House Rules.

Lately, there've been a couple occasions of DM's enforcing rules on me that I've never heard of. Having played on EFU since nearly the beginning, and having read the forums everyday since that time, I think I speak for everyone when I say that it would really be helpful if anything that could conceivably be enforced as a "rule" could be posted in a single location that can be easily referenced. This includes but is not limited to:

You can / cant name your character ... You can / cant save skill pts when making characters ... etc

Also, I know that you guys are loathe to post exploits for which you have no scripted solution, but if they are posted and you catch people doing them, cant you just ban them? I'd much rather know in advance that something was clearly a no-no, so I can remove the temptation from myself of performing said action.

On the topic of Character Names.

I was recently stung on this topic. I was told that my choice of names for a particular character was "silly" and that characters with similar names had in the past, been refused by the DM's. This, despite the fact that I had taken the two names in question off of a baby names webpage, and could find no less then 15 personal blogs of real people with either the first, the last, or a combination of both names.

At the basis of this is subjectivity. The name I'd chosen was "Serafeim". A greek name meaning "Fiery One". Is it phonetically similar to "Seraphim"? Sure. Is it a root of the word? Possibly. Should that matter? I dont think so. EFU has been host to at least one character named "Angel" that I can think of. Were they asked to remake?

I can understand enforcing rules to prevent names in leetspeak. I can understand rules to prevent names that are pure ripoffs of literary characters. But once we start enforcing rules to prevent names that sound like real words, or names of things, where does the line get drawn? If I choose to play a character named Adam, will I be refused because it is the name of the biblical first man?

In any case, if this sort of thing is going to be enforced, I would appreciate some guidelines on what is / is not acceptible. For example:

All Lower Case - "joseph brown' Epithets - "Joseph 'Angel of Ilmater' Brown" Titles - "Angel Joseph Brown" Meanings in other languages - "Angeni" (Native American for Angel)

Lets remember that the Forgotten Realms is home to a host of names ripped off from other sources. Tyr, Artemis, Sylvanus, Oghma. For the sake of cutting short a long-winded post, I will stop at 4 examples, but trust me when I say there are a great many more.

- A confused character creator.

I personally have never been a fan of names like Roger or George in a fantasy game. I'd like to see a real "fantastic" name at least.

Obviously crappy names like Houmboi or Doctor Zhaerve don't have much of a place in a world where you don't have an modern urban ghetto and you don't have colleges handing out doctoral degrees.

I of course dislike blatant rip-offs like Lancelot (Arthur Legend) or Gandalf (LOTR) but am less inclined to complain about subtle rip-offs like Gilgalad (LOTR), Grishnak (LOTR).

Being a historian I tend to look askance at Yeshua Ben Yosef (likely the real name of Jesus of Nazareth) or Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (commonly known to us as Saladin) since these are real historical figures and I'd hate to see George Washington or Marcus Aurelius show up in game. All the same, I've stolen names from history myself. Dungal was the legendary founder of the Mac Gregor clan, I picked the name because I thought it was fitting that Gregor Toboerski had a cousin named for the founder of the Mac Gregor clan.

I also find I use names that are actually words; Mandarin the twisted test subject of illithid domination who sought to betray and destroy Sanctuary by seeking ever greater power and authority was named for the term "Mandarin" which was the name for one of the higher ranks of the ancient Chinese hierarchy. Barrister the legal scholar of Sanctuary was of course taken from the word barrister which is interchangable with lawyer. Shamus Quidnunc means "Detective Detective" and I figured it was fitting for a paranoid conspiracy theorist. Hectra Trepidity means "Fear Fear" and again seemed fitting for a character who was fascinated with instilling fear and terror in others.

I personally find it distasteful that the names of gods that I personally believe in and have prayed to are used as characters in a roleplaying game and find it even more frustrating when I see players use these names for their characters; but I really pretty easily get over it. From dwarves named Thor to the TSR inspired sex-change given to the goddess Ilmater; I can accept that its a game and not the real world.

So of course I also can't see a problem with Seraphim which is a Greek word for fiery one, a rare name for girls according to the US Social Security Administration, and also a word used for the highest caste of angels in Judeo-Christian religion. It hardly seems a big deal to me to reuse the name for a caste of angels when the the goddess of compassion and purity was given a penis and turned into a masochistic martyr for a roleplaying game.

Ultimately, considering all the cultures and languages represented in this community its almost impossible to pick a name that doesn't mean something to someone on some personal level.

The issue of skill point saving is something we've been meaning to come to a consensus on, yet haven't done so yet. Opinions are somewhat split, yet if we decide to make it against the rules, expect an announcement post on it.

I whole heartedly agree.

I had a char named "Number 42", who I RP'd as having been so messed up by the illithid that his past identity was lost to him. He only knew himself by what his former master called him in his head. From players, I received tons of positive comments. DMs, however, hassled me so much about it I decided to retire the character.

The DMs claimed my name was immersion-breaking, which may be the case. But as prestonhunt pointed out, what of names spelled with no capitals, titles in the name, and the like?

A specific rule would be great! :)

I dunno, I recently made a fanatical Helmite priest named Spaquin Instionish. It's a rather cheap gag, but I've noticed before that they're easily missed.

Wow, I'm going to poorly follow Oro's post with some simple agreement and case in point.

There does indeed need to be a post/list thread that is added/altered as necessary to inform people

PRIMARILY for the newbs who wander over here and have no clue, having never played an OLRPG. But also for the vets who are slammed when the DMs see what they consider poor sportsmanship for lack of a better word.

I never knew re-rolling was a no-no when I was a newb. Vets find it unthinkable, along with min/maxing - but in this case - ignorance IS a valid excuse. MY SUGGESTION, is that DMs post an official list of what tactics/actions are frowned upon and will likely or definately receive a punishment of some kind, including de-leveling or an XP penalty.

During a quest recently my non min/maxed, non re-rolled, non-melle build character was about to get squashed. OOCly knowing that turning and running would get an AoO, which a smart character would likely know as well, I backed him away at a walk towards the melee builds in the party. They mashed it, but I received a HEFTY XP penalty and was told not to cheat by the DM. Disappointing to say the least.

Told the DM I didn't know it was cheating but wouldn't do it again. I thought my character was getting an RP penalty for being a wuss, but the DM then politely explained that it was an engine exploit. That they can't hit you if you back away from them at a walk.

Oh! That makes sense now! This might be unbelievable to vets and some DMs, but I had no clue it was a punishable exploit. Now I do.

So we finish the quest, we receive some nice DM XP for surviving a very fair, balanced and interesting DM spice. This DM was very cool about it, and I appreciated the honesty and feedback, but all in all it seemed avoidable had I known OOCly it was a "bad" thing to do.

As this seemed pertinent to the discussion, and I have no beef with the penalty other than my ignorance, I didn't appeal this to the DM account, and would have chalked it up as a lesson learned.

Again, I think this would help the DMs avoid having to punish players which I assume they really don't enjoy doing. And primarily to avoid the negative experiences which are a possible result of these cases of ignorance.

I agree whole-heartedly with what Preston and Oro have stated here. For the sake of berevity, and because it has already been said by above posters, I'll keep it short.

That being said, I don't have a lot to add to what has already been said above. And I just woke up. However, as long as a name doesn't seem blatantly a ripoff, a joke, or seriously immersion breaking....I don't see a problem with preston's name. I was more than a little surprised he was asked to pick a different name, considering some of the names that have been allowed to stay.

Pedro Rodriguez anyone? Vote Pedro.

Pup I had a char named "Number 42", who I RP'd as having been so messed up by the illithid that his past identity was lost to him. He only knew himself by what his former master called him in his head. From players, I received tons of positive comments. DMs, however, hassled me so much about it I decided to retire the character.

Aww I really liked 42. One of the things that annoys me more than anything for some strange reason, is not using upper case first letters. Also, I've seen some pretty bad name in other servers that are worse than any I've seen here. Nerd in Shining Armor comes to mind. Cute, but better as a user name :) I personally get most of my name by altering the generated ones, or from Irish baby name webpages. Although, Ruza is actually Czechoslovakian.

Gwydion During a quest recently my non min/maxed, non re-rolled, non-melle build character was about to get squashed. OOCly knowing that turning and running would get an AoO, which a smart character would likely know as well, I backed him away at a walk towards the melee builds in the party. They mashed it, but I received a HEFTY XP penalty and was told not to cheat by the DM. Disappointing to say the least.

I want to argue that this cannot be an exploit even if the monsters follow you jerkingly and fail to attack or take actions. In the TSR/WotC Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 and 3.5, the game on which NWN is based on and the home game engine for which most Forgotten Realms material used on EfU was made features a full-round action called "withdraw" which allows you to move your normal distance (30 ft. for most medium creatures) and take no AoOs in combat from moving.

Backing up, or turning on detect mode and moving away, or shift+clicking, or wasd driving with a set "walk" key (mine's r) is an appropriate reduction of speed for an AoO-free disengagement from melee.

As for the name thing... Mag owes me credit for the "Adam" bit. 8) Most of my characters, too, have names taken from real proper nouns. (Laramie = fort on the Oregon Trail, Thurgood = Thurgood Marshall, Piotr = the Russian equivalent of Peter I believe, Padriac... well, I just stole that from a fantasy novel, but I think it's an Easter European name of some sort!) Often I stumble upon a good word or name in a historical text or film and write it down just for this reason. 80% of the time, I find, real names or words sound much more pleasing to the ear than made-up names. Particularly the names NWN generates for you in character creation.

Backing up, or turning on detect mode and moving away, or shift+clicking, or wasd driving with a set "walk" key (mine's r) is an appropriate reduction of speed for an AoO-free disengagement from melee.

Taking a round to walk OUT of combat is fine, however walking backwards endlessly with a monster still chasing you, unable to attack, is an exploit.

If you take your step out of combat and something is still trying to eat you, time to fight or run, not moonwalk all over the map like it's 1985.

I don't really have much to add, as I think Oroborous said all that needed to be said.

Personally, when I am creating a new character I pool a large number of sources from random name generators, historical sources to various other non-English languages. Ultimately, though I sometimes come to a hybrid of a name - trying to settle on something that "looks good" and is pleasing to the eyes. I avoid long names, and try and keep first names under seven letters.

Melrick didn't have a last name, and his name came from another character that I played called Dedrick - I took the "rick" from the end and added "Mel" from Meldread to the beginning.

Meldread came from the name Mordred - a character from Arthurian legend. The name was altered based upon the prefix "Mel" - which was handed down from his mother, and an "a" added after the "e" to spell "dread" - which was appropriate for the character.

Justin Ellard, my half orc paladin had a more human and normal sounding name. This was done on purpose and the names were taken from a baby naming website. Justin means Just or Fair, and Ellard means Noble and Brave - a fitting name for a Paladin, especially one that appeared more Orcish than Human, but was more Human than Orc in heart.

Thazar Vrask came from a list of Thayan Names. Vrask was a last name of a character an Thazar was half of two different names, I simply tacked "Th" in front of "azar". I thought it also had added benefit when pronounced it sounded similar to "The Czar".

Delorin Drake is the name of a character I played with while playing around with a D&D City exercise. Delorin Drake was created during that exercise several months ago, and then expanded and fleshed out for EfU.

Hoaradin was a hodgepodge of various sources. "Hoar" - from the deity Hoar - and "adin" was a misspelled name of the source I was using as a basis for the character. Hoaradin's last name was also "Delorin". ;) I didn't realize that until recently, and I'd be shocked if anyone else noticed or remembered.

...and there are an endless host of others.

Metro_Pack

Backing up, or turning on detect mode and moving away, or shift+clicking, or wasd driving with a set "walk" key (mine's r) is an appropriate reduction of speed for an AoO-free disengagement from melee.

Taking a round to walk OUT of combat is fine, however walking backwards endlessly with a monster still chasing you, unable to attack, is an exploit.

If you take your step out of combat and something is still trying to eat you, time to fight or run, not moonwalk all over the map like it's 1985.

This is *so* not an exploit! Anyone who's been in a fencing match or even in a fist fight knows that backing off saves your ass, especially when your leading your opponent into a small ambush.

It is an exploit.

Next time you're in a streetfight, try slowly walking away. Let me know how that works out for you!

If you never want to incur an AoO from movement, take the feats.

Anyone that has been in a fist fight, and seen the other person constantly back away has had the opportunity to jump and tackle that person. <_<

Last time I checked, NWN NPC's cannot do such! Using mechanics to make it impossible for a creature to harm you sounds rather exploitish to me.

That shit will get you shanked!

Way to hijack my post guys.

I have to agree with prestonhunt as well on the names.

I use www.behindthename.com for my names half the time. Ileana for example is a Romanian form of Helen, which -may- be a variant of the Greek Selene (moon). Not unusual considering who Selune is and her relationship to the Tribe of the Blade.

I have to say, the things -I- find immersion breaking are things like a lack of capitals, information in "on examine" descriptions that I wouldn't know from looking at someone, epithets and nicknames in quotation marks etc. But this is really a matter of personal taste.

I like a well chosen name, especially when I understand the resonances and meanings that might add extra colour to the character and earn a bit of ooc respect from me.

One thing I will disagree with Oro on, is that George is a perfectly good name. It comes from the Greek words Ge (earth) and Ergon (work) - georgos (earthworker or farmer). An appropriate name for your run of the mill farmer. -edit- And so to concur with Linelle below, "normal" names also have their place.

Having "fantastic" names is fine, but I do believe that some "normalo" names in between are complimenting them just nicely. Therefore I take offence in being called unoriginal for using names that you might just meet outside on the street, too.

On Names:

If I find characters with names similar or the same as place names, historical names, names included and well known in fiction or reality, or just plain stupid I have them re-make the character. Examples of names I on my real life poopy list: Jack Ripper, Mack Druck, Carmin Lektra, Big Boss, The Dude, and many many more that I personally have dealt with.

Names that are not well known, such as names of elf kings from seldom read verse, usually just get a nod. If the time is spent to track down a real life / fictional name for a character, I feel the player is smart enough to come up with a cool name on their own or atleast modify it some so I don't recognize it. In cases like these I'll usually just let it go with a tell to the player that in the future known names in literature / obscure names in history really shouldn't be used. In anycase though, I tend to weigh how easily I noticed the name (I read a lot), as compared to how many other people on the server might if it is obscure.

On Skill Points:

If you are cross classing and need to save a few SP over to the next level in order to keep taking the CC skill at the 2/1 buy, go ahead and do it. If you are saving up SP for that one level of rogue at 6 to land the 10 in tumble, (or UMD, or discipline for that one ftr level...or etc) then that is a mechanics exploit. You want the skill as a ftr, you cross class it or you take more rogue levels.

On walking backwards:

Past a round or two it -is- an exploit, just as DM Metro has stated. I have seen plenty of people run around in figure eights or circles backwards trying at Near Death escaping attacks for 4+ rounds. Because the engine does not allow the following monster AI to run ahead of you, turn, and attack like they should and would, or just pull out a ranged weapon and shoot your sorry self, it is an engine exploit.

That's a similar problem in PvP as well.

Linelle Having "fantastic" names is fine, but I do believe that some "normalo" names in between are complimenting them just nicely. Therefore I take offence in being called unoriginal for using names that you might just meet outside on the street, too.

Hey, never said it was unoriginal. Just that I prefer more fantasy-esque (whatever that means I know) names.

In fact, I still think George is wretched. As is Chuck Bresley, but that's me and I can live with those names. I'd prefer personally to see Georgas instead of George and Chartle instead of Charles--similar roots but they don't make me think of America's first president or England's next king. Same reason I look askance at Salah Din; makes me think of 12th century Muslims rather than a fantasy warrior from the Anaurach desert or Calimshan--then again, Luke Skywalker didn't make me think of a Biblical figure when I watched him blow up the Deathstar---so its a matter of taste!

Exploit connotates an intentional use of an unfair trick to gain advantage.

Thus, you have to be aware that backing up is wrong for it to be cheating. It's like taunting a PC then arresting him because the engine forces an attack. When done with the knowledge of the result, it's wrong and exploiting the engine.

When unaware of that OOC knowledge, then it's ignorance.

I don't mind being penalized for ignorance, nor being penalized when I was trying to cheat and got caught. I am simply suggesting that a list of acts the DMs consider cheating, and unintentional engine exploits that should be avoided.

And frankly, I'm offended when other players feel the need to question my integrity when I plainly said I was unaware that this was unethical, and that I wouldn't have done it if I had known it was considered cheating.

The DM was very cool about it, I was glad to know about this exploit so that I can avoid it in the future. But it just seems that it can be avoided if there is a list of these "punishable exploits".

Or maybe just a warning the first time?

On the topic of names:

- Using correct capitalization (ie. Jerry instead of jerry) is vastly more desirable. However, I will in no way penalise anybody for it, or make them remake.

- Nicknames in speech marks between the first and last names (ie. Jerry "the Brave" Donaldson) is, for me, unacceptable. Mostly because you cannot send tells to the person and furthermore its ugly. If you have a great nickname, just use it IG.

- Be tasteful. Anything which could be viewed as derogatory in any sense is obviously out of the question, meaning religious references are by and large inappropriate. If you're not sure about it, give a DM a buzz -before- you make the character and find out for sure.

- Setting relevance. This is the Forgotten Realms, not RL. Generally speaking, one would be hard pressed to find many orthodox Faerunian names that have direct connection with RL names. Ofttimes, it's simply easy to mash your keyboard and get a more fitting name.

- Be aware of racial names. No elf is named 'Bob' and no Human is named 'Farelihnahri Eqelistreia'.

- Use name generators, like the ones Nawty has posted in General Discussion.

- Be aware of racial names. No elf is named 'Bob' and no Human is named 'Farelihnahri Eqelistreia'.

Not normally, but consider a case where an elven couple find an abandoned orphan human, or vica versa... would they not give it a name comfortable for them? (Very rare, yes, but plausible)

Who named Tarzan Tarzan?

MadCaddies

- Be tasteful. Anything which could be viewed as derogatory in any sense is obviously out of the question, meaning religious references are by and large inappropriate. If you're not sure about it, give a DM a buzz -before- you make the character and find out for sure.

Can we change the Mulhorandi Pantheon then? They all reference religion.

So does Oghma, Silvanus, Denier, Ilmater, Loviatar, Chauntea, Mielikki, Selune, Tiamat, and Tyr.

We should also do something about dwarves named Thor, Wotan, Heimdal.

Vikings are a vocal minority, t'is true.

Asatru is the term used today generally.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/asatru.htm

That's a good article if anyone is interested. I think its just fitting that if you're going to be sensitive about one religion which happens to be dominant that the actual minority faiths are given a fair shake. I tend to think they're shown a lot less sensitivity by the majority community. There is the sense that "Serapheim" a rather vague reference to a caste of angels most Christians wouldn't even know about likely is insensitive; but taking the most popular diety of the Norse religion and giving it to an ale drinking dwarf isn't.

Granted, I don't think either case is really insensitive or harsh to religion. The names are tied to myths, and myth is fantasy. Fantasy is roleplaying. There is a good link there, and if anything I'd hope someone trying to play a priest of Ilmater takes the time to research into the real Ilmater and perhaps even discover that its a beautiful religion and perhaps finds some spiritual peace in it.

As long as the name was picked for the concept behind its meaning, or the concept in its faith--and isn't a poorly done mockery of the religion. The Mulhorandi pantheon isn't that disimilar from the Egyptian faith, but I could see how someone playing a character named Muhammed who yelled "Hajj" every time he ran away from battle like a coward would be insulting in the extreme.

From what I understand, the Mulhorandi pantheon actually comes from Egypt. Setting wise. They supposedly came to Faerun from Egypt via a portal.

Caddies says a lot of good stuff. But here's my "On the subject of names":

My golden rule is anything goes, so long as it doesn't ruin anyone else's experience (Of course, this can be extended to say that Elves named "jim "the badass" bob" are ruining other peoples' experience).

But I'm not sure it's at all justifiable to demand someone remake their character just because the name, for example, existed as the handle of a notable character on another server, or has some very casual but largely well disguised real life reference.

Really, if the DM knows the player and knows them to be a long time member of our community, sound in the RP department, and so on, there's no reason they should demand they change their name as there's almost certainly a logical reason why they chose it, even if it does look sketchy on first glance. I trust in the judgement of our well established players and I'm sure they're more than capable of choosing their own names; names that contribute toward their experience and won't ruin anyone else's. That's not to say they're exempt from this regulation, but rather that they should be given the benefit of the doubt (unless they are running around as something like "death", which, as mentioned, is highly unlikely).

If names from recognizable literature are a problem, then I figure about a dozen of the most popular player character's on EfU were entirely illegitimate. As well as a good chunk of NPC's (Adelia Tyrell comes to mind), too.

I think the entire issue is silly, although I tend to frown at uncapitalized names or names with titles in them. Other things "Number 42" I think, are more acceptable, given that they actually make sense in the confines of the character.

But I suppose a case could be made against me for naming my paladin 'Emmerson Palmer'. That may have been just a bit too silly. (Even though only two people ever called me on it. One, who laughed, and the other, who warned me that -other- players might frown at me for it.)

I think Ladocicea makes very good points. The majority of the time the names people choose do not bother me. I once had a character with a nickname in quotes, but I didn't know people couldn't send tells to the character - so I stopped playing her. That would be my only gripe.

A good example of a name that was fitting, but at first glance looked inappropriate was the person above who had their character named "Number 42". I remember the character, and I remember the first time I saw him I didn't know what to think, but after I spoke with him - it made sense.

I'm a big fan of having a character's name reflect their personality or history in some way - a bit of symbolism is always nice. Number 42 did that, and really one of my major gripes - which to me pales in comparison to the worst name you could imagine - is how people play escaped slaves.

One of the few people I've actually seen play good escaped slaves is Ruza - notably the characters Breegan and Mara. They both were horribly traumatized by their time in slavery, as ANYONE would be after more than a month as a slave. I've only had one escaped slave - Melrick - and much of his dissent into evil was predicated upon his fear of becoming powerless and falling back into the hands of the Drow. He was deeply emotionally scarred from the years he spent in slavery, and endured horrible things - things that he then eventually inflicted upon others.

People don't escape slavery, show up in Sanctuary and then go "Want to kill some batz in teh town hall? lolz!"

Errr... End Rant. Sorry! :P

Common sense is the answer. There can't be rules written down to everything. If you think you're being victimized, then fight your corner with the DM involved - Serafeim sounds fine to my ears, and i'm looking into the logic behind the argument against it. Nothing you're saying sounds unreasonable to me.

However, I personally prefer skill point saving in moderation, common sense again being the watchword. Saving 40 points then taking a rogue level at 8 and you want 10 tumble and UMD? A no-no. Saving 2-3-4 points because you're multiclassing and don't want to cross-class all the time? Not a problem to me

-Nukeee

p.s. I liked Number 42

On prestons original post:

I agree there is some gray area around names. Though this is an imperfect system with DM's that, though generally unified in thought, don't always apply rules EXACTLY in the same way.

As far as saving skill points, I think this is a perfectly valid action. I think of it as studying for a test of sorts. Saving up would be taking time away from your other skill training to pass some kind of test to achieve the skills you wish, which would be common for cross-class skills that require skill points per 1 point of skill ability.

I see no problem with a 'training' period by way of saving skill points.

Oroborous

MadCaddies

- Be tasteful. Anything which could be viewed as derogatory in any sense is obviously out of the question, meaning religious references are by and large inappropriate. If you're not sure about it, give a DM a buzz -before- you make the character and find out for sure.

Can we change the Mulhorandi Pantheon then? They all reference religion.

So does Oghma, Silvanus, Denier, Ilmater, Loviatar, Chauntea, Mielikki, Selune, Tiamat, and Tyr.

We should also do something about dwarves named Thor, Wotan, Heimdal.

Obviously, no. I was referring to more explicit things like naming your character 'Jesus' or 'Mohammed Allah' or 'Gabriel "the Angel" Thompson'. People can and will become upset if names like this are used, so its better to avoid it altogether. Its certainly feasible to call your dwarf Thor, since its commonly accepted for some reason that dwarves are all connected with the Norse culture. To my understanding, there aren't many people who still worship the Norse/Germanic pantheon anymore. :P

10th largest religion in the world falls under the pagan branch. We just tend to be quiet because you'ld be shocked at the discrimination that can be shown legally to pagans. People get their kids taken away by courts, the US Senate tries to kick them out of the military, and pimply teens name dwarves after our gods.

And for the record, many (no exact number is known-so it could just be some too I suppose) pagans are upset about the Mulhorandi pantheon and the list of gods I gave you. They're not pleased to see their deities used in games anymore than Christians would be to find out Jesus has the Good, Suffering, and Protection domains.

Again, I'm not going to argue that people can't use religiously inspired names but if I decide to name an Aasimar Gabriel and he's descended from a Trumpet Archon and carries a magic horn--I'm of the opinion that that is as legit as calling an archer-assassin character Artemis.

I just don't like to see a double standard applied to pagans because culturally people are less aware of their faiths and beliefs. Saying its alright to call a dwarf Thor but that you can't call a priest of Ilmater Jesus is a double standard to me. Then again, my theory is that while someone calling a dwarf Thor is likely just pretty insensitive to the beliefs of pagans someone calling a character Jesus is likely purposefully being insensitive to Christians. So its a harder call in my mind to judge.

In matter of recreating, the worst case I saw was myself having a -very- famous name of a char (which was my inspiration to make it).

A dm politely spoke with me about it, and asked for recreating. I couldn't see anything bad about it.

As for generally known names. I saw IG a name from the bible as well, as a jew I don't see it as a bad thing, or harming. I think using names from history, like Aharon, or Thorigan in the Pagan case, reflect honor, for choosing a name of my religion. I find it cool.

As long as it's not glaringly obvious, I say 'Go for it'.

EfU isn't without its plagiarists. I'm looking at you, ASOIAF fans.

Look, it boils down to this: Don't make us come after you.

We don't want to lay down hard rules on this. Some times there are great reasons to have left-over skill points (You're a wizard who wants cross-class skills, and you're at an even level). Sometimes there are shitty ones. By and large, we don't really care, unless you're really, really tweaking it. The reason there's no hard rule, is because as soon as we make a hard rule, we have to enforce it. Let me explain to you how much we don't want to go around checking to see if skills add up. We'd rather make awesome things happen.

Same thing goes for names. We don't want our interactions with players to be negative. When they are necessarily negative, we try to be nice about it. I was the DM who informed Gwydion that walking backwards was cheating. I think I was pretty nice about it, and it wasn't me who docked XP (It must have been Metro. He is the root of all evil.). It's hardly Gwydion's fault that he didn't realize it was cheating. I don't hold anything against him for it, and think he's a great player.

With names, as has been said by Lado, just keep in mind that you don't want to break other people's immersion. So names like "George"? Fine. I tend to like slightly altered versions of real names, Oro doesn't. But we get along grandly. Just don't ruin other folks' immersion and fun, and we don't really care.

And, on a final note to Oro: It sucks that the names of the gods you worship are -all over standard fantasy-, but that's how it is. Asking for dwarves not to be named after norse gods, when half the dwarves in the fantasy that our playerbase reads are, is a bit unreasonable. I'd rather not have our first interactions with new players being telling them to reroll. Blame RA Salvatore!

-Cross

In regards to PC names, I believe that it’s a grey area like someone previously said. I created a character a while back and was told that “pop culture” names were not allowed. Now I was happy to rename the character but I found that quite a lot of people didn’t actually get the reference anyway, only a couple of very sharp DM’s did. My point is that I don’t believe it is very fair to jump on a player when there is no announcement/poster in the character creation area/log in place regarding the naming of characters. I think it is really great that people do try to come up with good & inventive fantasy names for their characters and I’ve seen some great names here and also some very average ones but again, that’s just the same IRL.

However, people have names that are often quite ridiculous IRL as well as fantasy settings and you have to wonder for a moment what the hell were their parents/creator/writer etc was thinking when they named their child/PC. And here, in this setting, that’s what a PC is in a way, your child. You, the player, created it and so I believe you should be able to name it along some very easy & reasonable guidelines & a bit of common sense as caddies pointed out [barring of course parenthesis etc]. As an aside, I personally know a girl who’s name is Isis Baphis-Dragonblade & of course, she changed her name by Depol when she turned 18.

Getting back on topic, of course it’s going to be your curse if you name your character something silly like “Maevis Shineybottom”, “Gnarli Longshafte” or “Neville Didjabringthabeeralong”etc. It can actually be a role-playing device in itself, encouraging others to make fun of what your PC’s name is when you introduce yourself to other PC’s [ever heard of a bit of good or bad natured teasing eh?]. Come on, I think we need to take a step back for a minute here and realise that this is a fantasy game first and foremost and it’s about having fun & that people need to stop taking themselves too seriously & lighten up a tad.

Picking names from literature is fine if done right, in my opinion. By which I mean: Calling your knight Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, or Bors sucks. Calling him Grifflet, Torre, Marhaus, Bellias - all knights mentioned in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, and usually not present for more than a paragraph or two of the 800 page book - I don't think anyone is going to notice or mind. And personally, if I saw someone called Grifflet I'd just smile at the reference. Don't call your elf Legolas. Don't call him Glorfindel or Celeborn. But that one guy who takes Arwen's horse in chapter 3 and then is never mentioned again? Go right ahead. Same with history - use a name of some 4th century warlord that most people have forgotton and it's all good.

Or at least that's my opinion.

Talwyn Come on, I think we need to take a step back for a minute here and realise that this is a fantasy game first and foremost and it’s about having fun & that people need to stop taking themselves too seriously & lighten up a tad.

As long as it's not lame, which means, names of important characters (like as Spawnof said). And as long it not -stupid- or not mature. I think it's ok. But names like Areman Aybabtu. I think is fine. Notice that the Last name is the abbreviation for "All your base are belong to us". It's funny on the ooc side, it will make people laugh here and there, if they noticed it/you told them, but would it ruin their game experience?

// Rethinking of it, I'm not sure what -other- player would think. That will be my reaction, so please comment

Alas, apparently Roffle Poons the gnomish trickster and Lawl Nubson the young human fighter are also out :(

I think what it comes down to is how obvious it is. Ask ten people in IRC first. If none of them get it, but they think it's funny when you point it out, go for it.

Also, first and foremost, if it sounds like a good name on its own merits and suits the character and background. Aybabto sounds ok to me!

I was the DM who informed Gwydion that walking backwards was cheating. I think I was pretty nice about it

Well, from the player's POV, imagine you realize you are getting docked 500 XP, and then get a Tell that says "please don't cheat".

:(

After that, I spent about 30 seconds saying WTF? to myself. When I asked what was cheating, the DM was extremely polite and told me why it was an exploit. Any angst that was beginning to brew was gone. This turned it from a negative experience to a learning one, and I appreciated it and understood why it happened.

It's not the 500 XP hit that initially bothered me, it was the implication that I was cheating intentionally.

and it wasn't me who docked XP (It must have been Metro. He is the root of all evil.).

I intentionally didn't mention the DM because Metro was also very cool about it, and I never had any beef about it. I only mentioned it here because I thought a warning, or perhaps a list of exploits to be avoided might be a way of preventative medicine for others.

For me, I felt the XP hit unecessary. When I was a noob I ASKED Howland to re-level my character after I found out re-rolling was considered cheating. But I understand that a DM staff has to handle things the way they feel best, and in the big scheme of things the hit is negligible.

Much more important to me was the cool surprise of the giants waiting for us outside the *spoiler* and the fun I had due to the DM's efforts. For all these guys do for free, I appreciate their efforts a hundred times more than something like this. :D

But if intelligent discussion of player suggestions can make this an even more awesome experience for both the DMs and the players, then woo-hoo!