The Superfluous Name Thread

[Jason of the Fraternity]

This type of thread has been done a hundred times before, and I am sure that it will be done a hundred times again. However, you were prewarned with the title (i.e. it did read The Superfluous Name Thread).

What, if anything, is the origin of your member name? Do you use the name of a favorite PC/NPC from one of your games? Did you find your name in some sort of book or movie? Or perhaps you just picked some random words that sounded good at the time?

Please share some of your story with us. Oh, and don't mind the shadowy figure in the corner. He's just writing down the names for...um...our Christmas card mailing list. Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Jason of the Fraternity]

My handle, Jason of the Fraternity, is very easy to explain. My name is Jason, and I am a member of the Fraternity of Shadows.

The reason why I chose the name is due to a collective dicision within the Fraternity members to create names that we easy to recognize and more professional in appearance.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

My name is simple enough, but only those who frequented the Kargatane some 5 or 6 years back will remember it's origins. I was known as The Lost Wiccan when I first joined the message boards over at SotK, quite the mouthful so some of the regulars began to call me Wiccy, even when I changed my handle to The Lost Hedgewitch (and for 1 day when it was Brain Spider) I was still called Wiccy by others. The name stuck and is recognisable to alot of people, so I took it as the first part of the FoS name.

[Stygian Inquirer]

My name, the Stygian Inquirer came from a series a titles I was given.

For some reason or another, everyone I know (and even some I don't) seem to tell me everything (whether I want to know it or not). And I tend to pick up seemingly random and obscure pieces of information that eventually comes in handy. So that is where the Inquirer part came from.

As for the Stygian part, Stygian means "from the River Styx". And many people say that I am the devil incarnate or that I am related to him in some way shape or form (Who Told Them!!!!! lol). The whole devil thing comes up (I hope) from my mysteriously good luck that seems to always be there when I need it (Devil's Own Luck, go figure). Whatever the reason, Stygian comes from the fact that people believe that I am from that part of the world lol.

[Jester of the FoS]

I was Jester here originally and on the SotK board. It's my regular net-name that I have been using since around '96 during games of Quake.

Now I'm David of the Frat(ernity) due to promotion, however the message board limits the length of my name for some reaons...

[Tommy Brownell]

Ever see that old show with Jon Cryer, The Famous Teddy Z? No? Me either...but the name jumped back at me about a year or so ago...and my name is Tommy, SO...what better nickname than an obscure TV reference?

[Joël of the FoS]

My handle, Jason of the Fraternity, is very easy to explain. My name is Jason, and I am a member of the Fraternity of Shadows.

The reason why I chose the name is due to a collective dicision within the Fraternity members to create names that we easy to recognize and more professional in appearance.

*lol*

Thanks Jason for the precision (I was thinking we were all really lucky to have similar names)

[Gwynplaine]

I have been using this online persona ever since I joined the wonderful world of computers about six years ago.
I am and have been and will always be a classic Horror movie buff, and by classic I mean the old silent black & while jobs on through the "talkies" and even the redone color classics that Hammer put out so long ago.
I've been playing D&D ever since I was a rug-monkey & when the classic Ravenloft adventure first came out much later in the game, I was as happy as a "gaming geek" could ever be. Here was something that combined the two things that I loved most of all:
tabletop fantasy gaming & classic horror.... I was in my element!
You can imagine how I felt when I went to my local gaming store one day and discovered that they has made a whole gaming world out of my favorite [and most run] module - I thought that my prayers had been answered.
*ahem*
Anyway - sorry about the rambeling, I guess you folks just caught me in a "chatty" mood. Back to this whole name thing...
Gwynplaine is the name of a character in a classic movie called "The Man Who Laughs". It's about a child who is disfigured by gypsies to look as if he is smiling all the time - and grows up to become a clown in a circus who later finally finds love in the form of a blind girl who knows him only for his personally. It's quite a touching story, if your into the whole "tragic romance" thing & I took it as a online handle for quite a few reasons....
least of which is the fact that I too have a scar on my face that I recived as a young lad & of course my love of classic Horror, among other reasons.

Well, and there you have it - the whole long drawn out reason why I am Gwynplaine, you should see all the trouble this name causes on some boards -
for some reason people think it's a girls name & e-mail/private message me with all kinds of wacky stuff.

I'm flattered and all, but I don't swing from that side of the plate...

[Oh yeah, this is also why I end every message with a smiley face - being Gwyn I just can't help but smile all the time, even if my mood dictates otherwise]

& now you know, was it worth it??

[Jason of the Fraternity]

Thanks Jason for the precision

No worries, Joel! I would have been more flowery in my explanations, but my posts have been rather concise as I've been trying to catch up from being gone most of the last four weeks.

I was thinking we were all really lucky to have similar names

I don't know about luck, but I think it adds a really nice touch.

[Charney]

Well, when I joined the Kargatane a few years back my name was Charneka the Gypsy, name of an NPC in my games. Like Wiccy, it was shortened to Charney by forum users so I stuck to it.

[Jester of the FoS]

The Man who Laughs, wasn't that the movie that inspired Bill Finger and Bob Kane to make the Joker?

[Dominique]

My name is from a really fun homebrew domain that my brother used to great effect in his RL campaign and that I eventually hope to slip into one of mine. He modelled the domain lord after Demona from Gargoyles and ran with it; it was a 10th-century Scotland themed domain, the entire population was human, and Demona's curse was that she had been transformed into a human as well. (I especially liked the way she closed the borders; if anyone tried to go through her closed borders, they had to make a Fortitude save at an increasing DC every few feet or be petrified until she opened the borders again.) Since the name of her human persona on the show was Dominique Destine, she permanently adopted the name Dominique so that she could keep some part of her gargoyle identity untainted by her new human form. Fun stuff.

[William Blackmoor]

My name is taken from a Npc I use in my campaign.
William Blackmoor was modelled in apperance after Spike (a.k.a. William the Bloody) from Buffy. He is a kargat werewolf who killed his love, a naive monsterhunteress, who in turn "cursed" him to be good. Now "Good William" (or "Will" to some) is a knight-herald of Darkon serving his king well (mostly by looking after some troublesome adventurers).

[Malus Black]

Malus does not, in fact, come from Malus Sceleris, but from Malus Darkblade, of Warhammer fame. And Black? Well, it's, you know, a color, and I like the sound of it. It really isn't more complicated than that.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Malus does not, in fact, come from Malus Sceleris, but from Malus Darkblade, of Warhammer fame. And Black? Well, it's, you know, a color, and I like the sound of it. It really isn't more complicated than that.

I had a feeling you;d taken the Malus from the Warhammer character