Trollbabe barrage of questions: help!

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Moreno,

A name can be given to an NPC during play. However, as you have perceived, this can lead to a potential clash of desires between player and GM, especially for characters who have been invented into play rather than prepared.

To avoid this problem, the GM really needs to be ready to name NPCs as soon as they are introduced. I think it will help if I clarify that an NPC's name does not have to be mentioned in play to be applicable! The GM simply has to have it written down.

Therefore there is no such status as "about to be named." The NPC has either received a name or it hasn't. If it hasn't, then the player can take that NPC as a Relationship at will, given the (generous) circumstances permitting, and there is nothing the GM can do about it. If it has, then the player can try to take that NPC as a Relationship, but the GM can say yes or no, and if it's no, then there's nothing the player can do about it.

In other words, there is no ambiguity and for damned sure, no negotiation about this issue during play. The GM simply does well not to let NPCs hover in an unnamed state while harboring doubts about whether this NPC should be allowed to become a Relationship. If you as GM have such doubts, then for fuck's sake, write down a name instantly. You're supposed to have a list of names handy, after all.

Best, Ron

[Moreno R.]

Hi Ron!

Thanks for the answers, now it's much clearer. I still have a couple of doubts, though.

1) let's say that, during the game, a character without a name become more important. The GM can changer his/her mind and assign the character a name?
2) what if the Trollbabe go to a character without a name and ask his/her name?
3) Tied to the two question above, and more in general: there is a exact correspondence between "this character's name is known in the fiction" and "this is a Named Character according to the rules", so that the first thing always cause the second, or they are different things?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Moreno,

1) let's say that, during the game, a character without a name become more important. The GM can changer his/her mind and assign the character a name?

Sure. "Nameless" isn't a fixed condition. It includes all conditions of not being named, including "I might name him if I care later." Be sure to write it down.

2) what if the Trollbabe go to a character without a name and ask his/her name?

If the character gets a name at that time, then he or she is named. It's binary: with a name, not with a name.

3) Tied to the two question above, and more in general: there is a exact correspondence between "this character's name is known in the fiction" and "this is a Named Character according to the rules", so that the first thing always cause the second, or they are different things?

I'm glad you asked that. There are two ways for a character to have a name.

i) The GM has a name written down in his or her notes for that character. In this case it does not matter whether that name has been used in the spoken fiction. Note again that the GM can write down the name, or more likely, assign that character a name from the name list, at any time before or during play.

ii) The character has been identified by name in the spoken fiction. In this case it does not matter whether that name is in the GM's notes; or to put it more clearly, by identifying a character by name in the spoken fiction, they automatically are considered to be named in the GM's notes.

Under all other circumstances, the character has no name. Satisfy (i) or (ii), and they have a name. Again, it's a binary condition with no grey area. There is no such thing as "I take a Relationship with the tiger," "Oh wait, I don't think that would happen, let me give the tiger a name, OK, you can't take the Relationship." The unnamed tiger is tagged as a Relationship as soon as the player says so, given that the proper circumstances have occurred (as they did in the example). Any necessary interaction to establish that Relationship  fictionally is then provided by the player, as it says in the rules.

Best, Ron

[Moreno R.]

Hi Ron!

ii) The character has been identified by name in the spoken fiction. In this case it does not matter whether that name is in the GM's notes; or to put it more clearly, by identifying a character by name in the spoken fiction, they automatically are considered to be named in the GM's notes.

This reminds me of a thing that happened the very first time we played Trollbabe: a player wanted to create a relationship with a guard, but only one of the guards present at the time was without name (there were none, but she "called" one into the scene using the narration of a reroll item). So what she did? She went to the guy, and as the very first thing she said "Hi! I'm xxxx, what's your Name?".  She had already stated that she wanted to find a relationship, but that was before the conflict, and she had still not declared that specific guy a relationship. After a lot of laugh around the table, I allowed the relationship anyway, but that created the running joke about trollbabes that usually ask the name of their relationship only "the morning after"...

(that was a lot of time ago, we still had not realized that she could have declared him a relationship even before saying the very first word to the guy...)