Blind Old Tom, yes or no?

Rule Clarifications Questions
1

BoT

I knew it would happen, I just didn’t think it would happen like this.

I’ve played Blind Old Tom on the servers for about a week now. I can’t find this rule about descriptors, “titles or honorifics” maybe but isn’t that generally applied to names like “Captain Tom” or “Quartermaster Tom”? Either way I think the name is in character, in the same way that the janitor in your office building has been around for so long that “people just call him Steve.” It’s not his Diona name (ask him what it is if he survives this) but that’s not the name Tom would want to go by anyway. He’s old, he’s over the frivolous cultural formality, he just wants to be called Tom.

More to the point, the spirit of the rules seem to be designed to weed out low roleplay characters or people who want to troll and break the suspension of disbelief for everyone else. Tom isn’t trolling or low effort, he requires an awful lot of effort to play. Not only by staying in character all the time or playing blind, I’ve gone above and beyond to ensure that the character is not being a pest (the full list of Tom’s rules can be found here https://www.reddit.com/r/ss14/comments/1d8feax/ive_been_changed_by_blind_old_tom/). Note that this post was made around a week ago, I’ve been thinking about all of this stuff ever since I brought his gnarled hide into this world. It seems to be working (https://www.reddit.com/r/ss14/comments/1datwxw/some_of_the_best_rp_ive_had_blind_old_tom/), I’ve had some incredible interactions with people, but whenever I find someone who doesn’t like Tom I make sure to leave them alone. This is everyone’s game, and everyone has a different idea of what’s fun.

So as a secondary question and to insulate Tom against further problems if he survives this, I’d like to clarify: “Is the concept of Blind Old Tom too much for SS14?” Tom is the most fun I’ve had playing the game and I think he personifies the spirit of it by being “chaotic in a good way.” That’s a fine line, it’s a subjective one. While I stick by some self-imposed rules I can see other players blowing up chemistry and saying “I was just role-playing, I’m blind!” It must be a nightmare for admins, I really do respect that. But please, if anything judge Tom by his actions and not by his bloody name as soon as he gets off the shuttle.

4 Likes
2

So, we have for a long time now been telling people that Titles, Honorifics and Numericals are not to be used in character names.

The reasoning behind this being, Nobody is actually called “Old man” or “Blind” such and such on their birth certificate.

Chief Engineer, One of our Head-Admins gave this response to a person in Admin questions recently.

Essentially, what his response says is.

“It’s not against the rules for the HoP to change your ID to include titles and stuff. It is currently against the rules (with a grey area because there’s a possible admin interpretation thing) to have titles/honorifics in any names, including clowns”

An ID Card may actually have titles or Honorifics that state Rank, Mr, Mrs, Dr, MD and so on, but you yourself would not have that as an actual part of your name.

At present, Our naming rules do not clearly reflect this as Chief engineer mentions in this reply.

This is being worked on and discussed by the admin team to attempt to bring about a concise and clear guideline to what is not acceptable, and what is.

However I can say that “Blind Old” Would not fit into the naming rules at present, due to not actually being a reasonable name for a person to have. Tom is fine as long as you provide a last name/Surname, You could even Describe him as old, and give the blind trait to him.

You can actually set your character’s age, and make them blind, thus when people examine you, it would give the description “He is an elderly Human. His eyes are glazed over, he appears blind”

Your Character name should be Their Actual name and not a nickname or Psudonym.

I hope you find this helpful.

~ Ryan / Honkzee.

3

That seems sort of arbitrary and restrictive. Arbitrary because lizards are an entire race of descriptors, it’s okay for a “Makes-the-Chems” to exist but not “Dan the Chemist” and it’s okay for me to be called “Blind Old Tom” but only if I get the HoP to change my name at the start of every single round and make sure I ping an admin to say “by the way I got HoP to change my name so it’s cool don’t ban please.” Restrictive because people go by names that aren’t their real ones all the time. it’s not even uncommon for a Young [name] and Old [name] to exist in the same workplace as an affectionate way of distinguishing the two.

What purpose does the exclusion of these informal names serve? Players don’t seem to care that there’s a “Honky the Clown,” RPers want the ability to create characters that don’t go by a birth certificate name. From a gameplay perspective it helps you immediately grok who a character is (and I still regularly have people who don’t realize I’m blind even when it’s in my name and I’m walking around with a cane) and those names often fit the character better than their “real names.” Surely Space Station 14 isn’t such a serious game that we’re all expected to play a perfectly normal individual doing perfectly mundane things?

This makes me genuinely upset. I created a character that changed the game for me and injected a form of excitement into it that I haven’t felt in months. I’ve had other players telling me that the character is great and has been some of the best roleplay they’ve experienced. But we aren’t allowed names that are informal because?

1 Like
4

https://wiki.spacestation14.io/wiki/Server_Rules#Use_realistic_character_names,_and_do_not_use_names_of_famous_people
Our naming rules recently changed during the most recent rules rewrite. see Conventions and Examples on this section of the rules.

While the Nouns-the-verb naming style is typically the Lizard naming style, it is allowed by all species now aswell as other naming styles from other species.

It may not be uncommon for “old man jenkins” and “young jenkins” to be referenced in a workplace but that’s interpersonal stuff. Your character name is the “legal name” of your character, not what everyone calls you at work.

Clowns and mimes get extra wiggle room with the naming rules due to being stage actors where being called “Daniel Smithson” or the like really wouldn’t fit, but “Mr. Slips” would.

5

I know the rule, I just don’t understand why it exists. Or at least why it’s as restrictive as it is.

I get why you don’t want to open the floodgates and allow all the examples in the rules. I don’t think this is that. “Blind Old Tom” aids roleplay in the same way “Poisons-the-Chems” does. No one would realistically be called either, but you can look at that name and immediately get a sense of the character. It fits that sort of character. You don’t have to stop and say “I know I’m called Phantom of Sight but actually my nickname is Blind Old Tom and I’ve embraced that nickname because my character is a blue-collar worker with dementia who treats the formalities of his culture with apathy because he’s lived for 120 years and at this point he’s about as self-concious as a patient with ssd.” All that information can be said with a nickname. It’s better for players and it’s better for roleplay.

Is there a world in which we can allow those sorts of nicknames when they make sense without it ruining the game? Or is a character’s legal name that important?

6

Cheif Engineer said that before the rule fixes that added the exception to clowns and mimes.

7

The reason is that you are working at a job in space. It would be like applying for a real life job, but instead of your full legal name “John Smith” you put “John the Barbarian”. " Blind Old Tom" would be a colloquial communal name that perhaps colleagues or close friends would refer to you as, but it wouldn’t make much sense for it to be part of what would be your characters full legal name.

1 Like
8

Sure, but this isn’t Star Trek, it’s the funny Spaceman game where we grow guns on a plant. Why are we treating it so seriously that you can’t even have an in-character nickname and why does it apply to the extent of LRP?

The players there don’t care that these characters exist. No one’s immersion is being destroyed because they encountered Officer Hardbastard when the next interaction they have is with a zombified clown. No one cares what your character’s birth certificate says.

Why take away the fun? Why do it when it hurts roleplay? There’s no benefit to it beyond enforcing a degree of arbitrary normalcy in one of the least normal games ever made.

9

If everything were “wacky and zany” then nothing would be. The normalcy is what makes the “funny spaceman game” funny. This has nothing to do with Star Trek. And this doesn’t harm roleplay when the rule applies to everyone. Everyone has a normal full name. LRP means no wacky names.
If everyones name were ridiculous it detracts from a round in a heavy way rather than actually lets people get into the roleplay. Crazy names also tend to lead to people protagonizing themselves where they will want to be the center of attention, despite the nature of the game.

10

The popular opinion I’ve gotten from this seems to be that these names are harmless or funny, not that they detract from the round in any way. Everything I’ve experienced as the character suggests that it has enhanced other peoples’ roleplay. If it is a problem then disallow nicknames on MRP servers, or give us the ability to define a full name for a character and a nickname that we prefer to be called. LRP allows behaviour that is out of character, shouldn’t we be allowed names that are in-character?

I completely agree that protags will name their characters something insane and cause a ruckus. Wouldn’t it be more comprehensive to moderate the behavior, not the name? You’re not going to stop the protags by making them name their characters differently, but you do stop well-meaning players from adding something interesting to the game.

But I’ve said my piece, that’s all there is. I can take Tom elsewhere and not disrupt anyone, or have him change his name at the HoP’s office.

I don’t want to end it on that sour note though. I want to say that I think being an admin or a mod is hard and even when I disagree with you I think you’ve all done a fantastic job with the game. People’s passion is a reflection of how much they care, and you’ve built a game that people care about. You’ve taken Space Station’s predeccessor and made it an accessible, safe place for everyone to have fun in. That’s incredible. I mean it, genuinely, when I say thank you for all you’ve done.