https://wiki.rpg.net/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Iceberg3kRPGnet - User contributions [en]2026-05-15T03:10:22ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.43.0https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:STU&diff=31107RPG Lexica:STU2006-09-01T21:07:40Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
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<div>==S==<br />
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;Skarka's Law: This is an observation, originally attributed to now banned RPGnet poster Gareth Skarka, that, on internet messageboards, there is no subject so vile or indefensible that someone won't post positively/in defense of it.<br />
:The law is generally intended as a roundabout way of saying the person invoking the law is correct and the person the law is invoked against is an idiot.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;SLF: A german expression (SpielLeiterFicken = lit. Game Master Fucking) 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.<br />
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;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.."<br />
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;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. <br />
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;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.<br />
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;Specialisation problem: A game balance (q.v.) problem arising in games where characters are able to specialise 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' specialised talents get used and those of other characters do not.<br />
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;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".<br />
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;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.<br />
: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.)<br />
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;Squishy Caster problem: Related to the [[RPG Lexica:DEF|Dumb Fighter problem]]. The Squishy Caster problem 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'''.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;Superheroes, types of<br />
: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.<br />
:The following are some of the more common terms:<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''Egoist''': A ''[[Hero]]'' term for a '''Mentalist''', below, since the main statistic they use in ''Hero'' is called “Ego”.<br />
*'''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.<br />
*'''Gadgeteer''': A character that relies on technical ability and machines. May be applied to characters from other genres as well.<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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)<br />
*'''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.<br />
*'''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.<br />
:Note that these can be combined... Batman, for example, is a Gadgeteer/Martial Artist (and, in the movies, a Suitguy... sort of).<br />
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;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". <br />
:He defines it like so:<br />
::"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."<br />
::"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."<br />
:He strongly believes in a form of Gonzo journalism to make a point. The term swine was adapted from Hunter Thompsons "Generation of Swine". <br />
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;Symbiote problem: A spinoff of the ''specialization problem'' that arises when a group of PCs is composed entirely of specialists, each specialised 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 tus 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.<br />
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==T==<br />
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;Tank: As a noun, an extremely tough character capable of taking lots of damage.<br />
: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.)<br />
:As a noun, also, any strategy for defeating an enemy that is based on resisting that enemy's attacks.<br />
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;Thelma: A gamer who would go to any extreme, including commiting suicide, rather than be caught. Two of them are called ''Thelma & Louise''.<br />
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;TLP: Abbrevation for '''(check for) Traps, Listen, Pick''' - the standard behaviour of a thief or rogue character when encountering an unknown door in a dungeon that the party needs to pass through.<br />
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;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).<br />
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;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!"<br />
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;TRPG: Abbreviation for ''Tabletop Role Playing Game'' or ''Table Talk Roleplaying Game''. An alternate abbreviation used in Japan, where the abbrevation RPG is usually taken to mean CRPG.<br />
: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.<br />
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;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.<br />
:Also, ''v.'' '''Turtling''', to refer to this behavior.<br />
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;Twink: see Munchkin. Originated in the world of MUSH/MUX/whatever.<br />
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==U==<br />
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;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.<br />
: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).<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:DEF&diff=31106RPG Lexica:DEF2006-09-01T21:03:09Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
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<div>==D==<br />
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;D: Abbreviation for ''[[dice]]'', either upper or lower case. Because dice are used so frequently in [[role-playing game|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 (often 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.<br />
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;D100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided [[dice]] do exist (specifically the "Zocchihedron"), they are relatively rare (for several reasons, not the least important being that they tend to tumble for a long time, and like a golf ball tend not to be perfectly symmetrical, allowing some results to come up more frequently than others); the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two [[d10]]s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.<br />
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;D20: A twenty-sided die; 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 [[player]]s 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]]. <br />
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;D666: An apparent example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided die. The d666 system was used in the game ''[[In Nomine]]'', in which [[player]]s 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 die 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.<br />
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;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." <br />
:Origin: From the ''[[Dungeons & 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.<br />
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;Death Spiral: Any combat system in which acquiring an injury or bad die result leads to increased chances of bad die results, which increases the chance of receiving further injury, and so on, so that the character, once wounded, starts to spirals down into death. <br />
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;Decker Problem: One of the most infamous published game design errors ever to exist, and also a classic example of the ''Specialization problem'' (q.v.) In two of the most well-known cyberpunk games, Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020, the rules explicitly state that only a character who is specialized at operating in cyberspace (the "virtual reality internet" common in the genre) could do anything at all within it. (Such a character is usually called a "decker" or "netrunner", thus the term.) The range of characters in both games was such that any given group would need only one decker. Both games then specified large, detailed tactical rules systems for resolving encounters in cyberspace, which - while involving and interesting in theory - were unplayable in practice, because it would be socially unacceptable to leave the other players with nothing to do while the decker's player played through them. (''Cyberpunk 2020'' made things even worse by specifying that an entire cyberspace adventure could take only a few seconds of game time - meaning that the other characters were not only unable to be involved in the cyberspace encounter, but unable to do anything at all, because in the game world they would not have had time to do so.) Generically speaking, the Decker problem could be said to be any elegant, novel and original rules solution to a problem of genre emulation, that nevertheless cannot be implemented in-game on a regular basis because it would be socially unacceptable to use it.<br />
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;Deprotagonization:refers to any of a number of circumstances or behaviours that disempower player characters from taking a strong role in the development of the game world. The term refers to the idea that the players are supposed to be the "protagonists" in the story being told in the game: deprotagonization is then any process which causes them to cease being protagonists, or cease being able to act as protagonists. [[Railroading]], [[pet NPC]]s, and similar are all forms of deprotagonization, as is (arguably) [[metaplot]].<br />
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;Deus-Ex-DMing: A situation where the [[Game Master]] screws over the [[player]]s by pulling some arbitrary element the players "forgot to consider" out of his ass. Can be extended to any situation where the GM complicates the [[PC]]s' lives with something arbitrary that they haven't had to deal with until now.<br />
:Origin: [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn087.htm A particular episode] of the webcomic [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn.htm "Full Frontal Nerdity"], by Aaron Williams.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;Ding-dong battle problem:A problem arising in any game where attacks are unlikely to hit, and thus a battle comes down to a long sequence of misses by both sides. Typically applied to systems (such as ''Tri-Stat'') which require a dice roll by the attacker to attack correctly, followed by a dice roll by the defender to see if they block the attack. In this situation a long series of blocked attacks can leave the players bored and frustrated.<br />
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;Dumb Fighter problem:A problem arising in a game where the base fighter or warrior archetype has no particular special abilities and is the easiest archetype to make a character for (especially where the prerequisite attributes for a warrior character are sufficiently low that it's almost impossible to avoid qualifying for it). The DFP is typified by original Dungeons & Dragons, wherein Fighting Man characters had very few tactical options other than to move and attack, but had the most hit points in the game and the largest weapons. It can thus be said to be a problem wherein a particular character class (usually the Fighter) has few options to deal with a threat in combat, and even fewer to deal with an obstacle or NPC out of combat. Many RPGs compensate for this by allowing warriors to take special abilities not available to other characters, or in having detailed tactical maneuver systems. Skill systems and [[house rules]] also generally mitigate this problem. See also [[RPG_Lexica:STU|Squishy Caster problem]].<br />
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;Dungeon Crawl: A style of gameplay wherein the main activity is the mapping and conquest of underground regions. Such regions are usually man-made "dungeons" wherein various different creatures make their residence with little regard to ecology, economy, or common sense. Generally a very combat-oriented type of gameplay, and thus usually a subset of [[Hack and Slash]].<br />
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==E==<br />
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;EDO: An acronym for "Elf Dwarf Orc", a label for games or [[setting]]s which wallow in the stereotypes of high fantasy established by the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and the game ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Specifically refers to the tendency of these games to always feature these three races as primary elements, even if there is no compelling reason to do so.<br />
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;Exploding Dice: The term for [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|open-ended]] rolls that may potentially give very high results; more often, a specific roll that does so. So named because the results of these die rolls are generally low, with a few slightly higher... and then a very few that are ''ridiculously'' high, usually resulting in extreme results. (see [[RPG_Lexica:ABC|critical hit]], and multiply it.)<br />
:An exploding dice result at the right time can change a game (or even a gameworld) radically. The best ones are right at the climax of an [[adventure]], to do things like destroy the villain and his plans utterly; unfortunately, Murphy's Law says you're probably going to see them at either unimportant rolls (like a simple Vision Check to spot a light on a panel), or at times when an extreme result would be bad (such as trying to knock out someone ''without'' killing them). Murphy's Law also says your opposition will get them at the absolute worst time.<br />
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==F==<br />
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;Fanon: Common fan assumptions about a particular fictional work. The line between fanon and canon is heavily blurred in an RPG, which often causes the [[metaplot]] to trample the unique combination of assumptions and play experiences which builds each individual GM's campaign world.<br />
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;Fantasy Heartbreaker: A label for a specific kind of [[RPG]], examples of which surface with regularity in the hobby. Common elements include publication by a small company or vanity press, a length of several hundred pages, a rule system with deliberately baroque aspects and an incorporated setting built from generic fantasy tropes (see '''EDO''' above). Inevitably the writers of such games are trying to approach the same assumptions used by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and improve on the systems built from them. These games are Heartbreakers because their creators have obviously put a great deal of time and effort into getting them published, but the chances of them finding a niche in a field so thoroughly dominated by the established leader is nil. The term was originated by Ron Edwards in a series of essays posted on the '''Forge''' (see below).<br />
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;Farnsworth Combat: Any combat system where injury does not cause accumulated negative effects until zero or fewer life counters (such as hit points) remain, at which point the stricken character falls over dead (or badly injured and bleeding). Derived from the ''Futurama'' episode '''When Aliens Attack''', during which Prof. Hubert Farnsworth utters the line, "Cough, then fall over dead."<br />
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;Filing Off the Serial Numbers: An expression used when a rule, [[setting]] or other element of an [[RPG]] has obviously been heavily influenced or outright copied from another design. Not so much an accusation of blatant plagiarism as a bemused observation of not having fully acknowledged one's antecedents. Derived from the method allegedly used to render stolen handguns and automobiles untraceable.<br />
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;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".<br />
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;Fishmalk: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau Portmanteau] of the words "fish" and "Malkavian", the latter being a clan of deranged undead in the game ''Vampire''. The term describes a character posessing a mental illness who uses thier derangement as a catch-all excuse for ignoring the social rules of the setting's society. At best, such characters are merely corny, but at worst they serve only as vehicles for wildly inappropriate behaviour, the player justifying every ridiculous action through said character's alleged craziness. Essentially, the player has found an excuse to do whatever they want yet can make a show of defending it as good role-playing. The term may be derived from a single infamous character, a Malkavian who either believed it rained fish or attacked people with fish.<br />
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;Flat dice: Any form of dice roll on which all results are equally likely (ie, "flat distribution"). Any roll of a single dice will be a flat roll, as will percentile rolls. Using flat dice to decide success or failure can produce rather paradoxical results. A classic example is that of two kayakers paddling down a river; one is a novice, and one is a professional. The GM decides that the characters will successfully make it down the river if the players roll over a 15 on a d20, but that the player of the kayaking professional may add +10 to their roll to represent the professional's extra skill. Although it sounds reasonable, it creates a bizarre situation: the river is so hard that a professional has a 25% chance of failing, and yet at the same time so easy that a complete beginner has a 25% chance of succeeding.<br />
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;FLGS: An abbreviation of '''Friendly Local Game Store''', referring to traditional store-based game retailers. Generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, such stores provide a visible presence, space to play and a community gathering point. They are nearly always small locally owned businesses run by individuals with a personal stake in the hobby rather than distant entrepreneurs. However, they are notoriously short-lived and poorly managed as their owners often lack adequate business training and experience. Expertly managed, prosperous '''FLGS'''s do exist, but in recent years they are continuously under threat from online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to a lack of comparable overhead.<br />
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;Fluff: Slang for the parts of a [[RPG]] book other than the rules--such as [[setting]] details, game fiction, history, et cetera. Usually contrasted with '''Crunch''', which is the actual rules.<br />
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;Foo: A "metasyntactic variable". "Foo" is used when generalizing a case or giving an example; if more than one such variable is needed, the sequence proceeds "Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Qux". Eg, "So I've been sent by King Foo, to save Princess Bar.." Most well known for being documented in the Hacker's Dictionary, but occasionally shows up on RPGnet.<br />
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;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for [[RPG]] [[player]]s and designers which "is dedicated to the promotion, creation, and review of independent role-playing games". It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''[[Sorcerer]]'', 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 stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independent RPGs avaliable. Critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independent RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.<br />
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;Freight Train (From Hell): A roll of all 6's on three or more dice, by extension of the term "boxcars" for a roll of 2 6's on 2 dice. The "From Hell" is specific to games like [[GURPS]], where a roll of all 6's is a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fumble]] or critical failure (and even more so in [[In Nomine]], where a roll of 6-6-6 on the d666 means "Infernal Intervention", i.e., the Devil himself helping his demons!)<br />
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;[foo]-Fu: Skill in [foo], 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 [foo]-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.<br />
: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.)<br />
:Usage:<br />
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a [[character]] this powerful at the ''starting level?''"<br />
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."<br />
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;Fudge<br />
#As a verb, for a [[GM]] to clandestinely modify aspects of a [[game system]], known to him and not the [[player]]s, that would otherwise be random or impartial. Thus, the GM may be said to “fudge the [[dice]]”. The term usually carries the implication of pushing things towards the players' benefit in the cause of improving the game experience for all involved. For example, ignoring a situational modifier and declaring that a [[character]] succeeded in striking a mighty blow against a protagonist during a climactic confrontation. A strict interpretation of the game's resolution method would say otherwise, but it better serves the [[drama]]tic needs of the game for the blow to be struck. <br />
#As a noun, a specific [[RPG]] written by Steffan O'Sullivan in collaboration with the newsgroup rec.games.design. Besides having a strong influence on subsequent designs, noteworthy for being the first significant “open source” RPG.<br />
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;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 (e.g. a shooter doesn't just miss but his gun jams, a lock breaker doesn't just fail to break the lock but sets off an alarm).<br />
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;Funky Dice: [[Dice]] of a form other than the regular "cubes with pips" most people think of at mention of the word dice; see '''D''' above. Since [[d4|four-sided]], [[d8|eight-sided]], [[d10|ten-sided]] and other such non-traditional randomn number generators see little use outside of the RPG hobby, they are generally only available from specialty retailers (such as a '''FLGS''') and thus the acquiring of one's first set of '''Funky Dice''' is often an early step of initiation for a beginning gamer.<br />
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;Furry<br />
#As a noun, slang term for an "anthropomorphic animal" character, i.e., a character that is obviously based on an animal, and yet has human characteristics such as intelligence and/or a bipedal stance. The classic example is the "Catgirl" that keeps cropping up in science fiction and anime. Note that, despite the term, "furries" aren't necessary furry; the term can also be applied to characters based on species without fur, such as birdmen or lizardmen.<br />
#As an adjective, something with which furries in sense 1 play a major part--for example, the [[RPG]] [[Ironclaw]] could be described as a "furry fantasy game"<br />
#Term for a fan of furries in sense 1, whether a fan of artwork featuring furries, stories about furries, games involving furries, or just the "idea" of furries. Also '''furry fandom'''.<br />
#A subculture of people who enjoy pretending to be anthropomorphic animals. Some of them wear "furry" suits to represent the fur of their animal alter ego; these people are also known as '''fursuiters'''. In gaming, it can also refer to a player who commonly plays anthromorphic animal characters.<br />
:Furries are a somewhat controversial subject, primarily because of the media's focus on the more extreme fringe elements of furry fandom, such as the (''tiny'' minority) of people who believe themselves to be "animals trapped in human bodies", or those who have fetishized furry characters to ridiculous extremes. Due to the prevalence of the [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|geek social fallacies]] in furry fandom, and the forthrightness and utter lack of pride of the aforementioned minority, these unsavory individuals are the primary public face of the furry fandom.<br />
:Much more information can be found at [http://furry.wikicities.com/ WikiFur], a relatively new community-built furry encyclopedia.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:DEF&diff=31089RPG Lexica:DEF2006-09-01T14:08:04Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* D */</p>
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<div>==D==<br />
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;D: Abbreviation for ''[[dice]]'', either upper or lower case. Because dice are used so frequently in [[role-playing game|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 (often 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.<br />
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;D100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided [[dice]] do exist (specifically the "Zocchihedron"), they are relatively rare (for several reasons, not the least important being that they tend to tumble for a long time, and like a golf ball tend not to be perfectly symmetrical, allowing some results to come up more frequently than others); the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two [[d10]]s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.<br />
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;D20: A twenty-sided die; 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 [[player]]s 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]]. <br />
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;D666: An apparent example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided die. The d666 system was used in the game ''[[In Nomine]]'', in which [[player]]s 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 die 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.<br />
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;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." <br />
:Origin: From the ''[[Dungeons & 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.<br />
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;Death Spiral: Any combat system in which acquiring an injury or bad die result leads to increased chances of bad die results, which increases the chance of receiving further injury, and so on, so that the character, once wounded, starts to spirals down into death. <br />
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;Decker Problem: One of the most infamous published game design errors ever to exist, and also a classic example of the ''Specialization problem'' (q.v.) In two of the most well-known cyberpunk games, Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020, the rules explicitly state that only a character who is specialized at operating in cyberspace (the "virtual reality internet" common in the genre) could do anything at all within it. (Such a character is usually called a "decker" or "netrunner", thus the term.) The range of characters in both games was such that any given group would need only one decker. Both games then specified large, detailed tactical rules systems for resolving encounters in cyberspace, which - while involving and interesting in theory - were unplayable in practice, because it would be socially unacceptable to leave the other players with nothing to do while the decker's player played through them. (''Cyberpunk 2020'' made things even worse by specifying that an entire cyberspace adventure could take only a few seconds of game time - meaning that the other characters were not only unable to be involved in the cyberspace encounter, but unable to do anything at all, because in the game world they would not have had time to do so.) Generically speaking, the Decker problem could be said to be any elegant, novel and original rules solution to a problem of genre emulation, that nevertheless cannot be implemented in-game on a regular basis because it would be socially unacceptable to use it.<br />
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;Deprotagonization:refers to any of a number of circumstances or behaviours that disempower player characters from taking a strong role in the development of the game world. The term refers to the idea that the players are supposed to be the "protagonists" in the story being told in the game: deprotagonization is then any process which causes them to cease being protagonists, or cease being able to act as protagonists. [[Railroading]], [[pet NPC]]s, and similar are all forms of deprotagonization, as is (arguably) [[metaplot]].<br />
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;Deus-Ex-DMing: A situation where the [[Game Master]] screws over the [[player]]s by pulling some arbitrary element the players "forgot to consider" out of his ass. Can be extended to any situation where the GM complicates the [[PC]]s' lives with something arbitrary that they haven't had to deal with until now.<br />
:Origin: [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn087.htm A particular episode] of the webcomic [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn.htm "Full Frontal Nerdity"], by Aaron Williams.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;Ding-dong battle problem:A problem arising in any game where attacks are unlikely to hit, and thus a battle comes down to a long sequence of misses by both sides. Typically applied to systems (such as ''Tri-Stat'') which require a dice roll by the attacker to attack correctly, followed by a dice roll by the defender to see if they block the attack. In this situation a long series of blocked attacks can leave the players bored and frustrated.<br />
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;Dumb Fighter problem:A problem arising in a game where the base fighter or warrior archetype has no particular special abilities and is the easiest archetype to make a character for (especially where the prerequisite attributes for a warrior character are sufficiently low that it's almost impossible to avoid qualifying for it). The DFP is typified by original Dungeons & Dragons, wherein Fighting Man characters had very few tactical options other than to move and attack, but had the most hit points in the game and the largest weapons. It can thus be said to be a problem wherein a particular character class (usually the Fighter) has few options to deal with a threat in combat, and even fewer to deal with an obstacle or NPC out of combat. Many RPGs compensate for this by allowing warriors to take special abilities not available to other characters, or in having detailed tactical maneuver systems.<br />
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;Dungeon Crawl: A style of gameplay wherein the main activity is the mapping and conquest of underground regions. Such regions are usually man-made "dungeons" wherein various different creatures make their residence with little regard to ecology, economy, or common sense. Generally a very combat-oriented type of gameplay, and thus usually a subset of [[Hack and Slash]].<br />
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==E==<br />
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;EDO: An acronym for "Elf Dwarf Orc", a label for games or [[setting]]s which wallow in the stereotypes of high fantasy established by the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and the game ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Specifically refers to the tendency of these games to always feature these three races as primary elements, even if there is no compelling reason to do so.<br />
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;Exploding Dice: The term for [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|open-ended]] rolls that may potentially give very high results; more often, a specific roll that does so. So named because the results of these die rolls are generally low, with a few slightly higher... and then a very few that are ''ridiculously'' high, usually resulting in extreme results. (see [[RPG_Lexica:ABC|critical hit]], and multiply it.)<br />
:An exploding dice result at the right time can change a game (or even a gameworld) radically. The best ones are right at the climax of an [[adventure]], to do things like destroy the villain and his plans utterly; unfortunately, Murphy's Law says you're probably going to see them at either unimportant rolls (like a simple Vision Check to spot a light on a panel), or at times when an extreme result would be bad (such as trying to knock out someone ''without'' killing them). Murphy's Law also says your opposition will get them at the absolute worst time.<br />
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==F==<br />
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;Fanon: Common fan assumptions about a particular fictional work. The line between fanon and canon is heavily blurred in an RPG, which often causes the [[metaplot]] to trample the unique combination of assumptions and play experiences which builds each individual GM's campaign world.<br />
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;Fantasy Heartbreaker: A label for a specific kind of [[RPG]], examples of which surface with regularity in the hobby. Common elements include publication by a small company or vanity press, a length of several hundred pages, a rule system with deliberately baroque aspects and an incorporated setting built from generic fantasy tropes (see '''EDO''' above). Inevitably the writers of such games are trying to approach the same assumptions used by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and improve on the systems built from them. These games are Heartbreakers because their creators have obviously put a great deal of time and effort into getting them published, but the chances of them finding a niche in a field so thoroughly dominated by the established leader is nil. The term was originated by Ron Edwards in a series of essays posted on the '''Forge''' (see below).<br />
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;Farnsworth Combat: Any combat system where injury does not cause accumulated negative effects until zero or fewer life counters (such as hit points) remain, at which point the stricken character falls over dead (or badly injured and bleeding). Derived from the ''Futurama'' episode '''When Aliens Attack''', during which Prof. Hubert Farnsworth utters the line, "Cough, then fall over dead."<br />
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;Filing Off the Serial Numbers: An expression used when a rule, [[setting]] or other element of an [[RPG]] has obviously been heavily influenced or outright copied from another design. Not so much an accusation of blatant plagiarism as a bemused observation of not having fully acknowledged one's antecedents. Derived from the method allegedly used to render stolen handguns and automobiles untraceable.<br />
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;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".<br />
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;Fishmalk: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau Portmanteau] of the words "fish" and "Malkavian", the latter being a clan of deranged undead in the game ''Vampire''. The term describes a character posessing a mental illness who uses thier derangement as a catch-all excuse for ignoring the social rules of the setting's society. At best, such characters are merely corny, but at worst they serve only as vehicles for wildly inappropriate behaviour, the player justifying every ridiculous action through said character's alleged craziness. Essentially, the player has found an excuse to do whatever they want yet can make a show of defending it as good role-playing. The term may be derived from a single infamous character, a Malkavian who either believed it rained fish or attacked people with fish.<br />
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;Flat dice: Any form of dice roll on which all results are equally likely (ie, "flat distribution"). Any roll of a single dice will be a flat roll, as will percentile rolls. Using flat dice to decide success or failure can produce rather paradoxical results. A classic example is that of two kayakers paddling down a river; one is a novice, and one is a professional. The GM decides that the characters will successfully make it down the river if the players roll over a 15 on a d20, but that the player of the kayaking professional may add +10 to their roll to represent the professional's extra skill. Although it sounds reasonable, it creates a bizarre situation: the river is so hard that a professional has a 25% chance of failing, and yet at the same time so easy that a complete beginner has a 25% chance of succeeding.<br />
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;FLGS: An abbreviation of '''Friendly Local Game Store''', referring to traditional store-based game retailers. Generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, such stores provide a visible presence, space to play and a community gathering point. They are nearly always small locally owned businesses run by individuals with a personal stake in the hobby rather than distant entrepreneurs. However, they are notoriously short-lived and poorly managed as their owners often lack adequate business training and experience. Expertly managed, prosperous '''FLGS'''s do exist, but in recent years they are continuously under threat from online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to a lack of comparable overhead.<br />
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;Fluff: Slang for the parts of a [[RPG]] book other than the rules--such as [[setting]] details, game fiction, history, et cetera. Usually contrasted with '''Crunch''', which is the actual rules.<br />
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;Foo: A "metasyntactic variable". "Foo" is used when generalizing a case or giving an example; if more than one such variable is needed, the sequence proceeds "Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Qux". Eg, "So I've been sent by King Foo, to save Princess Bar.." Most well known for being documented in the Hacker's Dictionary, but occasionally shows up on RPGnet.<br />
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;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for [[RPG]] [[player]]s and designers which "is dedicated to the promotion, creation, and review of independent role-playing games". It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''[[Sorcerer]]'', 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 stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independent RPGs avaliable. Critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independent RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.<br />
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;Freight Train (From Hell): A roll of all 6's on three or more dice, by extension of the term "boxcars" for a roll of 2 6's on 2 dice. The "From Hell" is specific to games like [[GURPS]], where a roll of all 6's is a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fumble]] or critical failure (and even more so in [[In Nomine]], where a roll of 6-6-6 on the d666 means "Infernal Intervention", i.e., the Devil himself helping his demons!)<br />
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;[foo]-Fu: Skill in [foo], 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 [foo]-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.<br />
: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.)<br />
:Usage:<br />
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a [[character]] this powerful at the ''starting level?''"<br />
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."<br />
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;Fudge<br />
#As a verb, for a [[GM]] to clandestinely modify aspects of a [[game system]], known to him and not the [[player]]s, that would otherwise be random or impartial. Thus, the GM may be said to “fudge the [[dice]]”. The term usually carries the implication of pushing things towards the players' benefit in the cause of improving the game experience for all involved. For example, ignoring a situational modifier and declaring that a [[character]] succeeded in striking a mighty blow against a protagonist during a climactic confrontation. A strict interpretation of the game's resolution method would say otherwise, but it better serves the [[drama]]tic needs of the game for the blow to be struck. <br />
#As a noun, a specific [[RPG]] written by Steffan O'Sullivan in collaboration with the newsgroup rec.games.design. Besides having a strong influence on subsequent designs, noteworthy for being the first significant “open source” RPG.<br />
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;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 (e.g. a shooter doesn't just miss but his gun jams, a lock breaker doesn't just fail to break the lock but sets off an alarm).<br />
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;Funky Dice: [[Dice]] of a form other than the regular "cubes with pips" most people think of at mention of the word dice; see '''D''' above. Since [[d4|four-sided]], [[d8|eight-sided]], [[d10|ten-sided]] and other such non-traditional randomn number generators see little use outside of the RPG hobby, they are generally only available from specialty retailers (such as a '''FLGS''') and thus the acquiring of one's first set of '''Funky Dice''' is often an early step of initiation for a beginning gamer.<br />
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;Furry<br />
#As a noun, slang term for an "anthropomorphic animal" character, i.e., a character that is obviously based on an animal, and yet has human characteristics such as intelligence and/or a bipedal stance. The classic example is the "Catgirl" that keeps cropping up in science fiction and anime. Note that, despite the term, "furries" aren't necessary furry; the term can also be applied to characters based on species without fur, such as birdmen or lizardmen.<br />
#As an adjective, something with which furries in sense 1 play a major part--for example, the [[RPG]] [[Ironclaw]] could be described as a "furry fantasy game"<br />
#Term for a fan of furries in sense 1, whether a fan of artwork featuring furries, stories about furries, games involving furries, or just the "idea" of furries. Also '''furry fandom'''.<br />
#A subculture of people who enjoy pretending to be anthropomorphic animals. Some of them wear "furry" suits to represent the fur of their animal alter ego; these people are also known as '''fursuiters'''. In gaming, it can also refer to a player who commonly plays anthromorphic animal characters.<br />
:Furries are a somewhat controversial subject, primarily because of the media's focus on the more extreme fringe elements of furry fandom, such as the (''tiny'' minority) of people who believe themselves to be "animals trapped in human bodies", or those who have fetishized furry characters to ridiculous extremes. Due to the prevalence of the [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|geek social fallacies]] in furry fandom, and the forthrightness and utter lack of pride of the aforementioned minority, these unsavory individuals are the primary public face of the furry fandom.<br />
:Much more information can be found at [http://furry.wikicities.com/ WikiFur], a relatively new community-built furry encyclopedia.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:STU&diff=31088RPG Lexica:STU2006-09-01T14:04:38Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
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<div>==S==<br />
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;Skarka's Law: This is an observation, originally attributed to now banned RPGnet poster Gareth Skarka, that, on internet messageboards, there is no subject so vile or indefensible that someone won't post positively/in defense of it.<br />
:The law is generally intended as a roundabout way of saying the person invoking the law is correct and the person the law is invoked against is an idiot.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;SLF: A german expression (SpielLeiterFicken = lit. Game Master Fucking) 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.<br />
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;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.."<br />
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;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. <br />
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;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.<br />
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;Specialisation problem: A game balance (q.v.) problem arising in games where characters are able to specialise 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' specialised talents get used and those of other characters do not.<br />
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;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".<br />
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;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.<br />
: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.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Squishy Caster problem: Related to the [[RPG Lexica:DEF|Dumb Fighter problem]]. The Squishy Caster problem 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'''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Superheroes, types of<br />
: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.<br />
:The following are some of the more common terms:<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''Egoist''': A ''[[Hero]]'' term for a '''Mentalist''', below, since the main statistic they use in ''Hero'' is called “Ego”.<br />
*'''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.<br />
*'''Gadgeteer''': A character that relies on technical ability and machines. May be applied to characters from other genres as well.<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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)<br />
*'''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)<br />
*'''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.<br />
:Note that these can be combined... Batman, for example, is a Gadgeteer/Martial Artist (and, in the movies, a Suitguy... sort of).<br />
<br />
<br />
;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". <br />
:He defines it like so:<br />
::"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."<br />
::"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."<br />
:He strongly believes in a form of Gonzo journalism to make a point. The term swine was adapted from Hunter Thompsons "Generation of Swine". <br />
<br />
<br />
;Symbiote problem: A spinoff of the ''specialization problem'' that arises when a group of PCs is composed entirely of specialists, each specialised 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 tus 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.<br />
<br />
==T==<br />
<br />
;Tank: As a noun, an extremely tough character capable of taking lots of damage.<br />
: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.)<br />
:As a noun, also, any strategy for defeating an enemy that is based on resisting that enemy's attacks.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Thelma: A gamer who would go to any extreme, including commiting suicide, rather than be caught. Two of them are called ''Thelma & Louise''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;TLP: Abbrevation for '''(check for) Traps, Listen, Pick''' - the standard behaviour of a thief or rogue character when encountering an unknown door in a dungeon that the party needs to pass through.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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).<br />
<br />
<br />
;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!"<br />
<br />
<br />
;TRPG: Abbreviation for ''Tabletop Role Playing Game'' or ''Table Talk Roleplaying Game''. An alternate abbreviation used in Japan, where the abbrevation RPG is usually taken to mean CRPG.<br />
: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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
:Also, ''v.'' '''Turtling''', to refer to this behavior.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Twink: see Munchkin. Originated in the world of MUSH/MUX/whatever.<br />
<br />
==U==<br />
<br />
;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.<br />
: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).<br />
<br />
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[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]</center><br />
<br />
[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:STU&diff=31087RPG Lexica:STU2006-09-01T14:03:34Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>==S==<br />
<br />
;Skarka's Law: This is an observation, originally attributed to now banned RPGnet poster Gareth Skarka, that, on internet messageboards, there is no subject so vile or indefensible that someone won't post positively/in defense of it.<br />
:The law is generally intended as a roundabout way of saying the person invoking the law is correct and the person the law is invoked against is an idiot.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;SLF: A german expression (SpielLeiterFicken = lit. Game Master Fucking) 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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.."<br />
<br />
<br />
;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. <br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Specialisation problem: A game balance (q.v.) problem arising in games where characters are able to specialise 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' specialised talents get used and those of other characters do not.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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".<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
: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.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Squishy Caster problem: Related to the [[RPG Lexica:DEF|Dumb Fighter problem]]. The Squishy Caster problem 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 the players' point of view as killing PCs quickly results in less fun, and increased probability of a '''Total Party Kill'''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Superheroes, types of<br />
: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.<br />
:The following are some of the more common terms:<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''Egoist''': A ''[[Hero]]'' term for a '''Mentalist''', below, since the main statistic they use in ''Hero'' is called “Ego”.<br />
*'''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.<br />
*'''Gadgeteer''': A character that relies on technical ability and machines. May be applied to characters from other genres as well.<br />
*'''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).<br />
*'''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)<br />
*'''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)<br />
*'''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.<br />
:Note that these can be combined... Batman, for example, is a Gadgeteer/Martial Artist (and, in the movies, a Suitguy... sort of).<br />
<br />
<br />
;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". <br />
:He defines it like so:<br />
::"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."<br />
::"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."<br />
:He strongly believes in a form of Gonzo journalism to make a point. The term swine was adapted from Hunter Thompsons "Generation of Swine". <br />
<br />
<br />
;Symbiote problem: A spinoff of the ''specialization problem'' that arises when a group of PCs is composed entirely of specialists, each specialised 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 tus 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.<br />
<br />
==T==<br />
<br />
;Tank: As a noun, an extremely tough character capable of taking lots of damage.<br />
: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.)<br />
:As a noun, also, any strategy for defeating an enemy that is based on resisting that enemy's attacks.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Thelma: A gamer who would go to any extreme, including commiting suicide, rather than be caught. Two of them are called ''Thelma & Louise''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;TLP: Abbrevation for '''(check for) Traps, Listen, Pick''' - the standard behaviour of a thief or rogue character when encountering an unknown door in a dungeon that the party needs to pass through.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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).<br />
<br />
<br />
;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!"<br />
<br />
<br />
;TRPG: Abbreviation for ''Tabletop Role Playing Game'' or ''Table Talk Roleplaying Game''. An alternate abbreviation used in Japan, where the abbrevation RPG is usually taken to mean CRPG.<br />
: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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
:Also, ''v.'' '''Turtling''', to refer to this behavior.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Twink: see Munchkin. Originated in the world of MUSH/MUX/whatever.<br />
<br />
==U==<br />
<br />
;"Use the force, Luke!":(movie quote) usu. spoken to someone about to try something extremely difficult or that cannot be done under normal conditions.<br />
: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).<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|Previous]]&nbsp;|&nbsp;[[RPG_Lexica:VWX|Next]]<br><br />
[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]</center><br />
<br />
[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:DEF&diff=31086RPG Lexica:DEF2006-09-01T13:56:55Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>==D==<br />
<br />
;D: Abbreviation for ''[[dice]]'', either upper or lower case. Because dice are used so frequently in [[role-playing game|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 (often 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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;D100: An example of the d- notation, but also a special case. Although 100-sided [[dice]] do exist (specifically the "Zocchihedron"), they are relatively rare (for several reasons, not the least important being that they tend to tumble for a long time, and like a golf ball tend not to be perfectly symmetrical, allowing some results to come up more frequently than others); the more common way of rolling a d100 is to roll two [[d10]]s, designating one as the tens digit and one as the units.<br />
<br />
<br />
;D20: A twenty-sided die; 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 [[player]]s 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]]. <br />
<br />
<br />
;D666: An apparent example of the d- notation, but in fact a special case; there is no such thing as a 666-sided die. The d666 system was used in the game ''[[In Nomine]]'', in which [[player]]s 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 die 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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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." <br />
:Origin: From the ''[[Dungeons & 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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Death Spiral: Any combat system in which acquiring an injury or bad die result leads to increased chances of bad die results, which increases the chance of receiving further injury, and so on, so that the character, once wounded, starts to spirals down into death. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Decker Problem: One of the most infamous published game design errors ever to exist, and also a classic example of the ''Specialization problem'' (q.v.) In two of the most well-known cyberpunk games, Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020, the rules explicitly state that only a character who is specialized at operating in cyberspace (the "virtual reality internet" common in the genre) could do anything at all within it. (Such a character is usually called a "decker" or "netrunner", thus the term.) The range of characters in both games was such that any given group would need only one decker. Both games then specified large, detailed tactical rules systems for resolving encounters in cyberspace, which - while involving and interesting in theory - were unplayable in practice, because it would be socially unacceptable to leave the other players with nothing to do while the decker's player played through them. (''Cyberpunk 2020'' made things even worse by specifying that an entire cyberspace adventure could take only a few seconds of game time - meaning that the other characters were not only unable to be involved in the cyberspace encounter, but unable to do anything at all, because in the game world they would not have had time to do so.) Generically speaking, the Decker problem could be said to be any elegant, novel and original rules solution to a problem of genre emulation, that nevertheless cannot be implemented in-game on a regular basis because it would be socially unacceptable to use it.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Deprotagonization:refers to any of a number of circumstances or behaviours that disempower player characters from taking a strong role in the development of the game world. The term refers to the idea that the players are supposed to be the "protagonists" in the story being told in the game: deprotagonization is then any process which causes them to cease being protagonists, or cease being able to act as protagonists. [[Railroading]], [[pet NPC]]s, and similar are all forms of deprotagonization, as is (arguably) [[metaplot]].<br />
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;Deus-Ex-DMing: A situation where the [[Game Master]] screws over the [[player]]s by pulling some arbitrary element the players "forgot to consider" out of his ass. Can be extended to any situation where the GM complicates the [[PC]]s' lives with something arbitrary that they haven't had to deal with until now.<br />
:Origin: [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn087.htm A particular episode] of the webcomic [http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn.htm "Full Frontal Nerdity"], by Aaron Williams.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;Ding-dong battle problem:A problem arising in any game where attacks are unlikely to hit, and thus a battle comes down to a long sequence of misses by both sides. Typically applied to systems (such as ''Tri-Stat'') which require a dice roll by the attacker to attack correctly, followed by a dice roll by the defender to see if they block the attack. In this situation a long series of blocked attacks can leave the players bored and frustrated.<br />
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;Dumb Fighter problem:A problem arising in a game where the base fighter or warrior archetype has no particular special abilities and is the easiest archetype to make a character for (especially where the prerequisite attributes for a warrior character are sufficiently low that it's almost impossible to avoid qualifying for it). The DFP is typified by original Dungeons & Dragons, wherein Fighting Man characters had very few tactical options other than to move and attack, but had the most hit points in the game and the largest weapons. Many RPGs compensate for this by allowing warriors to take special abilities not available to other characters, or in having detailed tactical maneuver systems.<br />
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;Dungeon Crawl: A style of gameplay wherein the main activity is the mapping and conquest of underground regions. Such regions are usually man-made "dungeons" wherein various different creatures make their residence with little regard to ecology, economy, or common sense. Generally a very combat-oriented type of gameplay, and thus usually a subset of [[Hack and Slash]].<br />
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==E==<br />
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;EDO: An acronym for "Elf Dwarf Orc", a label for games or [[setting]]s which wallow in the stereotypes of high fantasy established by the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and the game ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Specifically refers to the tendency of these games to always feature these three races as primary elements, even if there is no compelling reason to do so.<br />
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;Exploding Dice: The term for [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|open-ended]] rolls that may potentially give very high results; more often, a specific roll that does so. So named because the results of these die rolls are generally low, with a few slightly higher... and then a very few that are ''ridiculously'' high, usually resulting in extreme results. (see [[RPG_Lexica:ABC|critical hit]], and multiply it.)<br />
:An exploding dice result at the right time can change a game (or even a gameworld) radically. The best ones are right at the climax of an [[adventure]], to do things like destroy the villain and his plans utterly; unfortunately, Murphy's Law says you're probably going to see them at either unimportant rolls (like a simple Vision Check to spot a light on a panel), or at times when an extreme result would be bad (such as trying to knock out someone ''without'' killing them). Murphy's Law also says your opposition will get them at the absolute worst time.<br />
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==F==<br />
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;Fanon: Common fan assumptions about a particular fictional work. The line between fanon and canon is heavily blurred in an RPG, which often causes the [[metaplot]] to trample the unique combination of assumptions and play experiences which builds each individual GM's campaign world.<br />
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;Fantasy Heartbreaker: A label for a specific kind of [[RPG]], examples of which surface with regularity in the hobby. Common elements include publication by a small company or vanity press, a length of several hundred pages, a rule system with deliberately baroque aspects and an incorporated setting built from generic fantasy tropes (see '''EDO''' above). Inevitably the writers of such games are trying to approach the same assumptions used by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and improve on the systems built from them. These games are Heartbreakers because their creators have obviously put a great deal of time and effort into getting them published, but the chances of them finding a niche in a field so thoroughly dominated by the established leader is nil. The term was originated by Ron Edwards in a series of essays posted on the '''Forge''' (see below).<br />
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;Farnsworth Combat: Any combat system where injury does not cause accumulated negative effects until zero or fewer life counters (such as hit points) remain, at which point the stricken character falls over dead (or badly injured and bleeding). Derived from the ''Futurama'' episode '''When Aliens Attack''', during which Prof. Hubert Farnsworth utters the line, "Cough, then fall over dead."<br />
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;Filing Off the Serial Numbers: An expression used when a rule, [[setting]] or other element of an [[RPG]] has obviously been heavily influenced or outright copied from another design. Not so much an accusation of blatant plagiarism as a bemused observation of not having fully acknowledged one's antecedents. Derived from the method allegedly used to render stolen handguns and automobiles untraceable.<br />
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;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".<br />
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;Fishmalk: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau Portmanteau] of the words "fish" and "Malkavian", the latter being a clan of deranged undead in the game ''Vampire''. The term describes a character posessing a mental illness who uses thier derangement as a catch-all excuse for ignoring the social rules of the setting's society. At best, such characters are merely corny, but at worst they serve only as vehicles for wildly inappropriate behaviour, the player justifying every ridiculous action through said character's alleged craziness. Essentially, the player has found an excuse to do whatever they want yet can make a show of defending it as good role-playing. The term may be derived from a single infamous character, a Malkavian who either believed it rained fish or attacked people with fish.<br />
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;Flat dice: Any form of dice roll on which all results are equally likely (ie, "flat distribution"). Any roll of a single dice will be a flat roll, as will percentile rolls. Using flat dice to decide success or failure can produce rather paradoxical results. A classic example is that of two kayakers paddling down a river; one is a novice, and one is a professional. The GM decides that the characters will successfully make it down the river if the players roll over a 15 on a d20, but that the player of the kayaking professional may add +10 to their roll to represent the professional's extra skill. Although it sounds reasonable, it creates a bizarre situation: the river is so hard that a professional has a 25% chance of failing, and yet at the same time so easy that a complete beginner has a 25% chance of succeeding.<br />
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;FLGS: An abbreviation of '''Friendly Local Game Store''', referring to traditional store-based game retailers. Generally acknowledged as important to the hobby, such stores provide a visible presence, space to play and a community gathering point. They are nearly always small locally owned businesses run by individuals with a personal stake in the hobby rather than distant entrepreneurs. However, they are notoriously short-lived and poorly managed as their owners often lack adequate business training and experience. Expertly managed, prosperous '''FLGS'''s do exist, but in recent years they are continuously under threat from online booksellers who can typically undercut their prices easily due to a lack of comparable overhead.<br />
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;Fluff: Slang for the parts of a [[RPG]] book other than the rules--such as [[setting]] details, game fiction, history, et cetera. Usually contrasted with '''Crunch''', which is the actual rules.<br />
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;Foo: A "metasyntactic variable". "Foo" is used when generalizing a case or giving an example; if more than one such variable is needed, the sequence proceeds "Foo", "Bar", "Baz", "Qux". Eg, "So I've been sent by King Foo, to save Princess Bar.." Most well known for being documented in the Hacker's Dictionary, but occasionally shows up on RPGnet.<br />
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;Forge, the: [http://www.indie-rpgs.com The Forge] (originally "Hepheastus's Forge") is a discussion website for [[RPG]] [[player]]s and designers which "is dedicated to the promotion, creation, and review of independent role-playing games". It was created and is still run by Ron Edwards, author of the independant game ''[[Sorcerer]]'', 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 stimulating and inspiring, encourages the development of new ideas, and has been responsible for the development of some of the best independent RPGs avaliable. Critics claim that the discussion is over-analytical, incomprehensible to outsiders, and ultimately vacuous, and that those independent RPGs would have been developed anyway regardless of whether their authors had participated in the Forge or not.<br />
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;Freight Train (From Hell): A roll of all 6's on three or more dice, by extension of the term "boxcars" for a roll of 2 6's on 2 dice. The "From Hell" is specific to games like [[GURPS]], where a roll of all 6's is a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fumble]] or critical failure (and even more so in [[In Nomine]], where a roll of 6-6-6 on the d666 means "Infernal Intervention", i.e., the Devil himself helping his demons!)<br />
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;[foo]-Fu: Skill in [foo], 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 [foo]-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.<br />
: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.)<br />
:Usage:<br />
::GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a [[character]] this powerful at the ''starting level?''"<br />
::Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."<br />
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;Fudge<br />
#As a verb, for a [[GM]] to clandestinely modify aspects of a [[game system]], known to him and not the [[player]]s, that would otherwise be random or impartial. Thus, the GM may be said to “fudge the [[dice]]”. The term usually carries the implication of pushing things towards the players' benefit in the cause of improving the game experience for all involved. For example, ignoring a situational modifier and declaring that a [[character]] succeeded in striking a mighty blow against a protagonist during a climactic confrontation. A strict interpretation of the game's resolution method would say otherwise, but it better serves the [[drama]]tic needs of the game for the blow to be struck. <br />
#As a noun, a specific [[RPG]] written by Steffan O'Sullivan in collaboration with the newsgroup rec.games.design. Besides having a strong influence on subsequent designs, noteworthy for being the first significant “open source” RPG.<br />
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;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 (e.g. a shooter doesn't just miss but his gun jams, a lock breaker doesn't just fail to break the lock but sets off an alarm).<br />
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;Funky Dice: [[Dice]] of a form other than the regular "cubes with pips" most people think of at mention of the word dice; see '''D''' above. Since [[d4|four-sided]], [[d8|eight-sided]], [[d10|ten-sided]] and other such non-traditional randomn number generators see little use outside of the RPG hobby, they are generally only available from specialty retailers (such as a '''FLGS''') and thus the acquiring of one's first set of '''Funky Dice''' is often an early step of initiation for a beginning gamer.<br />
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;Furry<br />
#As a noun, slang term for an "anthropomorphic animal" character, i.e., a character that is obviously based on an animal, and yet has human characteristics such as intelligence and/or a bipedal stance. The classic example is the "Catgirl" that keeps cropping up in science fiction and anime. Note that, despite the term, "furries" aren't necessary furry; the term can also be applied to characters based on species without fur, such as birdmen or lizardmen.<br />
#As an adjective, something with which furries in sense 1 play a major part--for example, the [[RPG]] [[Ironclaw]] could be described as a "furry fantasy game"<br />
#Term for a fan of furries in sense 1, whether a fan of artwork featuring furries, stories about furries, games involving furries, or just the "idea" of furries. Also '''furry fandom'''.<br />
#A subculture of people who enjoy pretending to be anthropomorphic animals. Some of them wear "furry" suits to represent the fur of their animal alter ego; these people are also known as '''fursuiters'''. In gaming, it can also refer to a player who commonly plays anthromorphic animal characters.<br />
:Furries are a somewhat controversial subject, primarily because of the media's focus on the more extreme fringe elements of furry fandom, such as the (''tiny'' minority) of people who believe themselves to be "animals trapped in human bodies", or those who have fetishized furry characters to ridiculous extremes. Due to the prevalence of the [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|geek social fallacies]] in furry fandom, and the forthrightness and utter lack of pride of the aforementioned minority, these unsavory individuals are the primary public face of the furry fandom.<br />
:Much more information can be found at [http://furry.wikicities.com/ WikiFur], a relatively new community-built furry encyclopedia.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=D6&diff=29536D62006-08-08T14:14:39Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
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<div><b>d6</b> is the customary abbreviation for a six-sided [[die]]. They are shaped like cubes. In North America, outside of the hobby-gaming community, D6s are simply known as "dice."<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:ABC&diff=29535RPG Lexica:ABC2006-08-08T14:13:38Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* B */</p>
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<div>==A==<br />
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;alien eyes: Slang for a roll of 3 (1-1-1) on three dice. So named because of the analogy to "snake eyes" (a roll of 2 on 2 dice), and the observation that Earth creatures generally don't have 3 eyes... Also known as [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|mutant snake eyes]].<br />
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;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.<br />
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;ass staring defense: A response to anyone who objects to a player playing a character of the opposite sex to themselves (typically a male playing a female character) in a MMORPG. In these games, typically a large amount of play time is required to level up and the default camera viewpoint is from just behind the character; thus the defense is "If I'm going to have to spend hours staring at someone's ass, it's going to be a woman's". First coined by the webcomic [http://www.pvponline.com PVP Online]. The ass staring defense generally does not apply to races that would not ordinarily sexually appeal to human beings (like Tauren in [[World of Warcraft]]).<br />
:Addendum: [http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040601 Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]<br />
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==B==<br />
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;bad wrong fun: Illegitimate enjoyment. 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 System|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. Rifts is often cited as a "bad wrong fun" game. Often written as a single word, '''badwrongfun'''.<br />
:"Bad wrong fun" is also often used in a more light-hearted sense to indicate the gamer equivalent of a guilty pleasure. "I know it's bad wrong fun, but I loved every minute of it!"<br />
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;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 & 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. <br />
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;Bell curve: Term used in probability theory to describe a system where a middling result in most common; higher or lower values are rarer, and become rarer the higher or lower they are. Most commonly seem in role-playing games which generate random results by rolling 2 (or more) dice and adding them up: in a system based on rolling 2 d6's, for instance, there are 6 ways of rolling a 7, but only 4 ways of rolling a 9 and 1 way of rolling a 12, making these results rarer. Bell curve systems used for task resolution offer the player a more solid basis for play since they know what results their PC will commonly get, but can also cause a problem because a single point up or down the curve can make a major difference to the chance of success, thus discouraging players from trying more spectacular actions for which penalties may accrue.<br />
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;Big Bad: Short for Big Bad Evil Guy, slang for the "boss" bad guy, i.e., the person in charge of an evil plot or organization. Implies that he is much stronger, more powerful, and/or more evil than his minions, and that the PCs encounter with him will be part of the climax of the adventure or even campaign. May have originated (or been popularized) by the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] [[RPG]].<br />
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;Big Lebowski Theory of Roleplayer Types: First espoused by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums. This theory holds that the movie The Big Lebowski has many characters who resemble strongly certain types of players. There is The Dude, the guy who just shows up to hang with his buddies, and doesn't really know the rules or anything. There's Walter, the guy who always plays the fighter, argues about stats for weapons and "realism", and loudly threatens anyone who disagrees with him, fails to show up to the game on time, etc. And there's Donny, a quiet but sociable guy who migh talk more often, but Walter keeps saying, "STFU, Donny." For more evidence of how these characters are like roleplayers, see, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes quotes] from the movie. <br />
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;Blossom: This is a term usually used in mecha games where a vehicle carries a large number of guided missiles. "Blossoming" represents launching a very large number of those missiles at once. It comes from the "Death Blossom" maneuver performed by Alex Rogan and his Gunstar in the 1983 movie The Last Starfighter. Also called a "Macross," after the anime series ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross''. The visual style of animation design which involves huge numbers of guided missiles corkscrewing across the sky is known as the "Itano Circus."<br />
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;Blue Bolt: A term used to refer to when a Gamemaster causes the death of a [[Player character]] for no apparent reason. Usually includes the words "from heaven" at the tail end of the term. The most common use is when a player leaves the game permanently and the Gamemaster can't come up with a suitable reason for the PCs' departure.<br />
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;BNG: Bitter Non-Gamer. Coined by Kyle Schuant, "Jim Bob" on the fora. A facetious term describing some people who seem to dedicate large portions of their day to discussions of what is "wrong" with a roleplaying game or roleplaying games in general. The implication is that they're just griping because they can't get a game group. <br />
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;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. Also, to roll a ridiculously huge number of [[d6|six-sided dice]], or a game which requires ridiculously huge numbers of six-siders.<br />
:Origin: Possibly from the [[RPG]] ''[[Toon]]'', a game where you play cartoon [[character]]s, 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.) Sense 3 derives from the game "Boggle," in which players roll a box full of six-sided dice stamped with letters and attempt to form words from the results.<br />
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;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.<br />
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;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it. <br />
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the [[RPG]] authoress Dr. Rebecca Borgstrom, Ph.D (computer science) (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom, author of "Nobilis", "Exalted: the Fair Folk", and other works) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriguing supporting fiction that are, however, almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.<br />
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;Boss: The primary opponent in a setting or adventure; the most powerful villain, usually in charge of lesser minions, but still expected to be (eventually) encountered by the PCs, often at the climax of the adventure or campaign. Borrowed from CRPGs, where it is often used to refer to the last, most dangerous enemy to be encountered in the area, who must be defeated to "win" the area or game. See also '''Big Bad'''.<br />
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;Brick: A character who can absorb impressive amounts of damage without dying. Often referred to as a '''Tank''' if the character can also dish out similar amounts of whoop-ass.<br />
:see also [[RPG_Lexica:STU|Superheroes, Types of]]<br />
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;Broken<br />
#When applied to a game: a game system with mechanics that fail to operate as they should or as the speaker feels they should. Especially, mechanics which fail to emulate the genre in which the game is set (or the property on which the game is based, in the case of licensed games).<br />
#When applied to a character: a character whose deficiencies and flaws greatly outweigh their abilities or usefulness. Sometimes due to a player wishing to play an incompetent, but often implying that the player thinks that his role-playing is superior to the other players and is taking a useless character as a handicap. Alternately, a character who is such a pathetic figure that they are doomed (i.e. most Unknown Armies spellcasters) but entertaining to play in the short term. (See related term "[[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Gimp]]")<br />
#As a catch-all: "wrong," bad and simultaniously despised and disregarded for vague and ambiguous reasons. Compare with '''bad wrong fun''', something "wrong" and "bad" but ''liked''.<br />
#Applied to a character who has used the system and/or its loopholes to such a degree to make said character more effective than their level/points would suggest. See [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Min-Max]].<br />
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==C==<br />
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;Calling Fate:An infamous rule from ''Synnibar'', one of the officially recognized "[[Worst RPGs ever|worst RPGs ever]]". The "Calling Fate" rule allowed players to demand that GMs undo any action which did not follow the letter of the rules and/or was not planned in advance in the GMs adventure notes. Any players who "caught" the GM not following the rules or plan was rewarded with double experience points for the remainder of the game session. <br />
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;Caltrops: [[d4|Four-sided]] [[dice]], so named for their pyramidal shape which ensures that one point will face up no matter which side hits the floor. Especially noted for their tendency to get underfoot when one is heading to the bathroom, half-awake, at five in the morning after going to bed at three-thirty and suddenly remembering that one had drunk a full gallon of soda during the previous night's gaming run. In military use, caltrops are a device designed to land with a spike facing up regardless of their orientation, used to slow pursuit or flight. Police have replaced caltrops with a device called a spike strip, which improves on caltrops in that it can be activated when a fleeing vehicle crosses it and immediately deactivated to prevent damage to the tires of a civilian vehicle or pursuing cruisers. Only one game has ever been foolish enough to use caltrop dice as its main die mechanic. See also '''[[Walk of a Thousand Caltrops]]'''.<br />
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;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 would be considered camping. Camping in an [[RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactic, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' [[player]]s 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. (Camping differs from ''Turtling'' (q.v.) in that a turtle avoids any proactive action at all, whereas a camper makes a proactive decision to wait.)<br />
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;Candy Man: This term is borrowed slang from the street, where a candy man is a physician that prescribes medications as the patient's request without peroperly determining if the patient is in need of the prescription medication. In gaming, a candy man is a referee that awards gratitious amounts of experience, treasure, equipment, and magic items to the characters, which are not commensurate with the difficult of the adventure.<br />
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;Captain Teflon Psycho: Term coined by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums, to describe the stereotypical character everyone creates at least once: the character with no friends, no family, no backstory, one who cares for no-one. Typically they have no "positive" social "flaws" in a point-buy system, never choosing such as Honesty, Loyalty, Charitable, etc. Frequently they choose flaws such as Beserk and Bloodlust. <br />
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;Cat-Piss Man: Sometimes CPM, or BDCPM (for Basement-Dwelling CPM). First referred to here: [http://www.savantmag.com/16/retail16.html The Wrath of Cat Piss Man]<br />
:The CPM is a legendary figure, whether he exists or not is unknown; like Bigfoot, many claim to have seen him, but there's little proof. CPM is usually depicted as a large, hairy, sweaty guy in a trenchcoat (on the hottest of days) who stinks of cat piss, and lurks about game stores, drooling over the anime magazines and leering suggestively at any unfortunate female gamers who come into the store. Will frequently distract the store clerk with hours-long tales of his 25th level Drow Lesbian Stripper Ninja. usually assumed to be living in his parents' basement amongst empty pizza boxes and porn mags when he's 35 years old and unemployed. <br />
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;Chainmail Bikini: An utterly ridiculous and useless form of armor which is worn by female characters, even those who are supposedly experienced warriors, in a large proportion of classic fantasy art. Usually deemed to demonstrate that the inclusion of female characters is not to show the involvement of both sexes but simply to include cheesecake for male viewers and players. By extension, used as a metaphor for any stereotypical treatment of women in roleplayers or roleplaying products. This has declined substantially in recent years. This artwork trend was also the inspiration for the ''Reverse Armor Theorem''.<br />
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;Character Build System<br />
: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. ''[[GURPS]]'' and ''[[Hero]]'' are the two most well known [[RPG]]s that work this way.<br />
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;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[player character]] for use in a [[RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or '''[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]]''', depending on the [[RPG]] being used.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Cheetoism: a philosophy of gaming developed by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums.'' We game for the snacks. And also the dice. But mostly, just to hang out with friends and tell tall stories. Rpg books are just a bunch of guidelines for how to tell your tall stories, and give you a fair excuse to roll lots of dice and eat cheetos. To make your games more fun, talk to your group. In any game, it's part social, part game. For most gamers, it's social first, game second. Game first, social second - that's for people that get paid to do it. Mike Jordan never said to his coach, "but it's just a game, who cares about the rules." he took it seriously, because of money. Well, give me ten million bucks a year to roleplay, and I'll take it seriously, too.Until then, I am a Cheetoist. That's it.''<br />
<br />
<br />
;Chrome<br />
#(borrowed from hacker terminology) something beautiful but useless, such as a snazzy interface to a buggy program.<br />
#One of the "defining elements" of cyberpunk milieus; exemplifies the style-over-substance ethos often found in such worlds.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Chunky Salsa:What is said to be left of a [[character]] that has taken a massive amount of [[damage]], far more than is needed to kill them (though not quite as much as needed to turn them into a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fine red mist]]). The implication is they've taken enough damage to turn them into small chunks in a red "sauce", like chunky salsa. Classically used to describe the results of (often multiple) grenades in small enclosed spaces; the blast tends to bounce off the walls and hit whoever's in there more than once. This rule explicitly appears in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' among other games.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Class and Level: A method of '''chargen''' and [[character]] definition in which characters are primarily defined as members of specific pre-defined professions or archetypes, their “[[class]]”, and their degree of advancement along a predetermined course of improvement determined by that profession, their “[[level]]”. Class and Level was used in the original [[RPG]], ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', and thus was a standard aspect of RPG design for years before other methods were attempted.<br />
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<br />
;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 ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''; the ''[[World of Darkness]]'' book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;CP<br />
#Common abbreviation for Character Point, the most common term used to describe the 'points' used in games where the character creation system is freeform based on character points.<br />
#Short for Cyberpunk.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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. <br />
: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'', sometimes to ''crit hit'' or just ''crit''.<br />
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<br />
;CRPG: '''C'''omputer (or '''C'''onsole) '''R'''ole '''P'''laying '''G'''ame. A computer adventure game with storytelling aspects. Notably different from tabletop RPGs in that there tends to be minimal interactivity with the plot, even to the point where in some games (especially in console RPGs) the player has no control over the creation of even a single character. Some games, most notably [[Neverwinter Nights]], have attempted to buck this trend, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes pronounced "''crappage''," a use some gamers claim is very appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Crunch<br />
#Slang term for the sections of a [[RPG]]'s rulebook that deal with the actual rules, as opposed to '''Fluff''' (q.v.), which is everything else. Also called '''Crunchy bits'''.<br />
#Slang for the relative complexity of a particular ruleset. A '''crunchy''' ruleset is more complex.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
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<center>[[RPG_Lexica:DEF|Next]]<br><br />
[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]</center><br />
<br />
[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:ABC&diff=29534RPG Lexica:ABC2006-08-08T14:11:29Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* B */</p>
<hr />
<div>==A==<br />
<br />
;alien eyes: Slang for a roll of 3 (1-1-1) on three dice. So named because of the analogy to "snake eyes" (a roll of 2 on 2 dice), and the observation that Earth creatures generally don't have 3 eyes... Also known as [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|mutant snake eyes]].<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
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<br />
;ass staring defense: A response to anyone who objects to a player playing a character of the opposite sex to themselves (typically a male playing a female character) in a MMORPG. In these games, typically a large amount of play time is required to level up and the default camera viewpoint is from just behind the character; thus the defense is "If I'm going to have to spend hours staring at someone's ass, it's going to be a woman's". First coined by the webcomic [http://www.pvponline.com PVP Online]. The ass staring defense generally does not apply to races that would not ordinarily sexually appeal to human beings (like Tauren in [[World of Warcraft]]).<br />
:Addendum: [http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040601 Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]<br />
<br />
==B==<br />
<br />
;bad wrong fun: Illegitimate enjoyment. 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 System|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. Rifts is often cited as a "bad wrong fun" game. Often written as a single word, '''badwrongfun'''.<br />
:"Bad wrong fun" is also often used in a more light-hearted sense to indicate the gamer equivalent of a guilty pleasure. "I know it's bad wrong fun, but I loved every minute of it!"<br />
<br />
<br />
;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 & 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. <br />
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<br />
;Bell curve: Term used in probability theory to describe a system where a middling result in most common; higher or lower values are rarer, and become rarer the higher or lower they are. Most commonly seem in role-playing games which generate random results by rolling 2 (or more) dice and adding them up: in a system based on rolling 2 d6's, for instance, there are 6 ways of rolling a 7, but only 4 ways of rolling a 9 and 1 way of rolling a 12, making these results rarer. Bell curve systems used for task resolution offer the player a more solid basis for play since they know what results their PC will commonly get, but can also cause a problem because a single point up or down the curve can make a major difference to the chance of success, thus discouraging players from trying more spectacular actions for which penalties may accrue.<br />
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<br />
;Big Bad: Short for Big Bad Evil Guy, slang for the "boss" bad guy, i.e., the person in charge of an evil plot or organization. Implies that he is much stronger, more powerful, and/or more evil than his minions, and that the PCs encounter with him will be part of the climax of the adventure or even campaign. May have originated (or been popularized) by the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] [[RPG]].<br />
<br />
<br />
;Big Lebowski Theory of Roleplayer Types: First espoused by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums. This theory holds that the movie The Big Lebowski has many characters who resemble strongly certain types of players. There is The Dude, the guy who just shows up to hang with his buddies, and doesn't really know the rules or anything. There's Walter, the guy who always plays the fighter, argues about stats for weapons and "realism", and loudly threatens anyone who disagrees with him, fails to show up to the game on time, etc. And there's Donny, a quiet but sociable guy who migh talk more often, but Walter keeps saying, "STFU, Donny." For more evidence of how these characters are like roleplayers, see, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes quotes] from the movie. <br />
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<br />
;Blossom: This is a term usually used in mecha games where a vehicle carries a large number of guided missiles. "Blossoming" represents launching a very large number of those missiles at once. It comes from the "Death Blossom" maneuver performed by Alex Rogan and his Gunstar in the 1983 movie The Last Starfighter. Also called a "Macross," after the anime series ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross''. The visual style of animation design which involves huge numbers of guided missiles corkscrewing across the sky is known as the "Itano Circus."<br />
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<br />
;Blue Bolt: A term used to refer to when a Gamemaster causes the death of a [[Player character]] for no apparent reason. Usually includes the words "from heaven" at the tail end of the term. The most common use is when a player leaves the game permanently and the Gamemaster can't come up with a suitable reason for the PCs' departure.<br />
<br />
<br />
;BNG: Bitter Non-Gamer. Coined by Kyle Schuant, "Jim Bob" on the fora. A facetious term describing some people who seem to dedicate large portions of their day to discussions of what is "wrong" with a roleplaying game or roleplaying games in general. The implication is that they're just griping because they can't get a game group. <br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
:Origin: Possibly from the [[RPG]] ''[[Toon]]'', a game where you play cartoon [[character]]s, 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.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
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<br />
;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it. <br />
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the [[RPG]] authoress Dr. Rebecca Borgstrom, Ph.D (computer science) (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom, author of "Nobilis", "Exalted: the Fair Folk", and other works) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriguing supporting fiction that are, however, almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Boss: The primary opponent in a setting or adventure; the most powerful villain, usually in charge of lesser minions, but still expected to be (eventually) encountered by the PCs, often at the climax of the adventure or campaign. Borrowed from CRPGs, where it is often used to refer to the last, most dangerous enemy to be encountered in the area, who must be defeated to "win" the area or game. See also '''Big Bad'''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Brick: A character who can absorb impressive amounts of damage without dying. Often referred to as a '''Tank''' if the character can also dish out similar amounts of whoop-ass.<br />
:see also [[RPG_Lexica:STU|Superheroes, Types of]]<br />
<br />
<br />
;Broken<br />
#When applied to a game: a game system with mechanics that fail to operate as they should or as the speaker feels they should. Especially, mechanics which fail to emulate the genre in which the game is set (or the property on which the game is based, in the case of licensed games).<br />
#When applied to a character: a character whose deficiencies and flaws greatly outweigh their abilities or usefulness. Sometimes due to a player wishing to play an incompetent, but often implying that the player thinks that his role-playing is superior to the other players and is taking a useless character as a handicap. Alternately, a character who is such a pathetic figure that they are doomed (i.e. most Unknown Armies spellcasters) but entertaining to play in the short term. (See related term "[[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Gimp]]")<br />
#As a catch-all: "wrong," bad and simultaniously despised and disregarded for vague and ambiguous reasons. Compare with '''bad wrong fun''', something "wrong" and "bad" but ''liked''.<br />
#Applied to a character who has used the system and/or its loopholes to such a degree to make said character more effective than their level/points would suggest. See [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Min-Max]].<br />
<br />
==C==<br />
<br />
;Calling Fate:An infamous rule from ''Synnibar'', one of the officially recognized "[[Worst RPGs ever|worst RPGs ever]]". The "Calling Fate" rule allowed players to demand that GMs undo any action which did not follow the letter of the rules and/or was not planned in advance in the GMs adventure notes. Any players who "caught" the GM not following the rules or plan was rewarded with double experience points for the remainder of the game session. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Caltrops: [[d4|Four-sided]] [[dice]], so named for their pyramidal shape which ensures that one point will face up no matter which side hits the floor. Especially noted for their tendency to get underfoot when one is heading to the bathroom, half-awake, at five in the morning after going to bed at three-thirty and suddenly remembering that one had drunk a full gallon of soda during the previous night's gaming run. In military use, caltrops are a device designed to land with a spike facing up regardless of their orientation, used to slow pursuit or flight. Police have replaced caltrops with a device called a spike strip, which improves on caltrops in that it can be activated when a fleeing vehicle crosses it and immediately deactivated to prevent damage to the tires of a civilian vehicle or pursuing cruisers. Only one game has ever been foolish enough to use caltrop dice as its main die mechanic. See also '''[[Walk of a Thousand Caltrops]]'''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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 would be considered camping. Camping in an [[RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactic, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' [[player]]s 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. (Camping differs from ''Turtling'' (q.v.) in that a turtle avoids any proactive action at all, whereas a camper makes a proactive decision to wait.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Candy Man: This term is borrowed slang from the street, where a candy man is a physician that prescribes medications as the patient's request without peroperly determining if the patient is in need of the prescription medication. In gaming, a candy man is a referee that awards gratitious amounts of experience, treasure, equipment, and magic items to the characters, which are not commensurate with the difficult of the adventure.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Captain Teflon Psycho: Term coined by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums, to describe the stereotypical character everyone creates at least once: the character with no friends, no family, no backstory, one who cares for no-one. Typically they have no "positive" social "flaws" in a point-buy system, never choosing such as Honesty, Loyalty, Charitable, etc. Frequently they choose flaws such as Beserk and Bloodlust. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Cat-Piss Man: Sometimes CPM, or BDCPM (for Basement-Dwelling CPM). First referred to here: [http://www.savantmag.com/16/retail16.html The Wrath of Cat Piss Man]<br />
:The CPM is a legendary figure, whether he exists or not is unknown; like Bigfoot, many claim to have seen him, but there's little proof. CPM is usually depicted as a large, hairy, sweaty guy in a trenchcoat (on the hottest of days) who stinks of cat piss, and lurks about game stores, drooling over the anime magazines and leering suggestively at any unfortunate female gamers who come into the store. Will frequently distract the store clerk with hours-long tales of his 25th level Drow Lesbian Stripper Ninja. usually assumed to be living in his parents' basement amongst empty pizza boxes and porn mags when he's 35 years old and unemployed. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Chainmail Bikini: An utterly ridiculous and useless form of armor which is worn by female characters, even those who are supposedly experienced warriors, in a large proportion of classic fantasy art. Usually deemed to demonstrate that the inclusion of female characters is not to show the involvement of both sexes but simply to include cheesecake for male viewers and players. By extension, used as a metaphor for any stereotypical treatment of women in roleplayers or roleplaying products. This has declined substantially in recent years. This artwork trend was also the inspiration for the ''Reverse Armor Theorem''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Character Build System<br />
: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. ''[[GURPS]]'' and ''[[Hero]]'' are the two most well known [[RPG]]s that work this way.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[player character]] for use in a [[RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or '''[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]]''', depending on the [[RPG]] being used.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Cheetoism: a philosophy of gaming developed by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums.'' We game for the snacks. And also the dice. But mostly, just to hang out with friends and tell tall stories. Rpg books are just a bunch of guidelines for how to tell your tall stories, and give you a fair excuse to roll lots of dice and eat cheetos. To make your games more fun, talk to your group. In any game, it's part social, part game. For most gamers, it's social first, game second. Game first, social second - that's for people that get paid to do it. Mike Jordan never said to his coach, "but it's just a game, who cares about the rules." he took it seriously, because of money. Well, give me ten million bucks a year to roleplay, and I'll take it seriously, too.Until then, I am a Cheetoist. That's it.''<br />
<br />
<br />
;Chrome<br />
#(borrowed from hacker terminology) something beautiful but useless, such as a snazzy interface to a buggy program.<br />
#One of the "defining elements" of cyberpunk milieus; exemplifies the style-over-substance ethos often found in such worlds.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Chunky Salsa:What is said to be left of a [[character]] that has taken a massive amount of [[damage]], far more than is needed to kill them (though not quite as much as needed to turn them into a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fine red mist]]). The implication is they've taken enough damage to turn them into small chunks in a red "sauce", like chunky salsa. Classically used to describe the results of (often multiple) grenades in small enclosed spaces; the blast tends to bounce off the walls and hit whoever's in there more than once. This rule explicitly appears in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' among other games.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Class and Level: A method of '''chargen''' and [[character]] definition in which characters are primarily defined as members of specific pre-defined professions or archetypes, their “[[class]]”, and their degree of advancement along a predetermined course of improvement determined by that profession, their “[[level]]”. Class and Level was used in the original [[RPG]], ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', and thus was a standard aspect of RPG design for years before other methods were attempted.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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 ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''; the ''[[World of Darkness]]'' book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;CP<br />
#Common abbreviation for Character Point, the most common term used to describe the 'points' used in games where the character creation system is freeform based on character points.<br />
#Short for Cyberpunk.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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. <br />
: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'', sometimes to ''crit hit'' or just ''crit''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;CRPG: '''C'''omputer (or '''C'''onsole) '''R'''ole '''P'''laying '''G'''ame. A computer adventure game with storytelling aspects. Notably different from tabletop RPGs in that there tends to be minimal interactivity with the plot, even to the point where in some games (especially in console RPGs) the player has no control over the creation of even a single character. Some games, most notably [[Neverwinter Nights]], have attempted to buck this trend, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes pronounced "''crappage''," a use some gamers claim is very appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Crunch<br />
#Slang term for the sections of a [[RPG]]'s rulebook that deal with the actual rules, as opposed to '''Fluff''' (q.v.), which is everything else. Also called '''Crunchy bits'''.<br />
#Slang for the relative complexity of a particular ruleset. A '''crunchy''' ruleset is more complex.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>[[RPG_Lexica:DEF|Next]]<br><br />
[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to the main Lexicon page]]</center><br />
<br />
[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=29533User:Iceberg3k2006-08-08T14:09:00Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>I am playing in: [[Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil]], Wednesday evenings at The Source.<br />
<br />
I am running: [[Red Hand of Doom]], Saturday evenings at a private location.<br />
<br />
==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
<br />
==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 60 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Shardracona||<br />
|-}<br />
<br />
My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 7:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.<br />
<br />
I am currently not subscribed to City of Heroes.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=29532User:Iceberg3k2006-08-08T14:08:41Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>I am playing in: [[Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil]], Wednesday evenings at The Source.<br />
<br />
I am running: [[Red Hand of Doom]], Saturday evenings at a private location.<br />
<br />
==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
<br />
==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 60 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Shardracona|-}<br />
<br />
My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 7:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.<br />
<br />
I am currently not subscribed to City of Heroes.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29531Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T14:07:39Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* June, 447 */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
* June 30: The Horde appears to have decamped from Drellin's Ferry after a difficult passage through the town. Rivers of Hobgoblins are crossing the Elsir as we write, and we may not have very much longer to observe. We are sending this report back to Brindol via pigeon, and pray that Pelor will grant us safe passage home.<br />
(EDITORS: It is with sad resolve that we note that the remains of our war correspondents, Res Bourdin and Amanth Car'sall, were found on July 2. We urge that the citizens of our Vale may find safety during this war, and hope for ultimate victory against the ravening Horde).<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
* July 2: Weather seers predict clouds, with rain possible for the next week. Temperatures will be hot. We pray that the heat and rain will slow the Red Hand.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29530Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T14:07:10Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* News */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
* June 30: The Horde appears to have decamped from Drellin's Ferry after a difficult passage through the town. Rivers of Hobgoblins are crossing the Elsir as we write, and we may not have very much longer to observe. We are sending this report back to Brindol via pigeon, and pray that Pelor will grant us safe passage home.<br />
(EDITORS: It is with sad resolve that we note that the remains of our war correspondents, Res Bourdin and Amanth Car'sall, were found on July 2. We pray that the citizens of our Vale may find safety during this war, and for ultimate victory against the ravening Horde).<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
* July 2: Weather seers predict clouds, with rain possible for the next week. Temperatures will be hot. We pray that the heat and rain will slow the Red Hand.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29529Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T14:04:39Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* June, 447 */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
* June 30: The Horde appears to have decamped from Drellin's Ferry after a difficult passage through the town. Rivers of Hobgoblins are crossing the Elsir as we write, and we may not have very much longer to observe. We are sending this report back to Brindol via pigeon, and pray that Pelor will grant us safe passage home.<br />
(EDITORS: It is with sad resolve that we note that the remains of our field reporters, Res Bourdin and Amanth Car'sall, were found on July 2).<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
* July 2: Weather seers predict clouds, with rain possible for the next week. Temperatures will be hot. We pray that the heat and rain will slow the Red Hand.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29528Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T13:39:40Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
* July 2: Weather seers predict clouds, with rain possible for the next week. Temperatures will be hot. We pray that the heat and rain will slow the Red Hand.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29527Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T13:39:30Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
July 2: Weather seers predict clouds, with rain possible for the next week. Temperatures will be hot. We pray that the heat and rain will slow the Red Hand.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29526Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T13:34:40Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
<br />
===July, 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29525Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T13:33:31Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, Crown Year 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
<br />
===July, Crown Year 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=29524Red Hand of Doom2006-08-08T13:32:37Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* News */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net (when I actually get around to writing it).<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Caelnae''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Ehlonna)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage of Yondalla 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
===June, Crown Year 447===<br />
* June 13: Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
* June 23: As the Horde of the Red Hand continues to march eastward across the Vale, streams of refugees arrive at Brindol and points further east.<br />
* June 25: Scouts report Drellin's Ferry ablaze. The Red Hand has struck. Word indicates Councilman Iormel's corpse dangling from a banner of the Red Hand.<br />
<br />
===July, Crown Year 447===<br />
* July 1: Early Horde scouts seen at the border of Terrelton. The heroes of Drellin's Ferry have been seen fighting for the Terrelians, holding off the Horde as the town empties. Could these brave men and women be the hope of our vale?<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:ABC&diff=29354RPG Lexica:ABC2006-08-05T00:31:42Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* B */</p>
<hr />
<div>==A==<br />
<br />
;alien eyes: Slang for a roll of 3 (1-1-1) on three dice. So named because of the analogy to "snake eyes" (a roll of 2 on 2 dice), and the observation that Earth creatures generally don't have 3 eyes... Also known as [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|mutant snake eyes]].<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;ass staring defense: A response to anyone who objects to a player playing a character of the opposite sex to themselves (typically a male playing a female character) in a MMORPG. In these games, typically a large amount of play time is required to level up and the default camera viewpoint is from just behind the character; thus the defense is "If I'm going to have to spend hours staring at someone's ass, it's going to be a woman's". First coined by the webcomic [http://www.pvponline.com PVP Online]. The ass staring defense generally does not apply to races that would not ordinarily sexually appeal to human beings (like Tauren in [[World of Warcraft]]).<br />
:Addendum: [http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040601 Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]<br />
<br />
==B==<br />
<br />
;bad wrong fun: Illegitimate enjoyment. 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 System|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. Rifts is often cited as a "bad wrong fun" game. Often written as a single word, '''badwrongfun'''.<br />
:"Bad wrong fun" is also often used in a more light-hearted sense to indicate the gamer equivalent of a guilty pleasure. "I know it's bad wrong fun, but I loved every minute of it!"<br />
<br />
<br />
;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 & 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. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Bell curve: Term used in probability theory to describe a system where a middling result in most common; higher or lower values are rarer, and become rarer the higher or lower they are. Most commonly seem in role-playing games which generate random results by rolling 2 (or more) dice and adding them up: in a system based on rolling 2 d6's, for instance, there are 6 ways of rolling a 7, but only 4 ways of rolling a 9 and 1 way of rolling a 12, making these results rarer. Bell curve systems used for task resolution offer the player a more solid basis for play since they know what results their PC will commonly get, but can also cause a problem because a single point up or down the curve can make a major difference to the chance of success, thus discouraging players from trying more spectacular actions for which penalties may accrue.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Big Bad: Short for Big Bad Evil Guy, slang for the "boss" bad guy, i.e., the person in charge of an evil plot or organization. Implies that he is much stronger, more powerful, and/or more evil than his minions, and that the PCs encounter with him will be part of the climax of the adventure or even campaign. May have originated (or been popularized) by the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] [[RPG]].<br />
<br />
<br />
;Big Lebowski Theory of Roleplayer Types: First espoused by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums. This theory holds that the movie The Big Lebowski has many characters who resemble strongly certain types of players. There is The Dude, the guy who just shows up to hang with his buddies, and doesn't really know the rules or anything. There's Walter, the guy who always plays the fighter, argues about stats for weapons and "realism", and loudly threatens anyone who disagrees with him, fails to show up to the game on time, etc. And there's Donny, a quiet but sociable guy who migh talk more often, but Walter keeps saying, "STFU, Donny." For more evidence of how these characters are like roleplayers, see, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes quotes] from the movie. <br />
<br />
<br />
;Blossom: This is a term usually used in mecha games where a vehicle carries a large number of guided missiles. "Blossoming" represents launching a very large number of those missiles at once. It comes from the "Death Blossom" maneuver performed by Alex Rogan and his Gunstar in the 1983 movie The Last Starfighter. Also called a "Macross," after the anime series ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross''. The visual style of animation design which involves huge numbers of guided missiles corkscrewing across the sky is known as the "Itano Circus."<br />
<br />
<br />
;Blue Bolt: A term used to refer to when a Gamemaster causes the death of a [[Player character]] for no apparent reason. Usually includes the words "from heaven" at the tail end of the term. The most common use is when a player leaves the game permanently and the Gamemaster can't come up with a suitable reason for the PCs' departure.<br />
<br />
<br />
;BNG: Bitter Non-Gamer. Coined by Kyle Schuant, "Jim Bob" on the fora. A facetious term describing some people who seem to dedicate large portions of their day to discussions of what is "wrong" with a roleplaying game or roleplaying games in general. The implication is that they're just griping because they can't get a game group. <br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
:Origin: Possibly from the [[RPG]] ''[[Toon]]'', a game where you play cartoon [[character]]s, 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.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
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<br />
;Borgstromancy: The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it. <br />
:Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the [[RPG]] authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom, author of "Nobilis", "Exalted: the Fair Folk", and other works) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriguing supporting fiction that are, however, almost impossible to understand well enough to actually ''play''.<br />
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;Boss: The primary opponent in a setting or adventure; the most powerful villain, usually in charge of lesser minions, but still expected to be (eventually) encountered by the PCs, often at the climax of the adventure or campaign. Borrowed from CRPGs, where it is often used to refer to the last, most dangerous enemy to be encountered in the area, who must be defeated to "win" the area or game. See also '''Big Bad'''.<br />
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;Brick: A character who can absorb impressive amounts of damage without dying. Often referred to as a '''Tank''' if the character can also dish out similar amounts of whoop-ass.<br />
:see also [[RPG_Lexica:STU|Superheroes, Types of]]<br />
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;Broken<br />
#When applied to a game: a game system with mechanics that fail to operate as they should or as the speaker feels they should. Especially, mechanics which fail to emulate the genre in which the game is set (or the property on which the game is based, in the case of licensed games).<br />
#When applied to a character: a character whose deficiencies and flaws greatly outweigh their abilities or usefulness. Sometimes due to a player wishing to play an incompetent, but often implying that the player thinks that his role-playing is superior to the other players and is taking a useless character as a handicap. Alternately, a character who is such a pathetic figure that they are doomed (i.e. most Unknown Armies spellcasters) but entertaining to play in the short term. (See related term "[[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Gimp]]")<br />
#As a catch-all: "wrong," bad and simultaniously despised and disregarded for vague and ambiguous reasons. Compare with '''bad wrong fun''', something "wrong" and "bad" but ''liked''.<br />
#Applied to a character who has used the system and/or its loopholes to such a degree to make said character more effective than their level/points would suggest. See [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Min-Max]].<br />
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==C==<br />
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;Calling Fate:An infamous rule from ''Synnibar'', one of the officially recognized "[[Worst RPGs ever|worst RPGs ever]]". The "Calling Fate" rule allowed players to demand that GMs undo any action which did not follow the letter of the rules and/or was not planned in advance in the GMs adventure notes. Any players who "caught" the GM not following the rules or plan was rewarded with double experience points for the remainder of the game session. <br />
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;Caltrops: [[d4|Four-sided]] [[dice]], so named for their pyramidal shape which ensures that one point will face up no matter which side hits the floor. Especially noted for their tendency to get underfoot when one is heading to the bathroom, half-awake, at five in the morning after going to bed at three-thirty and suddenly remembering that one had drunk a full gallon of soda during the previous night's gaming run. In military use, caltrops are a device designed to land with a spike facing up regardless of their orientation, used to slow pursuit or flight. Police have replaced caltrops with a device called a spike strip, which improves on caltrops in that it can be activated when a fleeing vehicle crosses it and immediately deactivated to prevent damage to the tires of a civilian vehicle or pursuing cruisers. Only one game has ever been foolish enough to use caltrop dice as its main die mechanic. See also '''[[Walk of a Thousand Caltrops]]'''.<br />
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;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 would be considered camping. Camping in an [[RPG]] is usually an acceptable tactic, but in many competitive board or war games it is considered unfair, because if ''all'' [[player]]s 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. (Camping differs from ''Turtling'' (q.v.) in that a turtle avoids any proactive action at all, whereas a camper makes a proactive decision to wait.)<br />
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;Candy Man: This term is borrowed slang from the street, where a candy man is a physician that prescribes medications as the patient's request without peroperly determining if the patient is in need of the prescription medication. In gaming, a candy man is a referee that awards gratitious amounts of experience, treasure, equipment, and magic items to the characters, which are not commensurate with the difficult of the adventure.<br />
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;Captain Teflon Psycho: Term coined by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums, to describe the stereotypical character everyone creates at least once: the character with no friends, no family, no backstory, one who cares for no-one. Typically they have no "positive" social "flaws" in a point-buy system, never choosing such as Honesty, Loyalty, Charitable, etc. Frequently they choose flaws such as Beserk and Bloodlust. <br />
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;Cat-Piss Man: Sometimes CPM, or BDCPM (for Basement-Dwelling CPM). First referred to here: [http://www.savantmag.com/16/retail16.html The Wrath of Cat Piss Man]<br />
:The CPM is a legendary figure, whether he exists or not is unknown; like Bigfoot, many claim to have seen him, but there's little proof. CPM is usually depicted as a large, hairy, sweaty guy in a trenchcoat (on the hottest of days) who stinks of cat piss, and lurks about game stores, drooling over the anime magazines and leering suggestively at any unfortunate female gamers who come into the store. Will frequently distract the store clerk with hours-long tales of his 25th level Drow Lesbian Stripper Ninja. usually assumed to be living in his parents' basement amongst empty pizza boxes and porn mags when he's 35 years old and unemployed. <br />
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;Chainmail Bikini: An utterly ridiculous and useless form of armor which is worn by female characters, even those who are supposedly experienced warriors, in a large proportion of classic fantasy art. Usually deemed to demonstrate that the inclusion of female characters is not to show the involvement of both sexes but simply to include cheesecake for male viewers and players. By extension, used as a metaphor for any stereotypical treatment of women in roleplayers or roleplaying products. This has declined substantially in recent years. This artwork trend was also the inspiration for the ''Reverse Armor Theorem''.<br />
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;Character Build System<br />
: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. ''[[GURPS]]'' and ''[[Hero]]'' are the two most well known [[RPG]]s that work this way.<br />
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;Chargen: short for ''character generation'', the process of creating a [[player character]] for use in a [[RPG]]. Usually one of two methods: '''character build''' or '''[[RPG_Lexica:PQR|random-roll]]''', depending on the [[RPG]] being used.<br />
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;Cheetoism: a philosophy of gaming developed by Kyle Schuant, aka Jim Bob on the forums.'' We game for the snacks. And also the dice. But mostly, just to hang out with friends and tell tall stories. Rpg books are just a bunch of guidelines for how to tell your tall stories, and give you a fair excuse to roll lots of dice and eat cheetos. To make your games more fun, talk to your group. In any game, it's part social, part game. For most gamers, it's social first, game second. Game first, social second - that's for people that get paid to do it. Mike Jordan never said to his coach, "but it's just a game, who cares about the rules." he took it seriously, because of money. Well, give me ten million bucks a year to roleplay, and I'll take it seriously, too.Until then, I am a Cheetoist. That's it.''<br />
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;Chrome<br />
#(borrowed from hacker terminology) something beautiful but useless, such as a snazzy interface to a buggy program.<br />
#One of the "defining elements" of cyberpunk milieus; exemplifies the style-over-substance ethos often found in such worlds.<br />
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;Chunky Salsa:What is said to be left of a [[character]] that has taken a massive amount of [[damage]], far more than is needed to kill them (though not quite as much as needed to turn them into a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fine red mist]]). The implication is they've taken enough damage to turn them into small chunks in a red "sauce", like chunky salsa. Classically used to describe the results of (often multiple) grenades in small enclosed spaces; the blast tends to bounce off the walls and hit whoever's in there more than once. This rule explicitly appears in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' among other games.<br />
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;Class and Level: A method of '''chargen''' and [[character]] definition in which characters are primarily defined as members of specific pre-defined professions or archetypes, their “[[class]]”, and their degree of advancement along a predetermined course of improvement determined by that profession, their “[[level]]”. Class and Level was used in the original [[RPG]], ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', and thus was a standard aspect of RPG design for years before other methods were attempted.<br />
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;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 ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''; the ''[[World of Darkness]]'' book and the Vampire book are the corebooks for ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.<br />
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;CP<br />
#Common abbreviation for Character Point, the most common term used to describe the 'points' used in games where the character creation system is freeform based on character points.<br />
#Short for Cyberpunk.<br />
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;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. <br />
: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'', sometimes to ''crit hit'' or just ''crit''.<br />
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;CRPG: '''C'''omputer (or '''C'''onsole) '''R'''ole '''P'''laying '''G'''ame. A computer adventure game with storytelling aspects. Notably different from tabletop RPGs in that there tends to be minimal interactivity with the plot, even to the point where in some games (especially in console RPGs) the player has no control over the creation of even a single character. Some games, most notably [[Neverwinter Nights]], have attempted to buck this trend, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes pronounced "''crappage''," a use some gamers claim is very appropriate.<br />
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;Crunch<br />
#Slang term for the sections of a [[RPG]]'s rulebook that deal with the actual rules, as opposed to '''Fluff''' (q.v.), which is everything else. Also called '''Crunchy bits'''.<br />
#Slang for the relative complexity of a particular ruleset. A '''crunchy''' ruleset is more complex.<br />
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;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.<br />
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<center>[[RPG_Lexica:DEF|Next]]<br><br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:GHI&diff=29350RPG Lexica:GHI2006-08-05T00:26:08Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* G */</p>
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<div>==G==<br />
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;Game Balance: A catch-all term for a range of different properties which are considered desirable in a game system, related to ensuring that the game exhibits fairness and scope for creativity. Typically, these will include ensuring that each player is able to contribute an equal amount to the game (the ''Decker problem'' is an example of a failure of this); ensuring that encounters are difficult enough to be challenging but not overwhelming; ensuring that no particular game ability is necessary for every character; and similar.<br />
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;Game That Must Not Be Named, The: The role-playing game FATAL. The "...Not Be Named" label was possibly coined by Kyle Schuant, a/k/a "JimBob" on the RPG.net fora. The wordy phrase is often abbreviated to '''TGTMNBN'''. FATAL itself stood for "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery" in the game's first edition, but was subsequently changed to "From Another Time, Another Land". FATAL "Must Not be Named" because of two inter-related reasons. First, because mentioning this game on certain web sites all but guarantees the start of a flame war about it, possibly including vigorous and verbally agressive defense from the game's authors. Second, because by most standards of basic game design and even social decency the game is truly, truly awful. It is not just poorly conceived and written, but outright offensive.<br />
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:The most infamous and prevelant form of objectionable material is FATAL's bizarre and juvenile sexual content. For instance, character creation includes the calculation of statistics such as "Areola Size", "Vaginal Circumference Potential", and "Hymen Resistance". Worse, the game blithely condones rape as a character activity and contains many other instances of blatant misogyny, not to mention casual racism. Of secondary concern is the monsterously overcomplicated rules system, which requires unwieldy dice rolls, convoluted mathematical formula and tables for everything the designer could conceivably make one for, many of which are bizarre, such as the infamous Magical Fumbles Table and, again, sexually obsessive, such as a formula for increased penile penetration during a certain position of intercourse. <br />
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:If such a thing is possible, FATAL generated further controversy via the infamous [http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/fatal.html "S&M" review]: the long, extensive, profanity-strewn (and, in its own way, screamingly funny) RPG.net review by Darren MacLennan and Jason Sartin in which they basically rip the game a new one. Two of the authors of FATAL--Byron Hall, the primary author and editor, and "Burnout"--wrote a rebuttal to the review, and posted it on the web; a copy of this [[FATALReviewRebuttal|"Childish Review and Author's Defense of F.A.T.A.L."]] is saved on this Wiki.<br />
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;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 [[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]].<br />
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;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: [http://www.geocities.com/rpgsig/articles/gazebo.html ''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 [[player]]s - 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.<br />
:By extension, may also be used to refer to a part of a description that does ''not'' have any in-game effect, to differentiate it from those that do (i.e., what the mention of the gazebo ''should'' have been). Usage: "Should we ask the priests if they can help us against those 'spooky shadows' we saw?" "Naah, I think it was just a gazebo."<br />
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;Get Medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''<br />
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;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 [[character]]s 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]].<br />
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;Geek Anime theory: A theory presented in an essay by Michael Suileabhain-Wilson. It claims that a high proportion of the popularity of "high school drama" Anime series in countries outside Japan comes from the fact that the percieved dissocation of the Japanese and Western cultures prevents viewers from losing sympathy with characters based on their own high school experiences.<br />
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;Geek social fallacies: A list of five fallacies, originally presented in an essay by Michael Suileabhain-Wilson, supposedly indicating classic social errors made by "geek" types. The five geek social fallacies are a) that nobody, friend or otherwise, must be excluded or ostracised from anything; b) that friends may never criticise friends; c) that friends must put their friendship above all else; d) that a friend of a friend is a friend; and e) that friends must involve friends in all activities they do.<br />
:A copy of the original article is [http://sean.chittenden.org/humor/www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html here].<br />
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;G.I. Joe Rule: A rule in Palladiumbooks' Rifts Ultimate Edition RPG which states the last bit of armor worn by a character can stop any amount of incoming damage. This means a character with 1 point of tatterred armor remaining can be struck by a nuclear bomb inflicting thousands of points of damage, yet the character will remain unharmed as the last bit of armor absorbs all of the attack.<br />
:This rule is called the "G.I. Joe Rule" after the 80's cartoon G.I. Joe where characters would always be seen ejecting unharmed from destroyed vehicles and characters remained completely unscathed amidst a hail of gunfire.<br />
:Any RPG rule concocted in such a way as to prevent character harm under any circumstance, especially by bending reality to allow average humans to sustain hits by weapons of mass destruction, can be said to be a "G.I. Joe Rule."<br />
:This term was coined by Gabriel (me!)<br />
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;Gimp<br />
#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 ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': 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.<br />
#As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods. <br />
#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 [[GM]]s have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.<br />
#To advance a skill which provides less benefit than an alternative choice would have provided. This usage comes primarily from MMORPGs; stats and skills are frequently analyzed in great detail and the optimum configuration at maximum level for a particular role is well-known. To deviate from this "min-maxed" template is to gimp your character, and the amount of deviance is the degree to which your character is said to be gimped.<br />
: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.<br />
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;Glass ninja problem:An issue with games where attack damage is based on degree of success and dodging is an all or nothing defense based on rolling over the attack's degree of success. This means that dodge-happy characters (ninjas) cannot suffer glancing blows or flesh wounds since any attack being good enough to beat their dodge score necessarily has a high enough degree of success that it cripples the ninja. Most modern games avoid this problem by having dodging reduce the attackers degree of success even if it doesn't allow them to avoid the attack completely.<br />
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;GMPC<br />
:'''G'''ame '''M'''aster [[player character|'''PC''']]<br />
#An [[NPC]] that's basically an avatar of the [[GM]] running the game. Can be acceptable and even helpful if his "divine favor" is toned down and/or used in moderation, but more often becomes something like #2:<br />
#Derogatory term for an 'uber' NPC, one who's abilities and assistance overshadow the [[PC]]s, who is still supposedly on the PCs 'side', but manages to dominate the game because of his "divine favor".<br />
:Note: By "divine favor" I mean things like: die rolls being adjusted in his favor, access to the setting's "bigwigs", absolutely ''amazing'' equipment (say, artifacts in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' games), being able to break inconvenient rules ([[IC]] or [[OOC]]), et cetera. Any time the GM may be said to be cheating in favor of "his" character, it's a GMPC. Also known as a '''Pet NPC'''.<br />
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;GNS: An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers and [[game system]]s and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS. See [http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html The Forge Glossary] <br />
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;Golden Rule, The: "Rules were made to be broken". Traditionally a paragraph in the beginning of a [[GM|game master]]'s section of a rulebook, the golden rule states that the game's enjoyment is paramount, and that rules are only to be enforced if it enhances the play experience. It is designed to counter rules arguments by the game master ruling that the game would be more fun if the [[player]]s were not arguing over exactly how much an obscure ruling reference benefits another player over them. It is interesting to note that ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' V3.5's version of the golden rule (under adjudicating) states that rules should be changed for more logical sounding ones.<br />
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;Graininess: Role-playing games almost universally use number scales to define characters. D&D, for example, uses the now classic 3-18 scale to rate six basic attributes, such that a character with a Strength of 14 is mightier than one with a rating of 8. From a design perspective, it can be advantageous to instead use a limited scale, such as 1-6, to help keep numbers managable. The drawback is that with a lesser range, the steps become more significant, and it can become difficult to model characters who are only slightly better or worse than each other. Designers refer to this problem as Graininess, in reference to old poor quality photographs in which large grains of pigmentation were individually visible, and thus blurred the detail of the larger image. <br />
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;Greg, to: In use usually as '''Gregging''' or to have been '''Gregged'''. When a established aspect or detail of a setting is contradicted or outright rewritten by the setting's creator, usually with little explanation and for reasons stemming from a change in the creator's personal aesthetics. Specifically this term refers to writer Greg Stafford's tendency to treat the Glorantha setting as a work in progress, despite the fact that it was first published over twenty years ago.<br />
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;Griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other [[player]]s. 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 [[RPG]]s, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.<br />
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;Grudge monster<br />
#As a noun: A [[monster]] or other dangerous opponent introduced into a game to fight or block the [[PC]]s because the [[GM]] is angry or frustrated at the [[player]]s.<br />
#As a verb: to put a grudge monster (in sense one) in a game, and/or to attack the PCs with one.<br />
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;Guarding the horses:The "default" activity of any [[character]] whose [[player]] is not currently playing; implies that a) the player's absence is temporary, b) that the [[GM]] doesn't want to make the character an [[NPC]], and c) the character won't be doing anything [[IC]]. Started, of course, in fantasy games; has sometimes been extended to other genres, even ones without horses ("So, where's our street sam while we're raiding this lab?" "Um, guarding the cyber-horses, I guess.")<br />
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;Gygax, Gygaxian: An adjective form of the name of one of the founders of the role-playing hobby, E. Gary Gygax. When used as an adjective, Gygax's name indicates that the item so modified breaks some commonly held assumption about the world (often pertaining to the logical construction of an area). Notable RPGnet member Steve Darlington once observed that a Gygaxian dungeon, for instance, often resembles a game of ''Let's Make a Deal'' as reimagined by a homicidal SCAdian on PCP. It can also be used to describe an extremely overblown writing style which seems to imply excessive use of a thesaurus. This "Gygaxian prose" is best exemplified by his work in the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide.<br />
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==H==<br />
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;Hack and Slash: A style of gameplay wherein the main focus is combat. Attempting to talk or reason with an [[NPC]] in such a game, rather than just kill them, is most likely to result in confusion or mockery from the other [[player]]s. A close relative of the '''Dungeon Crawl''', and likewise most common in fantasy games. <br />
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;Hero: A [[RPG]] which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of [[setting]]s and [[character]] types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games].<br />
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;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of [[hit point]]s. In many [[game system]]s, 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. <br />
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;Holding Tank: The notional part of an [[RPG]] club where new [[player]]s wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term [[campaign]]s 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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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==I==<br />
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;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"<br />
:A quote from the movie ''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."<br />
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;Impossible Thing Before Breakfast: For the GM to maintain complete authorial control of the story while the players at the same time retain complete protagonist control of their characters. That is, for both the players and GM to simultaneously run the game as exclusively "their" story. Although this paradox is often unintentionally presented as the ideal model for running RPGs, recent RPG theory states that it is impossible because it is contradictory, and attempts to achieve this unattainable situation have been responsible for a lot of failed role-playing. Originated in ''Alice in Wonderland'', where the Queen tells Alice that "sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."<br />
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;Intelligence problem<br />
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly in 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. <br />
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;Inverse Ninja Law<br />
:A paradox in games (usually with strong martial art themes) where a sole ninja can often be a dangerous show-stopping foe, but a group of ninjas can be mowed through with ease by a group of players. Thus, the Inverse Ninja Law: Sum Ninja Effectiveness = 1/Ninjas.<br />
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;IST''x''KO<br />
:Typically used in forum thread titles, an abbreviation for "I seek the ''x'' knowledge of", properly followed by the subject of inquiry. The variable ''x'' is the name of the forum, implying a request for the aid of the forum community as a whole. It seems to have originated on the RPGnet Tangency forum as "I seek the Tangency knowledge of" (later abbreviated "ISTTKO"), used by those seeking information on an obscure topic, often before even trying to google for it. Replacing "Tangency" with a variable forum name came later; widely used on the RPGnet Open forum is ISTOKO (where ''x'' = Open, obviously). While this terminology originated on RPGnet, it is unknown to this contributor if its use has spread to other fora.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:GHI&diff=29349RPG Lexica:GHI2006-08-05T00:25:20Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* G */</p>
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<div>==G==<br />
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;Game Balance: A catch-all term for a range of different properties which are considered desirable in a game system, related to ensuring that the game exhibits fairness and scope for creativity. Typically, these will include ensuring that each player is able to contribute an equal amount to the game (the ''Decker problem'' is an example of a failure of this); ensuring that encounters are difficult enough to be challenging but not overwhelming; ensuring that no particular game ability is necessary for every character; and similar.<br />
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;Game That Must Not Be Named, The: The role-playing game FATAL. The "...Not Be Named" label was possibly coined by Kyle Schuant, a/k/a "JimBob" on the RPG.net fora. The wordy phrase is often abbreviated to '''TGTMNBN'''. FATAL itself stood for "Fantasy Adventure To Adult Lechery" in the game's first edition, but was subsequently changed to "From Another Time, Another Land". FATAL "Must Not be Named" because of two inter-related reasons. First, because mentioning this game on certain web sites all but guarantees the start of a flame war about it, possibly including vigorous and verbally agressive defense from the game's authors. Second, because by most standards of basic game design and even social decency the game is truly, truly awful. It is not just poorly conceived and written, but outright offensive.<br />
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:The most infamous and prevelant form of objectionable material is FATAL's bizarre and juvenile sexual content. For instance, character creation includes the calculation of statistics such as "Areola Size", "Vaginal Circumference Potential", and "Hymen Resistance". Worse, the game blithely condones rape as a character activity and contains many other instances of blatant misogyny, not to mention casual racism. Of secondary concern is the monsterously overcomplicated rules system, which requires unwieldy dice rolls, convoluted mathematical formula and tables for everything the designer could conceivably make one for, many of which are bizarre, such as the infamous Magical Fumbles Table and, again, sexually obsessive, such as a formula for increased penile penetration during a certain position of intercourse. <br />
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:If such a thing is possible, FATAL generated further controversy via the infamous [http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/fatal.html "S&M" review]: the long, extensive, profanity-strewn (and, in its own way, screamingly funny) RPG.net review by Darren MacLennan and Jason Sartin in which they basically rip the game a new one. Two of the authors of FATAL--Byron Hall, the primary author and editor, and "Burnout"--wrote a rebuttal to the review, and posted it on the web; a copy of this [[FATALReviewRebuttal|"Childish Review and Author's Defense of F.A.T.A.L."]] is saved on this Wiki.<br />
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;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 [[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]].<br />
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;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: [http://www.geocities.com/rpgsig/articles/gazebo.html ''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 [[player]]s - 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.<br />
:By extension, may also be used to refer to a part of a description that does ''not'' have any in-game effect, to differentiate it from those that do (i.e., what the mention of the gazebo ''should'' have been). Usage: "Should we ask the priests if they can help us against those 'spooky shadows' we saw?" "Naah, I think it was just a gazebo."<br />
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;Get Medieval: to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See '''"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"'''<br />
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;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 [[character]]s 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]].<br />
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;Geek Anime theory: A theory presented in an essay by Michael Suileabhain-Wilson. It claims that a high proportion of the popularity of "high school drama" Anime series in countries outside Japan comes from the fact that the percieved dissocation of the Japanese and Western cultures prevents viewers from losing sympathy with characters based on their own high school experiences.<br />
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;Geek social fallacies: A list of five fallacies, originally presented in an essay by Michael Suileabhain-Wilson, supposedly indicating classic social errors made by "geek" types. The five geek social fallacies are a) that nobody, friend or otherwise, must be excluded or ostracised from anything; b) that friends may never criticise friends; c) that friends must put their friendship above all else; d) that a friend of a friend is a friend; and e) that friends must involve friends in all activities they do.<br />
:A copy of the original article is [http://sean.chittenden.org/humor/www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html here].<br />
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;G.I. Joe Rule: A rule in Palladiumbooks' Rifts Ultimate Edition RPG which states the last bit of armor worn by a character can stop any amount of incoming damage. This means a character with 1 point of tatterred armor remaining can be struck by a nuclear bomb inflicting thousands of points of damage, yet the character will remain unharmed as the last bit of armor absorbs all of the attack.<br />
:This rule is called the "G.I. Joe Rule" after the 80's cartoon G.I. Joe where characters would always be seen ejecting unharmed from destroyed vehicles and characters remained completely unscathed amidst a hail of gunfire.<br />
:Any RPG rule concocted in such a way as to prevent character harm under any circumstance, especially by bending reality to allow average humans to sustain hits by weapons of mass destruction, can be said to be a "G.I. Joe Rule."<br />
:This term was coined by Gabriel (me!)<br />
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;Gimp<br />
#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 ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': 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.<br />
#As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods. <br />
#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 [[GM]]s have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.<br />
#To advance a skill which provides less benefit than an alternative choice would have provided. This usage comes primarily from MMORPGs; stats and skills are frequently analyzed in great detail and the optimum configuration at maximum level for a particular role is well-known. To deviate from this "min-maxed" template is to gimp your character, and the amount of deviance is the degree to which your character is said to be gimped.<br />
: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.<br />
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;Glass ninja problem:An issue with games where attack damage is based on degree of success and dodging is an all or nothing defense based on rolling over the attack's degree of success. This means that dodge-happy characters (ninjas) cannot suffer glancing blows or flesh wounds since any attack being good enough to beat their dodge score necessarily has a high enough degree of success that it cripples the ninja. Most modern games avoid this problem by having dodging reduce the attackers degree of success even if it doesn't allow them to avoid the attack completely.<br />
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;GMPC<br />
:'''G'''ame '''M'''aster [[Player Character|'''PC''']]<br />
#An [[NPC]] that's basically an avatar of the [[GM]] running the game. Can be acceptable and even helpful if his "divine favor" is toned down and/or used in moderation, but more often becomes something like #2:<br />
#Derogatory term for an 'uber' NPC, one who's abilities and assistance overshadow the [[PC]]s, who is still supposedly on the PCs 'side', but manages to dominate the game because of his "divine favor".<br />
:Note: By "divine favor" I mean things like: die rolls being adjusted in his favor, access to the setting's "bigwigs", absolutely ''amazing'' equipment (say, artifacts in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' games), being able to break inconvenient rules ([[IC]] or [[OOC]]), et cetera. Any time the GM may be said to be cheating in favor of "his" character, it's a GMPC. Also known as a '''Pet NPC'''.<br />
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;GNS: An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers and [[game system]]s and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS. See [http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html The Forge Glossary] <br />
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;Golden Rule, The: "Rules were made to be broken". Traditionally a paragraph in the beginning of a [[GM|game master]]'s section of a rulebook, the golden rule states that the game's enjoyment is paramount, and that rules are only to be enforced if it enhances the play experience. It is designed to counter rules arguments by the game master ruling that the game would be more fun if the [[player]]s were not arguing over exactly how much an obscure ruling reference benefits another player over them. It is interesting to note that ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' V3.5's version of the golden rule (under adjudicating) states that rules should be changed for more logical sounding ones.<br />
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;Graininess: Role-playing games almost universally use number scales to define characters. D&D, for example, uses the now classic 3-18 scale to rate six basic attributes, such that a character with a Strength of 14 is mightier than one with a rating of 8. From a design perspective, it can be advantageous to instead use a limited scale, such as 1-6, to help keep numbers managable. The drawback is that with a lesser range, the steps become more significant, and it can become difficult to model characters who are only slightly better or worse than each other. Designers refer to this problem as Graininess, in reference to old poor quality photographs in which large grains of pigmentation were individually visible, and thus blurred the detail of the larger image. <br />
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;Greg, to: In use usually as '''Gregging''' or to have been '''Gregged'''. When a established aspect or detail of a setting is contradicted or outright rewritten by the setting's creator, usually with little explanation and for reasons stemming from a change in the creator's personal aesthetics. Specifically this term refers to writer Greg Stafford's tendency to treat the Glorantha setting as a work in progress, despite the fact that it was first published over twenty years ago.<br />
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;Griefing: To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other [[player]]s. 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 [[RPG]]s, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.<br />
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;Grudge monster<br />
#As a noun: A [[monster]] or other dangerous opponent introduced into a game to fight or block the [[PC]]s because the [[GM]] is angry or frustrated at the [[player]]s.<br />
#As a verb: to put a grudge monster (in sense one) in a game, and/or to attack the PCs with one.<br />
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;Guarding the horses:The "default" activity of any [[character]] whose [[player]] is not currently playing; implies that a) the player's absence is temporary, b) that the [[GM]] doesn't want to make the character an [[NPC]], and c) the character won't be doing anything [[IC]]. Started, of course, in fantasy games; has sometimes been extended to other genres, even ones without horses ("So, where's our street sam while we're raiding this lab?" "Um, guarding the cyber-horses, I guess.")<br />
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;Gygax, Gygaxian: An adjective form of the name of one of the founders of the role-playing hobby, E. Gary Gygax. When used as an adjective, Gygax's name indicates that the item so modified breaks some commonly held assumption about the world (often pertaining to the logical construction of an area). Notable RPGnet member Steve Darlington once observed that a Gygaxian dungeon, for instance, often resembles a game of ''Let's Make a Deal'' as reimagined by a homicidal SCAdian on PCP. It can also be used to describe an extremely overblown writing style which seems to imply excessive use of a thesaurus. This "Gygaxian prose" is best exemplified by his work in the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide.<br />
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==H==<br />
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;Hack and Slash: A style of gameplay wherein the main focus is combat. Attempting to talk or reason with an [[NPC]] in such a game, rather than just kill them, is most likely to result in confusion or mockery from the other [[player]]s. A close relative of the '''Dungeon Crawl''', and likewise most common in fantasy games. <br />
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;Hero: A [[RPG]] which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of [[setting]]s and [[character]] types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games].<br />
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;Hitpoint gain problem: A modelling difficulty arising from the use of [[hit point]]s. In many [[game system]]s, 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. <br />
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;Holding Tank: The notional part of an [[RPG]] club where new [[player]]s wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term [[campaign]]s 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.<br />
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;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.<br />
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==I==<br />
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;"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"<br />
:A quote from the movie ''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."<br />
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;Impossible Thing Before Breakfast: For the GM to maintain complete authorial control of the story while the players at the same time retain complete protagonist control of their characters. That is, for both the players and GM to simultaneously run the game as exclusively "their" story. Although this paradox is often unintentionally presented as the ideal model for running RPGs, recent RPG theory states that it is impossible because it is contradictory, and attempts to achieve this unattainable situation have been responsible for a lot of failed role-playing. Originated in ''Alice in Wonderland'', where the Queen tells Alice that "sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."<br />
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;Intelligence problem<br />
:The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly in 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. <br />
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;Inverse Ninja Law<br />
:A paradox in games (usually with strong martial art themes) where a sole ninja can often be a dangerous show-stopping foe, but a group of ninjas can be mowed through with ease by a group of players. Thus, the Inverse Ninja Law: Sum Ninja Effectiveness = 1/Ninjas.<br />
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;IST''x''KO<br />
:Typically used in forum thread titles, an abbreviation for "I seek the ''x'' knowledge of", properly followed by the subject of inquiry. The variable ''x'' is the name of the forum, implying a request for the aid of the forum community as a whole. It seems to have originated on the RPGnet Tangency forum as "I seek the Tangency knowledge of" (later abbreviated "ISTTKO"), used by those seeking information on an obscure topic, often before even trying to google for it. Replacing "Tangency" with a variable forum name came later; widely used on the RPGnet Open forum is ISTOKO (where ''x'' = Open, obviously). While this terminology originated on RPGnet, it is unknown to this contributor if its use has spread to other fora.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=29319User:Iceberg3k2006-08-04T13:21:52Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
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<div>I am playing in: [[Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil]], Wednesday evenings at The Source.<br />
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I am running: [[Red Hand of Doom]], Saturday evenings at a private location.<br />
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==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
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==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
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{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 60 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Shardracona|}<br />
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My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 7:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.<br />
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I am currently not subscribed to City of Heroes.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:VWX&diff=26431RPG Lexica:VWX2006-06-27T20:56:21Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* W */</p>
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<div>==V==<br />
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;Vitality and wounds system: A modified version of [[hit point]]s, used in some later [[d20 system|d20 games]] to attempt to overcome the [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|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.<br />
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==W==<br />
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;Walking First-Aid Kit, A: A somewhat derisive phrase used to describe a Cleric in D&D, or similar "healer" roles in other combat-heavy games. It can be argued that, whereas the other standard classes of D&D are recognizable and dynamic fantasy archetypes, the Cleric exists mainly for mechanical reasons resulting from how combat and wounding works in the game. Thus, Cleric characters rarely enjoy center stage during the dramatic moments of an adventure. They are vital afterwards to renew the party's hit points, but it can be disappointing for the player who winds up playing something little more important than a baggage handler.<br />
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;Wall of Fear and Ignorance, The: The [[GM|game master]]'s screen.<br />
:Origin: ''[[Paranoia]]'', the RPG<br />
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;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 though 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 [[player]]s, and also can harm suspension of disbelief (what exactly happened to the sniper in the previous example to cause him to fail?) <br />
: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.<br />
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;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 [[player]]s 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.<br />
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;Whoop-ass: Damage, particularly damage rendered in a very flashy style. One is said to open a can of whoop-ass for regular amounts, or to tap a keg of whoop-ass for particularly powerful actions.<br />
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;Wipe: Same as ''Total Party Kill,'' borrowed from online RPG terminology. The difference between a wipe and a TPK is that the wipe is generally not assumed to stem from either GM malevolence or player idiocy.<br />
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;Worst RPGs Ever:Surprisingly, there is fairly good agreement on which RPGs are in this category. The list goes: FATAL (see [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Game That Must Not Be Named]]), RaHoWa, Hybrid, and now Wraeththu. More details and discussion on the [[Worst RPGs ever]] page.<br />
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==X==<br />
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;XP: Common abbreviation for '''[[experience point]]s''', which are used in [[RPG]]s to reward [[character]]s for success in combat, task-completion, and story advancement, and measure how far they've gone in their [[adventure|adventuring]] careers.<br />
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[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=RPG_Lexica:MNO&diff=26377RPG Lexica:MNO2006-06-26T03:12:10Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* N */</p>
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<div>==M==<br />
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;Mary Sue: An [[RPG]] [[character]] obviously designed as a supremely competent version of the real person who made and plays that character. A Mary Sue need not be female, though sometimes a male equivalent term '''Gary''' or '''Marty Stu''' is used.<br />
:Origin: According to [http://www.subreality.com/marysue.htm this site], from a 1970's ''Star Trek'' FanFic starring "Mary Sue, StarFleet's Youngest Lieutenant". Based on this story, the witticism arose that, "A Mary Sue is braver than Kirk, smarter than Spock, more skilled than McCoy and is sleeping with all three." Please note that the original Lieutenant Mary Sue was written in parody of a type of Star Trek fanfic common at the time.<br />
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;Meat shield: Derogatory term for a fighter or NPC which is notionally used to protect the more vulnerable spellcasters in a party from harm, as a metal or wooden shield protects a fighter from harm. Compare "tank" or "brick," more neutral/affectionate terms.<br />
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;Mecha:In anime, a term for mechanical powersuits or robots (often humanoid). A popular feature of anime-styled role-playing games, such as [[Votoms]] or [[Bubblegum Crisis]], which are based on their respective anime series. Usually large and powerful enough to wipe out most conventional combatants (even tanks) by themselves. Also, used specifically to refer to games where mecha play a major part, such as [[BattleTech]].<br />
:It's worth noting that, in anime, where the term comes from, "mecha" is simply short for "mechanical" and the term is used for all mechanical devices. So, a bicycle is a "mecha" by that definition. However, the westernized version of the term is almost universally used to describe a futuristic or otherwise non-standard vehicle which usually has a semi-humanoid form, like a giant pilotable humanoid robot.<br />
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;Mega-damage: Generically, enough damage to kill a human being instantly, see also [[fine red mist]] and [[chunky salsa]]. Specifically, a (dubious) trademark of Palladium Books indicating vehicle-scaled damage; because of the lack of rigorous design rules in Palladium there are such things as mega-damage personal weapons and body armor. Most egregiously visible in [[Rifts]].<br />
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<br />
;Metaplot: This concept exists on two levels. On the smaller, local level, it refers to the greater narrative the GM is using to connect the group's individual adventures and make them relevant to the campaign world. On the larger, commercial level it describes the tendency of professional game companies to alter their published settings over time via events described in published supplements. <br />
<br />
:Commercial metaplots are generally perceived as a mixed blessing. Though they can offer gaming groups an easy source of narrative drive and adventure ideas, they also represent changes not under the control of the players or GM. A commercial metaplot may contradict earlier assumptions about the setting or, at worst, run roughshod over the character's initiative by introducing grand, sweeping events under the direction of powerful NPC's which the player characters have no hope of influencing, leaving them essentially spectators to someone else's story. Several World of Darkness games from White Wolf are in particular infamous for this latter transgression. It is arguable that such metaplots exist mainly to sell books, as fans try to keep abreast, rather than to in any way enhance play.<br />
<br />
<br />
;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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Min-min: To badly tweak a character during ''chargen'' so that they are incompetent and/or unplayable in the situations that arise in the course of an adventure. A parody of ''min-max''. See also ''gimp'' (q.v.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Minmei: This is a derogatory comment towards a player character which is usually useless in a specific game because of a focus on an area of skill the game doesn't often involve. Ex: "Your Vagabond character was so useless in the Rifts game last night. You're such a Minmei."<br />
:The term comes from the Robotech TV series character of the same name. Minmei was a beauty queen and singer who, at one point, proved instrumental in defeating the Zentraedi armada in that series, but she was useless and irritating the remainder of the time.<br />
:"Minmei" and "Minmay" are two separate things. The former is the name of the irritating and untalented character from the Macross era of Robotech. The latter is the name of the significantly less irritating and more musically skilled character from the original, non-Robotech related, Macross anime. Using the wrong spelling can get you lynched in Macross fandom circles.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Mr. Johnson:Especially in a cyberpunk game: a mysterious and anonymous figure who gives the player characters their mission. Notable mostly because the players are meant to understand that the Mr. Johnson cannot be trusted, but are usually required to accept the mission anyway because it is mutually accepted that it will be the basis of future play. Taken from the RPG ''[[Shadowrun]]''.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Mob: An [[NPC]], in particular one who performs limited ranges of simplistic behaviour. Used in online [[RPG]]s to identify NPCs who are automatically controlled by the game program, rather than those who are played by human [[GM]]s. <br />
: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.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Monty Haul: The term monty haul is a play on the name Monty Hall, a co-creator and emcee of television's [http://www.letsmakeadeal.com/ Let's Make A Deal], where contestants bought, sold, and traded goods. In gaming, monty haul refers to role-playing for the purpose of attaining rewards, particularly treasure. The term monty haul has been applied to campaigns, players ([[munchkin]]), and referees ([[candy man]]). Monty haul playing has been cited as a good way to introduce children to gaming, as it has a high excitement factor, large rewards and low risks for continued involvement - so long as the GM knows other styles to move on to when the kids get bored of Monty Hauling (which they will).<br />
<br />
<br />
;Mook: An adversary whose power is significantly beneath that of any single player character and has no real chance of inflicting serious harm. Not so much a full antagonist as an obstacle or dramatic device, whose only purpose is to make the heros look good by being easy to defeat. Often a faceless member of a horde. Two classic non-rpg examples of mooks can be found in cinema: the gangs of masked ninja rushing at the heroes of countless old kung-fu movies, and the stormtroopers of [[Star Wars]]. As a gaming term, the word originates in [[Feng Shui]], which has rules for simulating the disposable nature of "mooks" as opposed to more competent "named characters". More and more games are making a distinction between mooks and more substantial opponents.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Munchkin: One of the most controversial terms in [[RPG]]s. 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]]...<br />
: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:<br />
* 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]].)<br />
* Insisting his character either is or has to be the absolute ''best'' at ''everything'' he does.<br />
* Roleplays poorly, seeing his character (and the other characters) as mere game pieces, without personality or motivations beyond advancing in the game.<br />
* Relating to the last one: approaching all problems, obstacles, and frustrations with violence as a ''first'' resort<br />
* Attempting to "win" the game, even at the expense of the other players, in situations where it would be inappropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Mundane:also '''Norm''' (short for "Normal"); specific games or settings may have their own term (such as "baseline" in the [[Aberrant]] world)<br />
#''In'' games, someone of merely human ability, in contrast to those with super abilities or enhancements (i.e., the [[PC]]s, usually).<br />
#By extension, ''Outside of'' games, refers to some one outside the "fandom", i.e., one who does not game, and isn't interested in the things gamers are (such as sci-fi, anime, et cetera; see '''Geek''')<br />
<br />
<br />
;Murphy's Law:"Anything that can go wrong, will." The premier law of the universe.<br />
:Notes: What most people call Murphy's Law (above) is actually Finagle's Law (or, in the UK, Sod's Law). Murphy's Law is more specific: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways will result in disaster, someone will do it." It was originally "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will"--referring to the technician who had just placed a series of sensors the wrong way around on the test subject of an accelleration experiment. Edward Murphy - then a Major in the United States Air Force - was the lead scientist.<br />
:Murphy's Law is in this lexicon because, since RPGs are simulations of important (fake) events in people's (fake) lives, it crops up a ''lot.'' In particular, when making an elaborate plan, it is often necessary to include contingency plans in case of a [[RPG_Lexica:DEF|fumble]] at a critical moment. (See [[RPG_Lexica:VWX|Whiff]] for further details)<br />
:See also: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_Law WikiPedia's entry on "Murphy's Law"]<br />
<br />
<br />
;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:<br />
* In ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', [[character]]s 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; <br />
* 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. 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;<br />
* 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.<br />
<br />
==N==<br />
<br />
;Naked Dwarf Syndrome: A "Murphy's Rule (see above) from [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] First Edition. It arose from the fact that armour and the Toughness stat were both subtracted from damage. Since Toughness differences were higher than the maximum armour value, a naked Dwarf was less likely to take damage from an attack than a human in full armour.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Negative critical: A case where a ''critical'' result on a dice roll, which is normally the best possible, can have a negative effect on a player. An example is a PC attempting to deliberately lightly wound another PC who accidentally rolls a critical hit and kills them (for an example of this, see the film ''[[The Gamers]]''). Although in line with the original intent of a critical hit, some groups instead play that a critical is always successful by whatever standard of success the player wishes, so in this case a critical would actually do only a small amount of damage.<br />
<br />
<br />
;Nerf: When something is reduced in power or effectiveness, it is said to be nerfed. "The Super Fist power got nerfed. It used to do 4d6 damage and now only does 1d6 damage." The term originates from the padded nerf toys which are ineffectual at causing real harm as true toys of their nature would be. The term came into it's present gaming applicable usage by way of computer MMORPGs, where reducing the effectiveness of powers is the standard way of resolving game balance issues (to avoid an "arms race" that could result if powers were increased in effectiveness)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Ninja: A term with multiple different meanings, mostly derived either from the real myths surrounding Ninjas or from the famous spoof websites, [http://www.realultimatepower.net "Real Ultimate Power"] and [http://www.ninjaburger.com "Ninja Burger"].<br />
* As a noun, used with the original meaning: the Japanese term for an assassin, particularly one making use of stealth. <br />
* As a noun, any character designed around the concepts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and one-hit kills. <br />
* 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''!")<br />
* As an adjective, sneaky or cunning. <br />
* As an adjective, highly skilled in general.<br />
* As a verb, to accomplish something in a highly skillful or spectacular way.<br />
<br />
<br />
;No Myth: Play operating under a social contract in which all players and the GM acknowledge that the [[RPG_Lexica:GHI|Impossible Thing Before Breakfast]] is impossible, and also acknowledge that the GM cannot maintain every detail of the world or universe at once. The goal is to eliminate railroading from the roleplay experience, and move the things which railroading is intended to prevent (players running amok and destroying the plot, or demanding things the GM can't know) into the social contract.<br />
<br />
<br />
;NPC Theater: When NPC's, typically more powerful than the PCs, are allowed to take over a scene, making the PC's merely spectators in the NPC theater.<br />
<br />
==O==<br />
;OGL, Open Gaming License: A general purpose gaming license which was originally written by [[Wizards of the Coast]], which allows reuse of parts of games published under it in a similar manner as open source software. OGL is somewhat controversial in its use of "product identity," especially when the publisher makes little or no effort to mark out what content is open and what content is closed.<br />
<br />
;OGL Heartbreaker: A game which, although it has an original world, uses an open-licensed gaming system or variation thereof instead of a system that is unique to that game world. Typically called a "Heartbreaker" because either the system used proves to be a poor means for conveying the intended feel of the setting, or it has no hope of finding a niche in the market because the generic system chosen already has a market leading game in the same genre. <br />
<br />
<br />
;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. <br />
:Note: this system is copyrighted, so you must seek the author's permission to use it in any game you are designing.<br />
:(Drive by Note by a non-lawyer: Copyrights protect expressions, patents protect ideas. If you copied the exact text this person wrote in his book into your RPG book, you'd be violating copyright, if you reworded it like the example above does, you don't. The gentleman would have to have a patent on his idea, in which case you'd have to get a licence to use it in which ever region he has a patent on it in (patents aren't world-wide) if you wished to use it in that region. A search on the US patent database would turn this up if he has put a patent on it in the US.)<br />
<br />
<br />
;One True: A sarcastic term used to imply that a particular system, rule, or principle is being advocated above all others, as in "the One True System" or "the One True Way". A great example of this can be found on ENWorld with the user named Diaglo who regularly asserts that OD&D is the "One true game, and all others are pale imitations."<br />
<br />
<br />
;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). <br />
:See also: '''Exploding Dice'''<br />
<br />
<br />
;Ouija board gaming: Any form of gaming in which the players have a strong expectation and desire for what they want out of the game, but refuse to take direct action to obtain it in the belief that it should "arise naturally" from other play. A classic example is players who want engaging and heroic stories but actually play highly gamist systems, many of which actually penalise heroic play, in the hope that a engaging or heroic plot points will arise by chance as a result of the operation of the standard gamist rules (for example, a PC attempting a valuable task they have little chance of succeeding on and getting a lucky roll - the problem being that most of the time, the PC will not get a lucky roll and the valuable task will fail, hurting the developing plot). The term was coined by Ron Edwards as an analogy to the boards supposedly used by mediums to contact spirits, where all participants in a session want the glass to move (so that there's a point to the session) but none want to move it (because doing so would confound the idea that the glass is being moved by supernatural forces).<br />
<br />
<br />
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[[RPG_Lexica:Main_Page|Back to main Lexicon page]]</center><br />
<br />
[[Category:Terminology]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26365Red Hand of Doom2006-06-25T19:08:52Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* Player Characters */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net (when I actually get around to writing it).<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 6 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 6 of Pelor) - next level: Radiant Servant of Pelor<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 6)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 6)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 3 of Obad-Hai) - next level: Arcane Hierophant<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 6)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 6)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 3 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18, Crown Year 447: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26362Red Hand of Doom2006-06-25T15:50:22Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* News */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net (when I actually get around to writing it).<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 3 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
* June 18, Crown Year 447: The Lions of Brindol are being dispatched to investigate rumors of strange goings-on in the Thornwaste, to the south.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26190Red Hand of Doom2006-06-22T23:55:21Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net (when I actually get around to writing it).<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 2 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26148Red Hand of Doom2006-06-22T16:39:11Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* Calendar */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447. The first day of the campaign is June 11th, the day the players reach Drellin's Ferry.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 2 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26147Red Hand of Doom2006-06-22T14:24:16Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* News */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 2 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Drellin's Ferry. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26146Red Hand of Doom2006-06-22T14:23:57Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''Chloe''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''Cael''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''Cade''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==Calendar==<br />
<br />
The local calendar is based on the establishment of the Kingdom of Rhestilor, and was continued even after Rhestilor's fall. The present Crown Year is 447.<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
* June 13, Crown Year 447 (Day 2 of the campaign): Hobgoblins continue to menace the town of Elsir Vale. Councilman Iormel urges the council to hold the line. Speaker Wiston and Captain Soranna urge townsfolk to flee, but are outvoted on the council.<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=26145Red Hand of Doom2006-06-22T14:17:19Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''Jasna''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''''name''''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''Sirocco''' (human Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''''name''''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
* '''Neda''' (gnome Wizard 5)<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Iceberg3k:Constanz&diff=25645Iceberg3k:Constanz2006-06-13T19:20:52Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Constanz Clearwater''' - Feathermoon server<br />
<br />
'''Race:''' Human*<br><br />
'''Age:''' 20<br><br />
'''Class:''' Warrior<br><br />
'''Spec:''' Fury-Arms<br><br />
'''Guild:''' Shadow Coven Sisters<br><br />
'''Level:''' 57<br />
<br />
'''Eyes:''' Hazel<br><br />
'''Skin:''' Dark<br><br />
'''Hair:''' Red-brown<br />
<br />
'''Hometown:''' Stormwind, Elwynn Forest<br><br />
'''Current home:''' Darnassus, Teldrassil<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Though she is human, her lineage includes some High Elf blood (very dilute, but present), and she identifies herself as a Night Elf<br />
<br />
==Professions==<br />
===Primary Professions===<br />
*'''Blacksmith:''' ''Artisan'' - 275/300<br />
*'''Miner:''' ''Artisan'' - 300/300<br />
<br />
===Secondary Professions===<br />
*'''Cooking:''' ''Artisan'' - 300/300<br />
*'''First Aid:''' ''Expert'' - 141/225<br />
*'''Fishing:''' ''Novice'' - 20/70<br />
<br />
==Profile==<br />
<br />
Born six years after the Second War to a minor noble family (a distant branch line from the ruling Wrynn family), Constanz was still a girl when to the shock of all the kingdoms of the East, King Arthas assassinated his father and ascended to the Lordaeronian throne, throwing the kingdoms into utter chaos. Shortly afterward, the Undead and their demon masters completed their overthrow of the northern kingdoms, but were held back from the south by the stout hearts of the Dwarves.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, the 14 year old Constanz moved with her parents - diplomats in the service of King Varrian - to Darnassus and spent the following four years, which proved to be the most formative of her adult personality, deeply immersed in the culture and habits of the Night Elves. Eventually, she came to the temple of Elune and became a worshipper of the Moon Goddess. Her long exposure to Teldrassil during her adolescent growth caused the very dilute Elven ancestry in her blood to express itself, and her body has taken on some aspects of a night elf's - her ears, though normally sized, have slight but noticeable points and her eyes glow softly (most noticeable in extremely dim light).<br />
<br />
Eventually returning to Azeroth and the Northshire Abbey for training as a warrior of Azeroth, she nevertheless found herself drawn back toward the Night Elves and their ways. In many ways still an outsider in Darnassus, she nevertheless fights constantly for acceptance within her adopted culture.<br />
<br />
Physically, she is a young human/half-elf woman in excellent shape. Her left arm is heavily scarred close to her hand, as her two-sword fighting technique often puts her left hand in harm's way as a guard. Her left pinky has a heavy scar marking where an ax blow nearly removed it from her body.<br />
<br />
==Personal motivations==<br />
* Loyalty to her Sisters is paramount<br />
* Serve her people and the Alliance faithfully<br />
* Prove her worth<br />
* Destroy the Lich King's minions and hamper his efforts wherever and whenever possible<br />
* Become wealthy enough to retire from adventuring<br />
<br />
==Screenshot==<br />
(from WoWViewer 0.45b)<br><br />
[[Image:Constanz01082006.jpg]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=25644Red Hand of Doom2006-06-13T19:19:47Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* News */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''''name''''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''''name''''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (halfling Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''''name''''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy, especially in time of war.''<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=25642Red Hand of Doom2006-06-13T19:19:17Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* Player Characters */</p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (half-orc Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''''name''''' (human Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''''name''''' (human Rogue 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (halfling Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (elf Druid 3/Wizard 2 of Obad-Hai)<br />
* '''''name''''' (halfling Warmage 5)<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy.''<br />
<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=25641Red Hand of Doom2006-06-13T19:17:11Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.<br />
<br />
==Player Characters==<br />
<br />
* '''Tobin''' (Dragon Shaman 5 of Brass)<br />
* '''''name''''' (Cleric 5 of Pelor)<br />
* '''''name''''' (Rogue 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (Sorceror 5)<br />
* '''''name''''' (Druid 3/Wizard 2)<br />
* '''''name''''' (Warmage 5)<br />
<br />
==News==<br />
<br />
'''''News''' in the Elsir Vale, as transmitted by bards and messengers from one town to the next. All PCs can be expected to know the news, but the news is not necessarily trustworthy.''<br />
<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
<br />
'''''Notes''' of the game. Notes are always trustworthy, but assume unless told otherwise that your PC does not know of them.''</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Red_Hand_of_Doom&diff=25482Red Hand of Doom2006-06-11T13:29:32Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is the page for [[User:Iceberg3k|Iceberg3k]]'s ''Red Hand of Doom'' campaign.<br />
<br />
It will be filled in as things go along.<br />
<br />
Also refer to the Red Hand of Doom thread on the Actual Play forum of RPG.net.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=25481User:Iceberg3k2006-06-11T13:28:23Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>I am playing in: [[Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil]], Wednesday evenings at The Source.<br />
<br />
I am running: [[Red Hand of Doom]], Saturday evenings at a private location.<br />
<br />
==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
<br />
==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 57 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Shadow Coven Sisters<br />
|}<br />
<br />
My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 7:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.<br />
<br />
I am currently not subscribed to City of Heroes.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=19314User:Iceberg3k2006-02-15T19:58:18Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>Available for games: Fridays and Saturdays.<br />
<br />
Look for me at the Source most saturdays around noon or so.<br />
<br />
==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
<br />
==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 41 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Vanguards of Azeroth<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Gorahkar|Gorahkar]] || Orc || Hunter || 13 || Skinner/Leather || Kirin Tor || [[Blacksky Company]]<br />
|}<br />
<br />
My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 8:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.<br />
<br />
I am currently not subscribed to City of Heroes.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=User:Iceberg3k&diff=19313User:Iceberg3k2006-02-15T19:45:31Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>Available for games: Fridays and Saturdays.<br />
<br />
Look for me at the Source most saturdays around noon or so.<br />
<br />
==Wiki contributions==<br />
* [[Tangency Cookbook]]: 1 1/2 hour beef stew, and Bean Soup<br />
<br />
==City of Heroes==<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Archetype !! Powers !! Level !! Server !! Supergroup ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Snowstorm|Lady Snowstorm]] || Magic || Ice-Ice Blaster || 12 || Virtue || None<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==World of Warcraft==<br />
My World of Warcraft characters are:<br />
<br />
{| BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=4 CELLSPACING=0<br />
|-<br />
! Character Name !! Race !! Class !! Level !! Professions !! Server !! Guild<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Constanz|Constanz]] || Human || Warrior || 41 || Miner/Blacksmith || Feathermoon || Vanguards of Azeroth<br />
|-<br />
| [[Iceberg3k:Gorahkar|Gorahkar]] || Orc || Hunter || 13 || Skinner/Leather || Kirin Tor || [[Blacksky Company]]<br />
|}<br />
<br />
My availability times for WoW are generally during the evening, from 8:30 PM to whenever I go to bed, Central Time; on weekends I'm usually available from mid-afternoon to bedtime but erratically. I try to be on each server on an alternating day schedule, though sometimes I do consecutive days in one character or another, depending on workload and plans for that character.</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Iceberg3k:Constanz&diff=18644Iceberg3k:Constanz2006-02-08T14:08:45Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Constanz Clearwater''' - Feathermoon server<br />
<br />
'''Race:''' Human*<br><br />
'''Age:''' 20<br><br />
'''Class:''' Warrior<br><br />
'''Spec:''' Fury-Arms<br><br />
'''Guild:''' Vanguards of Azeroth (overtly), Shadow Coven Sisters (covertly)<br><br />
'''Level:''' 40<br />
<br />
'''Eyes:''' Hazel<br><br />
'''Skin:''' Dark<br><br />
'''Hair:''' Red-brown<br />
<br />
'''Hometown:''' Stormwind, Elwynn Forest<br><br />
'''Current home:''' Darnassus, Teldrassil<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Though she is human, her lineage includes some High Elf blood (very dilute, but present), and she identifies herself as a Night Elf<br />
<br />
==Professions==<br />
===Primary Professions===<br />
*'''Blacksmith:''' ''Expert'' - 195/225<br />
*'''Miner:''' ''Artisan'' - 215/300<br />
<br />
===Secondary Professions===<br />
*'''Cooking:''' ''Artisan'' - 225/300<br />
*'''First Aid:''' ''Expert'' - 141/225<br />
*'''Fishing:''' ''Novice'' - 20/70<br />
<br />
==Profile==<br />
<br />
Born six years after the Second War to a minor noble family (a distant branch line from the ruling Wrynn family), Constanz was still a girl when to the shock of all the kingdoms of the East, King Arthas assassinated his father and ascended to the Lordaeronian throne, throwing the kingdoms into utter chaos. Shortly afterward, the Undead and their demon masters completed their overthrow of the northern kingdoms, but were held back from the south by the stout hearts of the Dwarves.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, the 14 year old Constanz moved with her parents - diplomats in the service of King Varrian - to Darnassus and spent the following four years, which proved to be the most formative of her adult personality, deeply immersed in the culture and habits of the Night Elves. Eventually, she came to the temple of Elune and became a worshipper of the Moon Goddess. Her long exposure to Teldrassil during her adolescent growth caused the very dilute Elven ancestry in her blood to express itself, and her body has taken on some aspects of a night elf's - her ears, though normally sized, have slight but noticeable points and her eyes glow softly (most noticeable in extremely dim light).<br />
<br />
Eventually returning to Azeroth and the Northshire Abbey for training as a warrior of Azeroth, she nevertheless found herself drawn back toward the Night Elves and their ways. In many ways still an outsider in Darnassus, she nevertheless fights constantly for acceptance within her adopted culture.<br />
<br />
Physically, she is a young human/half-elf woman in excellent shape. Her left arm is heavily scarred close to her hand, as her two-sword fighting technique often puts her left hand in harm's way as a guard. Her left pinky has a heavy scar marking where an ax blow nearly removed it from her body.<br />
<br />
==Personal motivations==<br />
* Loyalty to her Sisters is paramount<br />
* Serve her people and the Alliance faithfully<br />
* Prove her worth<br />
* Destroy the Lich King's minions and hamper his efforts wherever and whenever possible<br />
* Become wealthy enough to retire from adventuring<br />
<br />
==Screenshot==<br />
(from WoWViewer 0.45b)<br><br />
[[Image:Constanz01082006.jpg]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Iceberg3k:Constanz&diff=18643Iceberg3k:Constanz2006-02-08T14:07:05Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Constanz Clearwater''' - Feathermoon server<br />
<br />
'''Race:''' Human*<br><br />
'''Age:''' 20<br><br />
'''Class:''' Warrior<br><br />
'''Spec:''' Fury-Arms<br><br />
'''Guild:''' Vanguards of Azeroth (overtly), Shadow Coven Sisters (covertly)<br><br />
'''Level:''' 40<br />
<br />
'''Eyes:''' Hazel<br><br />
'''Skin:''' Dark<br><br />
'''Hair:''' Red-brown<br />
<br />
'''Hometown:''' Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains<br><br />
'''Current home:''' Darnassus, Teldrassil<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Though she is human, her lineage includes some High Elf blood (very dilute, but present), and she identifies herself as a Night Elf<br />
<br />
==Professions==<br />
===Primary Professions===<br />
*'''Blacksmith:''' ''Expert'' - 195/225<br />
*'''Miner:''' ''Artisan'' - 215/300<br />
<br />
===Secondary Professions===<br />
*'''Cooking:''' ''Artisan'' - 225/300<br />
*'''First Aid:''' ''Expert'' - 141/225<br />
*'''Fishing:''' ''Novice'' - 20/70<br />
<br />
==Profile==<br />
<br />
Born six years after the Second War to a minor noble family (a distant branch line from the ruling Wrynn family), Constanz was still a girl when to the shock of all the kingdoms of the East, King Arthas assassinated his father and ascended to the Lordaeronian throne, throwing the kingdoms into utter chaos. Shortly afterward, the Undead and their demon masters completed their overthrow of the northern kingdoms, but were held back from the south by the stout hearts of the Dwarves.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, the 14 year old Constanz moved with her parents - diplomats in the service of King Varrian - to Darnassus and spent the following four years, which proved to be the most formative of her adult personality, deeply immersed in the culture and habits of the Night Elves. Eventually, she came to the temple of Elune and became a worshipper of the Moon Goddess. Her long exposure to Teldrassil during her adolescent growth caused the very dilute Elven ancestry in her blood to express itself, and her body has taken on some aspects of a night elf's - her ears, though normally sized, have slight but noticeable points and her eyes glow softly (most noticeable in extremely dim light).<br />
<br />
Eventually returning to Azeroth and the Northshire Abbey for training as a warrior of Azeroth, she nevertheless found herself drawn back toward the Night Elves and their ways. In many ways still an outsider in Darnassus, she nevertheless fights constantly for acceptance within her adopted culture.<br />
<br />
Physically, she is a young human/half-elf woman in excellent shape. Her left arm is heavily scarred close to her hand, as her two-sword fighting technique often puts her left hand in harm's way as a guard. Her left pinky has a heavy scar marking where an ax blow nearly removed it from her body.<br />
<br />
==Personal motivations==<br />
* Loyalty to her Sisters is paramount<br />
* Serve her people and the Alliance faithfully<br />
* Prove her worth<br />
* Destroy the Lich King's minions and hamper his efforts wherever and whenever possible<br />
* Become wealthy enough to retire from adventuring<br />
<br />
==Screenshot==<br />
(from WoWViewer 0.45b)<br><br />
[[Image:Constanz01082006.jpg]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Iceberg3k:Constanz&diff=18292Iceberg3k:Constanz2006-01-30T13:53:36Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Constanz Clearwater''' - Feathermoon server<br />
<br />
'''Race:''' Human*<br><br />
'''Age:''' 18<br><br />
'''Class:''' Warrior<br><br />
'''Spec:''' Fury-Arms<br><br />
'''Guild:''' Vanguards of Azeroth (overtly), Shadow Coven Sisters (covertly)<br><br />
'''Level:''' 38<br />
<br />
'''Eyes:''' Hazel<br><br />
'''Skin:''' Dark<br><br />
'''Hair:''' Red-brown<br />
<br />
'''Hometown:''' Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains<br><br />
'''Current home:''' Darnassus, Teldrassil<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Though she is human, her lineage includes some High Elf blood (very dilute, but present), and she identifies herself as a Night Elf<br />
<br />
==Professions==<br />
===Primary Professions===<br />
*'''Blacksmith:''' ''Expert'' - 185/225<br />
*'''Miner:''' ''Artisan'' - 208/225<br />
<br />
===Secondary Professions===<br />
*'''Cooking:''' ''Artisan'' - 225/300<br />
*'''First Aid:''' ''Expert'' - 141/225<br />
*'''Fishing:''' ''Novice'' - 20/70<br />
<br />
==Profile==<br />
<br />
Born six years after the Second War to a minor noble family (a distant branch line from the ruling Wrynn family), Constanz was still a girl when to the shock of all the kingdoms of the East, King Arthas assassinated his father and ascended to the Lordaeronian throne, throwing the kingdoms into utter chaos. Shortly afterward, the Undead and their demon masters completed their overthrow of the northern kingdoms, but were held back from the south by the stout hearts of the Dwarves.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, the 14 year old Constanz moved with her parents - diplomats in the service of King Varrian - to Darnassus and spent the following four years, which proved to be the most formative of her adult personality, deeply immersed in the culture and habits of the Night Elves. Eventually, she came to the temple of Elune and became a worshipper of the Moon Goddess. Her long exposure to Teldrassil during her adolescent growth caused the very dilute Elven ancestry in her blood to express itself, and her body has taken on some aspects of a night elf's - her ears, though normally sized, have slight but noticeable points and her eyes glow softly (most noticeable in extremely dim light).<br />
<br />
Eventually returning to Azeroth and the Northshire Abbey for training as a warrior of Azeroth, she nevertheless found herself drawn back toward the Night Elves and their ways. In many ways still an outsider in Darnassus, she nevertheless fights constantly for acceptance within her adopted culture.<br />
<br />
During a brief trip to Gadgetzan, she had an encounter with an agent of the Lich King which left her marked. While his influence is dormant, the scars still remain, and the mark of his effects as well: Her canines are visibly sharper and longer than they should be, though they are not visible when her mouth is closed.<br />
<br />
==Personal motivations==<br />
* Serve her people and the Alliance faithfully<br />
* Prove her worth<br />
* Destroy the Lich King's minions and hamper his efforts wherever and whenever possible<br />
* Become wealthy enough to retire from adventuring<br />
<br />
==Screenshot==<br />
(from WoWViewer 0.45b)<br><br />
[[Image:Constanz01082006.jpg]]</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=18067McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-27T14:45:36Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere... */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
I will be using Fudge for a McMercs game this weekend so here's a few notes for how I'll be doing things.<br />
<br />
My wounding rules are prety standard with the mooching of the 'Clipped' result from FATE. 'Clipped' gives a +1 difficulty level to the next rounds actions. I prefer this to 'Scratched' without a game effect as if it doesn't do anything mechanics-wise, why have a mechanic for it? YMMV.<br />
<br />
Wound Track:<br />
1-2 Clipped [ ] [ ] [ ]<br />
3-4 Wounded [ ]<br />
5-6 Seriously Wounded [ ]<br />
7-8 Incapacitated [ ]<br />
9+ Near Death [ ]<br />
<br />
Weapon Damages:<br />
-1 Bare handed<br />
0 Small Melee (Knife *in Sporting Goods*, Small Club, Telescoping Baton and Chop-Socky Hand-to-Hand)<br />
+1 Medium Melee (Hatchet *in Sporting Goods*, Shortsword)<br />
+2 Large Melee (Broadsword, Battle Axe, Katana) and Light Pistol (.22LR, .25ACP, .32 ACP. .380 ACP)<br />
+3 Two-Handed Melee (Two-Handed Sword/Axe, Polearms, Katana Two-Handed) and medium Pistols (9mm Para, .45 ACP, .40 Rem)<br />
+4 Heavy Pistol (.357 Mag, .44 Mag, .454 Casull, .50 AE)<br />
+5 Light Rifle (5.56 NATO, 5.45 x 39 Russian, 7.62 x 39 Russian)<br />
+6 Medium Rifle (7.62 NATO, 7.62 x 54 Russian, .30-06)<br />
+7 Heavy Rifle (.300 WinMag, 7mm Mag, other big game cartridges)<br />
+8 Heavy Machinegun (.50 BMG, 12.7mm Russian)<br />
<br />
Attributes:<br />
No set attributes but they get 2 free 'Tell us the best things about yourself'. Are you able to lift 50lbs all day? You might be 'Strong +1' then. Be creative and try to steer from athletic and combat-related ones as there are no ex-cops or ex-soldiers allowed and you're freakin' SLACKERS, people.<br />
<br />
Skills:<br />
As the characters are slackers, I will give them 15 skill levels to be slackers with. They pick them and they can't be combat related unless they fit the society and background that the characters grew up in. I live in the US so having some firearm skills might be possible with the correct character background. If you're from the UK and Australia, you're hosed so deal. If they're a college slacker then they select the correct skills for their coursework. Be creative and don't sweat the small stuff. A decent 'Video Games' skill is prefectly reasonable.<br />
<br />
Gifts:<br />
Each character gets one gift. I would suggest they relate to potential rerolls as they suck at combat and are, well, slackers. They need all the help they can get. Be creative and try to relate them to slacking. Stuff like "Makes great coffee" would allow them to reroll suck-up rolls with the Team Leads. "Video Game Gawd" for rerolling video game checks for bragging rights. <br />
<br />
Faults:<br />
Other than 'Broker n' Hell' and 'Financial Dumbass', pick the one thing you don't like about yourself that you put on your application. No, 'Psycho Rapist' and 'Schizophrenia' aren't good choices.<br />
<br />
More later...<br />
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
'''Target Tactical''': ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering. Target Tactical is famous for its policy of giving 5% of its profits to charity; however due to some poor choices, most of the beneficiaries of this policy are NGOPS (see below). You can always tell a rookie TarTac (as Target Tactical McMercs are called) or the one who pissed off the boss most recently.. they are heavily into branding, and one of their group has to wear the Company's logo (alternating rings of red and white, which has led the TarTacs to be called the BullsEye Boys.)<br><br />
'''AKA''': TarTacs, Bulls-Eye Boys<br />
<br />
'''Wal-Mercs''': One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a bright blue PsuevLar armor (giving them the nickname "Blueberries" among other McMercs), with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br><br />
'''AKA''': Blueberries<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets. NGOPS are nigh-universally a way for militant post-college liberals to meet other militant post-college liberals, form short, tempestuous marriages and result in bitter children.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
In the heads-up displays of McMercs, NGOPS tend to be labeled as "Civilian: Do Not Shoot" unless their designer autorifles are clearly visible to the sensors.<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=18066McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-27T14:33:13Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere... */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
I will be using Fudge for a McMercs game this weekend so here's a few notes for how I'll be doing things.<br />
<br />
My wounding rules are prety standard with the mooching of the 'Clipped' result from FATE. 'Clipped' gives a +1 difficulty level to the next rounds actions. I prefer this to 'Scratched' without a game effect as if it doesn't do anything mechanics-wise, why have a mechanic for it? YMMV.<br />
<br />
Wound Track:<br />
1-2 Clipped [ ] [ ] [ ]<br />
3-4 Wounded [ ]<br />
5-6 Seriously Wounded [ ]<br />
7-8 Incapacitated [ ]<br />
9+ Near Death [ ]<br />
<br />
Weapon Damages:<br />
-1 Bare handed<br />
0 Small Melee (Knife *in Sporting Goods*, Small Club, Telescoping Baton and Chop-Socky Hand-to-Hand)<br />
+1 Medium Melee (Hatchet *in Sporting Goods*, Shortsword)<br />
+2 Large Melee (Broadsword, Battle Axe, Katana) and Light Pistol (.22LR, .25ACP, .32 ACP. .380 ACP)<br />
+3 Two-Handed Melee (Two-Handed Sword/Axe, Polearms, Katana Two-Handed) and medium Pistols (9mm Para, .45 ACP, .40 Rem)<br />
+4 Heavy Pistol (.357 Mag, .44 Mag, .454 Casull, .50 AE)<br />
+5 Light Rifle (5.56 NATO, 5.45 x 39 Russian, 7.62 x 39 Russian)<br />
+6 Medium Rifle (7.62 NATO, 7.62 x 54 Russian, .30-06)<br />
+7 Heavy Rifle (.300 WinMag, 7mm Mag, other big game cartridges)<br />
+8 Heavy Machinegun (.50 BMG, 12.7mm Russian)<br />
<br />
Attributes:<br />
No set attributes but they get 2 free 'Tell us the best things about yourself'. Are you able to lift 50lbs all day? You might be 'Strong +1' then. Be creative and try to steer from athletic and combat-related ones as there are no ex-cops or ex-soldiers allowed and you're freakin' SLACKERS, people.<br />
<br />
Skills:<br />
As the characters are slackers, I will give them 15 skill levels to be slackers with. They pick them and they can't be combat related unless they fit the society and background that the characters grew up in. I live in the US so having some firearm skills might be possible with the correct character background. If you're from the UK and Australia, you're hosed so deal. If they're a college slacker then they select the correct skills for their coursework. Be creative and don't sweat the small stuff. A decent 'Video Games' skill is prefectly reasonable.<br />
<br />
Gifts:<br />
Each character gets one gift. I would suggest they relate to potential rerolls as they suck at combat and are, well, slackers. They need all the help they can get. Be creative and try to relate them to slacking. Stuff like "Makes great coffee" would allow them to reroll suck-up rolls with the Team Leads. "Video Game Gawd" for rerolling video game checks for bragging rights. <br />
<br />
Faults:<br />
Other than 'Broker n' Hell' and 'Financial Dumbass', pick the one thing you don't like about yourself that you put on your application. No, 'Psycho Rapist' and 'Schizophrenia' aren't good choices.<br />
<br />
More later...<br />
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
'''Target Tactical''': ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering. Target Tactical is famous for its policy of giving 5% of its profits to charity; however due to some poor choices, most of the beneficiaries of this policy are NGOPS (see below). You can always tell a rookie TarTac (as Target Tactical McMercs are called) or the one who pissed off the boss most recently.. they are heavily into branding, and one of their group has to wear the Company's logo (alternating rings of red and white, which has led the TarTacs to be called the BullsEye Boys.)<br><br />
'''AKA''': TarTacs, Bulls-Eye Boys<br />
<br />
'''Wal-Mercs''': One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a bright blue PsuevLar armor (giving them the nickname "Blueberries" among other McMercs), with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br><br />
'''AKA''': Blueberries<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets. NGOPS are nigh-universally a way for militant post-college liberals to meet other militant post-college liberals, form short, tempestuous marriages and result in bitter children.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
In the heads-up displays of McMercs, NGOPS tend to be labeled as "Civilian: Do Not Shoot" unless their<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=18065McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-27T14:28:20Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
I will be using Fudge for a McMercs game this weekend so here's a few notes for how I'll be doing things.<br />
<br />
My wounding rules are prety standard with the mooching of the 'Clipped' result from FATE. 'Clipped' gives a +1 difficulty level to the next rounds actions. I prefer this to 'Scratched' without a game effect as if it doesn't do anything mechanics-wise, why have a mechanic for it? YMMV.<br />
<br />
Wound Track:<br />
1-2 Clipped [ ] [ ] [ ]<br />
3-4 Wounded [ ]<br />
5-6 Seriously Wounded [ ]<br />
7-8 Incapacitated [ ]<br />
9+ Near Death [ ]<br />
<br />
Weapon Damages:<br />
-1 Bare handed<br />
0 Small Melee (Knife *in Sporting Goods*, Small Club, Telescoping Baton and Chop-Socky Hand-to-Hand)<br />
+1 Medium Melee (Hatchet *in Sporting Goods*, Shortsword)<br />
+2 Large Melee (Broadsword, Battle Axe, Katana) and Light Pistol (.22LR, .25ACP, .32 ACP. .380 ACP)<br />
+3 Two-Handed Melee (Two-Handed Sword/Axe, Polearms, Katana Two-Handed) and medium Pistols (9mm Para, .45 ACP, .40 Rem)<br />
+4 Heavy Pistol (.357 Mag, .44 Mag, .454 Casull, .50 AE)<br />
+5 Light Rifle (5.56 NATO, 5.45 x 39 Russian, 7.62 x 39 Russian)<br />
+6 Medium Rifle (7.62 NATO, 7.62 x 54 Russian, .30-06)<br />
+7 Heavy Rifle (.300 WinMag, 7mm Mag, other big game cartridges)<br />
+8 Heavy Machinegun (.50 BMG, 12.7mm Russian)<br />
<br />
Attributes:<br />
No set attributes but they get 2 free 'Tell us the best things about yourself'. Are you able to lift 50lbs all day? You might be 'Strong +1' then. Be creative and try to steer from athletic and combat-related ones as there are no ex-cops or ex-soldiers allowed and you're freakin' SLACKERS, people.<br />
<br />
Skills:<br />
As the characters are slackers, I will give them 15 skill levels to be slackers with. They pick them and they can't be combat related unless they fit the society and background that the characters grew up in. I live in the US so having some firearm skills might be possible with the correct character background. If you're from the UK and Australia, you're hosed so deal. If they're a college slacker then they select the correct skills for their coursework. Be creative and don't sweat the small stuff. A decent 'Video Games' skill is prefectly reasonable.<br />
<br />
Gifts:<br />
Each character gets one gift. I would suggest they relate to potential rerolls as they suck at combat and are, well, slackers. They need all the help they can get. Be creative and try to relate them to slacking. Stuff like "Makes great coffee" would allow them to reroll suck-up rolls with the Team Leads. "Video Game Gawd" for rerolling video game checks for bragging rights. <br />
<br />
Faults:<br />
Other than 'Broker n' Hell' and 'Financial Dumbass', pick the one thing you don't like about yourself that you put on your application. No, 'Psycho Rapist' and 'Schizophrenia' aren't good choices.<br />
<br />
More later...<br />
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
'''Target Tactical''': ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering. Target Tactical is famous for its policy of giving 5% of its profits to charity; however due to some poor choices, most of the beneficiaries of this policy are NGOPS (see below). You can always tell a rookie TarTac (as Target Tactical McMercs are called) or the one who pissed off the boss most recently.. they are heavily into branding, and one of their group has to wear the Company's logo (alternating rings of red and white, which has led the TarTacs to be called the BullsEye Boys.)<br><br />
'''AKA''': TarTacs, Bulls-Eye Boys<br />
<br />
'''Wal-Mercs''': One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a bright blue PsuevLar armor (giving them the nickname "Blueberries" among other McMercs), with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br><br />
'''AKA''': Blueberries<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=17829McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-24T17:51:26Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
'''Target Tactical''': ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering. Target Tactical is famous for its policy of giving 5% of its profits to charity; however due to some poor choices, most of the beneficiaries of this policy are NGOPS (see below).<br />
<br />
'''Wal-Mercs''': One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a blue PsuevLar armor, with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=17825McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-24T16:03:48Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
Target Tactical: ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering. Target Tactical is famous for its policy of giving 5% of its profits to charity; however due to some poor choices, most of the beneficiaries of this policy are NGOPS (see below).<br />
<br />
Wal-Mercs: One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a blue PsuevLar armor, with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=McMercenaries:Orientation&diff=17824McMercenaries:Orientation2006-01-24T16:02:08Z<p>Iceberg3k: /* McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Orientation: Welcome to your <strike>last</strike> new career!==<br />
<br />
'''The future sucks. Especially for you.'''<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, you got the letter you've been dreading for years: Your student loan got bought out. You’ve enlisted as mercenary to avoid a life of forced labor in a corporate debtor’s prison. A training video later and you’re on the ground in a war zone with a memo listing you’re objectives and a gun with labels indicating which end to point at the enemy. Don’t worry though. Your employment contract requires your missions to have at least a 20% chance of survival.<br />
<br />
The company wants updates on your progress but, for legal reasons, they’ll don’t want to how exactly what you’re doing all the time. So do what all disgruntled employees do. Goof off, steal stuff, and lie to your boss. Just try not get fired too soon. If you don’t pay the company for your training and weapons, they’re legally entitled to harvest your organs for resale.<br />
<br />
Fight uppity natives and other mercenaries for Democracy(tm), Freedom(tm), or whatever. <br />
Join the McMercenaries. <br />
<br />
<br />
''Would you like explosions with that?''<br />
<br />
===What's this all about?===<br />
(General intro to the game/setting)<br />
<br />
==Game play==<br />
(links to rules pages)<br />
<br />
==McMercenaries: Who do you want to kill today?==<br />
(descriptions of McMercenary companies)<br />
<br />
Target Tactical: ''Shoot more. Pay less.'' Target Tactical is the second largest McMerc company in the world, after Wal-Mercs (see below). While the Wal-Mercs tend to cost less for ops, TT are positioned as an 'upscale' discount mercenary corps. Their company flak jackets tend to jarringly conflict with the landscape a little less than Wal-Mercs', and they are more tolerant of customizations and variations from the norm. Don't let that fool you, though, they are just as ruthless and intolerant of screw-offs (which tend to be the wide majority of their employee base) as Wal-Mercs. Company flak jackets are rust-red, with a khaki-colored helmet covering.<br />
<br />
Wal-Mercs: One of the more ahem.. rigorous McMerc companies out there (and boy does that say a lot!) It's said that even higher management eats, sleeps and screws on a schedule (if they had enough toilets, they'd probably <bleep> on schedule too.) Pioneered the JNT (Just in Time) ammunition delivery system that scans every team, and is supposed to deliver their ammo just before they run out. (In practice, they haven't QUITE figured out that the average WalMerc shift is 7 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds of boredom, and 45 seconds of screaming terror with fingers clenching on the button marked "Full Auto"). Their standard uniform is a blue PsuevLar armor, with a yellow happy smily face on the helmet.<br />
<br />
==NGOPS: Hippies... they're everywhere...==<br />
<br />
'''NGOPS''' - private, non-profit combat charities, like ''Assassins Without Borders'', ''Meanpeace'' and ''Christian Children's Corps'' - are the bane of every McMercenary's life: Do-gooders on the battlefield, fighting for causes they believe in. They are better trained than you, better armed than you, and filled with the enthusiasm and zeal doing good works brings. And because many McMercenary companies have policies of giving some of their revenues to charity, most often they're partially funded by you.<br />
<br />
What a bunch of bastards.<br />
<br />
Worse, the NGOPS - nigh-universally the kids of rich parents who kept them out of student debt in college - all think that you're all a bunch of corporatist bastards who sold your souls for a paycheck and the latest in cyberware, while their org is running on a shoestring and a prayer and barely has enough money to keep its operatives in bullets.<br />
<br />
Yet, somehow, their Birkenshock Smart Armor is always shiny, and their Latte always steaming hot.<br />
<br />
Utter bastards.<br />
<br />
==Inspirational material==<br />
* [http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=569 Area 88]<br />
* ''Bill, the Galactic Hero'', by Harry Harrison<br />
* ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller<br />
* ''M*A*S*H'' (novel by Richard Hooker, film by Robert Altman, TV series created by Larry Gelbart)<br />
* [http://www.schlockmercenary.com Schlock Mercenary]<br />
* ''Jennifer Government'', by Max Barry</div>Iceberg3khttps://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=Iceberg3k:Constanz&diff=17796Iceberg3k:Constanz2006-01-23T22:47:03Z<p>Iceberg3k: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Constanz Clearwater''' - Feathermoon server<br />
<br />
'''Race:''' Human*<br><br />
'''Age:''' 18<br><br />
'''Class:''' Warrior<br><br />
'''Spec:''' Fury-Arms<br><br />
'''Guild:''' Vanguards of Azeroth<br><br />
'''Level:''' 36<br />
<br />
'''Eyes:''' Hazel<br><br />
'''Skin:''' Dark<br><br />
'''Hair:''' Red-brown<br />
<br />
'''Hometown:''' Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains<br><br />
'''Current home:''' Auberdine, Darkshore<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Though she is human, her lineage includes some High Elf blood (very dilute, but present), and she identifies herself as a Night Elf<br />
<br />
==Professions==<br />
===Primary Professions===<br />
*'''Blacksmith:''' ''Expert'' - 185/225<br />
*'''Miner:''' ''Expert'' - 208/225<br />
<br />
===Secondary Professions===<br />
*'''Cooking:''' ''Artisan'' - 225/300<br />
*'''First Aid:''' ''Expert'' - 141/225<br />
*'''Fishing:''' ''Apprentice'' - 20/70<br />
<br />
==Profile==<br />
<br />
Born six years after the Second War to a minor noble family (a distant branch line from the ruling Wrynn family), Constanz was still a girl when to the shock of all the kingdoms of the East, King Arthas assassinated his father and ascended to the Lordaeronian throne, throwing the kingdoms into utter chaos. Shortly afterward, the Undead and their demon masters completed their overthrow of the northern kingdoms, but were held back from the south by the stout hearts of the Dwarves.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, the 14 year old Constanz moved with her parents - diplomats in the service of King Varrian - to Darnassus and spent the following four years, which proved to be the most formative of her adult personality, deeply immersed in the culture and habits of the Night Elves. Eventually, she came to the temple of Elune and became a worshipper of the Moon Goddess. Her long exposure to Teldrassil during her adolescent growth caused the very dilute Elven ancestry in her blood to express itself, and her body has taken on some aspects of a night elf's - her ears, though normally sized, have slight but noticeable points and her eyes glow softly (most noticeable in extremely dim light).<br />
<br />
Eventually returning to Azeroth and the Northshire Abbey for training as a warrior of Azeroth, she nevertheless found herself drawn back toward the Night Elves and their ways. In many ways still an outsider in Darnassus, she nevertheless fights constantly for acceptance within her adopted culture.<br />
<br />
During a brief trip to Gadgetzan, she had an encounter with an agent of the Lich King which left her marked. While his influence is dormant, the scars still remain, and the mark of his effects as well: Her canines are visibly sharper and longer than they should be, though they are not visible when her mouth is closed.<br />
<br />
==Personal motivations==<br />
* Serve her people and the Alliance faithfully<br />
* Prove her worth<br />
* Destroy the Lich King's minions and hamper his efforts wherever and whenever possible<br />
* Become wealthy enough to retire from adventuring<br />
<br />
==Screenshot==<br />
(from WoWViewer 0.45b)<br><br />
[[Image:Constanz01082006.jpg]]</div>Iceberg3k