[Bertram Anders]

The character renaming feature allows a player to change the name of a character and always masks your player name from other players, such as in Tells, to provide character anonymity, if desired. 

Character renaming may be used when your character is shapeshifted (via ability or spell) or disguised. In addition, fairly notorious characters may create a new alias, title, or name by which they are known. Characters may also be automatically renamed in certain situations, such as if you are a vampire in mist form. 

Character Names 

There are three ways in which a character's name may be changed. Regardless of the method, any new name must be 32 characters or less and can only include alphabetic characters, single spaces, apostrophes or dashes.  

Disguised or Alternate Name 

When a character uses the Disguise spell, a Disguise Kit, Hood of Disguise, or changes appearance (via polymorph spell, wild shape, or something similar), within the next three minutes they will be able to assign themselves a disguised or alternate name for as long as their appearance alteration is in effect. 

To apply a temporary name change you will be prompted to type the following, where New Name is the name you wish given to your character:  !rename New Name 

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Alias or Titled Name 

Notorious characters are well known and, as such, may permanently change their name once per in-game year (3 months real-time) to reflect the name, alias, or title by which they are commonly known. This command is only available to a character with enough notoriety to have reached the second highest rank of a faction (Captain, Veteran Member, Clergy, etc), regardless of whether or not they are in a faction. DMs may assign any character this type of name as well, even if that character is not yet notorious enough to create one for themselves. 

To apply a permanent name change type the following, where New Name is the name by which your character is known:  !alias New Name 

If you wish to revert back from an alias to displaying a character's true name, type: !alias off 

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System Generated Name 

In some situations a character's name may be changed automatically. For example, when a vampire character assumes mist form, their name will be changed automatically to reflect that form. In these cases, you will receive notification that your character's name has been changed. This type of name change overrides any other name a character may have. 

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Known Issue with Journal Notes 

Notes you enter to your in-game journal are stored on your computer using your character name. This means, unfortunately, that if you rename your PC using this feature, you will no longer see your journal notes. To resolve this you can either revert back to your character's original name, or take the following steps: 

1. Navigate to C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Neverwinter Nights\localvault 

2. Find the text file which stores your character's journal notes. This will be lowercase CharacterName.txt. For example, if your character's name is Balanor, find the file in the localvault folder called balanor.txt 

3. Rename that file to your new in-game character name using lowercase letters, exclude spaces, and stop at 16 characters 

Final Considerations 

Before you specify an alias or title for your notorious character, be sure of what you want to name them before using the !alias command to specify it! Once that command is used, you only have five minutes to correct any spelling errors or revise it. After that your character is "stuck" with that alias or title for at least one in-game year - although you can remove it at any time. 

This system may allow a character to masquerade as another and allows the player behind any character to remain anonymous since it replaces a player's name with their character's name in Tells. As a result, just as in real life; be cautious with whom you are speaking when not face-to-face (i.e. - via Tells) as it could be an "identity thief". 

Finally, please use this feature responsibly. Abusive, offensive, or immersion-breaking (Hack Enslash, for example) names may not be used. Note that DMs can use a !rename off command on any character, which will reapply a character's true name and permanently prevent them from changing it again. Repeat offenders may also be restricted from using this feature on any current or future character.