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Can that Persona be non-Middle-Earth? Can the Persona be non-Tolkien?
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Hmm, there are many Downers who have screen-names which, while not referable to any specific character or race within Tolkien's works, could nevertheless serve admirably as name within Middle-earth.
Fordim Hedgethistle is a good example (although I seem to recall him being a rather affable, if metaphysically confused, Balrog at the last BD party
). Is there any restriction on the type of name to be used? Should it sound Middle-earthian? How precisely would that be defined? And are those members who share a screen-name with a specific Tolkien character obliged to act consistently in the manner of that character if they choose to use their screen-name?
I only raise these questions because it seems to me that, if a particular duel arises as a result of a contre-temps on, say, a Books thread, the protagonists themselves should be entitled to fight it out, rather than sending along alternates (unless, of course they would prefer to do so). It seems to me that, provided that the persona fits within Middle-earth, the name itself should not really matter.
Admittedly, I am in somewhat of a pickle as The Saucepan Man is a specific character in another body of work (albeit one which, like the Hobbit, provides a Faerie world for young readers to enjoy). Then again, my original comment was, at least in part, hypothetical, as I am not a regular RPG'er.