RPG Lexica:GHI

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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.


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.
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.


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 Steve Jackson Games, its fourth edition was recently released.

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.


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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