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Referring to Players and their characters.
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Dredwulf60
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 3:57 pm    Post subject: Referring to Players and their characters. Reply with quote

As a GM, do you talk to your players by their names or by their character names?

I'm pretty sure that everyone crosses over from one to the next, but what is more common?

For example, when narrating a scene I might say something like:

"You arrive at the spaceport; you see that there are many, many species all lining up to go through inspection. An imperial stormtrooper glances at you for a moment, then continues to scan the crowd. What do you want to do next?"

As opposed to:

"Rendo Darthkiller arrives at the space port; he sees that there are many, many species all lining up to go through inspection. An imperial stormtrooper glances at him for a moment, then continues to scan the crowd. What does he do next?"

Personally I tend to go with treating the player AS the character and saying 'you' this and that.

Another example, when calling out who goes next in initiative, I will typically say 'Darro' goes next, rather than 'Dave' goes next or 'Dave's character goes next.'
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It depends on what i am doing.. If narrating a scene say like
"Joh-zip, Ly-u'ann and Mareik arrive at the Hutt's palace, hoping to secure a meeting so they can get info, to aid in their rescue of their comrades" .
Martin, your character up front sees a large set, and rather clean looking Gammorean walking up to Joh'zip. What are you going to do?
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shootingwomprats
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a great questions!

In my games I encourage my players to speak in the first person as much as possible. When narrating actions I ask again that they speak in the first person.

When I respond to them in game, I call them by their character name. Narration is I use character names. In scenes a combination of character names and "you".

Hope that answers the question.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Referring to Players and their characters. Reply with quote

Dredwulf60 wrote:
As a GM, do you talk to your players by their names or by their character names?

I'm pretty sure that everyone crosses over from one to the next, but what is more common?

For example, when narrating a scene I might say something like:

"You arrive at the spaceport; you see that there are many, many species all lining up to go through inspection. An imperial stormtrooper glances at you for a moment, then continues to scan the crowd. What do you want to do next?"

As opposed to:

"Rendo Darthkiller arrives at the space port; he sees that there are many, many species all lining up to go through inspection. An imperial stormtrooper glances at him for a moment, then continues to scan the crowd. What does he do next?"

Personally I tend to go with treating the player AS the character and saying 'you' this and that.

Another example, when calling out who goes next in initiative, I will typically say 'Darro' goes next, rather than 'Dave' goes next or 'Dave's character goes next.'
shootingwomprats wrote:
In my games I encourage my players to speak in the first person as much as possible. When narrating actions I ask again that they speak in the first person.

When I respond to them in game, I call them by their character name. Narration is I use character names. In scenes a combination of character names and "you".

I'm with you guys. I tend to refer to the players as the characters while the game is in session and do say 'you' to them. Now I don't expect players to necessarily speak in first person when describing what they're characters are doing, but some players do.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have shifted away from using first person narrative in character to almost exclusively using third person narrative.
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Volar the Healer
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 11:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I almost always refer to the players by their character's name. It seems to help people stay in character.
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Dredwulf60
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Volar the Healer wrote:
I almost always refer to the players by their character's name. It seems to help people stay in character.


I agree. I found that when I didn't use the character names often, then the players didn't either. The end result was guys that went through adventure after adventure together...and yet when asked the name of a teammate's character, there was a long pause and shuffle of paper as they attempted to look it up.

Not cool.
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dph
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PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Always the character... I try and get my players to do that too!
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