Difference between revisions of "RPG Lexica:GHI"

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(G: expanded 'Gazebo' entry)
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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 systems and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS.  See [http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html The Forge Glossary]  
 
;GNS:  An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism".  A system used at [[RPG Lexica:DEF|The Forge]] to categorise gamers and game systems and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS.  See [http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/glossary.html The Forge Glossary]  
 
  
  
 
;griefing:  To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players.  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 RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.
 
;griefing:  To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players.  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 RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.
  
 
;[[GURPS]]: Acronym for ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', an RPG which allows players to play characters in any gameworld, from any genre or setting, at any level. (Supposedly.)  Published by [http://www.sjgames.com Steve Jackson Games], its fourth edition was recently released.
 
  
 
==H==
 
==H==
  
 
;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types.  Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]
 
;Hero: A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types.  Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by [http://www.herogames.com Hero Games.]
 
 
;Hit points:  (or HP) A generic measure of the health of a character.  Damage caused to a character results in the loss of hit points; when certain thresholds are passed, the character is considered incapacitated, knocked out, or dead. 
 
  
  
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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.
 
;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.
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==I==
 
==I==
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[[Category:Terminology]]
 
[[Category:Terminology]]

Revision as of 23:22, 3 June 2005

G

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 griefing.


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: 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 players - 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.
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."


get medieval
to be exceptionally violent toward something or someone. See "I'm going to get medieval on his ass"


gimp
  1. 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 D&D: 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.
  2. As a verb: to create a gimp character, or to plan for a character to be a gimp for certain periods.
  3. 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 GMs have against the idea of characters starting the game having already advanced.
  4. 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.

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.


Golden Rule, The
"Rules were made to be broken". Traditionally a paragraph in the beginning of a gamesmaster'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 gamesmaster ruling that the game would be more fun if the players were not arguing over exactly how much an obscure ruling reference benefits another player over them. Interesting to note that Dungeons and Dragons V3.5's version of the golden rule (under adjudicating) states that rules should be changed for more logical sounding ones.


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 characters 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.


GMPC
  1. An NPC that's basically an avatar of the GM running the game. Can be helpful and even acceptable if his "divine favor" is toned down and/or used in moderation, but more often becomes something like #2:
  2. Derogatory term for an 'uber' NPC, one who's abilities and assistance overshadow the PCs, who is still supposedly on the PCs 'side', but manages to dominate the game because of his "divine favor".

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 D&D 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.


GNS
An abbreviation for "gamism, narrativism, simulationism". A system used at The Forge to categorise gamers and game systems and experiences; an advanced and more strongly defined version of GDS. See The Forge Glossary


griefing
To play a game while drawing one's main enjoyment from harassing, annoying, or hurting the game for other players. 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 RPGs, griefers are usually quickly ejected from the group, but they can prove more of a problem in online RPGs and other public games.


H

Hero
A RPG which was originally geared toward playing four-color supers (from comic books), then expanded to accommodate a variety of settings and character types. Currently in its Fifth Revised edition, it is published by Hero Games.


Hitpoint gain problem
A modelling difficulty arising from the use of hit points. In many game system, 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.


Holding Tank
The notional part of an RPG club where new players wait to become involved in games. Because most RPG players tend to enjoy long-term campaigns 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.


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.


I

"I'm going to get medieval on his ass"
A quote from 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."


Intelligence problem
The difficulty encountered in enabling Intelligence stats to work correctly, in those 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.


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