Unfair character names

[ColinForbes]

Hi everyone,
Having talking to a couple of people playing games over in the US of A,
I'm somewhat concerned by an apparent spate of what I would regard as
unfair character names. for instance naming a character "Dark Servant
Male" or "Free People Female" seems to be an attempt to abuse the basic
game system. I wondered what people (notably Clint!) thought about this
sort of thing?

Colin.

[Harlequin Games]

Um - well I chatted to some players about this. Generally any use of the
Game system to gain an advantage which is not inherent in the game is
frowned upon, if not actually banned by us.

For example some players feel that having characters named using the
beginning of the alphabet (or end) gains an advantage. (eg AAAAA or ZZZZZZZ)
As far as we have been able to ascertain this is not the case so we have
allowed this to continue.

Anyone attempting to use such names Dark Servant Male etc would not be
entered and a random name chosen from the program. It is against the spirit
of the game.

Note - a tactical advantage gained from hard experience, good planning or
just good luck is strongly encouraged! :-) Sometimes the line is very
gray - in such circumstances please get in touch and we will chat to a few
players and get a straw poll - then put up a ruling such as this one - wait
for any discussion this brings (we cannot contact everyone, and sometimes
things seem to be self evident - although we have been proved wrong about
that in the past) and then alter the ruling (with due consideration) as
appropriate.

I hope this helps - if there is anything you want to discuss please get in
touch.

Clint
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-----Original Message-----
From: ColinForbes <timewyrm@...>
To: mepbmlist (AT) onelist (DOT) com <mepbmlist (AT) onelist (DOT) com>
Date: 24 August 1999 21:08
Subject: [mepbmlist] Unfair character names

>From: ColinForbes <timewyrm@...>
>
>Hi everyone,
>Having talking to a couple of people playing games over in the US of A,
>I'm somewhat concerned by an apparent spate of what I would regard as
>unfair character names. for instance naming a character "Dark Servant
>Male" or "Free People Female" seems to be an attempt to abuse the basic
>game system. I wondered what people (notably Clint!) thought about this
>sort of thing?
>
>Colin.
>

[Martin]

In message <37C2F9F2.72AC0ED7@...>, ColinForbes
<timewyrm@...> writes
>From: ColinForbes <timewyrm@...>
>
>Hi everyone,
>Having talking to a couple of people playing games over in the US of A,
>I'm somewhat concerned by an apparent spate of what I would regard as
>unfair character names. for instance naming a character "Dark Servant
>Male" or "Free People Female" seems to be an attempt to abuse the basic
>game system. I wondered what people (notably Clint!) thought about this
>sort of thing?
>
>Colin.
>
Not one I'd heard of, but perhaps I hadn't noticed.
Was there not some requirement to keep names in the spirit of the game
I think the above names should make the order fail

>
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Martin

[Harlequin Games]

Um - one of the things that I have noticed having GMed for a while now (in
many games) is that what is fine for one player is considered totally out of
order for another. There is no easy solution to this - just tolerance in
some circumstances and asking the GM to sort it out is generally easiest.
We won't making the order fail but will not allow the character names to go
through as they stand.

Clint

>Not one I'd heard of, but perhaps I hadn't noticed.
>Was there not some requirement to keep names in the spirit of the game
>I think the above names should make the order fail

>Martin