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    Canonfire :: View topic - Rary the Medium
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    Rary the Medium
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 01, 2004
    Posts: 104
    From: France

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    Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:07 am  
    Rary the Medium

    OK, this a silly question:

    Gary Gygax told the tale that when Brian Blume created his magic-user PC, he named him "Rary", because he could combine the name with the level title "Medium", and called his PC the "Medium Rary".

    So.

    Maybe, because I'm french, I don't grasp the point : is there a pun or something like that ? What is supposed to be with "Medium Rary" ?

    Thank you to explain me this mystery for a foreigner.
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

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    Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:07 am  

    It's a pun on "medium rare," which is a way of cooking meat. According to this Wikipedia article, the French equivalent is a point.

    "Rary" is pronounced like "rare-y," rhyming with the English words "scary" or "berry," and sounding like the English word "rare."
    Adept Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 13, 2008
    Posts: 563
    From: brazil

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    Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:09 am  

    and in portuguese is "ao ponto". :D

    funny how fisrt time i heard GH name i thought that they were silly.


    now i think they are cool..

    things you learn from time
    Forum Moderator

    Joined: Feb 26, 2004
    Posts: 2590
    From: Ullinois

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    Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:40 pm  

    Funny topic! Ah those were the days. As we've seen in more recent Greyhawk eras from the reviled 'joke' Castle Greyhawk to the more serious themes of Carl Sargent and Living GH, they could not possibly get away with the silly characters and place names that EGG and friends did.

    Medium Rary. It's weird. Having been familiar with that character for so many years I forgot about that origin and have always taken his name seriously.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 01, 2004
    Posts: 104
    From: France

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    Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:25 pm  

    By the way, I've always found it difficult to name a PC when creating it.

    In my group, we have a lot of silly named PCs.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Dec 07, 2003
    Posts: 636


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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:29 am  

    Yes my one hope is that these silly names sound better to our foreign players. It's the excuse I always use for justifying the Grand Duchy of Geoff - it probably sounds really cool in French. Please don't shatter that illusion.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 01, 2004
    Posts: 104
    From: France

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:12 am  

    Oh yes, The Grand Duchy of Geoff sounds really "medieval" in French - Le Grand Duché de Geoff.

    It makes me think of "Geoffrey" an old Firstname misused nowadays...

    ... and what does it means in your language?
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:38 am  

    It means "Geoffrey," the same as over there. I had a friend in high school whose name was Geoff (short for Geoffrey), so that was "his" country. His PC, Uvoigpo (speaking of silly names, we used to randomly generate ours), was supposed to be from there.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Apr 13, 2006
    Posts: 654
    From: Frinton on Sea England

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:49 am  

    Are you all saying there's no place in GH for the Celestial Empire Of Wayne?

    Or, the Royal Dukedom Of Clive? Shocked

    Such a lack of imagination. Happy
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 01, 2004
    Posts: 104
    From: France

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:11 am  

    rasgon wrote:
    Uvoigpo (speaking of silly names, we used to randomly generate ours)


    How did you do that? Roll a die for each letter of the name? Smile

    For my avatar's name, the name of one of my M-U PC, I picked two words following each other in the dictionnary: galligaskin and gallimaufry, I mixed them, and that's it: Galliskinmaufrius was born.
    GreySage

    Joined: Aug 03, 2001
    Posts: 3310
    From: Michigan

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:58 am  

    Galliskinmaufrius wrote:

    How did you do that? Roll a die for each letter of the name? Smile


    Something like that. I think we rolled 1d6, with odd numbers resulting in consonants and even in vowels, then we rolled to see which consonants or vowels we got.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 13, 2002
    Posts: 1077
    From: Orlane, Gran March

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:46 pm  

    We generally mix words of something on hand (such as a text book) and then chop them up a bit:

    Thus "Advanced Math," became "adv/ anced math".
    Black Hand of Oblivion

    Joined: Feb 16, 2003
    Posts: 3835
    From: So. Cal

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    Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:51 pm  

    Galliskinmaufrius wrote:
    rasgon wrote:
    Uvoigpo (speaking of silly names, we used to randomly generate ours)


    How did you do that? Roll a die for each letter of the name? Smile

    For my avatar's name, the name of one of my M-U PC, I picked two words following each other in the dictionnary: galligaskin and gallimaufry, I mixed them, and that's it: Galliskinmaufrius was born.


    Fallout 3: The Republic of Dave Laughing

    I know people who have written simple programs that generate names by randomly combining 2-4 syllables into a single name. They run it until they get a name that they like.

    I've never had a problem making up my own names.
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