Surnames?

[Cindy42]

i always assumed that a huge proportion (maybe 50%) of commoner zalanthans living within the city-states who aren't tribal or related to gmhs will not actually possess one, considering a lot of people won't know their fathers, or their mothers, are de-slaved (in the case of a few pcs), came from orphanages, came from the 'rinth (i'd be surprised if a rinthi told me they had a last name, and would consider them top echelon in the rinth, akin to crime family, not sure if assuming this is correct) or the person/persons who raised them won't have one for one of the above reasons. i've believed this as a general, bendable rule for backgrounds. any of this glaringly wrong?

[Taven]

The last time I met a PC IG with a two-part name, I was seriously confused. I didn't know which one was "their name". It took me a couple RL days to figure out that it was a last name. Yeah, I was either really immersed or really out of it. In my defense, people seemed to use the two named interchangeably, so rather then a last name it seemed more like an either/or name thing.

I think last names can be neat. If you have a PC who is really about family, it can reflect that. My favorite group of last name commoners has to be the Makarims. Great times.

I also think that it can add spice to an individual.

It definitely is fine to have a surname. It's also fine to have a virtual family, and virtual lovers. I was pretty annoyed when I played a character who had a living VNPC family, and VNPC boyfriends, and people kept ICly questioning their existence.  Just because your character isn't from a known, coded "official" family, doesn't mean he/she isn't one of the THOUSANDS of other non-coded, unofficial families throughout the known world. It's irksome when other players forget this and give someone shit about it in game, when it shouldn't be noteworthy at all.

Yes, but on the other hand, they have no way to distinguish a vNPC from a fake person. You could have an insane PC who invented a family, and nobody would ever have any way to tell. I mean, don't forget about vNPCs, but also remember that fake/vNPC can't really be discerned, if they've never met them. An excellent way to get around this is to involve them in your scene somehow. Just make them have a terrible cold so they can't talk, or something.

[valeria]

I think the number of characters I've had who I have created surnames for in my head far outstrips the number of characters I have had who I have regularly introduced with their surname.

Maybe I should change that.

[hyzhenhok]

If I play a character with a surname, it's almost certainly because I'm adopting the name from somewhere else but changing it so it's not longer recognizable.

For example, Drih Zutt or Darr Thevader.