Difference between revisions of "RPG Lexica:JKL"

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:Usage: "He said he's going to kill my [[character]]'s wife if I don't give him back the superweapon? She's not a PC, it's not like I care. Man, this is just a Juicer Problem."
 
:Usage: "He said he's going to kill my [[character]]'s wife if I don't give him back the superweapon? She's not a PC, it's not like I care. Man, this is just a Juicer Problem."
 
:The term is a reference to Juicers in ''[[Rifts]]'' whose awesome combat power was balanced by a significantly shortened lifespan.  This would be horrific to any real person, but unlikely to faze any players since it's rare that enough time passes in-game for it to be an issue.  Coined by '''tk421''' on the RPOpen board.
 
:The term is a reference to Juicers in ''[[Rifts]]'' whose awesome combat power was balanced by a significantly shortened lifespan.  This would be horrific to any real person, but unlikely to faze any players since it's rare that enough time passes in-game for it to be an issue.  Coined by '''tk421''' on the RPOpen board.
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Revision as of 01:12, 31 December 2006

J

John Crichton Effect
The entry of a new PC during the middle of an adventure. Usually with upsetting or disastrous results with the rest of the adventuring party. This title refers to the popular Scifi show "Farscape", where the main protagonist was accidentally teleported into a crew of fleeing space fugitives on a stolen ship. He was knocked out cold because he overreacted to what was going on. A common PC reaction to similar circumstances.


Juicer Problem
Any time a game gives PCs an option for significant power with drawbacks that would be horrific to a real person, but, since the PC is not a real person, the drawback is nonentity.
Usage: "He said he's going to kill my character's wife if I don't give him back the superweapon? She's not a PC, it's not like I care. Man, this is just a Juicer Problem."
The term is a reference to Juicers in Rifts whose awesome combat power was balanced by a significantly shortened lifespan. This would be horrific to any real person, but unlikely to faze any players since it's rare that enough time passes in-game for it to be an issue. Coined by tk421 on the RPOpen board.

1072295844191406971290

K

Katana
Long, curved oriental sword. Katana are the subject of numerous myths related to the quality of their construction and their sharpness, such as the claim that a katana was considered a poor blade unless it was capable of cutting through four condemned men in a single stroke (in reality, late-medieval period European swords, especially those of the Toledo tradition, matched or exceeded the katana in quality). This, in turn, has led to stories of gamers seriously overestimating the abilities of a character armed with a katana: the most famous example being a story in which a player allegedly attempted to have a katana-wielding PC use his sword to cut through the armor of a modern tank. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to mean an unrealistically powerful weapon, or a weapon which is sought-after for "coolness" value regardless of its relevance or usefulness to a campaign or setting. A katana is, of course, the favoured weapon of a ninja.
An in-depth article about katanas can be found at Wikipedia.


Kewl Powerz
Generic name for the abilities possessed by PCs in a game that are above and beyond those of normal men. Depending on the game, this can mean superpowers, magical ability, or whatever else the game will allow. The "l33tspeak" spelling of the term was initially meant to be dismissive of the kind of game where a character's abilities are more important than who the character is, but over time it's come to be used to specify that what the speaker refers to is the kind of ability that could be dismissed as silly overpowered chrome in certain genres. Like "roleplaying vs rollplaying", "Kewl powerz" as a term has become so cliche that it's next to impossible to use it without irony.


Kill Them and Take Their Stuff
A humorous description of the method which winds up being used by most RPG characters to solve problems they are having with other individuals or groups. It is the essence of the dungeon crawl. Sometimes abreviated to simply KTATTS on message boards, such as RPG.net


Kingmaker problem
A problem arising in game design - typically board or card games - whereby it is possible for a player who themselves has no chance of winning, to decide which other player will win. A typical case is a game in which an eliminated player is required to give all their resources to the player who eliminated them; in a game with two evenly-matched players and one who is behind, the trailing player can often choose which other player is able to eliminate them and gain their resources. A further common case is auction games, where a player can bid unnecessarily high and not only lose the game for themselves but give a permanent advantage to the player who recieved the bid resources. This is a problem because a kingmaking player, having no possibility of winning the game, no longer has any value for in-game resources; thus, their decision as to who to enable to win must be made via other factors, such as out-of-game grudges or friendships, or "revenge" for actions in earlier play (which can stagnate the game as players become reticient to attack each other for fear of revenge later on).


King Rat
The male equivalent of a Queen Bee. Exceptionally rare in RPGing due to the gender imbalance of the hobby.


Kludge
Term for an inelegant, nonintuitive or in some other way "broken" rule that stands out from an otherwise good design. For example, "The combat system is great, but the way it handles grapples is such a kludge." This term is borrowed from computer hacker culture, in which it refers to anything done in a way which is hasty, wrong, and/or inferior, but which performs the intended function.
Origin: hacker slang. The canonical definition for "kludge" (which rhymes with "stooge," not "fudge" as one might expect) is something ugly but functional (compare "chrome", which is something beautiful but useless).


Knights of the Dinner Table
(often abbreviated to KODT) A comic strip drawn by Jolly Blackburn and now published as a stand-alone comic by Kenzer and Company that follows the story of several gaming groups. Because much of the comic revolves around the characters playing RPGs, most of the art frames simply show the characters sitting around a table talking to each other. Has famously represented or exaggerated a number of classic gaming urban legends, anecdotes, or problems discovered in systems, as well as spawning a number of memorable quotes of his own, such as "Hoody Hoo" as a cry of joy, "I waste him with my crossbow", and the description of the GM as "the gamer who never plays."

L

Lasersharking
  1. The (theoretical) improvement of an item or being already powerful, competent, efficient and/or deadly by combining it with another item of similar perceived deadliness. In gaming, said additional element is most often either SF-grade high tech or some other sort of fantastic item.
  2. The combination of two disparate genres whose conventions normally preclude their union. RPG examples include Deadlands: The Weird West, Pinnacle Entertainment (now Great White Games)’s Wild West/Steampunk/Magic game, or Gear Krieg, Dream Pod 9’s World War II/Mecha game.
The term's origin can be traced to the comedy spoof movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, in which Dr. Evil threatens to lower Austin into a pool containing "sharks.. with frickin' lasers on their heads". The gaming analogy was first used by Jack Spencer Jr on The Forge in this thread.


Lesbianstripperninja
Sometimes, Drowlesbianstripperninja. Comical term, coined by Kyle Schuant, "Jim Bob" on the fora, to describe the classic character most male gamers (and many female gamers) have created at some point in their gaming lives, usually when they were about 15. The Lesbianstripperninja has certain key elements to her, namely, she always tempts men with her semi-nudity but never puts out (because the teenaged male player would be uncomfortable roleplaying sex with his friends' characters), but does put out with female NPCs (because the teenaged male player thinks lesbians are t3h h4wt!!!); she is extremely stealthy, deadly, and agile; and is invariably scantily clad. Typically she will be East Asian in appearance, but often a Drow Elf. See also Ninja.


Level-Up, Leveling-up
In RPGs where characters gain experience and advance in levels that provide increased benefit; the application of those benefits (increasing hit points, adding skill levels/ranks, ect.) is sometimes referred to as Leveling-up.


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