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System Bugbears

2019-02-14T16:12:39Z

Hyphz:

=System Bugbears (aka System Gotchas) =

This page collects known issues in RPGs which may not be immediately obvious from the books. They might be worth considering before running or playing the game.

===13th Age===
* The Icon Dice rolled at the start of each session can give results which make no sense in the current context of the adventure.

===Capes===
* Per RAW there is no restriction on Gloating, potentially allowing two opposing sides of a conflict to repeatedly Gloat at each other to gain an infinite number of story tokens.

===Dogs in the Vineyard===
* The system as specified has no way to deal with ''de-'' escalation of conflicts or separating this from a dice bonus. By RAW a character can pull their gun, add extra dice added to their pool for escalating and their shooting skill, but then immediately put the gun away and resume brawling or talking.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 3rd Edition===
* The Spiked Chain combined with Trip feats can be extremely overpowered when used to interrupt the movement of melee-based enemies via AoO.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition===
* There are extensive errata for this system which fix many issues - check them all.
* In many cases there is no convincing or reasonable way to prevent a single character making every check in a Skill Challenge.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition===
* Fighting classes are generally dramatically underpowered compared to spellcasters.
* The system gives no guidelines for pricing expendable magic items differently to non-expendable ones.
* Unless carefully managed, the Bard class is outright better than the Rogue.

===FATE===
* Problems can result from "fate point races", in which conflicts come down to two sides repeatedly trying to find Aspects to invoke to add +2s to a roll.
* Arbitrary wording of aspects may create player argumentation.

===Firefly===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.

===Iron Kingdoms RPG===
* Alchemist PCs are required to spend money to build bombs in order to continue using their class abilities, which no other class is. It may be necessary to fudge this or provide a side source of income to balance this.

===Mutants and Masterminds===
* The system makes assumptions about how Villain Points will be spent by the GM; failing to spend them according to these assumptions, which are unstated, may break the system.

===Shadowrun (4th Anniversary Edition)===
* The rules for grenades make the scatter so wide as to make grenades practically unusable. It may be preferable to use the scatter values from the previous edition, which are exactly half those given.
* The rules for Initiative Passes mean that a character with a higher number of IP must move a shorter distance in each of their IPs, potentially allowing them to be caught in the middle of a move that a "slower" character could make without interruption.

===Star Wars (Fantasy Flight)===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.
* Lightsabers are, understandably, extremely powerful; unless you are playing a Force and Destiny game in which all PCs use lightsabers, it may be best to allow PCs to have only training lightsabers to maintain parity with users of other weapons.
* The Auto Fire ability is extremely powerful and can end encounters in a single round.

===The Riddle Of Steel===
* The rules do not make it clear what constitutes working towards an SA and what does not. In particular, there is no convincing argument in the rules as to why any lethal combat does not invoke all a character's SA's because "not dying" is a necessity for all of them.

===Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (3rd Edition)===
* There are no rules on the use of abilities outside of combat (in Story Mode). This can create a problem with the extent to which healing abilities can be used between encounters.

System Bugbears

2019-02-14T16:11:35Z

Hyphz:

=System Bugbears (aka System Gotchas) =

This page collects known issues in RPGs which may not be immediately obvious from the books. They might be worth considering before running or playing the game.

===13th Age===
* The Icon Dice rolled at the start of each session can give results which make no sense in the current context of the adventure.

===Capes===
* Per RAW there is no restriction on Gloating, potentially allowing two opposing sides of a conflict to repeatedly Gloat at each other to gain an infinite number of story tokens.

===Dogs in the Vineyard===
* The system as specified has no way to deal with ''de-'' escalation of conflicts or separating this from a dice bonus. By RAW a character can pull their gun, add extra dice added to their pool for escalating and their shooting skill, but then immediately put the gun away and resume brawling or talking.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition===
* There are extensive errata for this system which fix many issues - check them all.
* In many cases there is no convincing or reasonable way to prevent a single character making every check in a Skill Challenge.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition===
* Fighting classes are generally dramatically underpowered compared to spellcasters.
* The system gives no guidelines for pricing expendable magic items differently to non-expendable ones.
* Unless carefully managed, the Bard class is outright better than the Rogue.

===FATE===
* Problems can result from "fate point races", in which conflicts come down to two sides repeatedly trying to find Aspects to invoke to add +2s to a roll.
* Arbitrary wording of aspects may create player argumentation.

===Firefly===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.

===Iron Kingdoms RPG===
* Alchemist PCs are required to spend money to build bombs in order to continue using their class abilities, which no other class is. It may be necessary to fudge this or provide a side source of income to balance this.

===Mutants and Masterminds===
* The system makes assumptions about how Villain Points will be spent by the GM; failing to spend them according to these assumptions, which are unstated, may break the system.

===Shadowrun (4th Anniversary Edition)===
* The rules for grenades make the scatter so wide as to make grenades practically unusable. It may be preferable to use the scatter values from the previous edition, which are exactly half those given.
* The rules for Initiative Passes mean that a character with a higher number of IP must move a shorter distance in each of their IPs, potentially allowing them to be caught in the middle of a move that a "slower" character could make without interruption.

===Star Wars (Fantasy Flight)===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.
* Lightsabers are, understandably, extremely powerful; unless you are playing a Force and Destiny game in which all PCs use lightsabers, it may be best to allow PCs to have only training lightsabers to maintain parity with users of other weapons.
* The Auto Fire ability is extremely powerful and can end encounters in a single round.

===The Riddle Of Steel===
* The rules do not make it clear what constitutes working towards an SA and what does not. In particular, there is no convincing argument in the rules as to why any lethal combat does not invoke all a character's SA's because "not dying" is a necessity for all of them.

===Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (3rd Edition)===
* There are no rules on the use of abilities outside of combat (in Story Mode). This can create a problem with the extent to which healing abilities can be used between encounters.

System Bugbears

2016-05-01T23:41:08Z

Hyphz:

=System Bugbears (aka System Gotchas) =

This page collects known issues in RPGs which may not be immediately obvious from the books. They might be worth considering before running or playing the game.

===13th Age===
* The Icon Dice rolled at the start of each session can give results which make no sense in the current context of the adventure.

===Capes===
* Per RAW there is no restriction on Gloating, potentially allowing two opposing sides of a conflict to repeatedly Gloat at each other to gain an infinite number of story tokens.

===Dogs in the Vineyard===
* The system as specified has no way to deal with ''de-'' escalation of conflicts or separating this from a dice bonus. By RAW a character can pull their gun, add extra dice added to their pool for escalating and their shooting skill, but then immediately put the gun away and resume brawling or talking.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition===
* There are extensive errata for this system which fix many issues - check them all.
* In many cases there is no convincing or reasonable way to prevent a single character making every check in a Skill Challenge.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition===
* Fighting classes are generally dramatically underpowered compared to spellcasters.
* The system gives no guidelines for pricing expendable magic items differently to non-expendable ones.
* Unless carefully managed, the Bard class is outright better than the Rogue.

===FATE===
* Problems can result from "fate point races", in which conflicts come down to two sides repeatedly trying to find Aspects to invoke to add +2s to a roll.
* Arbitrary wording of aspects may create player argumentation.

===Firefly===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.

===Iron Kingdoms RPG===
* Alchemist PCs are required to spend money to build bombs in order to continue using their class abilities, which no other class is. It may be necessary to fudge this or provide a side source of income to balance this.

===Mutants and Masterminds===
* The system makes assumptions about how Villain Points will be spent by the GM; failing to spend them according to these assumptions, which are unstated, may break the system.

===Shadowrun (4th Anniversary Edition)===
* The rules for grenades make the scatter so wide as to make grenades practically unusable. It may be preferable to use the scatter values from the previous edition, which are exactly half those given.
* The rules for Initiative Passes mean that a character with a higher number of IP must move a shorter distance in each of their IPs, potentially allowing them to be caught in the middle of a move that a "slower" character could make without interruption.

===Star Wars (Fantasy Flight)===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.
* Lightsabers are, understandably, extremely powerful; unless you are playing a Force and Destiny game in which all PCs use lightsabers, it may be best to allow PCs to have only training lightsabers to maintain parity with users of other weapons.
* The Auto Fire ability is extremely powerful and can end encounters in a single round.

===The Riddle Of Steel===
* The rules do not make it clear what constitutes working towards an SA and what does not. In particular, there is no convincing argument in the rules as to why any lethal combat does not invoke all a character's SA's because "not dying" is a necessity for all of them.

RPG Lexica:STU

2015-05-16T21:18:19Z

Hyphz:

==S==

;Skarka's Law: This is an observation, originally attributed to author and publisher Gareth-Michael Skarka on RPGnet, that, on internet messageboards, there is no subject so vile or indefensible that someone won't post positively/in defense of it. This law is sometimes assumed to be coined ''about'' Skarka, because of his sometimes scathing and antagonistic posting style and eventual permaban from RPGnet (the ban was retracted in 2008), but this is erroneous.

;skillmonster: A [[character]] with high skill, usually considerably over and above the skills of other characters. Implies that these skills are the main thrust of the character. Often concentrated in a particular area; for example, he may be very good at thief skills, enabling him to steal almost anything with impunity, or at social skills, making him a master con man.

;SLF: A German expression (SpielLeiterFicken = lit. Game Master Fucking) that is used when it becomes obvious that the character of the [[GM]]'s Significant Other is getting special treatment from the [[GM]] due to their OOC relationship. Also used when a [[player]] tries to charm a [[GM]] of the opposite sex into doing as they wish. In English-speaking countries, this is generally alluded to by the phrase "GM's Girlfriend" or "GM's Wife" (or boyfriend/husband, naturally).

;Snowflake: A player who attempts to ensure their character has abilities that are unique or rare in the setting, usually writing a character background focused on attempting to justify this. Taken from the classic children's observation that "every snowflake is unique", or possibly from the movie ''Fight Club'', in which Tyler Durden tells recruits that ".. you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.."

;Social Contract: The (often unstated) rules that govern the interactions taking place during an [[RPG]]. ''Not'' a statement of basic social etiquette, which is assumed to be in force regardless: rather the social contract of an RPG defines the expectations and responsibilities of the [[player]]s with regard to the entertainment of the RPG [[session]]. For example, many games have the rule that the [[GM]] may break the rules if doing so is to the good of the game; the social contract would include the definition of what "the good of the game" means in the particular group. As mentioned above, these are often unstated and not discussed, which can later lead to friction in the group.

;Social Skills Problem: A problem arising in many [[RPG]]s where social skills are modeled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple [[dice]] roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the [[player]]s and [[GM]] with no idea of what was actually said or done by the [[character]] - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;Specialization problem: A game balance (q.v.) problem arising in games where characters are able to specialize in particular fields. Typically, the problem arises when a group contains only a single specialist in a particular area: any hazard in that area that is challenging to the specialist is utterly impossible for the other characters, leaving their players with nothing to do but sit and grow bored; and any hazard that would be challenging but possible for the other characters is trivially solved by the specialist, again leaving the non-specialist players with nothing to do. (A concrete example would be, in the d20 system, a fighter with a +22 attack bonus and a wizard with a +2 bonus. Any enemy that the wizard has a chance of hitting, the fighter can never miss; and any enemy that the fighter will not always hit, the wizard will never hit. D&D introduces special rules for handling very high attack bonuses to prevent exactly this situation arising.) This can lead to player boredom and disengagement and in extreme cases may result in players attempting to manipulate the game story to ensure their characters' specialized talents get used and those of other characters do not.

;Splat: The general term for a subgroup of [[character]]s, especially one that [[player character]]s are expected to belong to. Origin: back-construction from "splatbook".

;Splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail on a small subgroup of [[character]]s in a [[RPG]], especially a group that [[player character]]s are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. [[White Wolf]] makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

;Squishy Caster problem: Related to the [[RPG Lexica:DEF|Dumb Fighter problem]]. The Squishy Caster problem (sometimes referred to as the Glass Cannon) arises in class-and-level RPGs where a character's life counters are intimately tied to his or her role in the game. Spellcasters such as Wizards and Sorcerors in D&D have powerful and intensely damaging attacks, but very poor armor and hit points; it thus becomes desirable from an opponent's point of view to focus attacks on the spellcasters rather than the more heavily armored but less dangerous warriors, in hopes of knocking them out of the fight quickly. This is not, however, desirable from a metagame point of view as killing PCs quickly results in less fun, and increased probability of a '''Total Party Kill'''.

;Stat: A numeric value representing a [[character]]'s competence at something. A shortening of ''statistic'', used in reference to [[player]] statistics in sports which are used to retroactively measure the sportsperson's performance in terms of what they have previously achieved. In [[RPG]]s, the numbers are set by other methods and then used to calculate the character's performance and achievements in the future. Thus they are technically parameters rather than statistics, but the name has stuck.

;Stinking Cloud: An infamous Dungeons & Dragons magic spell which causes clouds of caustic green vapor to be emitted by the spell caster. Also, sarcastically, the aftereffects of the typical game-table diet.

;Superheroes, types of
:Superhero [[RPG]]s enable [[player]]s to play [[character]]s with any of several types of powers, like the characters in comic books. Certain combinations of powers and abilities occur frequently enough that shorthand terms have been created for them.
:The following are some of the more common terms:
*'''Brick''': A character whose primary attribute is high strength (Superman, the Hulk, the Thing from the Fantastic Four), especially in systems like ''[[Hero]]'' in which Strength adds to defenses, making them tougher. Sometimes applied to games in other genres to refer to high-strength, high-defense characters (such as a typical [[D&D]] fighter).
*'''Dex Monster''': A character whose primary attribute is high Dexterity. Usually has good weapon skill, classic “thief skills”, evasive defenses, and is often quicker than other characters (though not as quick as a '''speedster''', below). Also known as a '''Ninja''', whether trained in martial arts or not.
*'''Egoist''': A ''[[Hero]]'' term for a '''Mentalist''', below, since the main statistic they use in ''Hero'' is called “Ego”.
*'''Energy Projector''': A character that “throws” an energy discharge of some sort, such as a fire blast, lightning bolt, or just the blast of destructive energy typical of many comic book characters. Originally a ''[[Champions]]'' term. Also known as a '''Blaster'''.
*'''Gadgeteer''': A character that relies on technical ability and machines. May be applied to characters from other genres as well.
*'''Martial Artist''': A character that relies on hand-to-hand combat skill without necessarily having high strength. Usually skilled in Eastern [[martial arts]] (or fake pseudo-Eastern super martial arts).
*'''Mentalist''': A character that uses “mental powers” such as Telepathy or Telekinesis; in RPGs, often has a mental attack power that hurts someone they can contact telepathically. Also called a '''Psi''', '''Psionic''' or '''Psychic'''. (Examples: Professor X, Jean Grey)
*'''Mimic''', '''Morph''', or '''Shapeshifter''': A character that changes form at will, often with the ability to imitate something or someone he's seen. Examples: Plastic-Man, Mystique, Odo from ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''.
*'''Powersuit''': A character whose powers are granted by a powered suit of some sort, which provides protection, increased strength, and often other powers such as flight. Implies the person in the suit is either “normal” or comparatively weak without it (i.e., it's the ''suit'' that has the powers, not the pilot). Also called a '''Powered Armor''', '''Battlesuit''', or '''Suitguy'''. (Examples: Iron Man, M.A.N.T.I.S. from the short-lived TV show of the same name). Unusual in that this archetype focuses on the ''origin'' of the hero's powers, rather than the ''nature'' of those powers.
*'''Speedster''': A character whose primary power is high speed, often fast enough to be invisible when moving at full speed. Classic examples: The Flash, Impulse.
:Note that these can be combined... Batman, for example, is a Gadgeteer/Martial Artist (and, in the movies, a Suitguy... sort of).

;Swine: a rhetorical term coined by notoriously abrasive forum poster [http://www.xanga.com/RPGpundit Nisarg], for certain types of role-players--mostly "story-telling" advocates and self-proclaimed "narrativists".
:He defines it like so:
::"Swine" refers to more than just RPG f***tards. Generally a "swine" is a self-absorbed human being who wishes to be recognized for abilities or talents he does not have, and accomplishments he has not attained."
::"He represents the infinitely inferior man in every respect, who nevertheless wishes to impose his putrid will on the world, and usually fucks the world up in the process."
:He strongly believes in a form of Gonzo journalism to make a point. The term swine was adapted from Hunter Thompson's "Generation of Swine".

;Symbiote problem: A spin off of the ''specialization problem'' that arises when a group of PCs is composed entirely of specialists, each specialized in a different field. Because typically no individual PC will be able to survive or progress in any challenging situation that is not his/her specialty, the group is forced to stick together at all times, and thus almost all significant actions (such as where the group should travel next) will have to be decided on by the group as a whole or by a designated leader. This can damage the players' ability to role-play their characters, as well as making the game session very boring for players other than the group leader who may get to do nothing in the session but declare when they are making use of their specialty. This problem is especially insidious because the group of specialists is often considered the best possible make-up for a party.

==T==

;Tank: As a noun, an extremely tough character capable of taking (or, occasionally, avoiding) lots of damage.
:As a verb, for a character to deliberately place themselves in harm's way on the basis that if they didn't do so, another more vulnerable character would be there instead. This is a critical technique for protecting weaker party members in most RPGs. (This meaning is similar to '''meat shield''', but with no implied pejorative.)
:As a noun, also, any strategy for defeating an enemy that is based on resisting that enemy's attacks.

;Thelma: A gamer who would go to any extreme, including committing suicide, rather than be caught. Two of them are called ''Thelma & Louise''.

;TLP: Abbreviation for '''(check for) Traps, Listen, Pick''' - the standard behavior of a thief or rogue character when encountering an unknown door in a dungeon that the party needs to pass through.

;Total Party Kill: (Sometimes abbreviated '''TPK''') Any course of action in a [[RPG]] that results in the entire [[party]] of [[player character]]s winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for [[PC]]s combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad [[GM]]ing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the [[player]]s). The abbreviated form is sometimes used as a verb, as in: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;TRPG: Abbreviation for ''Tabletop Role Playing Game'' or ''Table Talk Roleplaying Game''. An alternate abbreviation used in Japan, where the abbreviation RPG is usually taken to mean CRPG.
:This is also a generally accepted abbreviation for 'Tactical Role-Playing Game', a type of electronic RPG which focuses on chess-like or wargame-like mechanics for resolving combats. Examples of this electronic type of TRPG are Shining Force, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, and others.

;Turtle: A [[player]] who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their [[character]]'s safety or obviously prompted by the [[GM]]. This behavior is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|railroad]]''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.
:Also, ''v.'' '''Turtling''', to refer to this behavior.

;Twink: see Munchkin. Originated in the world of MUSH/MUX/whatever.
: Also a verb in CRPGs for the (often time-consuming and difficult) process of manipulating a PC's stats to accomplish a specific goal. The most common forms of twinking are
:1) maximizing the PC's usefulness for a specific gaming function (usually PvP combat), in which case the PC's development is generally frozen at a predetermined optimal point, and
:2) artificially enhancing the PC's stats through particular equipment and buffs in a way that is not useful for actually playing the character, for the sole purpose of meeting the stat prerequisite to equipping a specific item or achieving some other in-game benchmark (see, eg., [http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=449803 ''Anarchy Online'' Character Twinking Guide]). After the goal is completed, the enhancements are generally undone and/or allowed to lapse and the character returned to its standard, playable configuration with its new equipment or ability in place.
:3) As a noun, a PC which has been optimized as described above (usually in sense #1).

==U==

;Unicorn: in addition to the classic mythological creature, any item, person, or event in the game setting that's supposed to be extremely rare, but that the PCs have constant access to or encounter frequently. From the phrase that "Unicorn are very rare - every one you ever meet will tell you so."

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus ''Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope''. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

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[[Category:Terminology]]

System Bugbears

2015-04-14T14:59:28Z

Hyphz: Created page with "=System Bugbears= This page collects known issues in RPGs which may not be immediately obvious from the books. They might be worth considering before running or playing the g..."

=System Bugbears=

This page collects known issues in RPGs which may not be immediately obvious from the books. They might be worth considering before running or playing the game.

===13th Age===
* The Icon Dice rolled at the start of each session can give results which make no sense in the current context of the adventure.

===Capes===
* Per RAW there is no restriction on Gloating, potentially allowing two opposing sides of a conflict to repeatedly Gloat at each other to gain an infinite number of story tokens.

===Dogs in the Vineyard===
* The system as specified has no way to deal with ''de-'' escalation of conflicts or separating this from a dice bonus. By RAW a character can pull their gun, add extra dice added to their pool for escalating and their shooting skill, but then immediately put the gun away and resume brawling or talking.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition===
* There are extensive errata for this system which fix many issues - check them all.
* In many cases there is no convincing or reasonable way to prevent a single character making every check in a Skill Challenge.

===Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition===
* Fighting classes are generally dramatically underpowered compared to spellcasters.
* The system gives no guidelines for pricing expendable magic items differently to non-expendable ones.

===FATE===
* Problems can result from "fate point races", in which conflicts come down to two sides repeatedly trying to find Aspects to invoke to add +2s to a roll.
* Arbitrary wording of aspects may create player argumentation.

===Firefly===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.

===Mutants and Masterminds===
* The system makes assumptions about how Villain Points will be spent by the GM; failing to spend them according to these assumptions, which are unstated, may break the system.

===Shadowrun (4th Anniversary Edition)===
* The rules for grenades make the scatter so wide as to make grenades practically unusable. It may be preferable to use the scatter values from the previous edition, which are exactly half those given.
* The rules for Initiative Passes mean that a character with a higher number of IP must move a shorter distance in each of their IPs, potentially allowing them to be caught in the middle of a move that a "slower" character could make without interruption.

===Star Wars (Fantasy Flight)===
* The sample adventures are unrepresentative of the intended play experience.

===The Riddle Of Steel===
* The rules do not make it clear what constitutes working towards an SA and what does not. In particular, there is no convincing argument in the rules as to why any lethal combat does not invoke all a character's SA's because "not dying" is a necessity for all of them.

Major Projects

2015-04-14T14:36:25Z

Hyphz:

If you are working on a major project which you expect to span 6+ pages, please enter it alphabetically in the appropriate section of this page. Use a level 3 header, so that you'll appear in the table of contents, include a link to your project's main page, then briefly describe your project.

==Game Systems==
This is a list of original game systems being developed at the RPGnetWiki.

===Æther===
'''Page:''' [[Æther: Main Page|Æther]]

Did you think Earth was the only world? The world of Æther is closer than you think, a fantastic world of magic, and faeries, castles and wonder. . . and dark powers trying to conquer two worlds. Æther is a campaign setting using the '''GURPS''' rules set. Characters must leap between worlds countering threats to both worlds and facing evil spirits, dragons, and both wonderful and terrible magics.

===Alter Aeon===
'''Page:''' [[Alter_Aeon]]
Dare you enter the world the world of Alter Aeon. Classic text based RPG with extensive quest, communication, and game play options. Online 24/7. Broadband NOT REQUIRED!

===Ancient & Deadly===
'''Page:''' [[Ancient_And_Deadly| Ancient & Deadly]]

===BASH! Basic Action Super Heroes===
'''Page:''' [[BASH:Main_Page|BASH!]]

===Basic FANGS: Fantasy Adventure Network Gaming System===
'''Page:''' [[FANGS:_Main Page|FANGS]]

Version 1.6.1 of a classless skill-based [[RPG]] system, with some minimal compatibility with [[d20 System|d20]] modules. By Christopher Allen and Steve Perrin.

===B-Grade===
'''Page:'''[[B-Grade]]

B-Grade is an rpg where the players take on the role of B-Grade movie characters such as vampires, mummys, martians, leprechauns, deformed hunchbacks, and wolfmen...they fight secretly for allied forces in 1935 at the brink of what will become world war 2...adventures focus on thwarting the schemes of cthulhuan occultists, far east criminal geniuses, mad scientists, double agents and facist governments...finding themselves in locations such as prehistoric dinosaur islands, archaelogical dig-sites, and secret military installations...fighting against foes such as japanese robots, radioactive mutants, sadistic superhuman nazis and legions of ninjas. Uses a heavily customised version of the One roll Engine (ORE) system.

===CP2020===
'''Page:''' [[CP2020:Main_Page|CP2020]]

Miscellaneous resources for running a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign.

===Dice & Glory===
'''Page:''' [[Dice&Glory:Main_Page]]

First Edition of a universal game system using skeletal character classes and a "buy" based experience point system and skill based magic and psionic systems. By Robert A Neri Jr.

===Do Not Go Gentle===
'''Page:''' [[Do Not Go Gentle: Main Page]]

Post war superhero game, rules-lite. By Asklepios.

===Fabuland===
'''Page:''' [[Fabuland:_Main Page|Fabuland]]

A furry rpg aimed at children with a system based on the ideas presented in the Rough Quests RPGnet column.

===Flamepunk===
'''Page:''' [[Flamepunk:Main Page|Flamepunk]]

''Cyberpunk meets pyromancy'' in this detailed and complete game. ''Blazers'', grab your obsidian deck and run the flameweb to take down the ''Church of Holy Flame''. ''Burners'', tool up with pyrecaster, ashblade and stonecarve armour, and take on the ''Guild Hellforged''. ''Binders'' catch yourself an elemental, fetter in to a flesh-tattoo then go hand to hand against the ''Hadar Shadows''. It's all here, and you can take the burn back to the Man. Hope you brough something fireproof...

===Gangwars===
'''Page:''' [[Gangwars:Main_Page|Gangwars]]

A classless d20 based system emphasizing skills and traits, with similarities to the shadowrun setting.

=== Genius: the Transgression ===
'''Page:''' [[Genius_The_Transgression|Genius The Transgression]]

A game for playing mad scientists, designed to fit into the New World of Darkness alongside similar games.

===Hyperborean Mice===
'''Page:''' [[HyperboreanMice:Main_Page|Hyperborean Mice]]

Gritty Swords & Sorcery action... as performed by talking mice and rats. Available from Lulu.

===Irradiated Fur===
Page: [[IrradiatedFur:Main Page|Irradiated Fur]]

A simplistic anthropomorphic apocalyptic one-shot game system.
===FableScape===
'''Page:''' [[FableScape|FableScape]]

An RPG taking place in the made up world of Morasadell {More-isa-dell.}The gama is in a Mythology/Fantasy/Simi-Shonen Genre Game. The Wiki-Page is is under-constuction.

===Fantasy Rules for Fate 3.0===
'''Page: ''' [[Geos:Fate-Fudge_Rules|Fantasy Fate 3.0]]

Geos is a standalone fantasy gameworld, using a variation on the [http://www.faterpg.com/ Fate 3.0] rules. The main magic system is based on Atlas Games' [http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/ Ars Magica]. The system is primarily narrativist, with secondary emphasis on gamist and simulationist perspectives.

===Land of Xel===
'''Page:''' [[Land_of_Xel|Land of Xel]]

Under construction RPG system. The Land of Xel is a fantasy RPG with a mix of technology, magic, and metal. The land is divided into four different factions each with its own internal strife and outward aggression.

===Legends===
'''Page:''' [[Legends: Main Page]]

Epic fantasy roleplaying. Work in progress. By Asklepios.

===Leviathan: The Tempest===
'''Page:''' [[http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/LeviathanTempest:Main_Page| Leviathan: The Tempest]]

A new setting for the nWoD where players take the roll of hybrids between humanity and primordial gods of evolution and chaos. Described by one contributor as being a game where you play "The Mayor of Innsmouth".

===Lexicon, an RPG===
'''Page:''' [[Original Lexicon post]]

A copy of the page that introduced the Lexicon wiki-based RPG to the world. Originally written by Neel Krishnaswami; taken from his blog "The 20 x 20 Room".

===Mano a Mano===
'''Page:''' [[Mano a Mano]]

A simple, generic system. Mano a Mano is well-suited for combat-intensive games with non-humanoid characters.

===Marvel Universe Game===
'''Page:''' [[MUG:Main Page]]

A giant game of What If? featuring your favorite marvel characters. Eschews individual character control for a more collaborative storytelling environment.

===Mini mam===
'''Page:''' [[Mini mam]]

An extremely simple fantasy RPG system, derived from older versions of Mano a Mano. Mini mam is designed for absolute beginners to role-playing games and gamers who have a need for a system so simple that it doesn't require a character sheet.

===McMercenaries===
'''Page:''' [[McMercenaries:Orientation]]

A game and setting of corporate warfare in the all-too-near future.
Input is encouraged!

===Morturi Te Salutant===
'''Page:''' [[Morturi Te Salutant: Main Page]]

Gladiatorial mini-skirmish game. By Asklepios.

===Nexus D20===
'''Page:''' [http://www.wiki.garrowolf.net/index.php?title=Main_Page Nexus D20]

An alternate D20 system designed to solve all of those aspects of D20 that irritated people. It has a skill based feat system and a Class Framework instead of a hundred classes that allows players to create any kind of character they want. It has support for many different settings and technology levels. It allows you to play in settings that you like but in a system that makes more sense. All actions are based on one dice roll instead of many that slow games down. Combat is very fast and easy to resolve but extremely deadly forcing your players to actually seek cover instead of standing around and taking it. It has a totally different magic system based on a smaller set of powers with each spell a feat within the powers.

===nWoD Fantasy===
'''Page:''' [[NWoD_Fantasy:Main_Page]]

A modification of Whitewolf's nWoD system into a fantasy setting similar to that of Dungeons and Dragons.

===NYSRPG===
'''Page:''' [[NYSRPG:Main_Page]]

A simple game system based on GURPS and Daemon. Under development, feel free to post sugestions.

===Ogre===
'''Page:''' [[Ogre:Main_Page|Open, Generic Roleplaying Environment]]

A generic rpg system without classes, general levels and with continuous initiative based on the OGC content.

===Open4E===
""Page:"" [[Open4E:Main_Page|Open4E]]

An OGL derivative of the [[d20 System|d20]] system for fantasy roleplaying inspired by the 4th Edition of a popular D20 system, with an emphasis on class balance and mechanical consistency.

===OpenD20===
'''Page:''' [[Opend20:_Main_Page|OpenD20]]

A classless skills based [[d20 System|d20]] derivative. Designed for elegant simplicity. The intention is to create a more universal [[RPG]] system by getting input from the online community (are you reading this? Then that means YOU!)

===Open Game Repository===
'''Page:''' [[OGR:Main Page|Open Game Repository]]

A repository for various rules released under the [[Open Game License]]. This is intended to include everything from the SRD, games distributed by third parties, and home-brew rules.

===Rebirth===
'''Page:''' [[Rebirth:Main Page|Rebirth]]

Set in Ancient India, 1 night spans decades with the constant death-rebirth-death system. By Fleming Publications.

===SAMSARA===
'''Page:''' [[Samsara:Main Page|SAMSARA]]

A fairly rules-lite system of mechanics based around the resolution of contests. Designed to be modular and eminently tweakable.

===Scratch RPS===
'''Page:''' [[Scratch|Scratch Role-Playing System]]

The Scratch Role-Playing System (Scratch RPS) is a simple set of RPG rules used in the [http://gameartsguild.com/squawk Squawk Role-Playing Game]. Stats for Scratch characters can be as simple as a few abilities and ability levels which are added to rolls when those abilities are used. The Scratch RPS has a few basic rules and many optional rules.

===Scum===
'''Page:''' [[Scum: Main Page]]

Brutal and random game of playing chavs and scum in 21st century Britain. By Asklepios.

===Serenity===
'''Page:''' [[Serenity:Main Page|Serenity]]

Miscellaneous resources for running a Serenity/Firefly campaign.

===Shattered Prism===
'''Page:''' [[ShatteredPrism:Main_Page|Shattered Prism]]

In-Development RPG series. Shattered Prism is intended to be a series of related RPGs using a unified rules system, set within a predominately Sci-Fi galaxy.

===Star Wars Saga===
'''Page:''' [[Star Wars Saga:_Main Page|Star Wars Saga]]

Miscellaneous resources for running a SW Saga campaign.

===Symphony of Stars===
'''Page:''' [[SymphonyofStars]]

An Experiment in Cooperative Game Design via Actual Play.

===Texas===
'''Page:''' [[Texas:_Main_Page|Texas]]

A rules light poker-based game system. Designed to emulate the genre of Spaghetti Westerns, in the Sergio Leone / Clint Eastwood style. By Asklepios.

===24 Hour RPGs===
Page: [[List of 24 Hour RPGs by rating]]

A listing of all the quickie RPGs created as part of the [http://www.24hourrpg.com/ 24 Hour RPG] event/contest.

===Wiki RPG===
'''Page:''' [[Wiki RPG]]

The goal of the Wiki RPG project is to create computer based role playing games collaboratively.
Games are both edited in the browser (via this Wiki) and played in the browser (the Wiki HTML pages are downloaded and the game code is interpreted by a JavaScript game engine).

===WikiHow RPG===
'''Page''' [[WikiHow RPG]]

A system of Roleplaying where you make a persona on WIkiHow.com and roleplay it.

===Xia===
'''Page:''' [[Xia: Main Page|Xia]]

Wushu heroes kick ass in fantasy ancient China! A detailed and complete roleplaying game designed for playing wuxia style games of kung fu action. By Asklepios.

==Game Design Resources==

===System design grab-bags===
'''Page''': [[System_grab-bags:Main_page]]

A collection of all kinds of game mechanics used in different systems.

===Character Role Catalog===

The [[Character Role Catalog]] is an attempt to list the roles characters can play in roleplaying games. The page also contains some theory on these roles.

===Aspects List===

The [[Aspects_List|Aspects List]] is a catalog of useful aspects that can be of use to narrators and players playing RPGs such as FATE, Houses of the Blooded, Universalis, etc.

==Generic Backgrounds==
This is a list of generic backgrounds, not tied to any game system, that are being developed at the RPGnetWiki.

===Across the Spiral Arms===
Spiral arms is a space opera setting, designed to emulate many of the common Anime tropes. As such it's got a lot of drama, a lot of scope, and very little science included.

* '''Page:''' [[SpiralArms:_Main_Page|Across the Spiral Arms]] 

===Adventure! RPG Campaigns===
'''Page:''' [[Adventure!_RPG_Campaigns:Main_Page|Adventure! RPG Campaigns: Main Page]]

A page open for game groups to provide details and resource on individual campaigns based on the Adventure! roleplaying game.

===Alvatia: Game Setting===
Alvatia is a fantasy game setting originally developed for use with [[FANGS:_Main Page|FANGS]], however, is quite suitable as a generic low-magic fantasy setting.

* '''Page:''' [[ALVATIA:_Main_Page|Alvatia]] 
** '''Page:''' [[ALVATIA:_Ingsby_-_Village_and_Manor|The Village and Manor of Ingsby]]
** '''Page:''' [[ALVATIA:_City_of_Wedburgh|City_of_Wedburgh]]

===AMBER===
Page: [[Amber RPG:_Main Page]] A page open for game groups to provide details and resource on individual campaigns based on the RPG for the Amber Setting.

===Ars Nova===

'''Page:''' [[Ars Nova]]

14th century historical fantasy setting

===Athanatos: A Transhumanist Fantasy Setting===
'''Page:''' [[ATHANATOS:_Main_Page|Athanatos]]

A fantasy setting where powerful magics have allowed souls to stay connected to the material plane even after the death of the body.

===Basilicus===
'''Page:''' [[Basilicus]]

A massive open content wiki project featuring worldbuilding in several genres, free fiction, and other invaluable resources.

===Chaos Diceless===
'''Page:''' [[Chaos_Diceless|Chaos Diceless]]

Chaos, Rebma, The New Pattern and all these places you have never visited or re-invented a thousand times. They're here.

A repository of Courts and places for ADRPG.

===Conan RPG Campaigns===
'''Page:''' [[Conan_RPG_Campaigns:Main_Page|Conan RPG Campaigns: Main Page]]

A page open for game groups to provide details and resource on individual campaigns based on the sword and sorcery setting of Conan and the Hyborian world.

===Contribute Your Eerie Event===
'''Page:''' [[Eerie Event]]

Following up on the thread from rpg.net, this is a Wiki designed to collate weird events for use in a variety of horror games.

===Covenant, West Virginia===
'''Page:''' [[Covenant]]

A hyper-historical, modern day setting in the style of Lost. Contributions needed!

===Diaspora Adaptations: Diaspora Does Dallas===

'''Page:''' [[DiasporaAdaptations:Main_Page]]

A hub page for write-ups using ''Diaspora'' to build settings and characters for shows like ''Cowboy Bebop'' and ''Planetes'', together with webcomics like ''A Miracle of Science''.

===Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals===

'''Page:''' [[Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals]]

Information about prehistoric creatures for use in RPGs, simulations or just "playing dinosaurs".

===Dragon Kings Project===

'''Page:''' [[Dragon_Kings_Project:Main_Page | Dragon Kings Project]]

A collection of links, official and fan-made resources for the Dragon Kings, a fantasy game world conceived and presented in fiction, art, and music simultaneously by Timothy Brown, creator of Dark Sun and 2300AD.

===Encyclopedia Galactica===
'''Page:''' [[Encyclopedia_Galactica:Main_Page]]

A hard sci-fi collection of solar systems, planets, lifeforms and sentient societies, suitable as a GM resource or as a subtrate for any sci-fi or fantasy campaign.

===Eternal Empire===
'''Page:''' [[EternalEmpire:Main_Page|Eternal Empire]]

Eternal Empire is a synthesis of Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction with a lenghty background that emphasizes the roles of religion, social structures, language, and race on both individuals and societies.

===EverQuest rpg===
'''Page:''' [[EverQuest rpg:Main Page|EQrpg Main]]

The EverQuest Role-Playing Game system is built on the d20 Open GL rules, and based in the world of Norrath, of the online rpg EverQuest.

===Fantasy City Project===
'''Page:''' [[Fantasy_City_Project:Main_Page|Fantasy City Project]]

Shared development of a generic fantasy city, its locations, NPCs, organizations and adventure seeds.

===Federal Space===
'''Page: ''' [[FederalSpace:Main_Page]]

Shadowjack's alternative-universe variation of Star Trek, lensed in the direction of harder science, more consistent worldbuilding, and uniforms with hats.

===Geos===
'''Page: ''' [[Geos:Main Page|Geos]]

Geos is a fantasy gameworld, based loosely on 13th century Europe. The current incarnation is skewed towards more realistic fantasy - while folk magic is common, actual wizards and faeries are hard to find.

===The Gift===
'''Page''' [[The_Gift:Main_Page|The Gift]]

Mages have been Earth's top predators for as long as their history records, secretly enslaving humanity to further their own ends. Their power has only ever been limited by their ability to cooperate and the little gods have been free to do with this world whatever they desired. So, throughout history, they have made war on one another.

===HarnWorld===
'''Page:''' [[HarnWorld:Main_Page|HarnWorld]]

A compilation for adventuring the world of Kethira and Harn island in particular.

===Infinite Horizons===
'''Page''' [[Infinite_Horizons:Main_Page|Infinite Horizons]]

A sandbox Space Opera universe for GURPS, drawing heavily on Firefly and Mass Effect.

===Lineage===
'''Page''' [[Lineage:Main_Page|Lineage]]

There is no higher purpose for mankind, laid down from above. The mages have always known that. Heaven exists, but it cares nothing for humanity, not even to rule it. Hell is more attentive. The demons like it when we suffer and a demon can make a human suffer forever. Faced with a meaningless universe, will the mages stand up to defend humanity, or will they fight for personal power and glory?

===Meamnar===
'''Page:''' [[Meamnar:Main_Page|Meamnar]]

A classic campaign setting constructed for the d20 game system.

===Magipunk===
'''Page:''' [[Magipunk:Main_Page|Magipunk]]

A weird fantasy game of urban dystopia and rapidly changing social conflict -- cyberpunk crossed with swords and sorcery.

===Marvel Realtime===
'''Page:''' [[Marvel_Realtime:Main_Page|Marvel Realtime]]

Extrapolating what the Marvel Universe might look like if time advanced normally.

===Meanwhile, Back Home...===
'''Page:''' [[MEANWHILE:_Main_Page|Meanwhile, Back Home...]]

A (mostly) humourous Alien Contact setting focusing on Earth.

===Midnight RPG Campaigns===
'''Page:''' [[Midnight RPG Campaigns: Main Page]]

Midnight RPG Campaigns, is a wiki open for game groups to provide details and resource on individual campaigns based on the D20 Dungeons & Dragons MIDNIGHT Setting published by Fantasy Flight Games.

===Necromunda Bible===
'''page:''' [[Necomunda_Bible]]

Necromunda Bible - Is an [[OpenGamingResource]] intended to create a one stop shop for everything Necromunda. Including: New gangs, Fluff, Campaign Ideas and other user generated material based around the Necromunda board game.

=== New Space ===
'''Page:''' [[New_Space:Main_Page|New Space]]

Originally designed for the SpaceMaster: Privateers game, New Space is an original background set in an Alternate World where the Valacantha invaded Earth during World War II. It was a big mistake. Mankind has made the Valacantha flee beyond the Orion Spur and have colonized a fraction of the worlds left behind.

===Paradise City===
'''Page:''' [[Paradise_City:Main_Page|Paradise City]]

Paradise City, Nevada, is a "cyberpunk" setting designed for use with GURPS. The city is huge and contains a wide variety of urban environments, most of them dangerous.

===Pokethulhu RPG Campaigns===
'''Page:''' [[Pokethulhu RPG Campaigns: Main Page]] Pokethulhu RPG Campaigns, is a wiki open for game groups to provide details and resource on individual campaigns based on the Pokethulhu RPG. The game is written and designed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._John_Ross S. John Ross] and currently published (in its 3rd Edition) as a free game available from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Games_and_Diversions Cumberland Games and Diversions].

===Post-Future===

'''Page:''' [[Post-Future:Main_Page|Post Future]]

Your favorite setting, cast forward into a darker future.

=== Prometheus Project ===

'''Page:''' [[Prometheus_Project:Main_Page|Prometheus Project]]

A user created, non game system specific, Bronze age setting composed of numerous city states united by trade and divided by politics, religion and war.

=== Skein of Worlds ===

'''Page:''' [[Skein_of_Worlds:Main_Page|Skein of Worlds]]

A medieval fantasy setting in which the universe really is infinite, and just about anything is possible. Primarily for D&D 3.x, but contains very little system specific details.

===Stardust & Aether Winds===

'''Page:''' [[Stardust&AetherWinds:Main_Page|Stardust & Aether Winds]]

A simple little fantasy setting designed as a spin on the Swashbuckling Sailing Ships in Spaaaace!

===Tekumel===

Welcome to MAR Barker's gloriously baroque world of Tekumel, one of the oldest and most detailed FRP settings. This site will include some general background info, and material specific to 'The Shrine of Petrified Wisdom' campaign.

'''Page:''' [[Tekumel]]

===The Freelancers===

'''Page:''' [[The_Freelancers]]
A campaign set in the roaring twenties. The Freelancers are a group of persons in the Bureau of Investigations special "Freelancers"-unit. Based on RMSS-system, but contains mainly generic material.

===TRaiders===

'''Page:''' [[Traiders]]

Surviving and thriving after the collapse of the global economy.

===Triptych: The Elemental Realms===

'''Page:''' [[TRIPTYCH|Triptych]]

A new mythology for modern magic games. Original elemental creatures wanted. 
Encompasses three parallel worlds: The Great Gale, The White Waste, and the Blasted Lands.

===The Twin Cities of Glass===

'''Page:''' [[TheTwinCitiesOfGlass:Main_Page|The Twin Cities of Glass]]

A fantasy setting of fantastic places.
Encompasses three cities: Narcissus the City of Mirrors, Diaphane the Crystal City, and Iridos the Spectrum City; and the surrounding kingdoms.

===24-Hour RPG Settings===

'''Page:''' [[24HourSettings]]

A new GM challenge set up by Knockwood: similar to the 24-Hour RPG, but focusing on ''settings'' rather than rules. (New, Jan 2008)

===Ubantu: Bantu/African version of GURPS Banestorm===

'''Page:''' [[Ubantu:Contents]]

This a continent based on Bantu mythology, a kind of African setting based on serious anthropology and mythography. It is designed as an add-in content in the GURPS Banestorm world (3e), with an empire than can take on and possibly win against Megalos.

===Wisrtum: Wiki-Based Classic Fantasy Setting===
'''Page:''' [[Wisrtum:Main_Page|Wisrtum]]

This is a ''classic fantasy'' setting, intended to be creativly developed by the community without care for what RPG-System might be used to play it. The community can then produce ports of the source material to whatever game system they wish, as needed.

===The World===
'''Page:''' [[TROS in the Hammer|The World at 'TROS in the Hammer']]

A post-apocalyptic, fairly dark and gritty fantasy setting with several unique cultures and shamanic magic. Currently for use with the Riddle of Steel, but very little game specific stuff.

==GM Resources==
Everything needed to make a [[GM]]'s life easier

===General Resources and Links===
These are generic resources covering various topics that might be of use to game masters.

'''Page:''' [[Free_Adventures|Free Adventures]] 
'''Page:''' [[Free_RPGs|Free RPGs]] 
'''Page:''' [[Free_Software|Free Software]] 
'''Page:''' [[RESOURCES:_Npcs|Npcs]] 
'''Page:''' [[RESOURCES:_Gaming_Websites|Gaming Websites]] 
'''Page:''' [[Non_Gaming_Websites|Non Gaming Websites]] 
'''Page:''' [[Cool_Fight_Locations|Cool Fight Locations]] 
'''Page:''' [[Stereotype_List|Stereotype List]] 
'''Page:''' [[Great_Quotes_List|Great Quotes of RPGNet]] 
'''Page:''' [[Aspects_List|Aspects List]] 

===How to Run Game X===
A continuation of the thread of the same name from RPOpen--game-specific advice on how to GM. Additional contributions are welcome! [[How_to_Run:Main_Page|The main page is here]], and [[:Category:How_to_Run|the category page is here.]]

===XXX: GROK IT!===
A resource page with links to various "review" guides, formatted in a style similar to "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Dummies For Dummies]" books. Topics include games and game related material.
 '''Page:''' [[RESOURCES: GROK IT! Guide Reviews]] 

===Short Adventures===
A resource page with short [[adventure]]s that [[GM]]s can drop into games to fill a night of play.

'''Page:''' [[Short_Adventures]] 

===Campaign Setups===
A resource page filled with thumbnail designs for [[campaign]]s, campaign ideas, and outlines to help jump-start a game.

'''Page:''' [[Campaign_Setups]] 

===War Stories===

'''Page:''' [[War_Stories|War Stories]] 

Tales of things that have happened during your gaming sessions which can amuse other gamers or serve as inspiration for GMs.

===Game Meta-Info and Logs===

This is where GMs can put information relating to their ''specific'' games, such as character sheets, logs, plot threads, et cetera.

[[Game Info Page]].

===System Bugbears===

Not just the monster; a collection of notable issues in commonly used systems that should be considered or worked around before running the system.

[[System Bugbears]]

===Mission Generator===

A random generic [[Mission Generator]].

===Open Game Systems===

A [[Open_Game_Systems|List of Games]] available under an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_license Open License] and thus usable for your own published games.

== LARP Resources ==

=== Gender Neutral Character Names ===

A list of [[LARP:Gender Neutral Character Names|gender neutral names]] for those times when you don't know who will be playing a character.

=== LARP Scenarios ===

A list of [[LARP Scenarios|LARP scenarios]] that are available for purchase or free download from various sources.

===The Westlands===
'''Page:''' [[The_WestLands:Main_Page]]

A European-style Weird-West LARP, near Seattle, WA.

== RPGnet Meta-resources ==

===The "Create a Character" Challenge===
'''Page:''' [[The "Create a Character" Challenge]]

The challenge: Create one character for each game you own! View the thread created by "chaldfont" [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=345113 HERE].

===Overly Honest RPG Book Covers===
'''Page:''' [[Overly Honest RPG Book Covers]]

An archive of the hilarious images generated by the RPGnet thread of the same name. View the thread created by "Neko Ewen" [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=193489 HERE].

===Number Lists===

'''Page:''' [[Number Lists]]

A collection of various open-ended lists that have sprung up over time and added to by various users, presented here in a more read-friendly format.

===RPG Motivational Posters===

'''Page:''' [[Motivational_Posters:Main_Page]]

A collection of the posters from the Ultra-Thread on Roleplaying Open, "[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=264472 RPG Motivational Posters]" Still being transferred--please check the Template page before contributing!

===RPGnet Thread Archive===

'''Page:''' [[Forum_Archive:Main_Page|Forums Archive]]

A user created archive of classic threads, in the spirit of the old "Best Of Forums" page. Organized by forum, and alphabetics.

=== RPGnet Gatherings ===

'''Page:''' [[Gatherings|RPGnet_Gatherings]]

For information regarding any official meetups, gatherings and get togethers of RPGnet members.

=== Tangency Timeline ===

'''Page:''' [[Tangency_Timeline|Tangency Timeline]]

A timeline of important dates in the history of Tangency.

=== Let's Play Threads ===

'''Page:''' [[Lets_Play|Let's Play Threads]]

An archive of Let's Play threads from Video Games Open

=== Video Games Open Community Resources ===

'''Page:''' [[VGO Community Resources]]

A collection of community resources, threads and links for the readers of VGO.

==System Supplements==
This is a list of supplements for specific [[game system]]s. Please be sure to list which game system your [[supplement]] is for if you include something in this section. (If you prefer to search by system then look at the [[Special:Categories]] page.)

''For ease of use, this section has been moved to a sub-page, Please see [[Major_Projects/System_Supplements|here]]''.

== Terminology ==
These are guides to common rpg terminology.

===Game title abbreviation===
'''Page:''' [[Game_title_abbreviations]] 

This is a collection of abbreviations used for various games and game lines.

===RPG Lexica===

A collection of [[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Gamer Jargon]]--terms used by the ''players'' as opposed to the game's authors and designers.
Still very much a work in progress... please contribute!

===What's in a (GM's) Name?===
'''Page:''' [[Referee]] 

This is a collection of various game master names for different games

==MMORPG Guilds==

[[Blacksky Company]] (WoW Kirin Tor Horde)

[[Pig and Whistle Society]] (WoW Kirin Tor Alliance)

[[Meta Forces]] (CoH/CoV)

[[Versus Gloria Omnis]] (Eve Online)

===Where Did I Come From?===
A game where an orphan kills his parents by travelling in time!
====BOO====

RPG Lexica:JKL

2005-08-31T11:53:34Z

Hyphz: /* K */

==J==

;Juicer Problem: Any time a game gives [[PC]]s an option for significant power with drawbacks that would be horrific to a real person, but, since the PC is not a real person, the drawback is nonentity.
:Usage: "He said he's going to kill my [[character]]'s wife if I don't give him back the superweapon? She's not a PC, it's not like I care. Man, this is just a Juicer Problem."
:The term is a reference to Juicers in ''[[Rifts]]'' whose awesome combat power was balanced by a significantly shortened lifespan. This would be horrific to any real person, but unlikely to faze any players since it's rare that enough time passes in-game for it to be an issue. Coined by '''tk421''' on the RPOpen board.

==K==

;Katana
:Long, curved oriental sword. Katana are the subject of numerous myths related to the quality of their construction and their sharpness, such as the claim that a katana was considered a poor blade unless it was capable of cutting through four condemned men in a single stroke (in reality, late-medieval period European swords, especially those of the Toledo tradition, matched or exceeded the katana in quality). This, in turn, has led to stories of gamers seriously overestimating the abilities of a character armed with a katana: the most famous example being a story in which a [[player]] allegedly attempted to have a katana-wielding [[PC]] use his sword to cut through the armor of a modern tank. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to mean an unrealistically powerful weapon, or a weapon which is sought-after for "coolness" value regardless of its relevance or usefulness to a campaign or setting. A katana is, of course, the favoured weapon of a [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|'''ninja''']].
:An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana in-depth article about katanas] can be found at [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia].

;Kewl Powerz
:Generic name for the abilities possessed by [[PC]]s in a game that are above and beyond those of normal men. Depending on the game, this can mean superpowers, magical ability, or whatever else the game will allow. The "l33tspeak" spelling of the term was initially meant to be dismissive of the kind of game where a character's abilities are more important than who the character is, but over time it's come to be used to specify that what the speaker refers to is the kind of ability that could be dismissed as silly overpowered chrome in certain genres. Like "roleplaying vs rollplaying", "Kewl powerz" as a term has become so cliche that it's next to impossible to use it without irony.

;Kill Them and Take Their Stuff
:A humorous description of the method which winds up being used by most [[RPG]] [[character]]s to solve problems they are having with other individuals or groups. It is the essence of the [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|dungeon crawl]]. Sometimes abreviated to simply KTATTS on message boards, such as RPG.net

;Kingmaker problem: A problem arising in game design - typically board or card games - whereby it is possible for a player who themselves has no chance of winning, to decide which other player will win. A typical case is a game in which an eliminated player is required to give all their resources to the player who eliminated them; in a game with two evenly-matched players and one who is behind, the trailing player can often choose which other player is able to eliminate them and gain their resources. A further common case is auction games, where a player can bid unnecessarily high and not only lose the game for themselves but give a permanent advantage to the player who recieved the bid resources. This is a problem because a kingmaking player, having no possibility of winning the game, no longer has any value for in-game resources; thus, their decision as to who to enable to win must be made via other factors, such as out-of-game grudges or friendships, or "revenge" for actions in earlier play (which can stagnate the game as players become reticient to attack each other for fear of revenge later on).

;King Rat
:The male equivalent of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|'''Queen Bee''']]. Exceptionally rare in [[RPG]]ing due to the gender imbalance of the hobby.

;Kludge
:Term for an inelegant, nonintuitive or in some other way "broken" rule that stands out from an otherwise good design. For example, "The combat system is great, but the way it handles grapples is such a kludge." This term is borrowed from computer hacker culture, in which it refers to anything done in a way which is hasty, wrong, and/or inferior, but which performs the intended function.
:Origin: hacker slang. The canonical definition for "kludge" (which rhymes with "stooge," not "fudge" as one might expect) is something ugly but functional (compare "chrome", which is something beautiful but useless).

==L==

;Lasersharking
#The (theoretical) improvement of an item or being already powerful, competent, efficient and/or deadly by combining it with another item of similar perceived deadliness. In gaming, said additional element is most often either SF-grade high tech or some other sort of fantastic item.
#The combination of two disparate genres whose conventions normally preclude their union. [[RPG]] examples include ''[[Deadlands: The Weird West]]'', [[Pinnacle Entertainment]] (now [[Great White Games]])’s Wild West/Steampunk/Magic game, or ''[[Gear Krieg]]'', [[Dream Pod 9]]’s World War II/Mecha game.

:The term's origin can be traced to the comedy spoof movie ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery''. The gaming analogy was first used by Jack Spencer Jr on [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] in [http://indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=7072&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=0432602286cbee5d9711dc40a81cb7ea this thread].

;Lesbianstripperninja
:Sometimes, Drowlesbianstripperninja. Comical term, coined by Kyle Schuant, "Jim Bob" on the fora, to describe the classic character most male gamers (and many female gamers) have created at some point in their gaming lives, usually when they were about 15. The Lesbianstripperninja has certain key elements to her, namely, she always tempts men with her semi-nudity but never puts out (because the teenaged male player would be uncomfortable roleplaying sex with his friends' characters), but does put out with female NPCs (because the teenaged male player thinks lesbians are t3h h4wt!!!); she is extremely stealthy, deadly, and agile; and is invariably scantily clad. Typically she will be East Asian in appearance, but often a Drow Elf. See also [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Ninja.]]

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[[Category:Terminology]]

RPG Lexica:PQR

2005-08-31T11:47:01Z

Hyphz: /* R */

==P==

;Paladin: In the real world, a soldier assigned to palace duty, especially a trusted lieutenant or other officer ('''Paladin''' is derived from the word '''Palatinus,''' Latin for "Palace"). In role-playing games (especially [[Dungeons & Dragons]]), a sacred knight with the skills of a fighter and the spellcasting ability of a cleric.

;Pixelbitching: A style of [[GM]]ing--specifically, a form of '''railroading'''--in which the [[player]]s need to find one specific clue in order to advance on the one plotline determined by the [[GM]], cannot proceed without it, and do not get any help from the GM in finding it. If said clue is particularly hard to find (or if the GM requires a very specific action to locate it), the GM may be said to be "pixelbitching".
:Origin: Computer games, specifically point-and-click games in which you need to click a specific place--sometimes only a few pixels on the screen (hence the name)--in order to get some magic clue you need to advance in the programmed-in plotline. Coined by '''SteveD''' on RPG.net.

;Pixie: In addition to the standard meaning: a verb, meaning to attempt to defeat an enemy by frustrating them, typically by launching large numbers of low-damage attacks in quick succession and avoiding any retaliation. Also, as a noun, a character suited to this type of stragety.

;Planning Problem: The difficulty arising in game situations where [[player]]s first develop a detailed plan for their [[character]]s' actions and then enact it. The difficulty is that in an [[RPG]], where actions are taken by describing them, the experience of enacting the plan will be identical to that of making the plan unless something goes wrong. However, if the GM responds by ensuring that something always does go wrong, the [[player]]s will have no incentive to make plans at all.

;Played by a..: A comment made jokily about a character in film, TV, or other media suggesting the type of person who would control the character in an RPG of the film. A classic usage is describing a female character as "obviously played by a guy"; characters to whom this slur has been applied include Willow Rosenburg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (an attractive red-headed lesbian witch), Miho from Sin City (a ninja hooker) and Pris from Blade Runner (a gothic ninja sex droid). Often a confusing term for non-gamers since they assume that "played by" refers to the actor or actress, not to a notional RPG player controlling the character.

;Powergaming: A [[player]] behaviour where the player in question makes unreasonable efforts to maximise their [[character]]'s ability to mechanically affect the game. This usually refers to optimising combat ability since that has traditionally been the focus of most [[RPG]] mechanics. Recently though, as more and more [[RPG]]s have more rules and powers applicable to out-of-combat action, variants like social powergamers (who build their characters so that they can persuade/seduce/dominate any [[NPC]] they meet) have appeared.
:Symptoms include characters that overshadow the other [[PC]]s, unusual combinations of abilities and equipment that make little sense in-game, constant requests for "GM approval only" character options, and/or one-dimensional characters where every option adds to a specific ability.
:See also: '''[[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Min-Max]]''' and '''[[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Munchkin]]'''

==Q==

;Queen Bee: A woman who joins [[RPG]] groups in the belief that the alleged scarcity of women in the hobby, together with the percieved nerdiness of male RPG [[player]]s, will enable her to easily manipulate the group by using her sexuality. A Queen Bee will typically seek out groups in which she can be the only female, continuously flirt with other players, make regular references to her own promiscuity (thus hinting that she may be available to the other players), and similar.

==R==

;Railroading: A style of [[GM]]ing in which the GM has only one specific plot line in mind, and forces the [[player]]s to follow that plot regardless of whether they want to do so. From an analogy to a railroad, which constrains the train to one specific route.

;Redshirt, Red Shirt: A "disposable extra" in an RPG; an [[NPC]] that only has a small role, and is expected to die quickly. For instance, if the GM wants to demonstrate the deadliness of a trap without sacrificing one of the player-characters, it's best to have a convenient Redshirt wander into it.
:Origin: From the original Star Trek, where the (often unnamed) ensign wearing a red shirt was almost guaranteed not to make it back to the ship. The Star Trek uniforms (and Star Trek itself) have changed, but the term remains eternal...

;Result Pool System: A variation on the [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|dice pool system]]. The key difference is that in a result pool system, all of the [[dice]] in the pool are rolled at the time the pool is created, in advance of any game decisions made by the player. When a dice result is required, the [[player]] - rather than choosing a number of dice to roll - chooses rolled results from the pool to allocate as his or her result on the particular task. Result pool systems are a relatively new development and are currently only used in the more experimental independant games, such as ''[[Dogs in the Vineyard]]''.

;Reverse Armor Theorem: The convention, in certain genres of games and other media, where characters wearing less armor are ''less'' likely to be injured in combat. In other words, putting on armor actually ''increases'' the chance that a character will be wounded. In many cases it is suggested that this applies only to female characters. This originates from classic fantasy art, where female characters are routinely depicted as wearing little or no armor, even though they are supposed to be experienced and strong warriors: the only plausible explanation is that they have somehow learned that wearing this type of armor is a good idea for them. It is also borne out in cinematic convention, where (for example) the hero of a film will wear less armor in order to show off the actor's physique, while the ''mook''s he is fighting are played by extras or stuntmen wearing full plate.

;"Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies!"
:A comment from the [[GM]] that basically means "Your actions have annoyed/disturbed me enough that I'm ending this game RIGHT NOW, and I don't particularly care what happens to your [[character]]s anymore!" Usually followed by either the players making nice with the GM or the group going their separate ways.
:Origin: A [http://somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml particular episode] of the webcomic [http://somethingpositive.net ''Something Positive''].

;Role-Playing Game: An amazingly hard-to-describe activity, and the reason we're all here.
:In a typical [[role-playing game]], there is one [[Game Master]] (hereafter GM) and some [[player]]s. The players are playing the roles of characters in an imaginary [[setting|game-world]] which the GM describes and controls. The game goes through cycles where:
# The GM describes the situation the characters are in;
# The players describe how their characters react to the situation; and
# The GM and players decide what happened as a result of those actions.
:Step 3 often is determined by rolling [[dice]], especially in complex or stressful situations such as combat.

;Roll-Playing: Often derogatory term used for games where the mechanics take front seat, as opposed to story and gameplay, or for games run by [[referee]]s who do likewise. Often results in games where [[player]]s are there mainly to make some decisions and roll the dice without a feel for story. There is a subset of players who believes that the term "Roll-Playing" is too frequently used to deride players who take more enjoyment from the game aspect of RPGs than from the role-playing aspect, see also Bad Wrong Fun.

;Roll-Under System: A rules system which determines the success of actions via having the [[player]] roll a dice, such that the action will succeed if the rolled value is ''lower'' than a particular ''target number''. The effect is that higher target numbers generate a greater probability of success; typically in a role-under system the target number will measure the competence of the character to perform the task. The use of a roll-under system can have a number of awkward consequences; most notably, ''negative'' modifiers to the dice roll become beneficial and positive ones become penal, which can be confusing and illogical for players.

;Roshambo: Elitist alternate name for "Rock-Scissors-Paper", most frequently used in ''[[Vampire]]'' [[LARP]]s, but also a common random arbitration method among gamers outside the context of [[role-playing games]] (e.g., "I don't want anchovies on that pizza; let's roshambo for it").
:Hint: Most people pick "rock" first, and most people go "up" after a tie, selecting the item that would have won the previous round. With this advice you may be a roshambo master. A suprising number of people believe this word was made up by the television show ''South Park'', where one character insists the rules are "players take turns kicking each other in the nuts. Whoever quits first loses." Not quite. According to the [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrockpaper.html Straight Dope], the term has a more sophisticated origin:
::Mr. Walker ''(of the World Rock-Paper-Scissors Society--Kwd)'' goes on to suggest that the game migrated to Europe in or by the mid-1700s, where it for some reason came to be associated with one Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau. If this name brings back unsettling memories of high school history, it is because Jean Baptiste was none other than the French general who was sent to command an army in support of George Washington during the American Revolution. Why this game came to be associated with the "Count of Rochambeau" is a mystery, but it certainly calls into question the means by which Washington secured Cornwallis's surrender in Yorktown. In any case, it does explain the name often used for the game, namely "rochambeau," or, more commonly, "roshambo."

;RPG:1. Common abbreviation for '''Role-Playing Game'''.
:2. Not-as-common abbreviation for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade"
:3. Even less common abbreviation for "Report Program Generator". (If you see a job ad for "RPG programmer wanted", don't get your hopes up--it's probably not Bioware placing the ad.)

;Rule Zero:
:"Never give the GM ideas." Since most GMs can improvise on the fly and would ''love'' to mess with the [[player]]s, it's generally recognized that giving him or her ideas in that regard is a ''very bad idea.'' Usually referenced in the phrase '''Rule Zero Violation''', i.e., giving the GM ideas.
::GM: "There's a shadow on the road ahead--it looks like a large group is heading your way, but you can't tell who it is."
::Bob: "Just as long as it isn't Baron Rumbar, we'd be completely screwed if ...
::Jan: "BOB! Sh! Rule Zero Violation!"
::GM: (smiles enigmatically)
::Bob: "Aw, @#$&%!!..."
:''(Note: Removed the first definition--"The GM may ignore or change any game rule"--because it's covered by [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|the Golden Rule]])''

;Rush: In addition to the standard meaning: any strategy for defeating an enemy which is based on attacking so quickly that the enemy has no time to prepare a proper defense. As a verb, to use such a strategy. Rush tactics are often considired problematic in many tactical games, where all players start from the same position; in this situation, time is critical to any strategy and thus rush can become the only viable option if sufficient numbers of other players use it.

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[[Category:Terminology]]

RPG Lexica:PQR

2005-08-31T11:43:21Z

Hyphz: /* P */

==P==

;Paladin: In the real world, a soldier assigned to palace duty, especially a trusted lieutenant or other officer ('''Paladin''' is derived from the word '''Palatinus,''' Latin for "Palace"). In role-playing games (especially [[Dungeons & Dragons]]), a sacred knight with the skills of a fighter and the spellcasting ability of a cleric.

;Pixelbitching: A style of [[GM]]ing--specifically, a form of '''railroading'''--in which the [[player]]s need to find one specific clue in order to advance on the one plotline determined by the [[GM]], cannot proceed without it, and do not get any help from the GM in finding it. If said clue is particularly hard to find (or if the GM requires a very specific action to locate it), the GM may be said to be "pixelbitching".
:Origin: Computer games, specifically point-and-click games in which you need to click a specific place--sometimes only a few pixels on the screen (hence the name)--in order to get some magic clue you need to advance in the programmed-in plotline. Coined by '''SteveD''' on RPG.net.

;Pixie: In addition to the standard meaning: a verb, meaning to attempt to defeat an enemy by frustrating them, typically by launching large numbers of low-damage attacks in quick succession and avoiding any retaliation. Also, as a noun, a character suited to this type of stragety.

;Planning Problem: The difficulty arising in game situations where [[player]]s first develop a detailed plan for their [[character]]s' actions and then enact it. The difficulty is that in an [[RPG]], where actions are taken by describing them, the experience of enacting the plan will be identical to that of making the plan unless something goes wrong. However, if the GM responds by ensuring that something always does go wrong, the [[player]]s will have no incentive to make plans at all.

;Played by a..: A comment made jokily about a character in film, TV, or other media suggesting the type of person who would control the character in an RPG of the film. A classic usage is describing a female character as "obviously played by a guy"; characters to whom this slur has been applied include Willow Rosenburg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (an attractive red-headed lesbian witch), Miho from Sin City (a ninja hooker) and Pris from Blade Runner (a gothic ninja sex droid). Often a confusing term for non-gamers since they assume that "played by" refers to the actor or actress, not to a notional RPG player controlling the character.

;Powergaming: A [[player]] behaviour where the player in question makes unreasonable efforts to maximise their [[character]]'s ability to mechanically affect the game. This usually refers to optimising combat ability since that has traditionally been the focus of most [[RPG]] mechanics. Recently though, as more and more [[RPG]]s have more rules and powers applicable to out-of-combat action, variants like social powergamers (who build their characters so that they can persuade/seduce/dominate any [[NPC]] they meet) have appeared.
:Symptoms include characters that overshadow the other [[PC]]s, unusual combinations of abilities and equipment that make little sense in-game, constant requests for "GM approval only" character options, and/or one-dimensional characters where every option adds to a specific ability.
:See also: '''[[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Min-Max]]''' and '''[[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Munchkin]]'''

==Q==

;Queen Bee: A woman who joins [[RPG]] groups in the belief that the alleged scarcity of women in the hobby, together with the percieved nerdiness of male RPG [[player]]s, will enable her to easily manipulate the group by using her sexuality. A Queen Bee will typically seek out groups in which she can be the only female, continuously flirt with other players, make regular references to her own promiscuity (thus hinting that she may be available to the other players), and similar.

==R==

;Railroading: A style of [[GM]]ing in which the GM has only one specific plot line in mind, and forces the [[player]]s to follow that plot regardless of whether they want to do so. From an analogy to a railroad, which constrains the train to one specific route.

;Redshirt, Red Shirt: A "disposable extra" in an RPG; an [[NPC]] that only has a small role, and is expected to die quickly. For instance, if the GM wants to demonstrate the deadliness of a trap without sacrificing one of the player-characters, it's best to have a convenient Redshirt wander into it.
:Origin: From the original Star Trek, where the (often unnamed) ensign wearing a red shirt was almost guaranteed not to make it back to the ship. The Star Trek uniforms (and Star Trek itself) have changed, but the term remains eternal...

;Result Pool System: A variation on the [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|dice pool system]]. The key difference is that in a result pool system, all of the [[dice]] in the pool are rolled at the time the pool is created, in advance of any game decisions made by the player. When a dice result is required, the [[player]] - rather than choosing a number of dice to roll - chooses rolled results from the pool to allocate as his or her result on the particular task. Result pool systems are a relatively new development and are currently only used in the more experimental independant games, such as ''[[Dogs in the Vineyard]]''.

;Reverse Armor Theorem: The convention, in certain genres of games and other media, where characters wearing less armor are ''less'' likely to be injured in combat. In other words, putting on armor actually ''increases'' the chance that a character will be wounded. In many cases it is suggested that this applies only to female characters. This originates from classic fantasy art, where female characters are routinely depicted as wearing little or no armor, even though they are supposed to be experienced and strong warriors: the only plausible explanation is that they have somehow learned that wearing this type of armor is a good idea for them. It is also borne out in cinematic convention, where (for example) the hero of a film will wear less armor in order to show off the actor's physique, while the ''mook''s he is fighting are played by extras or stuntmen wearing full plate.

;"Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies!"
:A comment from the [[GM]] that basically means "Your actions have annoyed/disturbed me enough that I'm ending this game RIGHT NOW, and I don't particularly care what happens to your [[character]]s anymore!" Usually followed by either the players making nice with the GM or the group going their separate ways.
:Origin: A [http://somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml particular episode] of the webcomic [http://somethingpositive.net ''Something Positive''].

;Role-Playing Game: An amazingly hard-to-describe activity, and the reason we're all here.
:In a typical [[role-playing game]], there is one [[Game Master]] (hereafter GM) and some [[player]]s. The players are playing the roles of characters in an imaginary [[setting|game-world]] which the GM describes and controls. The game goes through cycles where:
# The GM describes the situation the characters are in;
# The players describe how their characters react to the situation; and
# The GM and players decide what happened as a result of those actions.
:Step 3 often is determined by rolling [[dice]], especially in complex or stressful situations such as combat.

;Roll-Playing: Often derogatory term used for games where the mechanics take front seat, as opposed to story and gameplay, or for games run by [[referee]]s who do likewise. Often results in games where [[player]]s are there mainly to make some decisions and roll the dice without a feel for story. There is a subset of players who believes that the term "Roll-Playing" is too frequently used to deride players who take more enjoyment from the game aspect of RPGs than from the role-playing aspect, see also Bad Wrong Fun.

;Roll-Under System: A rules system which determines the success of actions via having the [[player]] roll a dice, such that the action will succeed if the rolled value is ''lower'' than a particular ''target number''. The effect is that higher target numbers generate a greater probability of success; typically in a role-under system the target number will measure the competence of the character to perform the task. The use of a roll-under system can have a number of awkward consequences; most notably, ''negative'' modifiers to the dice roll become beneficial and positive ones become penal, which can be confusing and illogical for players.

;Roshambo: Elitist alternate name for "Rock-Scissors-Paper", most frequently used in ''[[Vampire]]'' [[LARP]]s, but also a common random arbitration method among gamers outside the context of [[role-playing games]] (e.g., "I don't want anchovies on that pizza; let's roshambo for it").
:Hint: Most people pick "rock" first, and most people go "up" after a tie, selecting the item that would have won the previous round. With this advice you may be a roshambo master. A suprising number of people believe this word was made up by the television show ''South Park'', where one character insists the rules are "players take turns kicking each other in the nuts. Whoever quits first loses." Not quite. According to the [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrockpaper.html Straight Dope], the term has a more sophisticated origin:
::Mr. Walker ''(of the World Rock-Paper-Scissors Society--Kwd)'' goes on to suggest that the game migrated to Europe in or by the mid-1700s, where it for some reason came to be associated with one Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau. If this name brings back unsettling memories of high school history, it is because Jean Baptiste was none other than the French general who was sent to command an army in support of George Washington during the American Revolution. Why this game came to be associated with the "Count of Rochambeau" is a mystery, but it certainly calls into question the means by which Washington secured Cornwallis's surrender in Yorktown. In any case, it does explain the name often used for the game, namely "rochambeau," or, more commonly, "roshambo."

;RPG:1. Common abbreviation for '''Role-Playing Game'''.
:2. Not-as-common abbreviation for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade"
:3. Even less common abbreviation for "Report Program Generator". (If you see a job ad for "RPG programmer wanted", don't get your hopes up--it's probably not Bioware placing the ad.)

;Rule Zero:
:"Never give the GM ideas." Since most GMs can improvise on the fly and would ''love'' to mess with the [[player]]s, it's generally recognized that giving him or her ideas in that regard is a ''very bad idea.'' Usually referenced in the phrase '''Rule Zero Violation''', i.e., giving the GM ideas.
::GM: "There's a shadow on the road ahead--it looks like a large group is heading your way, but you can't tell who it is."
::Bob: "Just as long as it isn't Baron Rumbar, we'd be completely screwed if ...
::Jan: "BOB! Sh! Rule Zero Violation!"
::GM: (smiles enigmatically)
::Bob: "Aw, @#$&%!!..."
:''(Note: Removed the first definition--"The GM may ignore or change any game rule"--because it's covered by [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|the Golden Rule]])''

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[[Category:Terminology]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-08-31T11:41:36Z

Hyphz: /* T */

==S==

;skillmonster: A [[character]] with high skill, usually considerably over and above the skills of other characters. Implies that these skills are the main thrust of the character. Often concentrated in a particular area; for example, he may be very good at thief skills, enabling him to steal almost anything with impunity, or at social skills, making him a master con man.

;SLF: A german expression (SpielLeiterFicken) that is used when it becomes obvious that the [[GM]]'s "Significant Other" is getting an advantage of being the significant other. Also used when a [[player]] tries to charm a [[GM]] of the opposite sex into doing as they wish.

;Social Contract: The (often unstated) rules that govern the interactions taking place during an [[RPG]]. ''Not'' a statement of basic social etiquette, which is assumed to be in force regardless: rather the social contract of an RPG defines the expectations and responsibilites of the [[player]]s with regard to the entertainment of the RPG [[session]]. For example, many games have the rule that the [[GM]] may break the rules if doing so is to the good of the game; the social contract would include the definition of what "the good of the game" means in the particular group. As mentioned above, these are often unstated and not discussed, which can later lead to friction in the group.

;Social Skills Problem: A problem arising in many [[RPG]]s where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple [[dice]] roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the [[player]]s and [[GM]] with no idea of what was actually said or done by the [[character]] - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;Splat: The general term for a subgroup of [[character]]s, especially one that [[player character]]s are expected to belong to. Origin: back-construction from "splatbook".

;Splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail on a small subgroup of [[character]]s in a [[RPG]], especially a group that [[player character]]s are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. [[White Wolf]] makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

;Stat: A numeric value representing a [[character]]'s competence at something. A shortening of ''statistic'', used in reference to [[player]] statistics in sports which are used to retroactively measure the sportsperson's performance in terms of what they have previously achieved. In [[RPG]]s, the numbers are set by other methods and then used to calculate the character's performance and achievements in the future. Thus they are technically parameters rather than statistics, but the name has stuck.

;Stinking Cloud: An infamous Dungeons & Dragons magic spell which causes clouds of caustic green vapor to be emitted by the spell caster. Also, sarcastically, the aftereffects of the typical game-table diet.

;Superheroes, types of
:Superhero [[RPG]]s enable [[player]]s to play [[character]]s with any of several types of powers, like the characters in comic books. Certain combinations of powers and abilities occur frequently enough that shorthand terms have been created for them.
:The following are some of the more common terms:
*'''Brick''': A character whose primary attribute is high strength (Superman, the Hulk, the Thing from the Fantastic Four), especially in systems like ''[[Hero]]'' in which Strength adds to defenses, making them tougher. Sometimes applied to games in other genres to refer to high-strength characters (such as a typical [[D&D]] fighter).
*'''Dex Monster''': A character whose primary attribute is high Dexterity. Usually has good weapon skill, classic “thief skills”, and is often quicker than other characters (though not as quick as a '''speedster''', below).
*'''Egoist''': A ''[[Hero]]'' term for a '''Mentalist''', below, since the main statistic they use in ''Hero'' is called “Ego”.
*'''Energy Projector''': A character that “throws” an energy discharge of some sort, such as a fire blast, lightning bolt, or just the blast of destructive energy typical of many comic book characters. Originally a ''[[Champions]]'' term.
*'''Gadgeteer''': A character that relies on technical ability and machines. May be applied to characters from other genres as well.
*'''Martial Artist''': A character that relies on hand-to-hand combat skill without necessarily having high strength. Usually skilled in Eastern [[martial arts]] (or fake pseudo-Eastern super martial arts).
*'''Mentalist''': A character that uses “mental powers” such as Telepathy or Telekinesis; in RPGs, often has a mental attack power that hurts someone they can contact telepathically. Also called a '''Psi''', '''Psionic''' or '''Psychic'''. (Examples: Professor X, Jean Grey)
*'''Powersuit''': A character whose powers are granted by a powered suit of some sort, which provides protection, increased strength, and often other powers such as flight. Implies the person in the suit is either “normal” or comparatively weak without it (i.e., it's the ''suit'' that has the powers, not the pilot). Also called a '''Powered Armor''', '''Battlesuit''', or '''Suitguy'''. (Examples: Iron Man, M.A.N.T.I.S. from the short-lived TV show of the same name)
*'''Speedster''': A character whose primary power is high speed, often fast enough to be invisible when moving at full speed. Classic examples: The Flash, Impulse.
:Note that these can be combined... Batman, for example, is a Gadgeteer/Martial Artist (and, in the movies, a Suitguy... sort of).

==T==

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a [[RPG]] that results in the entire [[party]] of [[player character]]s winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for [[PC]]s combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad [[GM]]ing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the [[player]]s).

;Tank: As a noun, an extremely tough character capable of taking lots of damage.
:As a verb, for a character to deliberately place themselves in harm's way on the basis that if they didn't do so, another more vulnerable character would be there instead. This is a critical technique for protecting weaker party members in most RPGs.
:As a noun, also, any strategy for defeating an enemy that is based on resisting that enemy's attacks.

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;Turtle: A [[player]] who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their [[character]]'s safety or obviously prompted by the [[GM]]. This behaviour is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|railroad]]''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.
:Also, ''v.'' '''Turtling''', to refer to this behavior.

==U==

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus ''Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope''. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

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[[Category:Terminology]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-19T12:48:22Z

Hyphz: /* C */

==A==

;all-out attack problem: A problem arising in dice pool systems, in situations where a player facing a foe (or a hazard or problem in general) is asked to choose a number of dice from the pool to roll for the success of their attack. The intent is usually that the player will ensure that some dice remain in the pool after their attack, so that if it happens that the attack fails, they will have dice left to roll in their defense. In fact, however, the best tactic is for the player to attack with all of the dice in their pool, because this gives the attack the best chance of succeeding and resolving the problem right there. If the dice roll badly, the player may lose out as a result of their lack of a defence - '''but''', had the player left dice in the pool to defend with, ''the dice would still have rolled badly'' resulting in an ineffective defense. This dynamic can seriously damage the value of dice pool systems in some games.

==B==

;bad wrong fun: Saying that a game is "bad wrong fun" indicates that the game is somehow broken, unplayable, poor quality or weak - in ignorance of the fact that many groups are playing and enjoying it regularly. As such, this is not normally something that a person will say themselves, but something they will accuse other people of having said. For example, "John said that d20 is bad wrong fun" indicates that the speaker believes John's criticism of d20 to be foolish given the large number of groups playing and enjoying it.

;Bag of rats: A tactical maneuver which exploits a loophole in the rules of a tactical combat system, usually leading to ridiculous situations. Taken from a well-known loophole in the (unrevised) third edition of Dungeons and Dragons, in which a character could have the ability "whirlwind attack" enabling them to attack all foes within range in a single maneuver, and the ability "great cleave" enabling them to, having killed a foe with an attack, carry the attack forward to a second foe. A character could thus, technically, throw a bag of rats at a powerful opponent, then approach and execute a whirlwind attack. The whirlwind attack allows the character to attack all of the rats in one manuever; each time the character attacks a rat, they almost certainly kill it, and then use great cleave to carry the attack forward to the actual powerful foe, thus gaining a huge number of hits on the foe in a single manuever.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the RPG authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriuging supporting fiction that are however almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.

==C==

;Camp: To remain stationary, or take no action, as a tactical choice: for example, waiting for enemies to attack you to ensure that the battle takes place on your choice of terrain. Camping in an [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactics, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' players camp, then the game deadlocks (if everyone waits to be attacked, then nobody will ever attack), and any person who breaks the deadlock is penalised by not having the tactical advantage conveyed by camping.

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]; a '''PC'''. Not to be confused with '''NPC''' or a Non-Player Character.

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

;Critical: A rare dice result indicating that an action has been spectacularly successful. Typically a critical will grant an additional bonus beyond simple success, or represent a major success, or indicate success no matter how difficult the task was.
:Origin: Originally ''critical hit'', used in tactical combat systems to model the remote possibility of any single hit taking an enemy down if it happens to hit a critical area. This system was then adopted by RPG combat systems and then further applied to resolution of all tasks rather than just combat, creating the term ''critical success'', normally abbreviated to just ''critical''.

;Custom dice: Dice printed with symbols other than the traditional numbers. Used in certain games to simplify task resolution. For example, ''DC Universe'' uses dice printed with images of different DC characters; hero images indicate success, and villain images indicate failure.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-19T12:35:26Z

Hyphz: /* F */

==D==

;d: Abbreviation for ''dice''. Because dice are used so frequently in role-playing and other forms of games, an abbreviated notation is used for describing dice types, consisting of two numbers seperated by a letter 'd'. The number before the 'd' indicates how many dice are referred to (omitted if only one), and the number after indicates how many sides are on the dice. The common cubic dice is a d6 (six-sided), but other dice shapes designed for gaming include the d4, d8, d10, d12, and d20. For example, 5d6 indicates "5 six-sided dice". This can be further extended with mathematical symbols, indicating a math operation should be applied to the result shown on the dice after they are rolled: 5d6+3 indicates "roll 5 six-sided dice, add them up (the default way of calculating the result of multiple dice), then add 3 to the result". A further extension, not so popularly used, adds the letter "k" (for "keep") to indicate that having rolled the dice, not all of the dice should be added up; the number after the "k" indicates how many dice results should be added. For example, "4d6k3" means that 4 six-sided dice should be rolled, then 3 of those results (usually the highest) selected and added together to give the final result.

;d100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided dice do exist, they are relatively rare; the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two d10s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.

;d20: A twenty-sided dice; also a generic roleplaying system controlled by Wizards Of The Coast. The d20 system is a customizable generic system based on a twenty-sided dice (hence the name), and reusable freely by authors under certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions include the need to seek explicit approval to refer to the game as supporting "d20" (a controlled trademark), and the provision that certain key rules must be omitted from third-party games, thus forcing players to purchase books produced by Wizards Of The Coast in order to obtain them. The impact of the d20 system on the hobby has been considerable, and players are divided as to whether the strong adoption of a common system for games has simplified and streamlined the hobby, or whether it has harmed the hobby by reducing diversity and forcing games to be written with a system which does have documented flaws and is not necessarily ideal for every setting.

;d666: An apparant example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided dice. The d666 system was used in the game ''In Nomine'', in which players take the roles of either demons or angels. To "roll a d666", the player rolls 3d6, allocating two of the dice to be added together to indicate whether they have succeeded or failed at a task, and the one remaining dice to be read alone to indicate the magnitude of the success or failure. A roll of 6-6-6 is a critical if the player is playing a demon, or a fumble if the player is playing an angel; a roll of 1-1-1 is vice versa.

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Dice pool system: A game system in which a player is given a particular number of dice, each of which may be rolled only once before being taken away from them. When a dice roll is needed, the player can choose to roll any number of dice from the pool; choosing more dice increases the probability of a better result, but also consumes the limited number of dice in the pool faster. Usually, some game action or the passage of some amount of time will cause all dice to be restored to the pool.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

==E==

;Experience Points: Often shortened to '''XP''', experience points are used in many games to measure success and progression for a player's character. Can also be used as a measure of difficulty.

==F==

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for RPG players and designers which attempts detailed, almost scientific-level analysis, of game playing. It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''Sorceror'', and originally showcased several documents written by him describing the design principles followed in that game (although these are now considered to have been superceded by discussion and have been moved to a less prominent location). Advocates of the Forge claim that the discussion there is strongly stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independant RPGs avaliable; critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independant RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.

;FLGS: An abbreviation of "Friendly Local Game Store", referring to traditional store-based game retailers. These are generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, as they provide it with a visible presence and also with space to play or a community gathering point; however, they are continuously under threat by online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to their lack of comparable overheads.

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

;fumble: A rare dice result indicating a catastrophic failure at a task. Typically a fumble will be a failure regardless of the task attempted, and may be a worse failure than a non-fumble would have been.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-19T12:27:47Z

Hyphz: /* C */

==A==

;all-out attack problem: A problem arising in dice pool systems, in situations where a player facing a foe (or a hazard or problem in general) is asked to choose a number of dice from the pool to roll for the success of their attack. The intent is usually that the player will ensure that some dice remain in the pool after their attack, so that if it happens that the attack fails, they will have dice left to roll in their defense. In fact, however, the best tactic is for the player to attack with all of the dice in their pool, because this gives the attack the best chance of succeeding and resolving the problem right there. If the dice roll badly, the player may lose out as a result of their lack of a defence - '''but''', had the player left dice in the pool to defend with, ''the dice would still have rolled badly'' resulting in an ineffective defense. This dynamic can seriously damage the value of dice pool systems in some games.

==B==

;bad wrong fun: Saying that a game is "bad wrong fun" indicates that the game is somehow broken, unplayable, poor quality or weak - in ignorance of the fact that many groups are playing and enjoying it regularly. As such, this is not normally something that a person will say themselves, but something they will accuse other people of having said. For example, "John said that d20 is bad wrong fun" indicates that the speaker believes John's criticism of d20 to be foolish given the large number of groups playing and enjoying it.

;Bag of rats: A tactical maneuver which exploits a loophole in the rules of a tactical combat system, usually leading to ridiculous situations. Taken from a well-known loophole in the (unrevised) third edition of Dungeons and Dragons, in which a character could have the ability "whirlwind attack" enabling them to attack all foes within range in a single maneuver, and the ability "great cleave" enabling them to, having killed a foe with an attack, carry the attack forward to a second foe. A character could thus, technically, throw a bag of rats at a powerful opponent, then approach and execute a whirlwind attack. The whirlwind attack allows the character to attack all of the rats in one manuever; each time the character attacks a rat, they almost certainly kill it, and then use great cleave to carry the attack forward to the actual powerful foe, thus gaining a huge number of hits on the foe in a single manuever.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the RPG authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriuging supporting fiction that are however almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.

==C==

;Camp: To remain stationary, or take no action, as a tactical choice: for example, waiting for enemies to attack you to ensure that the battle takes place on your choice of terrain. Camping in an [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactics, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' players camp, then the game deadlocks (if everyone waits to be attacked, then nobody will ever attack), and any person who breaks the deadlock is penalised by not having the tactical advantage conveyed by camping.

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]; a '''PC'''. Not to be confused with '''NPC''' or a Non-Player Character.

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

;Critical: A rare dice result indicating that an action has been spectacularly successful. Typically a critical will grant an additional bonus beyond simple success, or represent a major success, or indicate success no matter how difficult the task was.
:Origin: Originally ''critical hit'', used in tactical combat systems to model the remote possibility of any single hit taking an enemy down if it happens to hit a critical area. This system was then adopted by RPG combat systems and then further applied to resolution of all tasks rather than just combat, creating the term ''critical success'', normally abbreviated to just ''critical''.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:MNO

2005-05-18T22:18:25Z

Hyphz: /* M */

==M==

;Mary Sue: An RPG character obviously designed as a supremely competent version of the real person designing the character. (A Mary Sue need not be female, or even human.)
:Origin: According to [http://www.subreality.com/marysue.htm this site], from a 1970's Star Trek FanFic starring "Lieutenant Mary Sue, StarFleet's Youngest Lieutenant".

;Min-max, min-maxing: To carefully tweak a '''character''' during '''chargen''' so as to optimize the character for one thing, usually combat, often at the expense of other aspects of the character; or, to tweak a character to take advantage of quirks in the rules to do the same thing.

;mob: An '''NPC''', in particular one who performs limited ranges of simplistic behaviour. Used in online RPGs to identify NPCs who are automatically controlled by the game program, rather than those who are played by human GMs.
:Origin: Short form of ''mobile'', the term coined by Richard Bartle for these characters in early computer RPGs. On reading the research paper which coined the term, one of the reviewers is said to have thought this a "beautiful analogy to those hanging toys used in baby's cribs, which move around seemingly as if alive, in spite of being constructed of mechanical parts". Bartle replied that this was indeed a beautiful analogy, and he would have been delighted if he had thought of it; he used the term "mobile" simply to indicate that they could move, which other computer-controlled objects couldn't.

;Munchkin: One of the most controversial terms in RPGs. A good argument could be made that it means "any player I don't like", but most people reserve the term for a specific type of bad player...
:My own definition: a player who, through inexperience or immaturity, disrupts the game to the detriment of the other players, usually by any or all of the following:
* Creating a character that's inappropriate to the setting (Classic definition: A munchkin is someone who, in a game of courtly politics and intrigue in 16th century France, wants to play a ninja.)
* Insisting his character either is or has to be the absolute ''best'' at ''everything'' he does.
* Roleplays poorly, seeing his character (and the other characters) as mere game pieces, without personality or motivations beyond advancing in the game.
* Relating to the last one: approaching all problems, obstacles, and frustrations with violence as a ''first'' resort
* Attempting to "win" the game, even at the expense of the other players, in situations where it would be inappropriate.

;Murphy's Rule: (or just "Murphy"). A game rule which has bizarre or humourous consequences when applied to certain situations - typically those which would logically exist in the game world but are not those which the game was designed to model. A "murphy" can also be a description of the consequences of applying a rule to an outlandish situation, stated not as a criticism of the rules but purely for the comedy value. Originally coined as the name of a cartoon appearing in Pyramid Magazine. A few examples of the typical format:
* In D&D, characters have a "Dexterity" stat, which is in fact used to represent agility as well as actual dexterity. Thus, every talented clockmaker is also a talented gymnast, and vice versa;
* In The Riddle Of Steel, in character generation the player must rank several properties of their character in order of importance. Ranking "social standing" last results in the PC being a slave; but if the player has done this, all other aspects (such as combat skill, magical ability, etc) will have been rated higher than they otherwise could have been, thus meaning that slaves are the most talented and skilled people in the setting;
* In the second edition of Hong Kong Action Theatre, an actor's fame is the ''only'' factor taken into consideration when assigning them to roles, thus enabling Arnold Schwarzenegger to be cast as a kung-fu ballerina.

==N==

;Ninja: A term with multiple different meanings, mostly derived either from the real myths surrounding Ninjas or from the famous spoof website, [http://www.realultimatepower.net "Real Ultimate Power"].
* As a noun, used with the original meaning: the Japanese term for an assassin, particularly one making use of stealth.
* As a noun, any character designed around the concepts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and one-hit kills.
* As a noun, a character which is sought-after for "coolness" value, and whose abilites are overestimated, even if irrelevant or ineffective in the particular situation or setting. ("Of course I can dodge the bullets of a machine-gun on full auto - I'm a ''ninja''!")
* As an adjective, sneaky or cunning.
* As an adjective, highly skilled in general.
* As a verb, to accomplish something in a highly skillful or spectacular way.

;NPC: Short for Non-Player Character. Essentially any character in the gamne not played by one of the players but run instead by the Referee.

==O==

;One Roll Engine: A unique dice system designed by Greg Stolze and used in the game ''Godlike''. Rather than trying to match a particular target number, the player rolls a number of dice based on their character's competence and are deemed to have succeeded if two or more of those dice roll the same value. The unique property of this system is that a single roll delivers ''two'' results: the number of dice that matched, and the value they matched on. (Note: this system is copyrighted, so you may need to seek the author's permission to use it in any game you are designing.)

;Open-ended roll: Any dice rolling system which includes the rule that any dice which rolls its maximum result should be rolled again, with the new roll added to the previous one to determine the final result. For example, if a 5 is rolled on an open-ended d6, the result is 5; but if a 6 is rolled, the dice is rolled again, and if a 4 is rolled on the second roll the overall result is 10 (the 4 just rolled plus the 6 rolled previously).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T17:34:20Z

Hyphz: /* G */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp: 1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
:2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
:3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;GDS: An abbreviation for "game, drama, simulation". Describes the three important aspects of an RPG which are typically traded off against each other by game design: to be an enjoyable game for game's sake, to deliver a dramatic and exciting story, and to reasonable simulate what would "really" happen in particular game situations. For example, having the characters meet in a tavern and decide to work together trades simulation off for game benefit; having villains leave clues as to their activities trades simulation off for drama; fudging dice rolls so that a character who bravely charges into a fire zone to rescue an innocent is not cut to ribbons trades game off for drama.

;GNS: An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers and game systems and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS. See [http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html The Forge Glossary]

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Hit points: (or HP) A generic measure of the health of a character. Damage caused to a character results in the loss of hit points; when certain thresholds are passed, the character is considered incapacitated, knocked out, or dead.

;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of hit points. In many game system, as a character improves in skill, they also gain hit points. This is intended to represent the dramatic phenomenon, seen in many fantasy films and stories, whereby more heroic characters are capable of sustaining greater amounts of damage without being visibly affected. However, systems using hit points do not distinguish between types of damage where drama would not apply, leading to the situation of highly skilled characters being able to throw themselves off 100-foot cliffs without being hurt, because they will still have plenty of hit points spare after losing those that represent the damage from the fall.

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T17:29:06Z

Hyphz: /* G */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp: 1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
:2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
:3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;GDS: An abbreviation for "game, drama, simulation". Describes the three important aspects of an RPG which are typically traded off against each other by game design: to be an enjoyable game for game's sake, to deliver a dramatic and exciting story, and to reasonable simulate what would "really" happen in particular game situations. For example, having the characters meet in a tavern and decide to work together trades simulation off for game benefit; having villains leave clues as to their activities trades simulation off for drama; fudging dice rolls so that a character who bravely charges into a fire zone to rescue an innocent is not cut to ribbons trades game off for drama.

;GNS: An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers and game systems and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS. [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] hosts its own lexicon and it is suggested that interested parties consult that for the meaning of this term.

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Hit points: (or HP) A generic measure of the health of a character. Damage caused to a character results in the loss of hit points; when certain thresholds are passed, the character is considered incapacitated, knocked out, or dead.

;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of hit points. In many game system, as a character improves in skill, they also gain hit points. This is intended to represent the dramatic phenomenon, seen in many fantasy films and stories, whereby more heroic characters are capable of sustaining greater amounts of damage without being visibly affected. However, systems using hit points do not distinguish between types of damage where drama would not apply, leading to the situation of highly skilled characters being able to throw themselves off 100-foot cliffs without being hurt, because they will still have plenty of hit points spare after losing those that represent the damage from the fall.

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T17:24:46Z

Hyphz: /* G */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp: 1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
:2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
:3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;GNS: An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers. [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] hosts its own lexicon and it is suggested that interested parties consult that for the meaning of this term.

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Hit points: (or HP) A generic measure of the health of a character. Damage caused to a character results in the loss of hit points; when certain thresholds are passed, the character is considered incapacitated, knocked out, or dead.

;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of hit points. In many game system, as a character improves in skill, they also gain hit points. This is intended to represent the dramatic phenomenon, seen in many fantasy films and stories, whereby more heroic characters are capable of sustaining greater amounts of damage without being visibly affected. However, systems using hit points do not distinguish between types of damage where drama would not apply, leading to the situation of highly skilled characters being able to throw themselves off 100-foot cliffs without being hurt, because they will still have plenty of hit points spare after losing those that represent the damage from the fall.

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:VWX

2005-05-18T17:17:47Z

Hyphz: /* V */

==V==

;Vitality and wounds system: A modified version of hit points, used in some later d20 games to attempt to overcome the hitpoint gain problem. Under this system, health is measured in vitality points and wound points; vitality points are lost in combat and in other situations where dramatic immunity would apply, whereas wound points are lost in situations where real physical damage is inevitable. Vitality points are gained when a character advances, but wound points are not. Unfortunately, the system assigns a penalty to a character who loses even a single wound point, leading to the intended dramatic nature of the game being disrupted: in one instance in a Star Wars game, a player refused to have their character climb out of a duct above a spaceship corridor into that corridor without a rope for fear that he would take a single point of wound damage from the fall, thus becoming subjected to the penalty for being wounded.

==W==

;Wall of Fear and Ignorance, The:1. in Paranoia, used to refer to the gamemaster's screen. 2. in gamer lingo, humorous reference to the gamemaster's screen.

;Whiff: Of an RPG character, to fail at a task in a game as the result of a poor dice roll. The term is usually used to express frustration that the possibility of random failure could not be entirely eliminated even although logically it should have been: "I'm a master sniper with years of experience, using the latest high-powered rifle and a fully calibrated scope, shooting someone just across the road who's standing stock-still with no cover, and I've got as much time to aim as I need and no distractions.. but then I roll a 1 and whiff." Whiffing can frustrate players, and also can harm suspension of disbelief (what exactly happened to the sniper in the previous example to cause him to fail?)
:Origin: from the sound made by a sword, arm, or other item swishing past a person or object that it's just failed to hit.

;Whiff factor: The continuous possibility of random failure created by a game system. The whiff factor varies between game systems; in games where it is too high, the ability for players to play in the intended style may be disrupted by the need to continuously allow for random failure. For example, if the players are planning out a commando raid on any enemy installation, they are required to plan for the failure of every action involved, even the most trivial ones.

==X==

;XP: Common abbreviation for ''experience points'', which are used in RPGs to reward characters for success in combat, task-completion, and story advancement, and measure how far they've gone in their adventuring careers.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T17:13:21Z

Hyphz: /* H */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp: 1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
:2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
:3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Hit points: (or HP) A generic measure of the health of a character. Damage caused to a character results in the loss of hit points; when certain thresholds are passed, the character is considered incapacitated, knocked out, or dead.

;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of hit points. In many game system, as a character improves in skill, they also gain hit points. This is intended to represent the dramatic phenomenon, seen in many fantasy films and stories, whereby more heroic characters are capable of sustaining greater amounts of damage without being visibly affected. However, systems using hit points do not distinguish between types of damage where drama would not apply, leading to the situation of highly skilled characters being able to throw themselves off 100-foot cliffs without being hurt, because they will still have plenty of hit points spare after losing those that represent the damage from the fall.

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:VWX

2005-05-18T17:05:08Z

Hyphz: /* W */

==V==

==W==

;Wall of Fear and Ignorance, The:1. in Paranoia, used to refer to the gamemaster's screen. 2. in gamer lingo, humorous reference to the gamemaster's screen.

;Whiff: Of an RPG character, to fail at a task in a game as the result of a poor dice roll. The term is usually used to express frustration that the possibility of random failure could not be entirely eliminated even although logically it should have been: "I'm a master sniper with years of experience, using the latest high-powered rifle and a fully calibrated scope, shooting someone just across the road who's standing stock-still with no cover, and I've got as much time to aim as I need and no distractions.. but then I roll a 1 and whiff." Whiffing can frustrate players, and also can harm suspension of disbelief (what exactly happened to the sniper in the previous example to cause him to fail?)
:Origin: from the sound made by a sword, arm, or other item swishing past a person or object that it's just failed to hit.

;Whiff factor: The continuous possibility of random failure created by a game system. The whiff factor varies between game systems; in games where it is too high, the ability for players to play in the intended style may be disrupted by the need to continuously allow for random failure. For example, if the players are planning out a commando raid on any enemy installation, they are required to plan for the failure of every action involved, even the most trivial ones.

==X==

;XP: Common abbreviation for ''experience points'', which are used in RPGs to reward characters for success in combat, task-completion, and story advancement, and measure how far they've gone in their adventuring careers.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T15:41:21Z

Hyphz: /* G */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp: 1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
:2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
:3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-18T15:40:40Z

Hyphz: /* G */

==G==

;gank: (abbreviation of "gang kill"). a) To kill or defeat an enemy by ganging up on them. b) To kill or defeat an enemy trivially, with no real possibility of their being able to resist or escape, and where the killer gains no benefit from their death (not even [[RPG_Lexica:XYZ|XP]]). Usually used to imply that the player is having their character attack helpless enemies because of the player's need to take out stress or to somehow "punish" the GM; or vice versa, that the player characters entered a hopeless situation. Also used on online RPGs as a form of [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|griefing]].

;gazebo: In addition to the common meaning of a pagoda or turret built to offer an attractive view, also a reference to a famous gamer comedy story: ''Eric And The Gazebo'', written (and copyrighted!) by Richard Arenson. In the story, the GM of a group tells them that they see a gazebo in a field they are approaching. One of the players - Eric - does not know what a gazebo is; he therefore assumes it to be a monster and attempts to engage it in combat (which ends with Eric fleeing after multiple magical arrows amazingly failed to wound the gazebo). Used as a jokey reference to an unknown creature, or to something which has been attacked by mistake.

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;gimp:
1. A character who is incompetent to the point of near-unplayability in the early stages of a campaign, because they are loaded down with abilities which are initially weak but become highly powerful once the character has advanced. Typically, a ''gimp'' will count on advancing based on achievements made by other members of the party and becoming incredibly powerful; either gaining in power faster or becoming more powerful overall than a non-gimp character of similar design. An example is the "venerable druid gimp" in D&D: a player can declare their druid character to be of venerable age, crippling their physical stats but improving their mental ones. Such a druid will be almost useless in the early stages of a game, due to their vulnerability in combat; but once the druid gains the ability to shape-shift, they can shape-shift to a form with more powerful physical stats while still retaining the bonuses to spellcasting given by the high mental stats they got for being venerable. Thus, such a character is a "gimp" up until they gain shape-shifting ability.
2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
3. When a character is being created at a level of advancement higher than the normal start point, choosing combinations of abilities or skills for that character that would have rendered the character unplayable at lower advancement levels had the player actually played through them. Gimping is one of the more common objections that some players and GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
:Origin: From a medieval word for a stupid or incompetent person; may also be related to a term used to refer to a particular sado-masochistic practice.

;griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. No amount of in-game penalty will discourage a griefer from harassing other players, because - as harassing other players is their main enjoyment - they do not care about anything in the game except in terms of what harassment potential it provides. In tabletop RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

==H==

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

==I==

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-18T15:24:27Z

Hyphz: /* F */

==D==

;d: Abbreviation for ''dice''. Because dice are used so frequently in role-playing and other forms of games, an abbreviated notation is used for describing dice types, consisting of two numbers seperated by a letter 'd'. The number before the 'd' indicates how many dice are referred to (omitted if only one), and the number after indicates how many sides are on the dice. The common cubic dice is a d6 (six-sided), but other dice shapes designed for gaming include the d4, d8, d10, d12, and d20. For example, 5d6 indicates "5 six-sided dice". This can be further extended with mathematical symbols, indicating a math operation should be applied to the result shown on the dice after they are rolled: 5d6+3 indicates "roll 5 six-sided dice, add them up (the default way of calculating the result of multiple dice), then add 3 to the result". A further extension, not so popularly used, adds the letter "k" (for "keep") to indicate that having rolled the dice, not all of the dice should be added up; the number after the "k" indicates how many dice results should be added. For example, "4d6k3" means that 4 six-sided dice should be rolled, then 3 of those results (usually the highest) selected and added together to give the final result.

;d100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided dice do exist, they are relatively rare; the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two d10s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.

;d20: A twenty-sided dice; also a generic roleplaying system controlled by Wizards Of The Coast. The d20 system is a customizable generic system based on a twenty-sided dice (hence the name), and reusable freely by authors under certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions include the need to seek explicit approval to refer to the game as supporting "d20" (a controlled trademark), and the provision that certain key rules must be omitted from third-party games, thus forcing players to purchase books produced by Wizards Of The Coast in order to obtain them. The impact of the d20 system on the hobby has been considerable, and players are divided as to whether the strong adoption of a common system for games has simplified and streamlined the hobby, or whether it has harmed the hobby by reducing diversity and forcing games to be written with a system which does have documented flaws and is not necessarily ideal for every setting.

;d666: An apparant example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided dice. The d666 system was used in the game ''In Nomine'', in which players take the roles of either demons or angels. To "roll a d666", the player rolls 3d6, allocating two of the dice to be added together to indicate whether they have succeeded or failed at a task, and the one remaining dice to be read alone to indicate the magnitude of the success or failure. A roll of 6-6-6 is a critical if the player is playing a demon, or a fumble if the player is playing an angel; a roll of 1-1-1 is vice versa.

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Dice pool system: A game system in which a player is given a particular number of dice, each of which may be rolled only once before being taken away from them. When a dice roll is needed, the player can choose to roll any number of dice from the pool; choosing more dice increases the probability of a better result, but also consumes the limited number of dice in the pool faster. Usually, some game action or the passage of some amount of time will cause all dice to be restored to the pool.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

==E==

==F==

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for RPG players and designers which attempts detailed, almost scientific-level analysis, of game playing. It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''Sorceror'', and originally showcased several documents written by him describing the design principles followed in that game (although these are now considered to have been superceded by discussion and have been moved to a less prominent location). Advocates of the Forge claim that the discussion there is strongly stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independant RPGs avaliable; critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independant RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.

;FLGS: An abbreviation of "Friendly Local Game Store", referring to traditional store-based game retailers. These are generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, as they provide it with a visible presence and also with space to play or a community gathering point; however, they are continuously under threat by online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to their lack of comparable overheads.

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-18T15:17:24Z

Hyphz: /* F */

==D==

;d: Abbreviation for ''dice''. Because dice are used so frequently in role-playing and other forms of games, an abbreviated notation is used for describing dice types, consisting of two numbers seperated by a letter 'd'. The number before the 'd' indicates how many dice are referred to (omitted if only one), and the number after indicates how many sides are on the dice. The common cubic dice is a d6 (six-sided), but other dice shapes designed for gaming include the d4, d8, d10, d12, and d20. For example, 5d6 indicates "5 six-sided dice". This can be further extended with mathematical symbols, indicating a math operation should be applied to the result shown on the dice after they are rolled: 5d6+3 indicates "roll 5 six-sided dice, add them up (the default way of calculating the result of multiple dice), then add 3 to the result". A further extension, not so popularly used, adds the letter "k" (for "keep") to indicate that having rolled the dice, not all of the dice should be added up; the number after the "k" indicates how many dice results should be added. For example, "4d6k3" means that 4 six-sided dice should be rolled, then 3 of those results (usually the highest) selected and added together to give the final result.

;d100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided dice do exist, they are relatively rare; the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two d10s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.

;d20: A twenty-sided dice; also a generic roleplaying system controlled by Wizards Of The Coast. The d20 system is a customizable generic system based on a twenty-sided dice (hence the name), and reusable freely by authors under certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions include the need to seek explicit approval to refer to the game as supporting "d20" (a controlled trademark), and the provision that certain key rules must be omitted from third-party games, thus forcing players to purchase books produced by Wizards Of The Coast in order to obtain them. The impact of the d20 system on the hobby has been considerable, and players are divided as to whether the strong adoption of a common system for games has simplified and streamlined the hobby, or whether it has harmed the hobby by reducing diversity and forcing games to be written with a system which does have documented flaws and is not necessarily ideal for every setting.

;d666: An apparant example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided dice. The d666 system was used in the game ''In Nomine'', in which players take the roles of either demons or angels. To "roll a d666", the player rolls 3d6, allocating two of the dice to be added together to indicate whether they have succeeded or failed at a task, and the one remaining dice to be read alone to indicate the magnitude of the success or failure. A roll of 6-6-6 is a critical if the player is playing a demon, or a fumble if the player is playing an angel; a roll of 1-1-1 is vice versa.

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Dice pool system: A game system in which a player is given a particular number of dice, each of which may be rolled only once before being taken away from them. When a dice roll is needed, the player can choose to roll any number of dice from the pool; choosing more dice increases the probability of a better result, but also consumes the limited number of dice in the pool faster. Usually, some game action or the passage of some amount of time will cause all dice to be restored to the pool.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

==E==

==F==

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for RPG players and designers which attempts detailed, almost scientific-level analysis, of game playing. It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''Sorceror'', and originally showcased several documents written by him describing the design principles followed in that game (although these are now considered to have been superceded by discussion and have been moved to a less prominent location). Advocates of the Forge claim that the discussion there is strongly stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independant RPGs avaliable; critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independant RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.

;FLGS: An abbreviation of "Friendly Local Game Store", referring to traditional store-based game retailers. These are generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, as they provide it with a visible presence and also with space to play or a community gathering point; however, they are continuously under threat by online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to their lack of comparable overheads.

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-18T15:08:42Z

Hyphz: /* A */

==A==

;all-out attack problem: A problem arising in dice pool systems, in situations where a player facing a foe (or a hazard or problem in general) is asked to choose a number of dice from the pool to roll for the success of their attack. The intent is usually that the player will ensure that some dice remain in the pool after their attack, so that if it happens that the attack fails, they will have dice left to roll in their defense. In fact, however, the best tactic is for the player to attack with all of the dice in their pool, because this gives the attack the best chance of succeeding and resolving the problem right there. If the dice roll badly, the player may lose out as a result of their lack of a defence - '''but''', had the player left dice in the pool to defend with, ''the dice would still have rolled badly'' resulting in an ineffective defense. This dynamic can seriously damage the value of dice pool systems in some games.

==B==

;bad wrong fun: Saying that a game is "bad wrong fun" indicates that the game is somehow broken, unplayable, poor quality or weak - in ignorance of the fact that many groups are playing and enjoying it regularly. As such, this is not normally something that a person will say themselves, but something they will accuse other people of having said. For example, "John said that d20 is bad wrong fun" indicates that the speaker believes John's criticism of d20 to be foolish given the large number of groups playing and enjoying it.

;Bag of rats: A tactical maneuver which exploits a loophole in the rules of a tactical combat system, usually leading to ridiculous situations. Taken from a well-known loophole in the (unrevised) third edition of Dungeons and Dragons, in which a character could have the ability "whirlwind attack" enabling them to attack all foes within range in a single maneuver, and the ability "great cleave" enabling them to, having killed a foe with an attack, carry the attack forward to a second foe. A character could thus, technically, throw a bag of rats at a powerful opponent, then approach and execute a whirlwind attack. The whirlwind attack allows the character to attack all of the rats in one manuever; each time the character attacks a rat, they almost certainly kill it, and then use great cleave to carry the attack forward to the actual powerful foe, thus gaining a huge number of hits on the foe in a single manuever.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the RPG authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriuging supporting fiction that are however almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.

==C==

;Camp: To remain stationary, or take no action, as a tactical choice: for example, waiting for enemies to attack you to ensure that the battle takes place on your choice of terrain. Camping in an [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactics, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' players camp, then the game deadlocks (if everyone waits to be attacked, then nobody will ever attack), and any person who breaks the deadlock is penalised by not having the tactical advantage conveyed by camping.

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]].

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-18T15:01:02Z

Hyphz: /* B */

==A==

==B==

;bad wrong fun: Saying that a game is "bad wrong fun" indicates that the game is somehow broken, unplayable, poor quality or weak - in ignorance of the fact that many groups are playing and enjoying it regularly. As such, this is not normally something that a person will say themselves, but something they will accuse other people of having said. For example, "John said that d20 is bad wrong fun" indicates that the speaker believes John's criticism of d20 to be foolish given the large number of groups playing and enjoying it.

;Bag of rats: A tactical maneuver which exploits a loophole in the rules of a tactical combat system, usually leading to ridiculous situations. Taken from a well-known loophole in the (unrevised) third edition of Dungeons and Dragons, in which a character could have the ability "whirlwind attack" enabling them to attack all foes within range in a single maneuver, and the ability "great cleave" enabling them to, having killed a foe with an attack, carry the attack forward to a second foe. A character could thus, technically, throw a bag of rats at a powerful opponent, then approach and execute a whirlwind attack. The whirlwind attack allows the character to attack all of the rats in one manuever; each time the character attacks a rat, they almost certainly kill it, and then use great cleave to carry the attack forward to the actual powerful foe, thus gaining a huge number of hits on the foe in a single manuever.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the RPG authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriuging supporting fiction that are however almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.

==C==

;Camp: To remain stationary, or take no action, as a tactical choice: for example, waiting for enemies to attack you to ensure that the battle takes place on your choice of terrain. Camping in an [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactics, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' players camp, then the game deadlocks (if everyone waits to be attacked, then nobody will ever attack), and any person who breaks the deadlock is penalised by not having the tactical advantage conveyed by camping.

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]].

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]] will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-17T15:32:57Z

Hyphz: /* H */

====G====

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

====H====

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Holding Tank: The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns with a fixed group of a particular size, new arrivals to a club or other RPG playing venue can find themselves with no game to play in because all other players are already involved in long-term campaigns that were established before the new player arrived. The existance of the holding tank for RPGs, compared to other gaming hobbies such as miniatures or board gaming where it is not needed, is one of the reasons commonly referred to for the difficulty in recruiting new RPG players.

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

====I====

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-17T15:30:11Z

Hyphz: /* F */

====D====

;d20: A generic roleplaying system controlled by Wizards Of The Coast. The d20 system is a customizable generic system based on a twenty-sided dice (hence the name), and reusable freely by authors under certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions include the need to seek explicit approval to refer to the game as supporting "d20" (a controlled trademark), and the provision that certain key rules must be omitted from third-party games, thus forcing players to purchase books produced by Wizards Of The Coast in order to obtain them. The impact of the d20 system on the hobby has been considerable, and players are divided as to whether the strong adoption of a common system for games has simplified and streamlined the hobby, or whether it has harmed the hobby by reducing diversity and forcing games to be written with a system which does have documented flaws and is not necessarily ideal for every setting.

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. :Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

====E====

====F====

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;FLGS: An abbreviation of "Friendly Local Game Store", referring to traditional store-based game retailers. These are generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, as they provide it with a visible presence and also with space to play or a community gathering point; however, they are continuously under threat by online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to their lack of comparable overheads.

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-17T15:24:14Z

Hyphz: /* D */

====D====

;d20: A generic roleplaying system controlled by Wizards Of The Coast. The d20 system is a customizable generic system based on a twenty-sided dice (hence the name), and reusable freely by authors under certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions include the need to seek explicit approval to refer to the game as supporting "d20" (a controlled trademark), and the provision that certain key rules must be omitted from third-party games, thus forcing players to purchase books produced by Wizards Of The Coast in order to obtain them. The impact of the d20 system on the hobby has been considerable, and players are divided as to whether the strong adoption of a common system for games has simplified and streamlined the hobby, or whether it has harmed the hobby by reducing diversity and forcing games to be written with a system which does have documented flaws and is not necessarily ideal for every setting.

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. :Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

====E====

====F====

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-17T15:16:38Z

Hyphz: /* H */

====G====

;get medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''

;GURPS: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.) Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.

====H====

;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]

;Horse Bombing: Abusing a magical or supernatural ability that creates objects, and is not intended to be used as an attack, by exploiting the offensive value of generally being able to create objects from thin air. Examples include using a spell intended to provide food and water for allies, to create water or food inside an enemy's brain case; or the example that defines the term: using a spell that summons a horse for the caster to ride by casting it several hundred feet above a stationary or unaware enemy so that the horse falls on them at high velocity.

====I====

;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
:A quote from ''Pulp Fiction'' that basically means the PCs are about to do something very violent, probably fatal, and definitely painful to whoever is referenced by 'his'. Often followed by another ''Pulp Fiction'' line: "Zed's dead, baby."

;Intelligence problem
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those games which have them. The problem arises from the fact that Intelligence will affect the character's ability to choose what to do next. Since making these choices for their characters is the key means by which players are involved in the RPG, these choices must be left to the player; but if they are left to the player, the choice will be made based on the ''player's'' level of intelligence, not the character's.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-17T15:11:58Z

Hyphz: /* D */

====D====

;Darkness isn't dark: A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
:Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. :Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

====E====

====F====

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-17T15:08:48Z

Hyphz: /* B */

====A====

====B====

;Bag of rats: A tactical maneuver which exploits a loophole in the rules of a tactical combat system, usually leading to ridiculous situations. Taken from a well-known loophole in the (unrevised) third edition of Dungeons and Dragons, in which a character could have the ability "whirlwind attack" enabling them to attack all foes within range in a single maneuver, and the ability "great cleave" enabling them to, having killed a foe with an attack, carry the attack forward to a second foe. A character could thus, technically, throw a bag of rats at a powerful opponent, then approach and execute a whirlwind attack. The whirlwind attack allows the character to attack all of the rats in one manuever; each time the character attacks a rat, they almost certainly kill it, and then use great cleave to carry the attack forward to the actual powerful foe, thus gaining a huge number of hits on the foe in a single manuever.

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

====C====

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]].

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular RPG will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-17T15:02:24Z

Hyphz: /* B */

====A====

====B====

;Boobs bonus: The hypothetical bonus given to all social skill rolls made by a female character, especially when dealing with males. Derived from the assumption that a female character will automatically have better social skills than a male character, even if they behave in exactly the same way.

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

====C====

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]].

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular RPG will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-05-17T14:59:18Z

Hyphz: /* S */

====S====

;social contract: The (often unstated) rules that govern the interactions taking place during an RPG. ''Not'' a statement of basic social etiquette, which is assumed to be in force regardless: rather the social contract of an RPG defines the expectations and responsibilites of the players with regard to the entertainment of the RPG session. For example, many games have the rule that the GM may break the rules if doing so is to the good of the game; the social contract would include the definition of what "the good of the game" means in the particular group. As mentioned above, these are often unstated and not discussed, which can later lead to friction in the group.

;social skills problem: A problem arising in many RPGs where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple dice roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the players and GM with no idea of what was actually said or done by the character - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;splat: The general term for a subgroup of characters, especially one that player characters are expected to belong to. :Origin: from "splatbook".

;splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail on a small subgroup of characters in a RPG, especially a group that player characters are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. White Wolf makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for Vampire, each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

;stat: A numeric value representing a character's competence at something. A shortening of ''statistic'', used in reference to player statistics in sports which are used to retroactively measure the sportsperson's performance in terms of what they have previously achieved. In RPGs, the numbers are set by other methods and then used to calculate the character's performance and achievements in the future. Thus they are technically parameters rather than statistics, but the name has stuck.

====T====

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a RPG that results in the entire party of player characters winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for PCs combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad GMing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the players).

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;Turtle: A player who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their character's safety or obviously prompted by the GM. This behaviour is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''railroad''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.

====U====

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-05-17T14:58:35Z

Hyphz: /* S */

====S====

;social contract: The (often unstated) rules that govern the interactions taking place during an RPG. ''Not'' a statement of basic social etiquette, which is assumed to be in force regardless: rather the social contract of an RPG defines the expectations and responsibilites of the players with regard to the entertainment of the RPG session. For example, many games have the rule that the GM may break the rules if doing so is to the good of the game; the social contract would include the definition of what "the good of the game" means in the particular group. As mentioned above, these are often unstated and not discussed, which can later lead to friction in the group.

;social skills problem: A problem arising in many RPGs where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple dice roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the players and GM with no idea of what was actually said or done by the character - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;splat: The general term for a subgroup of characters, especially one that player characters are expected to belong to. :Origin: from "splatbook".

;splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail on a small subgroup of characters in a RPG, especially a group that player characters are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. White Wolf makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for Vampire, each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

;stat: A numeric value representing a character's competence at something. A shortening of ''statistic'', used in reference to player statistics in sports which are used to retroactively measure the sportsperson's performance in terms of what they have previously achieved. In RPGs, the numbers are instead calculated by other methods and then used to define the character's performance and achievements, and thus are technically parameters rather than statistics, but the name has stuck.

====T====

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a RPG that results in the entire party of player characters winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for PCs combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad GMing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the players).

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;Turtle: A player who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their character's safety or obviously prompted by the GM. This behaviour is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''railroad''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.

====U====

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:ABC

2005-05-17T14:56:21Z

Hyphz: /* C */

====A====

====B====

;Boggle: To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also '''boggled''', shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.
:Origin: Possibly from the RPG ''Toon'', a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

====C====

;Character: The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]].

;Character Build System
:Term for a '''chargen''' system in which the player starts with a "default" character (often a "blank slate", with no skills, advantages, or anything else) and a pool of points with which he or she can "buy" parts of the character until it approximates the character he or she wants to play. [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|GURPS]] and [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Hero]] are the two most well known [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPGs]] that work this way.

;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|player character]] for use in a [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or [[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]], depending on the RPG being used.

;Corebook: Any book containing information fundamental to a particular game system. Typically any person wishing to purchase books for a particular RPG will need to buy the corebooks first in order to establish the context needed to make sense of the other books. For example, the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual are the corebooks for D&D; the World of Darkness book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for Vampire: the Requiem.

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:DEF

2005-05-17T14:53:43Z

Hyphz: /* D */

====D====

;Ding!:Said when a character has just gained a '''level''' or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. :Origin: The online RPG ''EverQuest'', which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.

====E====

====F====

;fine red mist: What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".

;______-fu: Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
:Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Kung%20Fu Dictionary.com], it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
:Usage:
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the ''starting level?''"
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-05-17T14:52:19Z

Hyphz: /* S */

====S====

;social contract: The (often unstated) rules that govern the interactions taking place during an RPG. ''Not'' a statement of basic social etiquette, which is assumed to be in force regardless: rather the social contract of an RPG defines the expectations and responsibilites of the players with regard to the entertainment of the RPG session. For example, many games have the rule that the GM may break the rules if doing so is to the good of the game; the social contract would include the definition of what "the good of the game" means in the particular group. As mentioned above, these are often unstated and not discussed, which can later lead to friction in the group.

;social skills problem: A problem arising in many RPGs where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple dice roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the players and GM with no idea of what was actually said or done by the character - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;splat: The general term for a subgroup of characters, especially one that player characters are expected to belong to. :Origin: from "splatbook".

;splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail on a small subgroup of characters in a RPG, especially a group that player characters are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. White Wolf makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for Vampire, each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

====T====

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a RPG that results in the entire party of player characters winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for PCs combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad GMing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the players).

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;Turtle: A player who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their character's safety or obviously prompted by the GM. This behaviour is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''railroad''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.

====U====

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-05-17T14:46:17Z

Hyphz: /* T */

====S====

;social skills problem: A problem arising in many RPGs where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple dice roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the players and GM with no idea of what was actually said or done by the character - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail of a small subgroup of characters in a RPG, especially a group that player characters are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. White Wolf makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for Vampire, each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

====T====

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a RPG that results in the entire party of player characters winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for PCs combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad GMing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the players).

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

;Turtle: A player who avoids taking any action during the game unless it is either clearly necessary for their character's safety or obviously prompted by the GM. This behaviour is usually the result of one of several beliefs developed from previous RPGing experience: a) that the GM's job is to subject their characters to adversity, and therefore they must minimize the opportunities the GM has to do so, or b) that the GM is intending to '''railroad''' them and thus any proactive action would be doomed to fail as it would disrupt the railroad. Convincing a player who has learned to turtle to stop doing so is often extremely challenging.

====U====

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:JKL

2005-05-17T14:39:56Z

Hyphz: /* K */

====J====

====K====

;Katana
:Long, curved oriental sword. Katana are the subject of numerous myths related to the quality of their construction and their sharpness, such as the claim that a katana was considered a poor blade unless it was capable of cutting through four condemned men in a single stroke. This, in turn, has led to stories of gamers seriously overestimating the abilities of a character armed with a katana: the most famous example being a story in which a player allegedly attempted to have a katana-wielding PC use his sword to cut through the armor of a modern tank. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to mean an unrealistically powerful weapon, or a weapon which is sought-after for "coolness" value regardless of its relevance or usefulness to a campaign or setting. A katana is, of course, the favoured weapon of a '''ninja'''.

;Kewl Powerz
:Generic name for the abilities possessed by PCs in a game that are above and beyond those of normal men. Depending on the game, this can mean superpowers, magical ability, or whatever else the game will allow.

;Kill them and take their stuff
:A humorous description of the method which winds up being used by most RPG characters to solve problems they are having with other individuals or groups.

;King Rat
:The male equivalent of a '''Queen Bee'''. Exceptionally rare in RPGing due to the gender imbalance of the hobby.

====L====

;Lasersharking
* The (theoretical) improvement of an item or being already powerful, competent, efficient and/or deadly by combining it with another item of similar perceived deadliness. In gaming, said additional element is most often either SF-grade high tech or some other sort of fantastic item.
* The combination of two disparate genres whose conventions normally preclude their union. RPG examples include ''Deadlands: The Weird West'', Pinnacle Entertainment (now Great White Games)’s Wild West/Steampunk/Magic game, or ''Gear Krieg'', Dream Pod 9’s World War II/Mecha game.

The term's origin can be traced to the comedy spoof movie ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery''. Gaming occurences of both definitions are anecdotally accredited to a desire to make an item, character or game world more "kewl" (see Kewl Powerz, above).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:PQR

2005-05-17T14:37:18Z

Hyphz: /* Q */

====P====

;pixelbitching: (coined by SteveD on RPG.net) A style of GMing--specifically, a form of '''railroading'''--in which the players need to find one specific clue in order to advance on the one plotline determined by the GM, cannot proceed without it, and do not get any help from the GM in finding it. If said clue is particularly hard to find (or if the GM requires a very specific action to locate it), the GM may be said to be "pixelbitching".
:Origin: Computer games, specifically point-and-click games in which you need to click a specific place--sometimes only a few pixels on the screen (hence the name)--in order to get some magic clue you need to advance in the programmed-in plotline.

;planning problem: The difficulty arising in game situations where players first develop a detailed plan for their characters' actions and then enact it. The difficulty is that in an RPG, where description is the only medium for describing action, the experience of enacting the plan will be identical to that of making the plan unless something goes wrong. However, if the GM responds by ensuring that something always does go wrong, the players will have no incentive to make plans at all.

;powergaming: A player behaviour where the player in question makes unreasonable efforts to maximise their character's ability to mechanicaly affect the game. This usually refers to optimising combat ability since that has traditionally been the focus of most RPG mechanics. Recently though, as more and more RPGs have more rules and powers applicable to out of combat action, variants like the social powergamer (who builds their character so that they can persuade/seduce/dominate any NPC they meet) have appeared.
:Symptoms include characters that overshadow the other PCs, unusual combinations of abilities and equipment that make little sense in-game, constant requests for "GM approval only" character options, and/or one-dimensional characters where every option adds to a specific ability.
:See also: min-max and munchkin

====Q====

;Queen Bee: A woman who joins RPG groups in the belief that the "scarcity" of women in the hobby, together with the percieved "nerdiness" of male RPG players, will enable her to easily manipulate the group by using her sexuality. A Queen Bee will typically seek out groups in which she can be the only female, continuously flirt with other players, make regular references to her own promiscuity (thus hinting that she may be available to the other players), and similar.

====R====

;railroading: A style of GMing in which the GM has only one specific plot line in mind, and forces the players to follow that plot regardless of whether they want to do so. From an analogy to a railroad, which constrains the train to one specific route.

;"Rocks fall, everyone dies!"
:A comment from the GM that basically means "Your actions have annoyed/disturbed me enough that I'm ending this game RIGHT NOW, and I don't particularly care what happens to your characters anymore!" Usually followed by either the players making nice with the GM or the group going their separate ways.
:Origin: [http://somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml This episode of the webcomic Something Positive.]

;role-playing game: An amazingly hard-to-describe activity, and the reason we're all here.
:In a typical role-playing game, there is one Game Master (hereafter GM) and some players. The players are playing the roles of characters in an imaginary game-world which the GM describes and controls. The game goes through cycles where:
# The GM describes the situation the characters are in;
# The players describe how their characters react to the situation; and
# The GM and players decide what happened as a result of those actions.
:Step 3 often is determined by rolling dice, especially in complex or stressful situations such as combat.

;RPG:1. Common abbreviation for '''role-playing game'''.
:2. Not-as-common abbreviation for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade"
:3. Even less common abbreviation for "Report Program Generator". (If you see a job ad for "RPG programmer wanted", don't get your hopes up--it's probably not Bioware placing the ad.)

;Rule Zero:
:1. "The GM may change or ignore any game rule." Most RPG systems acknowledge that they cannot model every situation accurately, and therefore permit the GM to break the rules in trust that he or she will only do so in cases where it's beneficial to the game.
:2. "Never give the GM ideas." Since most GMs can improvise on the fly and would ''love'' to mess with the players, it's generally recognized that giving him or her ideas in that regard is a ''very bad idea.'' Usually referenced in the phrase '''Rule Zero Violation''', i.e., giving the GM ideas.
::GM: "There's a shadow on the road ahead--it looks like a large group is heading your way, but you can't tell who it is."
::Bob: "Just as long as it isn't Baron Rumbar, we'd be completely screwed if ...
::Jan: "BOB! Sh! Rule Zero Violation!"
::GM: (smiles enigmatically)
::Bob: "Aw, @#$&%!!..."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:MNO

2005-05-17T14:34:01Z

Hyphz: /* M */

====M====

;Mary Sue: An RPG character obviously designed as a supremely competent version of the real person designing the character. (A Mary Sue need not be female, or even human.)

;Munchkin: One of the most controversial terms in RPGs. A good argument could be made that it means "any player I don't like", but most people reserve the term for a specific type of bad player...
:My own definition: a player who, through inexperience or immaturity, disrupts the game to the detriment of the other players, usually by any or all of the following:
* Creating a character that's inappropriate to the setting (Classic definition: A munchkin is someone who, in a game of courtly politics and intrigue in 16th century France, wants to play a ninja.)
* Insisting his character either is or has to be the absolute ''best'' at ''everything'' he does.
* Roleplays poorly, seeing his character (and the other characters) as mere game pieces, without personality or motivations beyond advancing in the game.
* Relating to the last one: approaching all problems, obstacles, and frustrations with violence as a ''first'' resort
* Attempting to "win" the game, even at the expense of the other players, in situations where it would be inappropriate.

;Murphy's Rule: (or just "Murphy"). A game rule which has bizarre or humourous consequences when applied to certain situations - typically those which would logically exist in the game world but are not those which the game was designed to model. A "murphy" can also be a description of the consequences of applying a rule to an outlandish situation, stated not as a criticism of the rules but purely for the comedy value. Originally coined as the name of a cartoon appearing in Pyramid Magazine. A few examples of the typical format:
* In D&D, characters have a "Dexterity" stat, which is in fact used to represent agility as well as actual dexterity. Thus, every talented clockmaker is also a talented gymnast, and vice versa;
* In The Riddle Of Steel, in character generation the player must rank several properties of their character in order of importance. Ranking "social standing" last results in the PC being a slave; but if the player has done this, all other aspects (such as combat skill, magical ability, etc) will have been rated higher than they otherwise could have been, thus meaning that slaves are the most talented and skilled people in the setting;
* In the second edition of Hong Kong Action Theatre, an actor's fame is the ''only'' factor taken into consideration when assigning them to roles, thus enabling Arnold Schwarzenegger to be cast as a kung-fu ballerina.

====N====

;Ninja: A term with multiple different meanings, mostly derived either from the real myths surrounding Ninjas or from the famous spoof website, "Real Ultimate Power".
* As a noun, used with the original meaning: the Japanese term for an assassin, particularly one making use of stealth.
* As a noun, any character designed around the concepts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and one-hit kills.
* As a noun, a character which is sought-after for "coolness" value, and whose abilites are overestimated, even if irrelevant or ineffective in the particular situation or setting. ("Of course I can dodge the bullets of a machine-gun on full auto - I'm a ''ninja''!")
* As an adjective, sneaky or cunning.
* As an adjective, highly skilled in general.
* As a verb, to accomplish something in a highly skillful or spectacular way.

====O====

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:STU

2005-05-17T14:28:45Z

Hyphz: /* S */

====S====

;social skills problem: A problem arising in many RPGs where social skills are modelled as part of the rules system. The typical problem is that resolving the results of these skills via a simple dice roll, as usually mandated by the rules, will leave the players and GM with no idea of what was actually said or done by the character - highly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, if the player is required to speak in-character and to play out the social situation, then the situation will be determined by the player's social skills, not the character's.

;splatbook: Any of a series of books going into extensive detail of a small subgroup of characters in a RPG, especially a group that player characters are expected to belong to. The implication is that the series of books are similar enough that their titles are interchangeable except for one word. White Wolf makes several of these, such as the various "Clanbook: ______" books for Vampire, each of which details one specific Clan.
:Origin: From "splat" as a name for the asterisk (*) character (which itself is because of the squashed-bug appearance of the asterisk on early dot-matrix printers), and the fact that the asterisk usually means "Match with anything" when used in searches in computer documents or on the command-line. (For example, the above books could be found by searching for "Clanbook: *" in some editor programs.)

====T====

;Total Party Kill: Any course of action in a RPG that results in the entire party of player characters winding up either dead or incapacitated. May be the result of bad tactics (the party biting off more than it can chew), bad luck (rotten rolls for PCs combined with excellent rolls for the opposition), or bad GMing (say, the GM cheating because he's annoyed at the players).

;TPK: Abbreviation for '''Total Party Kill'''. Sometimes verbed: "Man, I'm never playing with Ernie again... he had an argument with his girlfriend and retaliated by TPKing the entire group!"

====U====

;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.
:Addendum: From George Lucas' 1977 magnum opus Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Spoken by the recently deceased Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) to the young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:GHI

2005-05-17T14:25:17Z

Hyphz: /* I */

RPG Lexica:PQR

2005-05-17T14:17:50Z

Hyphz: /* R */

====P====

;pixelbitching: (coined by SteveD on RPG.net) A style of GMing--specifically, a form of '''railroading'''--in which the players need to find one specific clue in order to advance on the one plotline determined by the GM, cannot proceed without it, and do not get any help from the GM in finding it. If said clue is particularly hard to find (or if the GM requires a very specific action to locate it), the GM may be said to be "pixelbitching".
:Origin: Computer games, specifically point-and-click games in which you need to click a specific place--sometimes only a few pixels on the screen (hence the name)--in order to get some magic clue you need to advance in the programmed-in plotline.

;planning problem: The difficulty arising in game situations where players first develop a detailed plan for their characters' actions and then enact it. The difficulty is that in an RPG, where description is the only medium for describing action, the experience of enacting the plan will be identical to that of making the plan unless something goes wrong. However, if the GM responds by ensuring that something always does go wrong, the players will have no incentive to make plans at all.

;powergaming: A player behaviour where the player in question makes unreasonable efforts to maximise their character's ability to mechanicaly affect the game. This usually refers to optimising combat ability since that has traditionally been the focus of most RPG mechanics. Recently though, as more and more RPGs have more rules and powers applicable to out of combat action, variants like the social powergamer (who builds their character so that they can persuade/seduce/dominate any NPC they meet) have appeared.
:Symptoms include characters that overshadow the other PCs, unusual combinations of abilities and equipment that make little sense in-game, constant requests for "GM approval only" character options, and/or one-dimensional characters where every option adds to a specific ability.
:See also: min-max and munchkin

====Q====

====R====

;railroading: A style of GMing in which the GM has only one specific plot line in mind, and forces the players to follow that plot regardless of whether they want to do so. From an analogy to a railroad, which constrains the train to one specific route.

;"Rocks fall, everyone dies!"
:A comment from the GM that basically means "Your actions have annoyed/disturbed me enough that I'm ending this game RIGHT NOW, and I don't particularly care what happens to your characters anymore!" Usually followed by either the players making nice with the GM or the group going their separate ways.
:Origin: [http://somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml This episode of the webcomic Something Positive.]

;role-playing game: An amazingly hard-to-describe activity, and the reason we're all here.
:In a typical role-playing game, there is one Game Master (hereafter GM) and some players. The players are playing the roles of characters in an imaginary game-world which the GM describes and controls. The game goes through cycles where:
# The GM describes the situation the characters are in;
# The players describe how their characters react to the situation; and
# The GM and players decide what happened as a result of those actions.
:Step 3 often is determined by rolling dice, especially in complex or stressful situations such as combat.

;RPG:1. Common abbreviation for '''role-playing game'''.
:2. Not-as-common abbreviation for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade"
:3. Even less common abbreviation for "Report Program Generator". (If you see a job ad for "RPG programmer wanted", don't get your hopes up--it's probably not Bioware placing the ad.)

;Rule Zero:
:1. "The GM may change or ignore any game rule." Most RPG systems acknowledge that they cannot model every situation accurately, and therefore permit the GM to break the rules in trust that he or she will only do so in cases where it's beneficial to the game.
:2. "Never give the GM ideas." Since most GMs can improvise on the fly and would ''love'' to mess with the players, it's generally recognized that giving him or her ideas in that regard is a ''very bad idea.'' Usually referenced in the phrase '''Rule Zero Violation''', i.e., giving the GM ideas.
::GM: "There's a shadow on the road ahead--it looks like a large group is heading your way, but you can't tell who it is."
::Bob: "Just as long as it isn't Baron Rumbar, we'd be completely screwed if ...
::Jan: "BOB! Sh! Rule Zero Violation!"
::GM: (smiles enigmatically)
::Bob: "Aw, @#$&%!!..."

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:JKL

2005-05-17T14:13:01Z

Hyphz: /* K */

====J====

====K====

;Katana
:Long, curved oriental sword. Katana are the subject of numerous myths related to the quality of their construction and their sharpness, such as the claim that a katana was considered a poor blade unless it was capable of cutting through four condemned men in a single stroke. This, in turn, has led to stories of gamers seriously overestimating the abilities of a character armed with a katana: the most famous example being a story in which a player allegedly attempted to have a katana-wielding PC use his sword to cut through the armor of a modern tank. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to mean an unrealistically powerful weapon, or a weapon which is sought-after for "coolness" value regardless of its relevance or usefulness to a campaign or setting. A katana is, of course, the favoured weapon of a '''ninja'''.

;Kewl Powerz
:Generic name for the abilities possessed by PCs in a game that are above and beyond those of normal men. Depending on the game, this can mean superpowers, magical ability, or whatever else the game will allow.

;Kill them and take their stuff
:A humorous description of the method which winds up being used by most RPG characters to solve problems they are having with other individuals or groups.

====L====

;Lasersharking
* The (theoretical) improvement of an item or being already powerful, competent, efficient and/or deadly by combining it with another item of similar perceived deadliness. In gaming, said additional element is most often either SF-grade high tech or some other sort of fantastic item.
* The combination of two disparate genres whose conventions normally preclude their union. RPG examples include ''Deadlands: The Weird West'', Pinnacle Entertainment (now Great White Games)’s Wild West/Steampunk/Magic game, or ''Gear Krieg'', Dream Pod 9’s World War II/Mecha game.

The term's origin can be traced to the comedy spoof movie ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery''. Gaming occurences of both definitions are anecdotally accredited to a desire to make an item, character or game world more "kewl" (see Kewl Powerz, above).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:MNO

2005-05-17T14:07:43Z

Hyphz: /* N */

====M====

;Munchkin: One of the most controversial terms in RPGs. A good argument could be made that it means "any player I don't like", but most people reserve the term for a specific type of bad player...
:My own definition: a player who, through inexperience or immaturity, disrupts the game to the detriment of the other players, usually by any or all of the following:
* Creating a character that's inappropriate to the setting (Classic definition: A munchkin is someone who, in a game of courtly politics and intrigue in 16th century France, wants to play a ninja.)
* Insisting his character either is or has to be the absolute ''best'' at ''everything'' he does.
* Roleplays poorly, seeing his character (and the other characters) as mere game pieces, without personality or motivations beyond advancing in the game.
* Relating to the last one: approaching all problems, obstacles, and frustrations with violence as a ''first'' resort
* Attempting to "win" the game, even at the expense of the other players, in situations where it would be inappropriate.

;Murphy's Rule: (or just "Murphy"). A game rule which has bizarre or humourous consequences when applied to certain situations - typically those which would logically exist in the game world but are not those which the game was designed to model. A "murphy" can also be a description of the consequences of applying a rule to an outlandish situation, stated not as a criticism of the rules but purely for the comedy value. Originally coined as the name of a cartoon appearing in Pyramid Magazine. A few examples of the typical format:
* In D&D, characters have a "Dexterity" stat, which is in fact used to represent agility as well as actual dexterity. Thus, every talented clockmaker is also a talented gymnast, and vice versa;
* In The Riddle Of Steel, in character generation the player must rank several properties of their character in order of importance. Ranking "social standing" last results in the PC being a slave; but if the player has done this, all other aspects (such as combat skill, magical ability, etc) will have been rated higher than they otherwise could have been, thus meaning that slaves are the most talented and skilled people in the setting;
* In the second edition of Hong Kong Action Theatre, an actor's fame is the ''only'' factor taken into consideration when assigning them to roles, thus enabling Arnold Schwarzenegger to be cast as a kung-fu ballerina.

====N====

;Ninja: A term with multiple different meanings, mostly derived either from the real myths surrounding Ninjas or from the famous spoof website, "Real Ultimate Power".
* As a noun, used with the original meaning: the Japanese term for an assassin, particularly one making use of stealth.
* As a noun, any character designed around the concepts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and one-hit kills.
* As a noun, a character which is sought-after for "coolness" value, and whose abilites are overestimated, even if irrelevant or ineffective in the particular situation or setting. ("Of course I can dodge the bullets of a machine-gun on full auto - I'm a ''ninja''!")
* As an adjective, sneaky or cunning.
* As an adjective, highly skilled in general.
* As a verb, to accomplish something in a highly skillful or spectacular way.

====O====

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:JKL

2005-05-17T14:06:19Z

Hyphz: /* K */

====J====

====K====

;Katana
:Long, curved oriental sword. Katana are the subject of numerous myths related to the quality of their construction and their sharpness, such as the claim that a katana was considered a poor blade unless it was capable of cutting through four condemned men in a single stroke. This, in turn, has led to stories of gamers seriously overestimating the abilities of a character armed with a katana: the most famous example being a story in which a player allegedly attempted to have a katana-wielding PC use his sword to cut through the armor of a modern tank. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to mean an unrealistically powerful weapon, or a weapon which is sought-after for "coolness" value regardless of its relevance or usefulness to a campaign or setting. A katana is, of course, the favoured weapon of a '''ninja'''.

;Kewl Powerz
:Generic name for the abilities possessed by PCs in a game that are above and beyond those of normal men. Depending on the game, this can mean superpowers, magical ability, or whatever else the game will allow.

====L====

;Lasersharking
* The (theoretical) improvement of an item or being already powerful, competent, efficient and/or deadly by combining it with another item of similar perceived deadliness. In gaming, said additional element is most often either SF-grade high tech or some other sort of fantastic item.
* The combination of two disparate genres whose conventions normally preclude their union. RPG examples include ''Deadlands: The Weird West'', Pinnacle Entertainment (now Great White Games)’s Wild West/Steampunk/Magic game, or ''Gear Krieg'', Dream Pod 9’s World War II/Mecha game.

The term's origin can be traced to the comedy spoof movie ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery''. Gaming occurences of both definitions are anecdotally accredited to a desire to make an item, character or game world more "kewl" (see Kewl Powerz, above).

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:MNO

2005-05-17T14:00:18Z

Hyphz: /* N */

====M====

;Munchkin: One of the most controversial terms in RPGs. A good argument could be made that it means "any player I don't like", but most people reserve the term for a specific type of bad player...
:My own definition: a player who, through inexperience or immaturity, disrupts the game to the detriment of the other players, usually by any or all of the following:
* Creating a character that's inappropriate to the setting (Classic definition: A munchkin is someone who, in a game of courtly politics and intrigue in 16th century France, wants to play a ninja.)
* Insisting his character either is or has to be the absolute ''best'' at ''everything'' he does.
* Roleplays poorly, seeing his character (and the other characters) as mere game pieces, without personality or motivations beyond advancing in the game.
* Relating to the last one: approaching all problems, obstacles, and frustrations with violence as a ''first'' resort
* Attempting to "win" the game, even at the expense of the other players, in situations where it would be inappropriate.

;Murphy's Rule: (or just "Murphy"). A game rule which has bizarre or humourous consequences when applied to certain situations - typically those which would logically exist in the game world but are not those which the game was designed to model. A "murphy" can also be a description of the consequences of applying a rule to an outlandish situation, stated not as a criticism of the rules but purely for the comedy value. Originally coined as the name of a cartoon appearing in Pyramid Magazine. A few examples of the typical format:
* In D&D, characters have a "Dexterity" stat, which is in fact used to represent agility as well as actual dexterity. Thus, every talented clockmaker is also a talented gymnast, and vice versa;
* In The Riddle Of Steel, in character generation the player must rank several properties of their character in order of importance. Ranking "social standing" last results in the PC being a slave; but if the player has done this, all other aspects (such as combat skill, magical ability, etc) will have been rated higher than they otherwise could have been, thus meaning that slaves are the most talented and skilled people in the setting;
* In the second edition of Hong Kong Action Theatre, an actor's fame is the ''only'' factor taken into consideration when assigning them to roles, thus enabling Arnold Schwarzenegger to be cast as a kung-fu ballerina.

====N====

;Ninja: A term with multiple different meanings, mostly derived either from the real myths surrounding Ninjas or from the famous spoof website, "Real Ultimate Power".
* As a noun, used with the original meaning: the Japanese term for an assassin, particularly one making use of stealth.
* As a noun, any character designed around the concepts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and one-hit kills.
* As an adjective, sneaky or cunning.
* As an adjective, highly skilled in general.
* As a verb, to accomplish something in a highly skillful or spectacular way.

====O====

[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]

RPG Lexica:PQR

2005-05-17T13:53:16Z

Hyphz: Added defn. "planning problem"

====P====

;pixelbitching: (coined by SteveD on RPG.net) A style of GMing--specifically, a form of '''railroading'''--in which the players need to find one specific clue in order to advance on the one plotline determined by the GM, cannot proceed without it, and do not get any help from the GM in finding it. If said clue is particularly hard to find (or if the GM requires a very specific action to locate it), the GM may be said to be "pixelbitching".
:Origin: Computer games, specifically point-and-click games in which you need to click a specific place--sometimes only a few pixels on the screen (hence the name)--in order to get some magic clue you need to advance in the programmed-in plotline.

;planning problem: The difficulty arising in game situations where players first develop a detailed plan for their characters' actions and then enact it. The difficulty is that in an RPG, where description is the only medium for describing action, the experience of enacting the plan will be identical to that of making the plan unless something goes wrong. However, if the GM responds by ensuring that something always does go wrong, the players will have no incentive to make plans at all.

;powergaming: A player behaviour where the player in question makes unreasonable efforts to maximise their character's ability to mechanicaly affect the game. This usually refers to optimising combat ability since that has traditionally been the focus of most RPG mechanics. Recently though, as more and more RPGs have more rules and powers applicable to out of combat action, variants like the social powergamer (who builds their character so that they can persuade/seduce/dominate any NPC they meet) have appeared.
:Symptoms include characters that overshadow the other PCs, unusual combinations of abilities and equipment that make little sense in-game, constant requests for "GM approval only" character options, and/or one-dimensional characters where every option adds to a specific ability.
:See also: min-max and munchkin

====Q====

====R====

;railroading: A style of GMing in which the GM has only one specific plot line in mind, and forces the players to follow that plot regardless of whether they want to do so. From an analogy to a railroad, which constrains the train to one specific route.

;"Rocks fall, everyone dies!"
:A comment from the GM that basically means "Your actions have annoyed/disturbed me enough that I'm ending this game RIGHT NOW, and I don't particularly care what happens to your characters anymore!" Usually followed by either the players making nice with the GM or the group going their separate ways.
:Origin: [http://somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml This episode of the webcomic Something Positive.]

;role-playing game: An amazingly hard-to-describe activity, and the reason we're all here.
:In a typical role-playing game, there is one Game Master (hereafter GM) and some players. The players are playing the roles of characters in an imaginary game-world which the GM describes and controls. The game goes through cycles where:
# The GM describes the situation the characters are in;
# The players describe how their characters react to the situation; and
# The GM and players decide what happened as a result of those actions.
:Step 3 often is determined by rolling dice, especially in complex or stressful situations such as combat.

;RPG:1. Common abbreviation for '''role-playing game'''.
:2. Not-as-common abbreviation for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade"
:3. Even less common abbreviation for "Report Program Generator". (If you see a job ad for "RPG programmer wanted", don't get your hopes up--it's probably not Bioware placing the ad.)

;Rule Zero: "Never give the GM ideas." Since most GMs can improvise on the fly and would ''love'' to mess with the players, it's generally recognized that giving him or her ideas in that regard is a ''very bad idea.'' Usually referenced in the phrase '''Rule Zero Violation''', i.e., giving the GM ideas.
::GM: "There's a shadow on the road ahead--it looks like a large group is heading your way, but you can't tell who it is."
::Bob: "Just as long as it isn't Baron Rumbar, we'd be completely screwed if ...
::Jan: "BOB! Sh! Rule Zero Violation!"
::GM: (smiles enigmatically)
::Bob: "Aw, @#$&%!!..."

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