There is no end to my geekery

[drakyndra]

So, this evening, I was with fa11ing_away and mercdaemon and a bunch of others working out characters for a Dungeons and Dragons.

...yes, that's right, I am taking part in a D and D game. And I thought I could not possibly get any geekier. *facepalm*

So...anyone got any suggestions on what I should name my Half-Elf Bard?

Comments

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

"Gordon" or "Pearsey"

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I'll think about it.

[xwingace]

A handsome charmer with a good singing voice and bags of charisma? Jack, would be my vote. Think about it...

Or something utterly Sue-ish, maybe, with your roleplaying then adjusted so he otherwise totally *isn't* a sue.

XWA

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Although the Jack idea amuses me immensely, I don't think I will go with it. This time, anyway.

This is mainly because I am pretty certain I want to go for a female character, at least to start with. A bit Sueish, but seeing as almost everyone in this game is a first timer, I don't think I'll be alone there.

In any case, I have a fairly rough idea of how I want my character to work out. Like you said, a charmer with a good singing voice and bags of charisma. Very eloquent, very clever, and rather self centred - the idea I started off with was an average-to-pretty woman, all clever words and wit, completely charming the people who've heard her perform, who go home that evening, and discover all their money has be stolen right out of their pockets/whatever.

She's not a particularly good fighter: if it comes to that, she'd firstly try to talk her way out of that (which would work quite a bit - she's the kind of person who could lie through their teeth and seem utterly sincere). And if that doesn't work, she'd wait until people were distracted and then get the hell out of their (and to hell with anyone else).

She's selfish and cowardly, and more than a little bitter (I have a rather Sueish backstory I might use, it depends), and pretty much only in it for herself. She's great with anything with words, with deception and trickery and manipulating people, a very good pick-pocket, and quite good at sneaking around and getting away from things. But a lousy fighter, and not exactly the most trustworthy of people.

...

Making up characters is fun.

[xwingace]

Oops. You know, the thought of a female character hadn't even occurred to me. [blush]. I guess that's because I tend to think up male characters pretty much exclusively.

Hmmm. Maybe she has two names? A very simple one that her friends (if she ever gets any...) call her, and a grandiose 'stage' name, that she uses when performing?

She's half-elven, was she raised by humans or by elves? (Because she would have an elven plain name in one case, and a human one in the other, possibly.) Her stage name, presumably, would be something high-minded in Elvish, then :-)

XWA
XWA

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I'm still consider the raised by elves/raised by humans thing. But in either case, it looks like I may have to find a decently elvish sort of name. At this point, I start scoping out my friends (I don't read a lot of that sort of fantasy)

[xwingace]

http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish/girlnames.html

Maybe this will help?

XWA

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Nice. I shall have to peruse that when I have a bit more time.

Though I did find that my name would translate over to Nieriel. Which sounds rather nice, I think.

[xwingace]

It does!

You know, since the people of Faerun (or the D&D world, at least) aren't supposed to have read Tolkien, you could always use (as a stage name) Luthien Tinuviel. According to the link below, it means something like Enchantress Dusk-Singer, which seems rather appropriate for a bard. Even if her character is otherwise nothing like Luthien from the Tolkien stories.

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/l/luthien.html

XWA

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It's a thought - however, seeing as fa11ing_away, who is my housemate and another one playing is a big Tolkein fan, it might get an interesting reaction.

[xwingace]

That is why I suggested it as a stage-name, not her real one. It sounds high minded enough to make some sense in-world, but if the players know Tolkien, they might twig that it's not supposed to be her real name. And that might be considered part of the fun. Or maybe not, and you get accused of picking the easy road and just taking a name from Tolkien.

Depends on how you want to play it, really.

XWA

[fa11ing-away.livejournal.com]

ummm, yeh. it would be an interesting reaction...one proceeded with the theme song from the Happy Tree Friends ^^,

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

Rhodry Maelwaedd; he wasn't a bard, but his father was. (ten points if you know the reference ;)

or Tanis Half-Elven, perhaps.

Damn, now I want to play Shadows of Amn, and I'm supposed to be writing an assignment. D'oh!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I had to google the reference. Woe.

More about what I have possibly worked out about my character is in my comment above. *points*

And your icon made me giggle. Mainly because there was this bit in the handbook were the talk about the "slashing action"of a certain sword.

[fa11ing-away.livejournal.com]

*thinks of legolas' Dagger Slashing Action*
mwahaha!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Why not go for Bob. it's a nice multi-purpose name and it's easy to remember/pronounce :D

[insomnius.livejournal.com]

Deuteronomy.

[fa11ing-away.livejournal.com]

well, my last character was Lachtuin, which was a Tolkien hybrid name - ie I stuck parts of 2 Quenya words together to make up something random and apparently meaningful.

this time I may go for a humanish name though because it suits my character's backstory...

[ranorith.livejournal.com]

Bard...? are you sure? they're so underpowered except in large teams.

Oh well. Is your character male or female though? o.0
That might make a difference. When it's a half elf though you should always have one of the names (given or last) elvish, and the other ridiculously human, and indeed English (like Brown on Jones or Robertson).

Nothing like Elyuna Dickson of the Silver Moon, Essex to scare the wits out of an orcish horde.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell we should have quite a few people playing. And Suresh has said that it's going to be a bit less fighty than a lot of other games - it's set (for the most part) in a city from what I hear.

And I'm tending towards a female. I do like your idea of the whole combined name thing, though, it could be most amusing.