Editing RPG Lexica:ABC

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 4: Line 4:
  
  
;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 defense - '''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.
+
;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.
 
 
 
 
;argumentum ad fireballum: The argument that realism doesn't matter in a setting with supernatural elements; formally, "As a discussion about realism in a fantasy setting grows longer, the probability of someone claiming the irrelevance of realism in the presence of magic approaches one." (obviously derived from Godwin's Law)  Named after its most common form: “There’s no point in arguing for realism when there are wizards lobbing fireballs.”
 
:Coined by NiTessine in [http://nitessine.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/argumentum-ad-fireballum this blog post], and possibly popularized by its inclusion in [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=507004 this thread.]
 
  
  
 
;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.]
+
:Addendum: [http://www.pvponline.com/2004/06/01/tue-jun-01/ Here's the original strip that spawned this term.]
  
 
==B==
 
==B==
Line 20: Line 16:
  
  
;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 maneuver; 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 maneuver.   
+
;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.   
  
  
Line 29: Line 25:
  
  
;Big Lebowski Theory of Roleplayer Types: 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 might 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.  
+
;Big Lebowski Theory of Roleplayer Types: 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.  
  
  
Line 48: Line 44:
  
 
;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...)
+
: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''.
  
  
Line 67: Line 60:
 
#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).
 
#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).
 
#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]]")
 
#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]]")
#When applied to a scenario: when players side-step the GM's carefully structured plot by using an entirely unexpected approach and solving or avoiding the problem at the start of play.
+
#When applied to a scenario: when players side-step the GM's carefully structured plot by using an entirely unexpected appraoch and solving or avoiding the problem at the start of play.
#As a catch-all: "wrong," bad and simultaneously despised and disregarded for vague and ambiguous reasons.  Compare with '''bad wrong fun''', something "wrong" and "bad" but ''liked''.
+
#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''.
 
#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]].
 
#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]].
  
Line 83: Line 76:
  
  
;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 penalized 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.)
+
;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.)
 
 
 
 
;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]].
 
  
  
;Caster Supremacy
+
;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. See also [[RPG_Lexica:MNO|Monty Haul]].
: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.
 
  
  
Line 105: Line 90:
  
 
;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.
 
  
  
Line 133: Line 114:
  
  
;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]]''.
+
;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.
  
  
;Cleric problem: In D&D, a problem encountered during character generation where no-one wants to play a Cleric, but the Cleric is a crucially important role for the survivability and success of the party. This is because, while a Cleric usually plays a very important support role in an adventuring group, dispensing crucial healing and [[buffs]], he is otherwise somewhat limited in his combat powers and abilities. More generally, the Cleric problem can be extended to any role or power which is important for the group but not particularly exciting for whichever player ends up having to take it on. The Cleric problem can be solved by providing these support roles with cool abilities of their own, or making their support natures less of a drain on their effectiveness other, more exciting spheres.
+
;Cleric problem: In D&D, a problem encountred during character generation where no-one wants to play a Cleric, but the Cleric is a crucially important role for the survivability and success of the party. This is because, while a Cleric usually plays a very important support role in an adventuring group, dispensing crucial healing and [[buffs]], he is otherwise somewhat limited in his combat powers and abilities. More generally, the Cleric problem can be extended to any role or power which is important for the group but not particularly exciting for whichever player ends up having to take it on. The Cleric problem can be solved by providing these support roles with cool abilities of their own, or making their support natures less of a drain on their effectiveness other, more exciting spheres.
  
  
Line 161: Line 142:
  
  
;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. Six-sided "FUDGE dice" have two plus signs (+), two minus signs (-), and two blank faces.
+
;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.
  
  

Please note that all contributions to RPGnet may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see RPGnet:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

Cancel Editing help (opens in new window)