What's In a Name...

What's in a Name?

You'd think it's pretty simple for players (and their game masters) to remember names of the important characters in your weekly action packed, politically intriguing, masterpiece fiction that is the role-playing game, right?

Not so much.

It's surprising how easily, quickly or just carelessly our minds skip and forget the epic hero sitting to our left or the dastardly villain starring us down across the table, right?  It's not quite that simple though - that epic hero, that dastardly villain... They're not sitting beside us. Their name was mentioned in passing when the scene description was given or in best case scenario, when they introduced themselves to our own player character. So it's an unfortunate happenstance that we might forget their name. It's no one's fault after all, I force myself to play name games at parties or business meetings to remember that very important real life person so it's completely understandable to forget a fictional character that may or may not be someone we look back on fondly in years to come as part of our epic tale.

It's reasonable to forget your fellow player character's names. It's a given that we won't remember all of the dozens of non-player characters that are trotted out weekly by the game master. But that doesn't make it something to aspire to. I feel that one of the strongest connections to a fictional world is through the illusion of disbelief that most game players are open to give when playing the game and helping tell the story. One of the best ways to achieve that connection is remembering a strong name. It's the onus of the player or game master to imagine and present a memorable name for their characters. And you might think that it's on the player (or game master) to commit to memory that name. It's certainly a great comfort when a player remembers names or takes notes to help their recall but there's a few other tricks that I'd like to suggest to game masters that can aid in that recall and hammer home any imagery, story advancement or symbology the name might conjure.

A natural way to aid in having character names committed to memory is to make a strong effort to call each character by their names as much as possible. Instead of asking:  "Karl what do you do this round?" ask "Karl what does Thornwolf do?"  or better still  "Okay Karl - Thornwolf is up, is he gonna bark all day or bite!". Encourage players to 'get in-character' anytime they talk to another player character. Suggest that they call one another by name. In fact, a fun trick to remembering those names further is to ask them or have non-player characters begin calling characters by nicknames or partial names such as:  "Wolfus"  or  "Mr. Thorn".

As mentioned above, an addition to calling characters by name is to develop character personalities that refer to their fellow characters by nicknames. nicknames are a natural fun part of the way people interact with one another. Encourage and create useful nicknames that seem appropriate for characters and use them regularly. For example:  a younger character might refer to your character as  "Mr. Wolf" or comment  "certainly, Thornwolf sir".  Whereas a disrespectful non-player character might come up with nicknames that slam on the character such as:  "Big Bad Wolfy-wolf"  or  "Fur Face".  Whatever the nickname, however the use plan to be distinct by being consistent with your naming slang. Don't accidentally resort to just any non-player character referring to a character like Thornwolf as "Fur Face", that is UNTIL it becomes common in the game world.  Much like "Spidey" is a common nickname for Spiderman! Encourage use of names by giving nicknames!

This is a picture of my 'initiative board' tracker.

Finally, another excellent trick for aiding in memory recall of names for each character is to be diligent in writing down the name for all players to see and use.  One method is to make small table-tents to sit in front of each player with their character's name on it.  This is a handy method but can become a little cumbersome as multiple game sessions continue. My preference is to create and use an 'initiative board'.  This board can be as simple as a wipe board sitting up in view for all players at the table.  I like to use a magnetic board with small magnet-backed laminated cards which I can record names, races, classes and initiative scores as I like. I then post the player character's on the board in full view and anytime primary characters  (including non-player characters - both friend and foe,  as well as minions, co-horts or followers of the player character's)  as they come in-scene  or  are mentioned in a highlighted way.

I'm sure there are more tricks, and I will add as I think of more.  But these are simple and effective methods of recalling names as a player or game master. Using these tricks will further every player's connection to the story and advance the enjoyment and interest as players kibitz in and out of game, worrying and wondering the next dastardly move of DOC CHRONULUS  or  that bastard traitor elf ARGETHIEL.

Names are so much more important than we think they are to advancing the story and aiding in our suspension of disbelief.  But for it to work best, as the leader of the group and game master - YOU have to believe it will work. I promise it will if you don't give up and continue with consistency!  Give it a whirl!!  What do you have to lose?

-kev-
"...with great power..."