RPG Lexica:ABC

B

bad wrong fun

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

Bag of rats

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

Boggle

To surprise or shock someone to the point where they're just standing or sitting there, not moving, just STARING at what you've done with a shocked expression. Also boggled, shocked to the point of not responding, just staring at the source of the shock.

Origin: Possibly from the RPG Toon, a game where you play cartoon characters, to describe a similar state which results in the character in question losing turns. (Often shown in cartoons by having the character's eyes bulge out toward the boggling thing or pop out of the character's head completely.)

Boobs bonus

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

Borgstromancy

The ability to understand a complex, outlandish, or badly explained setting or system well enough to run a game based on it.

Origin: Taken, possibly unfairly, from the name of the RPG authoress Rebecca Borgstrom (also known as R. Sean Borgstrom) who is notorious for writing games with spectacularly original premises and intriuging supporting fiction that are however almost impossible to understand well enough to actually play.

C

Camp

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

Character

The imaginary persona "played" by the player of a RPG.

Character Build System

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

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 random-roll, depending on the RPG being used.

Corebook

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

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