Story behind your Screen Name

[Lord Gwydion]

Gwydion, a Fighter, was named after the character of the same name in Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. I didn't know it at the time (I was 11 when I got the Mentzer Basic Set), but the character was named after a Welsh god.

Anyway, Gwydion was the first of several characters I created that survived to second level. Eventually, he became a Baron at Name Level, and worked his way up into the 20's for level and to Count as a title before my graduating high school and going to college a six hour drive away from my friends effectively killed the campaign.

When I started posting at the WotC message boards in the dying days of 2E, I chose the name in honor of that first surviving character of mine and have stuck with it on the gaming related message boards I frequent.

[crimhthanthegreat]

Crimhthan, a Paladin, was named for Crimhthan the Great a king of Ireland. I started playing him in 1976 and he made it up to 12th level and then I retired him by leading an army into a lawful kingdom where the royal family had been murdered and a chaotic ursurper was abusing the whole country. I deposed and executed him and his henchman and was crowned King and retired as a player mostly.

[ffilz]

My story is so boring, well sort of... Because I use a common method of contracting my real name for a screen name (ffilz for Frank Filz).

But when I first started involving myself in online social groups I used a handle. This was on a chat system in college (that operated only on the mainframe). One time someone guessed who I was and that scared me a bit. But some time later, they added an ability to link your chat id to a text file on your mainframe account. Many people put their real names, majors, and all sorts of other biographical info. Then a group of people started to maintain an invite only chat area for those who had real bios. And then someone invited everyone over to share a big pot of pea soup she had made. And thereafter, I realized that by using a real identity, rather than being dangerous, it actually opened doors to real community.

And a year or two later, when I started to use BBS systems, I started using ffilz as my id. And I've never stepped back from that except where anonymity is truly necessary. And due to the uniqueness of my name, go just about anywhere, and ffilz is almost certainly me (except when an id needs to be more than 5 characters, then I might be ffilz1 or something like that, or when my main e-mail account started to get poisoned by spam and I switched to an alternate ID I had been using for a few listserves, ffilz-lists).

But I did use a handle in that chat system, and it was the name of an NPC from one of my games, little-o (a powerfull, ok, overpowerfull deus ex machina type - bad bad GM..., name sort of a dig on another guy's powerfull NPC, The Big-O (I think the NPCs actual name was Ormond, the players nick named him the Big-O)).

Frank Filz

[murquhart72]

My dad always used to call me Matt Jon (my first and middle names). When I first got online and tried getting a Yahoo! account, believe it or not, mattjon was taken! Offended, I informed everyone online that I was THE Matt Jon. There you go...

[Thulean]

Beneath the Earth is the title of a Stormcrow song...i just stole it from them.

[Finarvyn]

My real name is Marv (or Marvin) and a guy at work kept calling me Mar-fin, and later just Fin. When I came up with a screen name, I wanted something that sounded somewhat Tolkien elvish and Marvin became Finarvyn.

[philotomy]

My normal screen name is Philotomy Jurament, which should be familiar to most old-school D&D players. Here, it's just Philotomy, for short.

[calithena]

Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter and Beek Gwenders of Croodle warn you that you're talkin' AD&D with all that. Just passing it on.

Calithena was my first AD&D character - I had three OD&D characters before her but she was the one that really stuck, so I've maintained her name as my online alter-ego.

[Rhuvein]

Rhuvein is a variant spelling of my Hebrew name Reuven (Reuben - old testament) and is actually a closer pronunciation.

I created the name when signing up with AOL in '94. Reuven was taken and their recommendation - Reuven2 or 3 didn't grab me.

Count Rhuveinus (wizard/fighter) is an occasional NPC is my current campaign/game.

[tgamemaster1975]

I am almost always the Ref or DM and if we play board game I am usually the banker or whatever, so I have kind of been knicknamed The Game Master with my friends over the years so I chose Tgamemaster1975 with the 1975 being when I started playing OD&D when I chose my screen name.

[Deleted]

"Kyrel" is the name of one of the reader's companions in Endless Quest #16: The Dragon's Ransom.

[meepo]

Like many D&D players, I tried out 3rd edition when it was released. Before I became disenchanted with the system and came running back to my beloved classic D&D, one of the three adventures I ran was WotC's first released module, The Sunless Citadel. It was an OK adventure, highlighting the strengths (and many weaknesses, of course) of the system, but one thing that stuck with my group was the NPC of Meepo, the kobold. He became a companion of the party, often times acting as a guide through the dungeon and occasionally my comedy relief when such a thing was needed, and finally somehow became my online persona.

Googling the word 'meepo', I see that I wasn't alone in my experiences...

[Deleted]

Oswald Bastable is a temporally displaced Victorian British officer who served in India. He is doomed to temporal exile from his own time stream. He might also be incarnation of the Enternal Champion.

You can read about his adventures In Moorcock's "The Warlord of the Air", "The Land Levithan" and "The Steel Tsar".

[thorswulf]

Thorswulf is my respelling of a character's name. Thorswolf was a Dwarven fighter my buddy George ran. George doesn't have the greatest of imaginations when coming up with character names, so I suggested Thorswolf to him. For some strange reason that name just kept sitting in the back of my head all these years. Thorswolf was a d**n hard Dwarf to kill, and cheated death numerous times.

[Deleted]

Mine is a character in some Roger Zelazny stories. He is an elf with an iron horse and boots of total quiet. I like elves.

[korgoth]

Korgoth is a barbarian from Barbaria. He comes from the frozen north and merciless savagery may be his only key to survival in a dark future. He's what you would get if you set out to design a fictional barbarian warrior and said to yourself "I want him to be similar to Conan, except not such a wussy little girl."

Even though he's from the future, he had his own cartoon show. Well, a pilot, anyway. I thought they were going to do a whole show, but it's possible that plan got eaten by savage radioactive zombie mutants.

[serendipity]

korgoth said:

Korgoth is a barbarian from Barbaria. He comes from the frozen north and merciless savagery may be his only key to survival in a dark future. He's what you would get if you set out to design a fictional barbarian warrior and said to yourself "I want him to be similar to Conan, except not such a wussy little girl."

Hey! I object, on behalf of women bodybuilders, people who are impressed with Conan as he is, and, um, anyone who is little.

[Stonegiant]

serendipity said:

korgoth said:

Korgoth is a barbarian from Barbaria. He comes from the frozen north and merciless savagery may be his only key to survival in a dark future. He's what you would get if you set out to design a fictional barbarian warrior and said to yourself "I want him to be similar to Conan, except not such a wussy little girl."

Hey! I object, on behalf of women bodybuilders, people who are impressed with Conan as he is, and, um, anyone who is little.

Trust me being Tall ain't no walk in the park Just check out the prices of extra tall clothing Being 6'7" has cost me more money than I have ever made for being tall and don't get me started on low ceilings with ceiling fans!!

[thorswulf]

Amen to that Brother! I can not count the number of times I whacked my skull on something to low! And clothes prices, I mean I may be abig guy, but that don't mean my wallet is! I'm 6'6" myself.

[serendipity]

Er, I probably should have been more clear, but the intent of my earlier post was actually to object, in an amusing manner, to the use of the phrase "wussy little girl."

As for the height issue, I sympathize and emphathize, guys. I'm only 5'9", but considering women's clothing is made for people who are 5'4", I have the same challenge as you. Add to that the fact that I'm super-slim so everything that is miraculously long enough is miles too wide, and I can forget ever shopping for anything in person. Mind, I don't have the problem with ceiling fans--though I've run into my share of mobiles and other hanging ornaments.

[korgoth]

serendipity said:

Er, I probably should have been more clear, but the intent of my earlier post was actually to object, in an amusing manner, to the use of the phrase "wussy little girl."

Yeah, girls are so tough what with their bunny rabbit avatars and all. ;D

I guess since my persona is "korgoth of barbaria" I could have just claimed to have been speaking in character. Though I'd have to work on my Diedrich Bader voice. Time to go watch Office Space a few more times!

[serendipity]

lol. I'll have you know his gentle demeanor lulls his victims into a false sense of security right before he attacks with nasty, big, pointy teeth. He has a vicious streak a mile wide, does the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

[Finarvyn]

serendipity said:

He has a vicious streak a mile wide, does the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

An EXALT for you. It took 2000 posts before we got our first Monty Python reference! ;D

[makofan]

I used to write Sailor Moon fanfiction (I kid you not). Since I was a fan of Sailor Jupiter (first name 'Makoto'), I was a Makofan. Since it seems to be unique on all forums, I still use it 10 years later as I know it won't be taken.

[makofan]

I had to exalt Dilvish. I loved the Dilvish the d**ned novel

[greentongue]

Forums are a form of writing and "storytelling,"
they use language, otherwise known as "tongues,"
someone who is new at things is considered "green."

When I first opened an account on RPoL for a PbP game, I had never done that sort of gaming before so ...
GreenTongue is what I used.
Once I had picked it, there seemed no reason not to use it on other sites. (the caps have since been dropped.)

It also doesn't hurt that I luv'ed Green Apple Stix growing up.
(A flat strip of green hard candy that stained your tongue.)
=

[jdrakeh]

I suck. It's the first initial of my first name and the last initial of my last name, both serving as bookends for my middle name.

[coffee]

I was registering on another site and the time came to pick a screen name. I was growing tired of the ones I had been using (and/or one of them was taken; I forget which).

While I tried to think of a name, I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

[crimhthanthegreat]

Great stories folks, I for one would love to see more people post there story to this thread. ;D

[doc]

The story behind my screen name? Are you sure you want to hear? Brace yourselves; it's complex:

I'm a doctor.

Shocking, isn't it?



Doc