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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]]).
 
;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]]).
:Addendum: [http://pvponline.com/comic/tue-jun-01 Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]
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:Addendum: [http://www.pvponline.com/2004/06/01/tue-jun-01/ Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]
  
 
==B==
 
==B==
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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.
 
;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.
 
 
;Booth Babe: A hired model who stands around at a booth at an RPG or similar convention in order to attract attention, but has no interest or involvement in the hobby. Should be used carefully: the assumption that any attractive woman around an RPG booth is a booth babe is an offensive stereotype (see '''Fake Geek Girl'''). Also, by metaphor, an attractive female image used to sell a game that is nothing to do with the game (also known as "Lady Not-In-This-Game").
 
  
  
 
;Borgstromancy:  The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.  
 
;Borgstromancy:  The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.  
:Origin:  Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the [[RPG]] author 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''.  Rebecca Borgstrom has since changed her name to Jenna Moran, and a more comprehensible edition of Nobilis has come out since then, but this name has stuck because "Moranancy" would sound really strange. (This convoluted and non-indicative etymology is probably entirely appropriate to the sense of the word...)
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:Origin:  Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the [[RPG]] author 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''.  Rebecca Borgstrom has since changed her name to Jenna Moran and rewritten Nobilis several times to increase its accessibility, but this name has stuck (because "Moranancy" would sound really strange)
  
  
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;Candy Man: This term is borrowed slang from the street, where a candy man is a physician that prescribes medications at the patient's request without properly determining if the patient is in need of the prescription medication.  In gaming, a candy man is a referee that awards gratuitous amounts of experience, treasure, equipment, and magic items to the characters, which are not commensurate with the difficulty of the adventure. See also [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Monty Haul]].
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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 properly determining if the patient is in need of the prescription medication.  In gaming, a candy man is a referee that awards gratuitous amounts of experience, treasure, equipment, and magic items to the characters, which are not commensurate with the difficulty of the adventure. See also [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Monty Haul]].
 
 
 
 
;Caster Supremacy
 
:A common design issue in fantasy RPGs, in particularly ''Dungeons And Dragons'' in which characters who cast spells or have other magical abilities are superior in play to any character who does not either have such abilities or have help from someone who does. An extreme version of the '''Dumb Fighter problem''' (q.v.). Typical examples of caster supremacy include:
 
* Giving magic users spells which duplicate mundane tasks with no chance of failure (eg, a spell which instantly opens a locked door, compared to a thief who would have to manually pick the lock and invest points in their lockpicking skill)
 
* Giving magic users spells which shut down mundane tasks and cannot be mundanely bypassed (eg, the level 1 spell ''Alarm'' in ''Dungeons and Dragons'' alerts the caster to unauthorized presence in an area; no thief - not even at level 20 - can avoid this happening, meaning that any stealth robbery against any significant opponent in the world must be accompanied by a wizard)
 
* Giving magic users spells which can make dramatic changes to the setting or narrative while others without magic can not (eg, a wizard could ''Control Weather'' to save a village by watering their crops; a fighter will not have any equivalent of this)
 
There are varied opinions on how damaging or otherwise this is; some gamers dislike it generally while some dislike it only if the setting does not reflect it. There are alternative solutions to dealing with it, from scaling down the power of magic users to giving every character some access to magic.
 
  
  
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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]
 
;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]
: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.  
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: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 [[buy viagra online without a prescription]] 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.  
  
  
 
;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''.
 
;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''.
 
 
;Chandler's Flaw
 
:Chandler's Law for writers is: "when in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." The logic is that this always creates a strong narrative beat which can almost always be justified later on. If the action in an RPG is guided (and/or judged) by narrative consistency alone, this becomes Chandler's Flaw: an opponent appearing from an unobserved location can ''always'' be made narratively consistent, but an RPG in which opponents constantly appeared in this way would be unsatisfying as both a game and a narrative. This is thus evidence that narrative consistency cannot be the sole metric for guiding action in an RPG.
 
  
  

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