The D&D Corner (and other Pen & Paper - or virtual - RPGs!) <3

[Tawmis]

By the way, nothing to say about this?

Tawm sez: "Oh, poop." (Words That You Never Want to Hear Your DM To Say)
When your DM says "Oh, poop", you know it's won't end well for you.

Heh, well, I mean it's a given. When your DM rolls the damage and even they're impressed by the roll...

[Tawmis]

Can't remember if I posted this here. But was just checking with my players if they ever want to do a Session 2 of this since this was technically just a oneshot so it made me remember this and dig it up.

[Tawmis]

Last night, I also got inspired to try to get to Session 17 of my one D&D game, because that's when I began recording the sessions.

But here's Session 14, I recorded last night, from my D&D notes...

[Tawmis]

So one of my players (who also is one of my co-workers) who is in my main Tuesday D&D game I run... his wife has two brother, and he himself has a brother, all of whom had been interested in playing D&D, but never have, knew nothing about it, etc. One thing they all had in common is they were familiar with the Dragonlance (Chronicles tribology specifically) - and Dragonlance is a hair behind The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, for me, in favorites. So I asked if they'd be interested in me running a Dragonlance campaign that would take place, the same time frame the first Chronicles book takes place (Dragons of Autumn Twilight). My thinking was, if they're all interested in the books and familiar - this will allow them to have some foundation. They wouldn't have to, for example, understand how my own D&D World (Kne'Urth) works.

After they created their character, selected traits and such, I wrote backgrounds for all of their characters: https://sites.google.com/view/dragonlan ... authuser=0

We had a first session, last Saturday - and by the time it was over - everyone new to D&D was suddenly on Amazon looking to purchase their own dice (I'd brought my bag that has like 30 sets of dice). One of them even bought the Player's Handbook and a dice tray as well.

Because they all love Dragonlance, I took the session and wrote it out as a story (I injected a lot, a LOT of dialogue that didn't actually get said during the game) to make it flow and feel like a story. But my plan was two fold - when I let them see the story segment of that session - it gave them even more ideas how to talk and banter with one another and step more into character.

For anyone interested, it's here:
https://sites.google.com/view/dragonlan ... authuser=0

[Rath Darkblade]

So ... just wondering, Tawm: what would you say if a new party turned up at your table, made up of three PCs who decided to name their characters like this ...

- A human fighter named Zak the Thick;
- A human wizard named Gribble the Giver of Long Monologues;
- A human rogue named Drazz the I-Just-Get-This-Urge-To-Pick-People's-Pockets (He was formerly Known as "Drazz The Untrustworthy", but no-one wanted to be in a party with him, so he changed his name).

I'm just curious. What would you ask them, as a DM?

(Yes, I'm playing on the very old "dumb fighter, smart wizard, sneaky rogue" threesome. I'm sure we could change things around - something like "sneaky fighter, dumb wizard, smart rogue" - but a stupid wizard probably wouldn't last very long. What do you think?)

I can just imagine the stories these guys could get into.

One evening, a wizard approached a bar in the fog-enshrouded, wicked, and corrupt city of Grillpan. Anyone could tell he was a wizard, on account of the fact that he could spell long words like "Menu" and "Barman" without moving his lips.

"Der..." The bouncer on the door held up a hand the size of a shovel. "Der, uhr, stop right der!"

"What's the problem, friend?" The wizard asked.

"I'm not yer friend, ya pansy--"

"On the contrary, friend," the wizard said. "You are big enough to kick my head in. In fact, you are big enough to kick my head into my socks. That's why I call you a 'friend', especially given what you could do otherwise."

The bouncer's lips moved silently as he thought about this. "Uh," he finally decided. "Dat's nice. But I still not let youse in! No wiz ... der ... no wizz ... der ... no wizards allowed. 'Cos they hog all the beer nuts. An' they'se annoyingly good at poker, 'cos they can count cards an' dat."

Oh, no! Our wizard is facing his first Quest: Getting Into The Bar. How will he overcome Ye Olde Stupid-But-Fearsome Bouncer? What do you think?

[Tawmis]

So ... just wondering, Tawm: what would you say if a new party turned up at your table, made up of three PCs who decided to name their characters like this ...
- A human fighter named Zak the Thick;
- A human wizard named Gribble the Giver of Long Monologues;
- A human rogue named Drazz the I-Just-Get-This-Urge-To-Pick-People's-Pockets (He was formerly Known as "Drazz The Untrustworthy", but no-one wanted to be in a party with him, so he changed his name).
I'm just curious. What would you ask them, as a DM?

Ah, you forget. In my ongoing campaign...
One guy showed up with a Elf Wizard named "Dick Poop."
His friend showed up as a Draconian Bard named "Rex James" (who is a musical artist for real: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rex-james/1368223853)
One of the characters from another player died, so he brought a character named "Korgi." (Obviously the dog, I assume)
He would then later make a character named "Ragnaroc"
And then another character named "Elon Dusk"

I now have a rule that you can't name characters after something like that or have silly names, because it takes everyone else out of the game, when I say, "Elon Dusk, what do you do?" or "What is the spell effect from that Dick Poop?"

I love having fun - a lot of chaos and fun happens in the game - but it's more natural, rather than someone trying to be funny by making a character with a silly name.

[Rath Darkblade]

Fair enough, and I don't mean to derail a campaign by making up strange names. I think of such names more as "throw-away jokes" -- mention them once, and then never mention them again.

So, instead of saying to the player "Elon Dusk, what do you do?", I'd say "What's your action, Elon?" If the player really wants to have fun, he doesn't mind about the name. If he does ... well, he's not there to have fun.

I only brought this up because I still dimly remember the old days of fantasy and D&D (back in the 70s and 80s), when there were all kinds of characters with a "The Something" after their names. Conan the Barbarian is only the most famous. Frazz the Magnificent, Magnus the Great, etc. It became a bit of a nuisance, so I thought: why not have some fun with it? That's all.

[Tawmis]

Fair enough, and I don't mean to derail a campaign by making up strange names. I think of such names more as "throw-away jokes" -- mention them once, and then never mention them again.

So, instead of saying to the player "Elon Dusk, what do you do?", I'd say "What's your action, Elon?" If the player really wants to have fun, he doesn't mind about the name. If he does ... well, he's not there to have fun.

I only brought this up because I still dimly remember the old days of fantasy and D&D (back in the 70s and 80s), when there were all kinds of characters with a "The Something" after their names. Conan the Barbarian is only the most famous. Frazz the Magnificent, Magnus the Great, etc. It became a bit of a nuisance, so I thought: why not have some fun with it? That's all.

Well, as you said, for me - as a DM - I usually address them by their character's first name.
So if there was a Conan the Barbarian in my group, for example, I'd simply say, "OK, Conan. You just saw the goblin take down Elon. You can easily reach the goblin because he's 10 feet away, or you could try to help stabilize Elon. What would you like to do?"

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm, OK. So if Conan tries to fight the goblin, rolls a 1, and (say) trips over his own sword ... then he becomes Conan the Unlucky, or Conan the Beaten By A Puny Goblin.

I'm sure you know about that convention for naming heroes -- i.e. [Someone] The [Something]. So, since you're a DM, you can be Tawmis the Bold-Hearted, or Tawmis the Master of Dungeons. And if I was a bard, I could be Rath the Talesinger, or Rath the Wielder of Scrolls. That style of thing - just a fun description, not serious.

I think one of your characters for "Neverending Nights" was a wizard called Alan the Magnificent.

Do people still do that? I'm just asking because in more recent D&D names, I see more "warlike" names, like Aidan Flame-strike, or Zara Frost-staff, and similar. I guess it's just a matter of taste.

[Tawmis]

Hmm, OK. So if Conan tries to fight the goblin, rolls a 1, and (say) trips over his own sword ... then he becomes Conan the Unlucky, or Conan the Beaten By A Puny Goblin.
I'm sure you know about that convention for naming heroes -- i.e. [Someone] The [Something]. So, since you're a DM, you can be Tawmis the Bold-Hearted, or Tawmis the Master of Dungeons. And if I was a bard, I could be Rath the Talesinger, or Rath the Wielder of Scrolls. That style of thing - just a fun description, not serious.
I think one of your characters for "Neverending Nights" was a wizard called Alan the Magnificent.
Do people still do that? I'm just asking because in more recent D&D names, I see more "warlike" names, like Aidan Flame-strike, or Zara Frost-staff, and similar. I guess it's just a matter of taste.

Everyone in the Neverending Nights series had a "the" title. And usually in reference to that person's personality trait. For example, Poppy the Salt Vendor was because the voice actress for that role LOVES salt. So we wrote lines around that. Amiee the Armorer was because Amiee was always about shopping and looking good in trendy clothes, so we shaped that to be armor and wrote lines around that. So all the character had those "the" titles. (And it was Alan the Astounding). In that regard, except Grayson, Peter and Poppy and a few others - their titles usually matched the first letter of their name (Amiee the Armorer, Alan the Astounding, Daniel the Destructive/Destroyer, Andrea the Assassin, Dean the Dragon, Christiania the Chambermaid) - Season 3 was the exception because I reached out to a few people (like the maker of Toejam and Earl, Al Lowe) - so they were characters that spoofed their creations.

As for people still doing that - I am sure they do. On the D&D Beyond forum, a lot of people talk about their silly character names. And to me, that's never been fun because it takes me out of the game if the minotaur in the group is called "Mad'kow Dizeaze."

[Rath Darkblade]

Whoops! You're right - Alan the Astounding. (At least I remember Alan. He was always bragging about his amazing powers, which rarely came to pass). *G*

I agree that some silly names can be taken to extremes, like calling a minotaur "Mad'kow Dizeaze". That's ... lazy. Not just lazy, but it breaks the fourth wall (by referring to real-world things).

It seems we think in similar ways! When it comes to naming my characters, I always stick to the world of D&D (or whatever) game. And although I like silly names (especially if they make fun of the character), I never push them too far (like "Elon Dusk").

Elon Dusk? Seriously? If you want to make fun of Elon Musk, don't choose something that obvious. Maybe ... Melon Perfume? (i.e. Melon = "M" + "Elon"; Perfume = synonym for "Musk"). And hey, it could create a story for the character! He/she is obsessed with not smelling bad, so he/she goes to extreme lengths -- even fighting monsters -- in order to collect melon flowers, so he/she can create a perfume and not smell bad.

Sure, it's still stupid, but it's better than "Elon Dusk".