RPG Lexica:DEF
D
- Darkness isn't dark
- A phrase indicating that a given game system is acknowledged to be flawed, but is played anyway because it delivers a good entertainment experience. "But it doesn't make sense!" "What do you expect? In this game darkness isn't dark."
- Origin: From the Dungeons and Dragons revised third edition, in which the Darkness spell was described as creating "an area of shadowy illumination" in which it was hard to see. Since "shadowy illumination" is still better than no illumination at all, this implied that casting Darkness in a room that was already pitch dark would make it lighter.
- Ding!
- Said when a character has just gained a level or otherwise reached a significant point of advancement. :Origin: The online RPG EverQuest, which played a dinging sound effect when a PC gained a level; this convention was adopted by several other online RPGs.
E
F
- fine red mist
- What is said to be left of a character who has just taken an obscene amount of damage, much more than what was needed to kill him. As an example, a character who was right next to a large bomb when it went off could be said to have been "reduced to a fine red mist".
- ______-fu
- Skill in ______, especially if the approach to that could be said to come from extensive learning or training. Often used with pseudo-Zen sentence constructions, such as "My _____-fu is strong." to indicate a high level of skill.
- Origin: Generalization of the -fu in "kung-fu". (Note that this is actually wrong: according to Dictionary.com, it's the "kung" part that denotes skill.)
- Usage:
- GM: "How the hell did you manage to create a character this powerful at the starting level?"
- Player: "My chargen-fu is strong."
