler? An elf. I'd read some Arcane Age stuff, had stuff going back to the Gray Box. Came up with the name on the fly. Figured out how to make Lathiira live long enough to see the things I wanted her to see.

"Yes. I was there for the Weeping War. If the Godswar was a crisis, the Weeping War was a tragedy."

Got to play her once or twice as an NPC that gave the PCs information. But didn't get to really play her till Pathfinder 1E for a PbP. When that fell apart, I went another route and now write stories of her.

Country of origin: USA.

[Albatoonoe]

Back in the mid 2000's, I had entered into the game RuneScape, which I'm sure many are familiar. Trying to find a username became rather annoying, though, as I wanted to avoid numbers. I have a strong contrarian impulse.

So, I began make up words. Stuff still pronounceable, but wholly invented. This is the name I landed on and have been using ever since.

[Ian G]

Sysryke wrote:

Hi folks. Don't want to violate any thread/forum rules, nor encourage imprudent internet oversharing. If I'm doing either of those, please feel free to smack my cyber-hand and call me a bad monkey.

With that out of the way, we're all gamers here. I'm curious about people's screen names. I assume that at least some of them are characters people have played, concepts they enjoy, and or references to some other beloved bit of nerd-dom. So, in that vein, if you care to share:

1. Where does your screen name come from?
2. If it is a character, have you ever played the character in any games (single, multiple, different systems)?
3. If it's something else, what?
4. (Only if it's not against the rules) Country of origin (just country), to help give a SMIDGE of cultural context to any ideas or references.

My screen name is my name. I was lazy.

My favorite character is my current character, an elf witch who...well, I'll just copy her backstory.

Quote:

Young elves often go through a century of so of wanderlust. But when her wealthy family needed her presence, Erethamalisalatir ver-Kholindaris in’Shallashtalamon set her desire to travel the world aside and instead did her duty by taking over the family legislative council seat and managing house affairs.

Six centuries, two husbands, a wife, several torrid affairs, four fairly legitimate children, thirteen grandchildren, forty-two great-grandchildren (plus the half-human bastard nobody knew about thanks to a disreputable grandson), and a first great-great-grandchild later, the now-elderly woman decided to finally take some time for herself. Her family was horrified; a Grand Lady should be quietly respected in a reserved sort of way by the rest of the family and the elven elite, not galivanting all around the world like a mere ambassador!

The Grand Lady, sick and tired of being told what was and wasn’t proper, decided ‘f~&~ ‘em all’. Exasperated with the bullshit of her family and hoity-toity elven society, Erethamalisalatir grabbed her favorite pet cat, Pipsqueak (a gift from one of her great-grandchildren), and left in the middle of the night, when her family thought she was asleep.

Reinventing herself as “Granny Elfwin”, a kindly if crotchety old witch who provides healing services and tonics on the cheap to a little village in rural Oriflamme (fantasy France), the elf-lady who once resided in a gilded tree-palace and was seen to by armies of hundreds of servants now enjoys the quiet mundanities of a bucolic country town. However, town life gets boring after a while, too, and Granny has decided to take a trip to a big Human city to pick up some supplies and see the best sights of the younger races’ lands…

She has since met her half-human great-granddaughter, who's a badass pirate, navally bombed a pirate fleet with alchemist's fire and levitation plus angular momentum from being flung off of her great-granddaughter's ship, gotten Miss Pipsqueak a lot of salmon (only the best for Miss Pipsqueak!), and bad-mouthed herself to a bunch of elves who were sent to retrieve the Grand Lady and don't suspect the crotchety old witch in dirty brown clothes of being the revered posh noble Erethamalisalatir ver-Kholindaris in'Shallashtalamon, who Granny falsely complains is a disreputable criminal and has no respect for the elderly.

(the party wizard is hilariously off-base and thinks Granny is a scammer ever since she played up her Grand Lady-ness to humiliate and viciously insult the parentage, hospitality, species, appearance, manners, and fashion sense of a noble who was particularly cruel to the local poor)

["Auntie" Baltwin]

Most of the time on the boards I post as one of my PFS PCs - so the Screen Name is one of my PCs names. The problem with that is that I have ... so many PCs. more than 60? each has their own name and personality, each with different stories, often a story related to their name.

(Deciding who to post this as... I know, a name most PFS players should recognize!)

I know I've moved on - after those meddling kid...errr... pathfinders came by "investigating my "home", and I found out how much they got PAID to do it, I joined up.

Best thing I've done sense taking in orphans, and a lot less work I tell you!

[Friendly "Fire"]

Hi! (in a "chipper" voice)
I'm Friendly - My friends call me "Fire", Friendly Fire.

I'm an alchemist, and one of a group of all Alchemists that adventure together - (two friends and I have run a team of 3 Alchemists each a different element race (Ifrit, Oread, Sylph) you could say we are "Earth, Wind and Fire"...)

Our Tank is Earth (Beastmorph w/Feral Mutigen, and boosted strength)
Our "Rogue" & "Healing skills" is Wind (Crypt Breaker/Chirurgeon alchemist)
and I'm the Face (Grenadier alchemist, with lots of social skills)

And my name is Friendly - because I AM!