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EnglishKitsune
2017-10-10, 11:01 AM
So I've got a recent conundrum that I'm not sure how to react too, I've ended up creating a character who shares my name. On one hand I'm fine with it, on the other I feel it might be breaking a gaming taboo or something?

The game is Atomic Highway, Post-Apocalyptic Mad Max style game. I went about creating my character without a name in mind, so I just called her Kitsune* on the R20 character sheet. As character creation went on, I kept on associating my name with her, until it became her name as well.

Now to be clear, she isn't meant as a Mary-Sue style character, we do not look alike, think alike, or act alike, nor is she some ideal version of me either. She is just a character I created who happened to share my name. I've let the Gm know this and while they seemed a bit confused by this, they've allowed it.

I've done this before in videogame rpgs (Which I am aware are a different singular experience), but think everyone has at least One default name they name characters, but there seems to be a difference when it comes to Tabletops? Now admittedly, it might not work say in a Dnd game, with an elf called Bob, but in a Shadowrun/Atomic Highway/Star Wars game, it is entirely possible that there are characters called Jack, Ben or Luke. There are also names that would work well in a Dnd game, like Siobhan, Markus, Percy etc

TLDR: Created a character, who I ended up giving the same first name as me, as that was the only one which fit.

Have you had any experience with this?
Would you have an issue with a player sharing the same name as their character? Or reusing a character name across multiple games?
Have you ever shared the same name as your Character?
Have you got a reoccurring character name that you use for a variety of games?



*Kitsune not being my real name, but you know how it goes.

BWR
2017-10-10, 11:46 AM
Done this once, when we actually played ourselves. Otherwise it's something every player and GM I know avoids, even if our names are common as muck. This is primarily, I believe, due to a feeling of mild embarrassment about anything that might smack of a self-insert, even if it is obvious to everyone that it isn't.

I have reused names because I suck at thinking up names and needed something quick for a not terribly serious game. So I had Gork the Orc in three different games, only one of which where he was an actual orc (and in a world where orcs actually exist).

Red Fel
2017-10-10, 11:55 AM
Done this once, when we actually played ourselves. Otherwise it's something every player and GM I know avoids, even if our names are common as muck. This is primarily, I believe, due to a feeling of mild embarrassment about anything that might smack of a self-insert, even if it is obvious to everyone that it isn't.

A lot of this, I think.

It's not that it's an explicit taboo. I mean, I don't know of any table where you announce that your character has the same name as you, and everyone says "Nope," or "Stop," or "That's stupid," or "That's nice, but please stop stabbing my kidneys," or what-have-you. Some tables you'll probably get teased. Most tables, even polite ones, will continue to look at you askance.

Part of it is the fact that playing a character allows you some distance from your actions. It puts space between the fictional construct (character) and the person (player). Sharing a name makes it confusing, ("Are you talking to me, or is your PC talking to my PC?") and blurs that line. And in addition to concerns about self-inserts, that can make things uncomfortable.

Games are frequently escapist. That's not inherently a good or bad thing. But it means doing things that you, as the person, might not feel confident or comfortable doing. The shy person can play the flirty barfly. The nervous person can play the brave and bold champion. The quiet wallflower can play the LOUD AND FURIOUS GOD OF WAR. But when your character reminds the other players of you, it can get awkward. Players may be reminded that they're sitting at a table, and not immersed in a magical other world.

I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't do this, mind you. But it's at least an ask - be ready to ask the table if this will be awkward.

As an aside, I'm familiar with having traits that "just fit" my characters - writing characters and having a particular race, or class, or gender, or handedness, or facial scarring that just works perfectly, and knowing that there is no other way for me to write that character. But I'm not 100% sure that I've ever had one whose first name had to fit like that. Is this a setting like RWBY or something, where names have to fit a particular format and also be uniquely specific to the character?

Tinkerer
2017-10-10, 12:13 PM
1) A little. It is a fairly rare situation though.

2) I can't really say that I like it. I enjoy referring to the character by their name and it would lose some of it's impact when the player and the character share the name. To put it another way when I refer to the character by their name it's a Pavlovian response to kinda put yourself in their headspace for the character and a reminder when the other people look at them to perceive them as their character.

3) Once... kinda? It was a game where they had a random character generator and I was showing someone how a random character can be just as personalized as a custom built one and it happened to provide a shortened version of my own name. It worked out fine but the random element might have had something to do with that.

4) Now multiple characters sharing one name tends to go over a little better. I used to be all for it, probably about 1/3 - 1/4 of my old characters shared one name. I don't use it much anymore though, it just carries too much baggage from old characters. Particularly if you've gamed with other members of your current table before.

Quertus
2017-10-10, 01:26 PM
My only character with my name was when I was playing, well, myself. But, then, like Rumplestiltskin, my name kinda stands out.

Playing a charter with your name is kinda weird. Playing a charter with the same name as someone else at the table, otoh, is just bad.

I use the name "Quertus" for a great many things. But only 1* RPG character.

* Quertus is an instance of "the one who is many", though, so it's a rather blurry line, at times.

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-10, 08:08 PM
Or reusing a character name across multiple games?

I could just repeat what Red Fel is saying, but I'm lazy so I wont. I think he's pretty much nailed the issue on the head.

However, reusing characters? Another red flag. I am sure there are people out there can do this well, but I haven't seen it. Keep in mind, I mean the actual character, not a character archetype. It just doesn't go well, with the character referencing things that no one else has context to, metagaming knowledge, trying to change the setting to make the character fit, not forming connections to the other characters, or just not working. I probably wouldn't outright ban it, but I'd try to have a chat with the player regarding certain expectations as it leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.

I do the thing with recurring character names because I'm really that lazy.

Red Fel
2017-10-10, 08:26 PM
I do the thing with recurring character names because I'm really that lazy.

Yeah, I haven't reused a character, but early on I used a naming convention with respect to my characters, so all of them did have similar names. I don't think that's uncommon.

Anonymouswizard
2017-10-11, 05:47 AM
Playing a charter with the same name as someone else at the table, otoh, is just bad.

Did that once, specifically the GM's name. However, banning that first name would have been like banning the name 'Josh', so the character was referred to by his surname (which I forget).

I do reuse names quite a bit, because I make a lot of NPCs, and tend to draw from a limited pool of first names and wider pool of surnames.

Quertus
2017-10-11, 06:36 AM
Did that once, specifically the GM's name. However, banning that first name would have been like banning the name 'Josh', so the character was referred to by his surname (which I forget).

I think there's all of about 3 people in the world who have ever seen the fact that Quertus has a family name. Most of my (fantasy) characters don't (at least, not on the sheet, or ever referenced in play).

So your clever plan wasn't an option the times I've seen players and characters with the same name - or, at least, it wasn't afaik.


However, reusing characters? Another red flag. I am sure there are people out there can do this well, but I haven't seen it. Keep in mind, I mean the actual character, not a character archetype. It just doesn't go well, with the character referencing things that no one else has context to, metagaming knowledge, trying to change the setting to make the character fit, not forming connections to the other characters, or just not working. I probably wouldn't outright ban it, but I'd try to have a chat with the player regarding certain expectations as it leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.

I'm confused by what you mean by reusing a character.

"Changing the setting to make the character fit" implies that it isn't the same character, it's just a new character based off of an old character, that you're trying to shoehorn their history and the world's history together somehow.

But "referencing things that no one else has context to" implies that they haven't been integrated into the world, and are, as is my preference, "not from around here". Because, if their history had been integrated into the world, the other characters should have context to it. Unless you just mean that characters with real histories are more likely to reference those histories and tell old war stories: "back in the war, I knew a guy who..."

And I'm completely at a loss to understand why existing characters would have a greater than average chance of using "metagame knowledge" or "just not working". (Actually, IME, existing characters have a greater than average chance of working, because, as a known entity, they are much easier to have a successful session 0 with.)

(I have my suspicions about "not forming connections to the other characters" involving "people treating characters as playing pieces", but those suspicions may be entirely unfounded. EDIT: **** **** **** **** ****, I get it! I get it now! Ah, I'm so stupid for not getting it before! My mind is blown! Oh, and, um, thank you for providing that nudge I needed to understand this puzzle. I see now that it's part of a bigger puzzle I've been staring at for some time now.)

Any light you can shred on these would be appreciated.

Arcane_Snowman
2017-10-11, 07:40 AM
1) There are a couple of times where I've come across a name which manages to fit the character so well that I couldn't really see them having a different one, but for the most part it doesn't matter a great deal to me.

2) One of the people in my playgroup has 2 or 3 names that get used verbatim for almost every single game that we play, to the point where it's almost a running gag (the names describe archetypes that they play rather than recycled characters).

3) Only in the single game in which I played myself in a WoD game. The game didn't last very long though so I never had the opportunity to get particularly attached to the idea, and I'm not in a hurry to replicate that experience.

That being said my name as a whole is unique so barring deliberate use there's no way that it'd be included in a game by accident and I wouldn't deliberately go out of my way to play myself or use my name for one of my characters as I at least try to keep a pretty big divide between the two.

4) I have a fondness for the names Ernest and Eberhard, and they're two of the few names that probably have seen the most use in my table-top gaming career on purpose, but even then I tend to try and avoid too much repetition outside of for accuracy purposes.

Anonymouswizard
2017-10-11, 08:37 AM
I think there's all of about 3 people in the world who have ever seen the fact that Quertus has a family name. Most of my (fantasy) characters don't (at least, not on the sheet, or ever referenced in play).

So your clever plan wasn't an option the times I've seen players and characters with the same name - or, at least, it wasn't afaik.

Eh, this setting was one where everybody would have a family name. In a more fantastic setting I'd use a more fantastic name.

John Campbell
2017-10-11, 05:19 PM
However, reusing characters? Another red flag. I am sure there are people out there can do this well, but I haven't seen it. Keep in mind, I mean the actual character, not a character archetype. It just doesn't go well, with the character referencing things that no one else has context to, metagaming knowledge, trying to change the setting to make the character fit, not forming connections to the other characters, or just not working. I probably wouldn't outright ban it, but I'd try to have a chat with the player regarding certain expectations as it leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.

I've played the same character in different games a couple of times. In both cases, it was not just re-use of a character sheet, but literally the same person, with continuity back to the earlier game, in a different game system and different setting.

The first one was a 3.5 character where, after a fairly long campaign, the DM, in order to keep Faerûn from getting cluttered up with old PCs, ended the last session of the campaign with us getting *PLOT*ed into the Iron Kingdoms universe, and fade to black as the warjacks closed in.

A few campaigns later, the group started an Iron Kingdoms game, and so I rebuilt the character, as best I could, as an Iron Kingdoms character, and played him as my character from the earlier game stranded in the Iron Kingdoms universe. It didn't work out very well, partly because Iron Kingdoms is a horribly inflexible system, and the game fell apart before long because the GM didn't have the time to focus on it.

The other was a character I originally made for a Marvel Superheroes game (the old-school FASERIP system), and played for a while in the standard Marvel Earth-616 setting before the campaign faded away.

A while later (right after the Iron Kingdoms game fell apart, I think it was), we started a DC Adventures game, under the same GM as had run the Marvel game, and I rebuilt my Marvel character under the DC rules, and played her as a superhero from Marvel's Earth-616 who, due to an attempted power stunt gone wrong, had ended up twenty or so years in the future, and on a different Earth, where the heroes she'd known in 616 were comic book characters, and the ones she'd watched on Superfriends growing up were real.

That one worked fine, and the depth of background my character already had going in and the not-always-entirely-accurate in-character metaknowledge I had from watching Saturday morning cartoons in 616 (which is actually where most of my player knowledge of the DC universe came from; I was a Marvel kid) both added a lot of fun to the game. It helped that it was the same GM, I think, and that it was a supers system, which was actually adequate to rebuild the character in.

It also helped that, "Yeah, I come from 1985 in a different universe, and ended up here in 2014 after an attempt to use my superpowers to do something I got the idea for from a Superman movie went wrong, and yes Clark you're fictional in my universe," isn't particularly weird as superhero origin stories go.

JBPuffin
2017-10-11, 06:20 PM
I have a couple goto names - Johann, Jochen, Tsaquen/Tsakwin, Vishal’s going on the list. These are names I’m attached to due to some original character and honor by using the name still (although I’m currently playing Vishal, when the campaign ends, he joins those ranks...). There are others I’ll gladly reuse as necessary (Eben, Ingvor, Chihiro, most of the names that’ve shown up in my attempted novels). I’ll rebuild or reuse characters if needed, maybe make minor tweaks (maaaaaybe), and have no qualms plugging my intellectual property wherever it might fit :D. And at some point, I plan on naming a character by my IRL name, but it have to be exactly the right one...

Joe the Rat
2017-10-11, 06:44 PM
This branched out quickly

Using your own names:
No, but I've sort of seen it done... backwards.
Kurt plays T'ruk, Kevin plays Nivek, that sort of thing. It rather depends on the name. Even phonetically, Joseph is a mess.

In neither case was it a self insert, unless Kevin is shorter and hairier than I thought.

I've played with anagrams.

Self Insert
Never have. I've used my life as inspiration (Directionless Psych Grad Student turned Awakened Mage), but not a direct analog. I kind of suck in typical adventurer situations.

Reused/Recycled Concepts
My wife has one character type. My daughter has two. If you don't change system, they will use them over and over, because that's what they're comfortable with. It's like pulling ribs to suggest a change. Which is funny, given that one loves improv games, and the other is a decent actress.
We've established that they are not necessarily playing the same person. Multiple Worlds in effect.
For them, it's about comfort. They get those personalities, and how they work.

Recycled Names Seen it, rarely done myself - with the exception of NPCs (Who are disproportionately Gary, Bob, Steve, and Frank). Generally it seems to be tied to specific archetypes - blurring with the recycled concept.

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-11, 06:48 PM
It also helped that, "Yeah, I come from 1985 in a different universe, and ended up here in 2014 after an attempt to use my superpowers to do something I got the idea for from a Superman movie went wrong, and yes Clark you're fictional in my universe," isn't particularly weird as superhero origin stories go.

Yeah, but it also sounds like you tried your best to make sure the character works for the game. Limiting metagame knowledge, being appropriate to the game, not changing the setting, etc. So kudos to you, and if anyone does want to reuse a character, that's probably the way to do it.

Anonymouswizard
2017-10-12, 04:31 AM
Even phonetically, Joseph is a mess.

Phesoj? I'd assume the j is pronounced as a 'h', which wouldn't be too hard.

Chijinda
2017-10-12, 06:54 AM
1.Not personally, no.
2.Kind of a two parter here, but no, and no. If my friends want to use their own names for their characters or reuse a character's name, that's all well and good. I will probably come up with a nickname for them very quickly though to make it clear who I'm addressing though.
3. Not unless you count single player video games.
4. I've had the opposite. I've had the same character with a variety of different names. He died in-game at the VERY tail end of my first campaign with him, and it got me salty. I discussed the issue with the GM and he's let me use the "that man is dead" trope to reuse him in future campaigns set in the same continuity. So each time he's come back with a new name.

Vogie
2017-10-12, 03:50 PM
Phesoj? I'd assume the j is pronounced as a 'h', which wouldn't be too hard.

In Esparanto, a word ending in 'j' has a y sound, so it'd be pronounced "Fees-oy". It would also be plural, but that's neither here nor there.

dps
2017-10-12, 08:50 PM
Phesoj? I'd assume the j is pronounced as a 'h', which wouldn't be too hard.

It wouldn't be phesoj, it would be hpesoj.

Anyway, on topic--I've used my real name, or sometimes a Latinized version, in solo computer/video games, but I wouldn't do it in a tabletop RPG, for reasons that others have already mentioned.

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-12, 09:16 PM
This might be a little off topic, but what of naming said character Huxian/Daji/Kumiho? I guess using a variant of an online handle is often grey territory, but on the other hand, if I know you well enough to know your handles, there's probably enough trust to assume the player won't be a goober. And even if they were a goober, knowing them well enough to nudge them to stop said goobering.

I think I'd personally use a rule of thumb that the name has to be appropriate and have a few degrees of separation from the name/nick name. For a fox themed name, I think I'd question the fox connection, but be content with a minor explanation such as red hair or a tattoo and some sort of Asian influence of the appropriate country.

Deophaun
2017-10-12, 09:52 PM
I don't use my own name for the groups let alone the characters. The FBI could be listening.

Slipperychicken
2017-10-13, 10:16 AM
TLDR: Created a character, who I ended up giving the same first name as me, as that was the only one which fit.

Have you had any experience with this?
Would you have an issue with a player sharing the same name as their character? Or reusing a character name across multiple games?
Have you ever shared the same name as your Character?
Have you got a reoccurring character name that you use for a variety of games?



1. Haven't seen it happen myself. I think there are always multiple names which fit.
2. I have an issue with players sharing their PCs' names. It's causes unnecessary confusion, shatters immersion, and indicates laziness of character design.
2a. I would be annoyed with a player insisting on reusing a character name without reusing the character itself.
3. I have never named a character after myself, intentionally or otherwise.
4. I do not reuse character names.

If you're having trouble making a character name, to the extent that you literally cannot think of a better option than your own name, there are many online tools for roleplayers and writers to come up with names. My favorite generators are the ones on seventhsanctum; they have brought me many names which my group remembers.

EnglishKitsune
2017-10-15, 02:42 PM
Thanks you all for your feedback, have decided I will change the character name, just have no idea what to yet, will have to look at it and think some more.

BMR - That mild embarrassment is kind of what I was feeling and what drove me to make the post. :P

Red Fel - It's not RWBY or similar, it's more the way I create characters in general, I normally start with a name and concept and build from there, this time through I just couldn't think of one beside my own. Names are very important for my mental process.

I've used Englishkitsune as a character basis a few times. I used an Elvish translator (No idea which one.) To get Nimtolion Ruscion (Roughly: Fox of the Isles) Nimrod or Russell have been derived names I've used in the past based off that. I try to avoid using it too much nowadays due to using it too much.

ElevenSided Die
2017-10-15, 09:09 PM
My name is Gary, so it's not usually an option for me, at least in a fantasy setting: "Gary the Wizard" just doesn't sound very "D&D-ish"...

That said, I have used a number of 'variations' on my name: Garen, Garrett, Garick, and the like - even moreso these days when all of my games are PbP so nobody knows my real name to begin with. I've also named several barbarian-type characters 'Yrag' over the years.

Joe the Rat
2017-10-16, 02:37 PM
I dunno, I'd say Gary is one of the most D&D names.
Maybe not the most setting-appropriate...