Using True Names In Elf Games

“But what of True Names? Almost every culture has some variation of this concept somewhere in their folklore and if you are familiar with fantasy literature (and if you aren’t: who are you and how did you find this post?), you are already acquainted with the concept. If you aren’t or if you’d just want a refresher with an emphasis on how it’s appeared in D&D and the fiction that inspired it, I recommend this post (including the comment section) from Dreams in the Lich House. While you’re already doing background reading, this post from Roll to Doubt is also worth checking out in emphasizing the power of True Names.”

“True Names are difficult to translate (without baking it into the system itself) for two main reasons: (1) learning a True Name is a bit of a “guess what’s in the GM’s pocket” game, and (2) once you have the True Name, it is very powerful for an ongoing campaign. I say it’s a Guess What’s In My Pocket problem because how else do you learn the True Name? Sure, you may have to go on an epic quest through hell to find the talisman it is inscribed upon, which is better than some research montage at the local library during downtime, but that still feels very linear and referee-directed to me in practice. Once you find whatever you’re looking for, presto, you have the True Name. Or even worse, the GM may just give it to you outright by having you overhear the imp stupidly singing a song about how their True Name is Rumpelstiltskin (which, by the way, translates roughly to “wrinkled foreskin”). And once you have the True Name, you basically can control or destroy that entity. There is a reason in most of the fairy tales about True Names, the protagonist learning the True Name sets up the climax of the story. Roleplaying games aren’t actually stories (they may produce stories) so what works in a story may not work in an ongoing campaign. “