My real name:

[Krell Himmler]

From a chain of events one person forgot that they don't know my characters name and then this person passed it on to others, whom believed that they heard it legitimately. I understand when people forget, but please when I remind you that you DON'T know my name, please accept that and don't argue....IF I ever told you, I assure you that I won't deny it. I have written down every instance I have told a person my real name and so far that is to one person, I deliberately wrote it every single time to ensure I would know who and when and to attempt to avoid it spreading around from one person forgetting.

So just a friendly reminder to remember that I havn't told anyone my name, I know you will all understand and remember this.

I also politely ask people to remember the message about characters in disguise.....if I am dressed and acting differently a character will not instantly know who I am and so will not be able to associate all alias's with my character, now I know this can become tedius, but if you are unsure of the disguise at the time and if it has changed I'm always happy to let you know if you send me a tell or failing that, a PM on the forum whether my disguise has changed recently and such forth.

I hope people forgive my public message but the name and association of alias's has spread out far and I was hoping that by posting here that the people, whom I believe are more than reasonable will be happy to remember this and correct any mistakes.

Thanks,
Matt

[miltonyorkcastle]

When you say "my name" you're actually referring to your character's name, yes? (or do you go around using aliases in real life, too?)

[LordCove]

One thing I remember from Rhynn was her well-advised-to-other players skill in illusion, which she often requested GM's aid with. A few times I recall her posting as Rhynn, but being something else ( ie... a halfling, a young boy) and once I recall her wandering Hempstead actually in appearance as a young girl.
Another clever one she did was storm off after a conversation. Sall followed and lost her around a corner... only to find she had "never" actually stormed off ( ie. ( invisibled and ran back to where she had been ) and was where she had been previously.

This was doable of course. The whole illusion part gave credit to that, and if you happened to have TS on at the time... it wouldn't work on you.

But as for disguises, my char may have had brief encounters with two of "Lucius's" alias... but if other characters have seen more, and had much more interaction with them... at what point will these disguises no longer work?

Surely at some point they must think "Hey... that guy looks the same height, has around the same voice, wears robes, rides a horse, "feels" like and never takes his hood off "just" like [ Insert various other alias's here ]"

Surely after various encounters with a person who may have "messed" you around and who never removes his hood.... the next few people you meet even remotely comparing to that are gonna make you suspicious.

Hell... my character just walked away from a quest because he simply "couldnt" trust three people in the group due to previous bad things that had happened to him with other "similar" people.

Erm... I've er... rambled a bit again.

But my point is... if your character has no-reason to think the person he is speaking to is evil, dark and dubious, or a Corath .... then he probably wont, and will be his usual ( whatever that is ) charming and nice self.

If however, hooded people in robes have a tendency to keep kidnapping and torture or "rip" your character off... then yeah, the next hooded person who wont pull off his hood or tell you his name or tell you where he found your magical eating bowl... your likely to get a "tad" suspicious.

Heh... I tried to make a point in there... good luck finding it.

[Krell Himmler]

Generally if someone has spent a lot of time with my character I give them a bonus to opposed bluff checks, not sure if this is the correct way to do things, but I figure it makes sense.

I do it something like this:

Known intimately: +20
Known reasonably well: +10
Known a little: +5
Known not at all: +0

I know it's subjective, if you know one well or not at all and such forth, i try my best to be objective, but if you think you know me better than what I think, then let me know.

Of course if you know him very well (that is he's taken his hood & mask off and told you his real name with frequent conversations) I tell people via a tell that they know who it is for the most part.

What are people's thoughts on such things anyways?

[Hellblazer]

I have to agree with Lordcove here and again have to reiterate a comment I had made on an other thread. Changing name and disguise is simply not enough if you do not emote differences in speech, voice, posture, walk, etc.

I know it sounds like a lot of things to prepare and think in advance, but this is a rp world that takes everything into account. Those difference is what will make it stand out to just simply someone going with the minimum and hoping it passes. Bluffs checks for name are fine, but when you want to rp a difference in stature and speech then it should be accompanied with a perform check. Now I know not all class can put point into perform, but as I remember it there is items you can find or buy that will give you bonuses to those. Now it's money.. right, but in context to the game, your character would still pass time practicing to change his usual habits, and would spend money on things that would disguise him other than just robes and changing staff, and name.

[ycleption]

Well, to be fair, (at least the times that I have seen your character) he has worn a mask and a hood, with white skin exposed on his hands, and behaved in very antagonistic and bizarre ways. Maybe you disguise those things in other encounters, I don't know.

But can you honestly expect someone to not assume it's Lucius if they see a masked, robed and hooded albino figure? Honestly, walking around showing his real face might be a better disguise for you...

I realize it is genre convention for a hood to be deep and mysterious and disguising... but have you ever worn one? It's virtually impossible to both let it shroud your face, and be able to see where you are going. Even more so if you are running or fighting in one (hard to even keep a hood on, in either case, really). I'm not saying that people don't meta-game, or that you  don't have a legitimate reason to ask people to think a bit before identifying your character (certainly a few tells before calling him out would be justified), but given that your character has achieved a certain notoriety and participated in evil/unlawful acts, I think you should be aware that there just aren't that many people that come close to looking/behaving like your character for others not to draw fair assumptions. Other characters are not dumb.

If you have some sort of legitimate magic disguises, you can disregard most of this post, this is just based on my characters (few) encounters with Lucius.

[LightlyFrosted]

As well, useful though bluff may be, saying one thing and then immediately turning around and doing something completely different, or claiming something which a person with experience in the field knows to be untrue or impossible, is not going to inspire in them the confidence in their fellow man that one might desire from human nature.  Such people would (quite reasonably) become mistrustful, and at the very least treat any subsequent claims from the same agent as suspicious, if not altogether fraudulent.

[Krell Himmler]

I have to agree with Lordcove here and again have to reiterate a comment I had made on an other thread. Changing name and disguise is simply not enough if you do not emote differences in speech, voice, posture, walk, etc.

I know it sounds like a lot of things to prepare and think in advance, but this is a rp world that takes everything into account. Those difference is what will make it stand out to just simply someone going with the minimum and hoping it passes. Bluffs checks for name are fine, but when you want to rp a difference in stature and speech then it should be accompanied with a perform check. Now I know not all class can put point into perform, but as I remember it there is items you can find or buy that will give you bonuses to those. Now it's money.. right, but in context to the game, your character would still pass time practicing to change his usual habits, and would spend money on things that would disguise him other than just robes and changing staff, and name.

I really think that bluff covers the whole imitating a new person thing....in DnD it was based off of disguise but there is no such skill so I guess to some degree it's up to the person if they want to use perform or bluff, there is in my opinion no hard and fast rule as to which of the two should be used....but in my opinion perform is a skill where you are flamboyant and trying to give a good performance that may for example, earn you money. It wouldn't make sense really, if the great assassin had to take levels in bard in order to disguise and decieve his potential victim(s).

[Krell Himmler]

Well, to be fair, (at least the times that I have seen your character) he has worn a mask and a hood, with white skin exposed on his hands, and behaved in very antagonistic and bizarre ways. Maybe you disguise those things in other encounters, I don't know.

But can you honestly expect someone to not assume it's Lucius if they see a masked, robed and hooded albino figure? Honestly, walking around showing his real face might be a better disguise for you...

I realize it is genre convention for a hood to be deep and mysterious and disguising... but have you ever worn one? It's virtually impossible to both let it shroud your face, and be able to see where you are going. Even more so if you are running or fighting in one (hard to even keep a hood on, in either case, really). I'm not saying that people don't meta-game, or that you  don't have a legitimate reason to ask people to think a bit before identifying your character (certainly a few tells before calling him out would be justified), but given that your character has achieved a certain notoriety and participated in evil/unlawful acts, I think you should be aware that there just aren't that many people that come close to looking/behaving like your character for others not to draw fair assumptions. Other characters are not dumb.

If you have some sort of legitimate magic disguises, you can disregard most of this post, this is just based on my characters (few) encounters with Lucius.

I do and have changed my mannerisms and behaviour at certains points to throw of pursuers, however my thread wasn't about disguises in this thread. It was about someone using the real name when I've never said it.

People have to remember the limited clothing options available in the game and I know it is quite substantial, but never the less there are only so many of them.....remember also there are many NPC's in many areas, it isn't so easyt o single out a single person and you can't recognise a voice when someone doesn't speak.....

But this is beyond the scope of this thread, I had really just intended to mention the name thing, not to debate if you have/havn't recognised, I do that via tells on a case by case basis.

Also remember the passage of time is faster in game....if may have been a real game year since you last met.

[ycleption]

I also politely ask people to remember the message about characters in disguise.....if I am dressed and acting differently a character will not instantly know who I am

Sorry if I was a bit off-topic, was responding to this^

Also remember the passage of time is faster in game....if may have been a real game year since you last met.

Well, at least as far as what I've seen (again, limited encounters), Lucius behaved in a way that certainly would not be forgotten any time soon...

And remember, elven memories

[Falonthas]

another thing you forgot besides elven memories is smell

especially if you have been seen in all your altered forms but you still have the same components and normal magey things on or about your person

fire mages smell like smoke alot
dead critter mages smell like dead critters and yes those would stick in a memory

[Skywatcher]

I think there is a big difference in name versus the appearance part of disguise.  If in fact you never tell anyone your real name then no one will know your real name.  They may recognize you even in various disguises but they would only know the alias you told them or others told them when they asked who your were.  The problem with aliases and disguises in Layo is that you have to make sure that you tell every single individual you interact with that you apear a certain way and you have to do this all the time if you change disguises so people can RP the right way.  Unless you are truly a "master of disguise" and you can fake a voice and do makeup and hair changes then I think it would actually be very dificult to have even the casual observer not recognize that at least you are the same individual whether they "know" you or not is another thing.   I have seen a couple of instances where people just decided that they wanted to be disguised so they told everyone they were disguised with no other details.  I think that is sort of lame and if someone really wants to use disguises then there needs to be a lot of detail work done in RPing the changes and keeping people up to speed on the current status of the appearance.  Just some thoughts.

[Hellblazer]

I really think that bluff covers the whole imitating a new person thing....in DnD it was based off of disguise but there is no such skill so I guess to some degree it's up to the person if they want to use perform or bluff, there is in my opinion no hard and fast rule as to which of the two should be used....but in my opinion perform is a skill where you are flamboyant and trying to give a good performance that may for example, earn you money. It wouldn't make sense really, if the great assassin had to take levels in bard in order to disguise and decieve his potential victim(s).

Maybe we can have an official word on this, but my personal opinion is that bluff is the attempt to lie to a person, vocaly. As to perform is the "act" of doing something. If you are trying to emulate walking in a certain manner then you are posing a physical action which to me requires perform.  Perform as you stated can also be used for performances, but that's what happens when you are in disguise and trying (performing the action) to pass as someone else. Which also include changing your voice.

[Heinz Rondorf]

another thing you forgot besides elven memories is smell

especially if you have been seen in all your altered forms but you still have the same components and normal magey things on or about your person

fire mages smell like smoke alot
dead critter mages smell like dead critters and yes those would stick in a memory

Smell does NOT tell you the persons name. Smell really does not make any difference when in a different look is applied, he can easily take a bath to remove the smell.

[Falonthas]

it might remove the smell from his body but not his clothes until he casts anything

his name may not be known but the person himself will be as a sneaky dead critter smeller mage fellow

[Krell Himmler]

I think there is a big difference in name versus the appearance part of disguise.  If in fact you never tell anyone your real name then no one will know your real name.  They may recognize you even in various disguises but they would only know the alias you told them or others told them when they asked who your were.  The problem with aliases and disguises in Layo is that you have to make sure that you tell every single individual you interact with that you apear a certain way and you have to do this all the time if you change disguises so people can RP the right way.  Unless you are truly a "master of disguise" and you can fake a voice and do makeup and hair changes then I think it would actually be very dificult to have even the casual observer not recognize that at least you are the same individual whether they "know" you or not is another thing.   I have seen a couple of instances where people just decided that they wanted to be disguised so they told everyone they were disguised with no other details.  I think that is sort of lame and if someone really wants to use disguises then there needs to be a lot of detail work done in RPing the changes and keeping people up to speed on the current status of the appearance.  Just some thoughts.

I do try to Rp out all of the changes, but often some people come later on in the RP and I get lost in all the new faces or if I'm about to log, but I will try harder to make sure everyone gets all of the information, I did try binding it to a quickslot but it didn't allow that many letters .

I agree with what you say completely about people claiming disguise without doing anything, and I am honest when I say I put a lot of effort into the disguises, the clothing changes alone take many hours generally, but due to game limitations I can't change many things or imitate disguises graphically beyond the things that the game offers and I really don't want to bug the overworked Gm team to constantly change my head/body lol. What would be nice is if I rolled an unchangeable bluff check that I could record with each new disguise and people would check against that, the bluff check here being the "quality" of the diguise, which would include head, face, makeup, odur and such forth, along with which would go all of the clothing and other alterations as much as possible.

I.e. new disguise: *bluff check* = 20
So until it was changed again (only done if caught out) anyone seeing him would roll off against this 20 to recognise him, when a new disguise was used this would be done again.

[Krell Himmler]

I hadn't intended it to be a debate to begin with but I think some interesting points have been mentioned, so it wasn't a waste at all perhaps.

[Gulnyr]

I do try to Rp out all of the changes, but often some people come later on in the RP and I get lost in all the new faces or if I'm about to log, but I will try harder to make sure everyone gets all of the information, I did try binding it to a quickslot but it didn't allow that many letters.

Solution 1

Step 1) Make your own hotkeyed quickslots that aren't so limited.

Step 2) Spam new hotkeyed quickslots as necessary.

[Xiaobeibi]

I  must admit I have floundered a few times with the Lucius, but honestly I cant remember what clothes people wore five minuttes before and certainly not after combat when all has been buffed.

It is not I do not appreciate your roleplay or the effort you put into your character, but as a player I cant remember which character goes with which disguise. I am simply too muddleheaded for that.:p  BUT I do try very hard not to use Lucius as name even if I do mess the other names up.

Still IC no matter what disguise Galathea has met you in she doesnt trust you  since Beryl keeps warning her.

[Krell Himmler]

I  must admit I have floundered a few times with the Lucius, but honestly I cant remember what clothes people wore five minuttes before and certainly not after combat when all has been buffed.

It is not I do not appreciate your roleplay or the effort you put into your character, but as a player I cant remember which character goes with which disguise. I am simply too muddleheaded for that.:p  BUT I do try very hard not to use Lucius as name even if I do mess the other names up.

Still IC no matter what disguise Galathea has met you in she doesnt trust you  since Beryl keeps warning her.

Oh, if you forget I will just send you a friendly tell, I know it's hard to remember so I'm never upset/angry I just send people a reminder

Thanks for the other hotkey things....although it may take me time to work it out...