diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/general.py b/evennia/commands/default/general.py
index 71e984738e..7f85552dfc 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/general.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/general.py
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 General Character commands usually availabe to all characters
 """
 from django.conf import settings
-from evennia.utils import utils, prettytable
+from evennia.utils import utils, evtable
+from evennia.typeclasses.attributes import NickTemplateInvalid
 
 COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS = utils.class_from_module(settings.COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS)
 
@@ -75,33 +76,39 @@ class CmdNick(COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS):
     define a personal alias/nick
 
     Usage:
-      nick[/switches] <nickname> [= [<string>]]
-      alias             ''
+      nick[/switches] <string> [= [replacement_string]]
+      nick[/switches] <template> = <replacement_template>
+      nick/delete <string> or number
+      nick/test <test string>
 
     Switches:
-      object   - alias an object
-      player   - alias a player
-      clearall - clear all your aliases
-      list     - show all defined aliases (also "nicks" works)
+      inputline - replace on the inputline (default)
+      object    - replace on object-lookup
+      player    - replace on player-lookup
+      delete    - remove nick by number of by index given by /list
+      clearall  - clear all nicks
+      list      - show all defined aliases (also "nicks" works)
+      test      - test input to see what it matches with
 
     Examples:
       nick hi = say Hello, I'm Sarah!
       nick/object tom = the tall man
-      nick hi              (shows the nick substitution)
-      nick hi =            (removes nick 'hi')
+      nick build $1 $2 = @create/drop $1;$2     - (template)
+      nick tell $1 $2=@page $1=$2               - (template)
 
-    A 'nick' is a personal shortcut you create for your own use. When
-    you enter the nick, the alternative string will be sent instead.
-    The switches control in which situations the substitution will
-    happen. The default is that it will happen when you enter a
-    command. The 'object' and 'player' nick-types kick in only when
-    you use commands that requires an object or player as a target -
-    you can then use the nick to refer to them.
+    A 'nick' is a personal string replacement. Use $1, $2, ... to catch arguments.
+    Put the last $-marker without an ending space to catch all remaining text. You
+    can also use unix-glob matching:
+
+        * - matches everything
+        ? - matches a single character
+        [seq] - matches all chars in sequence
+        [!seq] - matches everything not in sequence
+
+    Note that no objects are actually renamed or changed by this command - your nicks
+    are only available to you. If you want to permanently add keywords to an object
+    for everyone to use, you need build privileges and the @alias command.
 
-    Note that no objects are actually renamed or changed by this
-    command - the nick is only available to you. If you want to
-    permanently add keywords to an object for everyone to use, you
-    need build privileges and to use the @alias command.
     """
     key = "nick"
     aliases = ["nickname", "nicks", "@nick", "alias"]
@@ -112,61 +119,79 @@ class CmdNick(COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS):
 
         caller = self.caller
         switches = self.switches
-        nicksinputline = caller.nicks.get(category="inputline", return_obj=True)
-        nicksobjects = caller.nicks.get(category="object", return_obj=True)
-        nicksplayers = caller.nicks.get(category="player", return_obj=True)
+        nicktypes = [switch for switch in switches if switch in ("object", "player", "inputline")] or ["inputline"]
+
+        nicklist = utils.make_iter(caller.nicks.get(return_obj=True) or [])
 
         if 'list' in switches:
-            if not nicksinputline and not nicksobjects and not nicksplayers:
+
+            if not nicklist:
                 string = "{wNo nicks defined.{n"
             else:
-                table = prettytable.PrettyTable(["{wNickType",
-                                                 "{wNickname",
-                                                 "{wTranslates-to"])
-                for nicks in (nicksinputline, nicksobjects, nicksplayers):
-                    for nick in utils.make_iter(nicks):
-                        table.add_row([nick.db_category, nick.db_key, nick.db_strvalue])
+                table = evtable.EvTable("#", "Type", "Nick match", "Replacement")
+                for inum, nickobj in enumerate(nicklist):
+                    _, _, nickvalue, replacement = nickobj.value
+                    table.add_row(str(inum + 1), nickobj.db_category, nickvalue, replacement)
                 string = "{wDefined Nicks:{n\n%s" % table
             caller.msg(string)
             return
+
         if 'clearall' in switches:
             caller.nicks.clear()
-            caller.msg("Cleared all aliases.")
+            caller.msg("Cleared all nicks.")
             return
+
         if not self.args or not self.lhs:
             caller.msg("Usage: nick[/switches] nickname = [realname]")
             return
-        nick = self.lhs
-        real = self.rhs
 
-        if real == nick:
+        nickstring = self.lhs
+        replstring = self.rhs
+
+        if replstring == nickstring:
             caller.msg("No point in setting nick same as the string to replace...")
             return
 
         # check so we have a suitable nick type
-        if not any(True for switch in switches if switch in ("object", "player", "inputline")):
-            switches = ["inputline"]
         string = ""
-        for switch in switches:
-            oldnick = caller.nicks.get(key=nick, category=switch)
-            if not real:
-                if "=" in self.args:
-                    if oldnick:
-                            # clear the alias
-                            string += "\nNick cleared: '{w%s{n' (-> '{w%s{n')." % (nick, oldnick)
-                            caller.nicks.remove(nick, category=switch)
-                    else:
-                        string += "\nNo nick '%s' found, so it could not be removed." % nick
+        for nicktype in nicktypes:
+            oldnick = caller.nicks.get(key=nickstring, category=nicktype, return_obj=True)
+            oldnick = oldnick if oldnick.key is not None else None
+            if "delete" in switches or "del" in switches:
+                if oldnick:
+                    _, _, nickstring, replstring = oldnick.value
                 else:
-                    string += "\nNick: '{w%s{n'{n -> '{w%s{n'." % (nick, oldnick)
+                    # no old nick, see if a number was given
+                    if self.args.isdigit():
+                        # we are given a index in nicklist
+                        delindex = int(self.args)
+                        if 0 < delindex <= len(nicklist):
+                            oldnick = nicklist[delindex-1]
+                            _, _, nickstring, replstring = oldnick.value
+                        else:
+                            caller.msg("Not a valid nick index.")
+                            return
+                    else:
+                        caller.msg("Nick not found.")
+                        return
+                # clear the nick
+                string += "\nNick removed: '|w%s|n' -> |w%s|n." % (nickstring, replstring)
+                caller.nicks.remove(nickstring, category=nicktype)
 
-            else:
+            elif replstring:
                 # creating new nick
                 if oldnick:
-                    string += "\nNick '{w%s{n' reset from '{w%s{n' to '{w%s{n'." % (nick, oldnick, real)
+                    string += "\nNick '{w%s{n' updated to map to '{w%s{n'." % (nickstring, replstring)
                 else:
-                    string += "\nNick set: '{w%s{n' -> '{w%s{n'." % (nick, real)
-                caller.nicks.add(nick, real, category=switch)
+                    string += "\nNick '{w%s{n' mapped to '{w%s{n'." % (nickstring, replstring)
+                try:
+                    caller.nicks.add(nickstring, replstring, category=nicktype)
+                except NickTemplateInvalid:
+                    caller.msg("You must use the same $-markers both in the nick and in the replacement.")
+                    return
+            else:
+                # just looking at the nick
+                string += "\nNick: '{w%s{n'{n -> '{w%s{n'." % (nickstring, oldnick.key)
         caller.msg(string)
 
 
diff --git a/evennia/typeclasses/attributes.py b/evennia/typeclasses/attributes.py
index 661587097d..6ac2a368c8 100644
--- a/evennia/typeclasses/attributes.py
+++ b/evennia/typeclasses/attributes.py
@@ -279,6 +279,7 @@ class AttributeHandler(object):
         class RetDefault(object):
             "Holds default values"
             def __init__(self):
+                self.key = None
                 self.value = default
                 self.strvalue = str(default) if default is not None else None
 
@@ -532,6 +533,103 @@ class AttributeHandler(object):
             return attrs
 
 
+# Nick templating
+#
+
+"""
+This supports the use of replacement templates in nicks:
+
+This happens in two steps:
+
+1) The user supplies a template that is converted to a regex according
+   to the unix-like templating language.
+2) This regex is tested against nicks depending on which nick replacement
+   strategy is considered (most commonly inputline).
+3) If there is a template match and there are templating markers,
+   these are replaced with the arguments actually given.
+
+@desc $1 $2 $3
+
+This will be converted to the following regex:
+
+\@desc (?P<1>\w+) (?P<2>\w+) $(?P<3>\w+)
+
+Supported template markers (through fnmatch)
+   *       matches anything (non-greedy)     -> .*?
+   ?       matches any single character      ->
+   [seq]   matches any entry in sequence
+   [!seq]  matches entries not in sequence
+Custom arg markers
+   $N      argument position (1-99)
+
+"""
+import fnmatch
+_RE_NICK_ARG = re.compile(r"\\(\$)([1-9][0-9]?)")
+_RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG = re.compile(r"(\$)([1-9][0-9]?)")
+_RE_NICK_SPACE = re.compile(r"\\ ")
+
+
+class NickTemplateInvalid(ValueError):
+    pass
+
+
+def initialize_nick_templates(in_template, out_template):
+    """
+    Initialize the nick templates for matching and remapping a string.
+
+    Args:
+        in_template (str): The template to be used for nick recognition.
+        out_template (str): The template to be used to replace the string
+            matched by the in_template.
+
+    Returns:
+        regex  (regex): Regex to match against strings
+        template (str): Template with markers {arg1}, {arg2}, etc for
+            replacement using the standard .format method.
+
+    Raises:
+        NickTemplateInvalid: If the in/out template does not have a matching
+            number of $args.
+
+    """
+
+
+    # create the regex for in_template
+    regex_string = fnmatch.translate(in_template)
+
+    # validate the templates
+    regex_args = [match.group(2) for match in _RE_NICK_ARG.finditer(regex_string)]
+    temp_args = [match.group(2) for match in _RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG.finditer(out_template)]
+    if set(regex_args) != set(temp_args):
+        # We don't have the same $-tags in input/output.
+        raise NickTemplateInvalid
+
+    regex_string = _RE_NICK_SPACE.sub("\s+", regex_string)
+    regex_string = _RE_NICK_ARG.sub(lambda m: "(?P<arg%s>.+?)" % m.group(2), regex_string)
+    template_string = _RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG.sub(lambda m: "{arg%s}" % m.group(2), out_template)
+
+    return regex_string, template_string
+
+
+def parse_nick_template(string, template_regex, outtemplate):
+    """
+    Parse a text using a template and map it to another template
+
+    Args:
+        string (str): The input string to processj
+        template_regex (regex): A template regex created with
+            initialize_nick_template.
+        outtemplate (str): The template to which to map the matches
+            produced by the template_regex. This should have $1, $2,
+            etc to match the regex.
+
+    """
+    match = template_regex.match(string)
+    if match:
+        return True, outtemplate.format(**match.groupdict())
+    return False, string
+
+
 class NickHandler(AttributeHandler):
     """
     Handles the addition and removal of Nicks. Nicks are special
@@ -541,6 +639,10 @@ class NickHandler(AttributeHandler):
     """
     _attrtype = "nick"
 
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(NickHandler, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        self._regex_cache = {}
+
     def has(self, key, category="inputline"):
         """
         Args:
@@ -570,22 +672,23 @@ class NickHandler(AttributeHandler):
             kwargs (any, optional): These are passed on to `AttributeHandler.get`.
 
         """
-        return super(NickHandler, self).get(key=key, category=category, strattr=True, **kwargs)
+        return super(NickHandler, self).get(key=key, category=category, **kwargs)
 
     def add(self, key, replacement, category="inputline", **kwargs):
         """
         Add a new nick.
 
         Args:
-            key (str): A key for the nick to match for.
-            replacement (str): The string to replace `key` with (the "nickname").
+            key (str): A key (or template) for the nick to match for.
+            replacement (str): The string (or template) to replace `key` with (the "nickname").
             category (str, optional): the category within which to
                 retrieve the nick. The "inputline" means replacing data
                 sent by the user.
             kwargs (any, optional): These are passed on to `AttributeHandler.get`.
 
         """
-        super(NickHandler, self).add(key, replacement, category=category, strattr=True, **kwargs)
+        nick_regex, nick_template = initialize_nick_templates(key, replacement)
+        super(NickHandler, self).add(key, (nick_regex, nick_template, key, replacement), category=category, **kwargs)
 
     def remove(self, key, category="inputline", **kwargs):
         """
@@ -620,17 +723,27 @@ class NickHandler(AttributeHandler):
                 their nick equivalents.
 
         """
-        obj_nicks, player_nicks = [], []
+        nicks = {}
         for category in make_iter(categories):
-            obj_nicks.extend([n for n in make_iter(self.get(category=category, return_obj=True)) if n])
+            nicks.update({nick.key: nick
+              for nick in make_iter(self.get(category=category, return_obj=True)) if nick and nick.key})
         if include_player and self.obj.has_player:
             for category in make_iter(categories):
-                player_nicks.extend([n for n in make_iter(self.obj.player.nicks.get(category=category, return_obj=True)) if n])
-        for nick in obj_nicks + player_nicks:
-            # make a case-insensitive match here
-            match = re.match(re.escape(nick.db_key), raw_string, re.IGNORECASE)
-            if match:
-                raw_string = raw_string.replace(match.group(), nick.db_strvalue, 1)
+                nicks.update({nick.key: nick
+                    for nick in make_iter(self.obj.player.nicks.get(category=category, return_obj=True))
+                        if nick and nick.key})
+        for key, nick in nicks.iteritems():
+            print "iterting over nicks:", key
+            nick_regex, template, _, _ = nick.value
+            regex = self._regex_cache.get(nick_regex)
+            if not regex:
+                regex = re.compile(nick_regex, re.I + re.DOTALL)
+                self._regex_cache[nick_regex] = regex
+
+            print "before parse_nick_template:", nick.value
+            is_match, raw_string = parse_nick_template(raw_string, regex, template)
+            print "is_match:", is_match, raw_string
+            if is_match:
                 break
         return raw_string
 
diff --git a/evennia/utils/inlinefuncs.py b/evennia/utils/inlinefuncs.py
index b07932fe69..1165b68700 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/inlinefuncs.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/inlinefuncs.py
@@ -356,3 +356,99 @@ def parse_inlinefunc(string, strip=False, **kwargs):
     # execute the stack from the cache
     return "".join(_run_stack(item) for item in _PARSING_CACHE[string])
 
+# Nick templating
+#
+
+"""
+This supports the use of replacement templates in nicks:
+
+This happens in two steps:
+
+1) The user supplies a template that is converted to a regex according
+   to the unix-like templating language.
+2) This regex is tested against nicks depending on which nick replacement
+   strategy is considered (most commonly inputline).
+3) If there is a template match and there are templating markers,
+   these are replaced with the arguments actually given.
+
+@desc $1 $2 $3
+
+This will be converted to the following regex:
+
+\@desc (?P<1>\w+) (?P<2>\w+) $(?P<3>\w+)
+
+Supported template markers (through fnmatch)
+   *       matches anything (non-greedy)     -> .*?
+   ?       matches any single character      ->
+   [seq]   matches any entry in sequence
+   [!seq]  matches entries not in sequence
+Custom arg markers
+   $N      argument position (1-99)
+
+"""
+import fnmatch
+_RE_NICK_ARG = re.compile(r"\\(\$)([1-9][0-9]?)")
+_RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG = re.compile(r"(\$)([1-9][0-9]?)")
+_RE_NICK_SPACE = re.compile(r"\\ ")
+
+
+class NickTemplateInvalid(ValueError):
+    pass
+
+
+def initialize_nick_templates(in_template, out_template):
+    """
+    Initialize the nick templates for matching and remapping a string.
+
+    Args:
+        in_template (str): The template to be used for nick recognition.
+        out_template (str): The template to be used to replace the string
+            matched by the in_template.
+
+    Returns:
+        regex  (regex): Regex to match against strings
+        template (str): Template with markers {arg1}, {arg2}, etc for
+            replacement using the standard .format method.
+
+    Raises:
+        NickTemplateInvalid: If the in/out template does not have a matching
+            number of $args.
+
+    """
+    # create the regex for in_template
+    regex_string = fnmatch.translate(in_template)
+    n_inargs = len(_RE_NICK_ARG.findall(regex_string))
+    regex_string = _RE_NICK_SPACE.sub("\s+", regex_string)
+    regex_string = _RE_NICK_ARG.sub(lambda m: "(?P<arg%s>.+?)" % m.group(2), regex_string)
+
+    # create the out_template
+    template_string = _RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG.sub(lambda m: "{arg%s}" % m.group(2), out_template)
+
+    # validate the tempaltes - they should at least have the same number of args
+    n_outargs = len(_RE_NICK_TEMPLATE_ARG.findall(out_template))
+    if n_inargs != n_outargs:
+        print n_inargs, n_outargs
+        raise NickTemplateInvalid
+
+    return re.compile(regex_string), template_string
+
+
+def parse_nick_template(string, template_regex, outtemplate):
+    """
+    Parse a text using a template and map it to another template
+
+    Args:
+        string (str): The input string to processj
+        template_regex (regex): A template regex created with
+            initialize_nick_template.
+        outtemplate (str): The template to which to map the matches
+            produced by the template_regex. This should have $1, $2,
+            etc to match the regex.
+
+    """
+    match = template_regex.match(string)
+    if match:
+        return outtemplate.format(**match.groupdict())
+    return string
+
+