Eye the list of players online again, just to be sure I am seeing what I think I am.
Go do a policy check to see if anything has changed.
>help names
TorilMUD allows characters to have both first and last names. Each name must be suited to the race you are playing and any name that is not deemed acceptable by the Staff MUST be changed, regardless of whether it is a first OR last name. You must be level 20 to ask for a last name and have a valid player description.
Read HELP LAST NAMES if you are ready to request one.
There is extensive help for choosing first and last names. To access help for your race’s first name, type: HELP NAMES <race>
For help on choosing a last name for your character, type: HELP LASTNAME <race>
NOTE ON FIRST AND LAST NAMES:
Any character who does not have a name that is deemed appropriate by the Staff, WILL be asked to change it REGARDLESS of how long you have had the name. We are not perfect and some names DO slip past us.
On TorilMUD, choosing a name is more than just a means of identifying your character. We promote role playing on this MUD, and the name you create for for your character will directly reflect on that. For this reason, it is important that you choose a name that one might find in a fantasy world. Not a name that you have read in a book or heard on TV, but an original fantasy name that you have created in your own mind. Silly or unrealistic names do not belong in this world, and definitely don’t do much to promote role playing.
TorilMUD, unlike most MUDs, allows you to choose a first AND last name and this is one reason we have such stringent name criteria. Someone named “Hawkfist Willowbend” just doesn’t fit.
Unacceptable names:
- Silly or funny names. Examples: Gillywoper, Wooglewanper The only exceptions are the gnome and halfling races.
- Compound words. Examples: Lordfear, Hawkfist, Rainman
- Words, mispelled or not. Examples: Wynde, Windy, Wynter
- Name from books or television. Examples: Rand, Smaug
- No names or words backwards. Examples: Regnarami, Diurd, Samoht
- No famous names. Examples: Cher, Madonna, Billclinton
- Names that do not fit the race you are playing. Examples: An elf named Garagh or a dwarf named Theleindifel
- No words or names from other languages or cultures. This also includes oriental names.
- No oriental names or oriental sounding names. We do not have a “Far East” on TorilMUD as yet (with no immediate plans to add one) so such names are not allowed.
- No names from TSR, FR, or Tolkein spelled correctly or not. This falls under the names from books criteria, but it seems we have to indicate this as a separate item. Examples: Drizzt or Drizst, Crysania or Krisania, Frodo or Frodoh
This is a serious mud, one in which we are trying to create the most realistic world possible. Choosing a GOOD fantasy name will reflect better on how the Staff and the players on the mud relate to you.
Policy still in place, though the famous names… Cher, Madonna, Billclinton… might point at how old this help file is.
Double check on one race in particular.
>help names ogre
Ogres are rather unintelligent, hulking beasts that live in damp caves and tunnels. Their names are very simplistic and tend to have an “earthen” sound to them.
Ogres have a slightly better command of speech than their troll counter- parts, and thus their names are not as quite as harsh or gutteral. Their names are composed of one or two syllables and they are more likely to use such consonants as: “b”, “g”, “d”, the vowel “u”, and double consonant sounds such as: “mb” and “ng”
Examples: Mumba, Sungo, Blogg
Illegal: Urz, Ghurggr, Thukal, Grorrzaz
Ogres are still pretty much ogres.
Check the player listing again, just in case I misread it.
>who sort
Listing of the Mortals!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[50 Ill] Ellese (Drow Elf)
[50 Rog] Immiralee (Drow Elf)
[50 Cle] Rressor (Yuan-Ti)
[50 War] Warraz (Troll) (RP)
[50 Enc] Atesete (Drow Elf)
[47 Dru] Zouve (Half-Elf)
[44 A-P] Undil (Half-Orc)
[32 Rog] Malled (Human)
[27 Ctr] Kabos (Orc)
[20 War] Bootyluscious + Twerk-zerker + Tooth and Maw (Ogre)
[ 1 Bar] Katumi (Half-Elf)There are 11 mortal(s) on.
Total players online: 14.
Record number of players on this boot: 16.
No, there it is.
I admit to having had fun with the name generator in the past, but somehow I doubt that “Bootyluscious” came out of that. Plus there is the guild and title, which has to be applied by a game admin.
Of course, it might be just an admin having some fun, but it made me go “hrmm…”
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
I guess it just comes from playing Eve for so long but #8 …”No words or names from other languages or cultures. This also includes oriental names.” seems really narrow. I get they are trying to get a narrow focus for RP purposes but what exactly is the standard language and culture they DO accept? Language and cultural exclusivity can be a very bad thing depending.
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@Ragelle – The setting is Forgotten Realms, (something of a subset of it really) so appropriated to that. There used to be a monk class in the game, so that rule was pointed mostly at people creating monks and naming them in the Asian tradition. Since the monk class got dumped more than a decade ago, I am not sure that is even a big deal anymore.
A lot of the rules and help files are left over from the days of “You will play this game how we tell you to play it!” It has become a lot more relaxed since then.
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Some years ago when I went to check out the game, I used the name “Psychochild”. Got nabbed by an admin for that. I was just poking around, didn’t feel like picking a new name, so I just disconnected.
Yeah, how things have changed. :)
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Yeah… Psychochild isn’t exactly a fantasy roleplaying compatible name, so color me unsurprised that you got nabbed a couple years back. I’m pretty sure there was a long warning about naming when you made your character, which you chose to ignore. Good for them.
Now however, in the age of “Bootyluscious,” you might have a chance.
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Why is #3 an issue? Misspelled names? What’s wrong with Wynde, Wynter, Summa, Fahl? Who is to say what is a misspelling and what is not? You could argue that every word is every other word, only misspelled :)
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@Pia – I make no real claim of authority on the rule and why they exist, I just try to circumvent them when I can. (I had a character with the last name Telcontar because the admins didn’t know their Tolkien! Hah!)
But my guess is that the spelling clause is to give them a rule to cover kicking names they don’t like, but which have been camouflaged by mis-spelling. I had a couple of characters that were alternate spellings of things, but which seemed to fit in well enough so they were approved.
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@Willlhehlmn – why so much ado about names, anyway? I mean to that degree. I can see nothing overtly offensive or stolen from pop culture, but all the rest of it just seems unnecessarily controlling/asinine. JMTCW
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@Pia – Yes, because players never try to rule lawyer into getting their way on something they know violates the spirit of the rules. The answer to any “why do the rules get into this bizarre level of detail” question is “Have you visited the internet lately?”
That said, “controlling” was certainly the purpose. The goal in 1993 was to create a game for exactly one kind of play style and to smite all those who thought they could do otherwise. And, having been smote on a few occasions, I can tell you they were serious.
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It is also a free game, and you were playing the game by their rules, so you were free to go elsewhere if you wanted. It was basically the early version of “immersion.”
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In the example of illegal names for Ogres can you explain why “Urz” is given as an example of a name that wouldn’t be acceptable?
The gloss is “Their names are composed of one or two syllables and they are more likely to use such consonants as: “b”, “g”, “d”, the vowel “u”, and double consonant sounds such as: “mb” and “ng””.
Urz is a one-syllable name. That passes.
It uses the vowel “u”, which is “more likely”.
It doesn’t use the stated consonants or double consonants, but those also are only “more likely”, implying that other consonants and/or double consonant combos, while less likely, are still possible.
If I’d picked “Urz” as a name for an ogre I think I’d have felt quite aggrieved to have it struck down under those rules. It may not be the epitome of elegant ogreish nomenclature but to use it as an exemplar of bad practice seems almost perverse.
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@Bhagpuss – All I can imagine is that it might have to do with the one-time war on the letter Z.
There was a point in the distant past where a huge number of new characters were created with names that included the letter, to the point that the senior admin declared that, going forward, any name using that letter would be disallowed.
I had/have an ogre named Ufu.
Ogre name limitations are pretty minor compared to races like the Yuan-ti. I should run the help files for those as a post.
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Wilhelm wrote, “Psychochild isn’t exactly a fantasy roleplaying compatible name.”
Eh, I didn’t feel like coming up with a new name just to poke my head in. Plus, I can give a backstory where the name makes sense.
As others have said, they were trying to cultivate a specific atmosphere. Although, I’m sure some names in early D&D adventures would probably not have passed the human filters back in the day.
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