(Update: As of 3/22, the newly-revised, 216-term RPG Glossary is up and running. My thanks to everyone who contributed!)
For a little while now, I’ve been thinking that TT’s RPG Glossary needs to be expanded to include more obscure and uncommon terminology. That would make it more useful to a wider range of game masters.
Sometimes all I need is a little kick in the ass: Yesterday, TT reader Walt C. emailed me with two new definitions, including one (homebrew) that I can’t believe I missed the first time around (thanks, Walt!).
GMs, fire up your jargon: it’s glossary time.
The Goal
With the first glossary (the current version), the goal was to “cover every gaming term that is both related to GMing and common to most RPGs.” I think it does that well.
What’s missing are the less common terms — jargon, slang and phrases that are GMing-related, but not widely used. And ironically, those are the ones most likely to need looking up in a glossary: the stuff you don’t hear everyday.
With that in mind, there’s a new goal for the revised glossary: To include every term related to GMing, common or uncommon, that’s used in at least three gaming groups.
In other words, in-jokes that only your group knows about wouldn’t make the cut, but if you’ve heard the same term in a couple of places online, or if everyone in your area uses it, it’s probably common enough to be in the glossary.
Your Contributions
The current version of the glossary was assembled and improved based on reader suggestions, and I’d definitely like to do the same thing for the revised version.
New definitions will be added to the glossary page here on TT, and I might publish also publish the revised glossary in another form (perhaps a PDF, or even a book) later on. Because this is a collaborative effort, I’d like to include your contributions in the online glossary, as well as in any possible future publications.
If you comment below, please be aware that I may use your comment in a published version of this glossary (online or elsewhere). By commenting on this post, you agree to let me do that. As before, I’ll credit everyone who contributes to the glossary using the name and URL (if you provide one) that you comment with.
So how about it — what else should be included in our RPG Glossary?
Emergency Break (n) – The Player who is never ready to take his turn. When the Initiative rotation comes to him, he stutters, stammers and looks things up. The game tends to screech to a halt at this point. Emergency Break.
Dice Monkey (n) – 1) A person who plays tabletop roleplaying games that require various types of dice. 2) A person who collects dice for the sole purpose of having an eclectic collection of dice for use with roleplaying games.
Broken (adj) — One or more rules that, when properly manipulated, causes a player or character to have unfair or unintended advantages, often far exceeding any related cost.
Usage: “Dude, when you take these feats and give up your ability to read, your 2nd level character has an attack bonus of +12 and damage bonus of +20! That’s broken!”
Some of these I posted previously, but I’m using Martin’s new guidelines in resubmitting them. Others are new.
Armor Class (AC): The score needed to hit a character. While derived from D&D and its various incarnations, Armor Class or AC is still in general use as a title for a defense score.
Back-up Character: A PC held in reserve to be used whenever a current PC is killed or otherwise removed from the campaign. The term is sometimes used in jest by a GM to threaten players (e.g. “Don’t worry, the next encounter is easy. You have your back-up characters ready?”).
Box Text: Flavor text in an adventure that is often read verbatim to the players.
Buddy: A player who is only at the table because his friends are gaming. Significant Others are a common form of Buddy.
Character-Driven (or Player-Driven) Plot: Most common in LARPs. Plots are generated by the players reacting to their environment.
Class-and-Level system: A game system in which characters are created in a clearly defined role and increase in power at regular, predictable intervals.
Closed Campaign: A campaign that has an expected ending, usually after predetermined goals have been met.
Combat Monster: A character who is extremely skilled at combat (not necessarily a Power Gamer). Some characters morph into Combat Monsters through Experience.
Core Rules: The basic rulebooks necessary to run a game, minus all splat books and other rule additions (“You can only create characters using the core rules”).
Critical: An attack so successful that it gives an extra benefit. Usually used as a noun (“I got a critical!”).
Dice Pool: A game system that encourages rolling handfuls of dice in order to generate a result.
Dicing the scene: Any social interaction that is completely determined by a skill check rather than any actual roleplay.
Drama King/Queen: A somewhat derogatory term for a player who enjoys roleplaying his character to excess.
Dungeon Crawl: A (generally) less offensive term for hack-and-slash. Also known as “Old School.â€
Exploder: A dice result in a system that allows another roll to be added to it.
Fistful-o-Dice: A derogatory term regarding “dice pool” systems.
Fumble: A failure so spectacular that it causes extra aggravation. In d20 games, this also called a “One.”
Game Breaker: A power or ability that, while official, runs the risk of disrupting campaigns. GMs use the term as justification for disallowing certain elements in their campaigns.
Game Time: A measurement of time within the game, as opposed to actual time. (“Okay, we leave the town and travel to the hills. What time is it game time when we arrive?”).
Glass Ninja: A character that is extremely difficult to hit, but goes down easily once hit.
Henchman: Originally, an NPC hired by a PC to travel with him (also called a Hireling). In modern games, a henchman is an NPC with a power level greater than a mook but less than a Big Bad.
Kewl Powerz: Interesting abilities available to characters. Sometimes used in a derogatory manner (e.g. “He only wants to play a Jedi because of the kewl powerz he’ll get.”).
Level-up: The act of gaining a new level in a class-and-level system.
Mini-campaign: A shorter version of a closed campaign, usually comprising of a handful of adventures.
Monkey Wrench: Any action taken by a player for the purpose of disrupting an adventure, usually for the player’s own amusement.
Munchkin Disadvantage: A disadvantage that gives a player extra points to build his character, but is not really a detriment during actual play.
“Okay, give me a roll”: Cribbed from the “Fear of Girls” mini-movie, this phrase is uttered (in a way that mimics the way Doug says it in the movie) whenever a PC attempts to seduce an NPC.
Old School: Any fantasy campaign primarily involving dungeon crawls and combat.
Open Campaign: A campaign designed to run indefinitely.
Padding: A technique where a GM purposefully eats up session time. Random encounter combats are the traditional methods, although overlong social scenes or downtime are other common methods. GMs usually resort to padding for one of two reasons: First, they may feel that they don’t have enough material to last through the current session, or Second, something unexpected happened during the course of the session and the GM wants to buy time to consider it.
Plot Thread: A common LARP technique, plot threads are small plots or subplots given to players by LARP GMs to be followed at their own pace. If the intended player(s) fail(s) to follow a particular plot thread, it is usually handed to another player.
Point system: A game system in which players are given a set number of points to generate characters. Advancement occurs incrementally, as XP can usually be immediately spent to improve something on the character sheet.
Power Creep: The tendency for the PCs and their adversaries to get more powerful as a campaign progresses, often beyond the original scope of the campaign.
PreGen: A player character that is created by someone other than the player, usually the GM or packaged with an adventure. PreGens are commonly used at Cons. (ex. As long as a player participates in part of character creation, the resulting PC is not usually considered a PreGen).
Rollplay: An insult, usually only found in written form, directed at campaigns that emphasize combat and dungeon-crawling. Usually contrasted with “Roleplay,” which the insulter interprets to mean “diceless social interaction.”
San Check: In the Call of Cthulhu RPG, a San check is short for a Sanity Check. The term has drifted into other games, even those without an equivalent mechanic, whenever the PCs confront something horrific or out of the ordinary. “I missed my San Check; my PC is getting the heck out of here!”
Scripted Scene: Any scene composed entirely of GM fiat. Scripted scenes are usually considered acceptable in order to drive the plot.
Shrink-wrap Adventure: A published adventure used by the GM as-is, with little or no modification.
Suiciding a character: When a player intentionally tries to get his own character killed so that he can introduce a new character.
To Hit: As in “what’s my To Hit?” To Hit is the minimum score needed to strike an opponent. Since the advent of d20, this is becoming replaced by “what’s the DC?”
Unbalanced: Sometimes synonymous with “broken”, unbalanced is often used to refer to a character that seems more powerful than others, even when they are all supposedly at the same power level.
Geeze, all that and I forgot one!
Bennie: Any advantages granted to the players by the GM, usually in the form of extra feats, magic items, gear, or other benefits. Bennies are usually given if the GM feels that regular chargen does not provide them with what they need for his particular campaign.
Bang – a situation that players must react to because the consequences of failing to act are dire, but they are not constrained to a limited set of pre-defined options.
Kicker – A start-of-game situation created by a player for her character which is intended to propel her character forward into play in a way that the player finds interesting.
Relationship Map – A diagram of which major NPCs have relationships that are relevant to the players, with an indication of the nature of those relationships.
A few definitions have come in via email:
(Mark) “Maybe it’s just within our group, but I’d suggest ‘Space Bar’ as a term for the gaming glossary. It comes from hitting the space bar to skip through flavor text on PC games. We often employ this term to tell our DM that we want to cut through the flavor text, and to get on with the adventure. Alternately, sometimes our DM will use it to denote the passage of time, such as: ‘So, we’ll space bar to 3 days later.'”
(Walt C.) “Established Setting: An official, published game setting for a particular system, usually with a
lot of support. (Examples: The Forgotten Realms for AD&D, The Old World for Warhammer FRP, The Rebellion Era for Star Wars).
Homebrew: A setting designed by the GM (sometimes with input from others) for his own use at the gaming table. Homebrew settings may incorporate elements of established settings, and some homebrews ultimately become established settings.
(On a related note, in my Philadelphia/South Jersey gaming circles, “fudging” also includes making up NPC stats on the fly).”
Box Text: The text in modules meant to be read (or paraphrased) to the players. Often used to describe a setting, Box Text’s lack of interactivity is frequently mocked.
“Okay, give me a roll”: (2) More generically, the response of a GM when asked if a player can use a skill. Often with an implied statement “you can roll, but it won’t do anything.”
Power Creep: (2) The tendency of games manufacturers to increase the power of characters in later supplements, often overshadowing characters created under the core rules. (AD&D’s Unearthed Arcana is often cited as an early example of published power creep.)
Here’s one from our table:
XP Sponge: A player character who does little to to contribute to a combat encounter, but receives a full share of experience points after the adventure.
Gimmie: A GM-provided clue or explanation unrelated to (or in spite of) a PC’s abilities or a player’s reasoning.
Goddess: As in “I bet she’s a goddess, right?”, the tendency for the vast majority of female PCs and NPCs to be very attractive. Usually interjected during a female character description.
Out-of-character: (2) synonymous with Metagame
Playing (player name): Accusation that, in spite of the actual PC’s personality or morals, the player is simply playing the manner in which he always plays. (“Why is Jake’s paladin so deceptive?” “He’s not playing a paladin; he’s playing Jake”).
Spinning Wheels: A long discussion amongst the PCs over a course of action with no solution in sight.
Thac0 – To Hit Armor Class Zero. Number conveniently summarizing a character’s standard attack modifiers. From D and D.
Illuminati – Archetypical Secret Masters. Used as generic term for powerful spooky secret organizations.
Roll and Shout – From gaming adage “When in doubt, roll and shout”. Quickly getting past ambiguities and plot holes or relying on “confident assertiveness” to carry through a questionable strategy.
battlemap – (Addition to existing definition) Typically marked with a square or hexagonal grid.
charop – Short for character optimization. Derived from the Wizards of the Coast Character Optimization forum. Synonym for Min/Max. Rough synonym of twink or munchkin.
fig – Short for figure. Synonym for miniature.
mini – Short for miniature.
out-of-the-gene-pool – adj. Probably D&D specific. A effect that neutralizes the effectiveness of a combat threat through at least the combat.
Typically used to describe spells, as in “Hold person is an okay out-of-the-gene-pool spell. Obviously lethal spells (power word kill, slay living, finger of death) are OotGP spells, but so are hold person/monster spells, maze, and blindness. Depending on the creature, spells like feeblemind and blindness might be effective OotGP spells.
Oops. I meant “battlemat”, not “battlemap.” I’ve never heard battlemap used in that context.
Battlemat or battlemap, also known as a footmap.
Engineer – also Character Engineer, refers to either a person who min/maxes a character or the act of min/maxing a character (“I can’t believe you engineered him to get a +12 to hit with a battleaxe at first level!”)
Max(ed) – Having the highest score, trait, or ability possible (“I’ve got max strength”), or rolling the highest score possible on a die roll (“I rolled a Crit and maxed out on damage”).
Thanks for all the suggestions so far — and keep them coming! I haven’t had a chance to evaluate your comments or update the glossary yet, but I’ll be doing that shortly.
In the meantime, here are a couple more via email:
(Paul Adams) “Add “Splat” as a keyword to the “Splatbook” entry.
Add “Fat splat”: An auxilary book with a large number of pages 150+,
typically in hard cover.
Add “Thin splat”: An auxilary book with a small number of pages 150-,
typically in soft cover.
NOTES: These are typically used in reference to books published by White
Wolf but I have heard them used (and used them) in reference to products by
other companies.”
B teamer.
Gamer who shows up on a irregular basis, often has no clue what is happening in the game so they contribute less.
Paperclip. ( or Clippy )
Player who reminds the GM of facts or rules that screw over the players.
B Team or Beta Team: Secondary PCs used to rescue the players’ primary characters.
Target Number: A number you must achieve for a successful dice roll. For D20-like games, you must roll the target number or greater. For GURPS-like games, you must roll the target number or under.
Bonus: An addition to aid in you roll. For D20-like games, a number you add to your roll to increase your chances of success. For GURPS-like games, a number you add to your target number(qv) to increase your chances of success.
Penalty: An amount to penalize your roll. In D20-like games, an amount you subtract from your roll to decrease you chances of success. In GURPS-like games, the amount you subtract from the target number(qv) to decrease your chances of success.
Oops, I forgot:
A Team or Alpha Team: The group of PCs that go on most adventures. Backed up by the Beta Team(qv).
Oops, some editing:
Bonus: An addition to aid in your roll. For D20-like games, a number you add to your roll to increase your chances of success. For GURPS-like games, a number you add to your target number(qv) to increase your chances of success.
Pure Roll, Raw Roll, or Unmodified Roll: The sum of the dice you rolled before any bonus or penalty was accounted for.
Situational Bonus or Situational Penalty: A bonus(qv) or penalty(qv) that applies to your character because of his or her situation. If your character changes his or her situation, the bonus or penalty might chance or disappear.
Spleen 23:
Clippy … never heard of that one before, but I like it.
Here’s some old ones from my AD&D days:
Balanced Party: A group of PCs that has all of the major roles (cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief) represented.
Covering the bases: Ensuring that a PC party is balanced by having at least one cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief in the group (if the party was small, either multi-classing or NPCs would fill the missing roles).
Double-Oh: Gamer-speak for rolling a “100” result on percentile dice.
Module: Archaic term for an Adventure.
Subclass: A specialized version of a major class that was often considered a substitute when covering the roles. (“We don’t need a fighter; we have a ranger!”).
Here’s a real oldie:
Caller: Title given to the player that communicates the rest of the PCs’ actions to the GM. In a sense the Caller’s word was the “final answer” to the GM. In practice, the Caller’s role quickly evolved into a party leader.
On a related note:
Party Leader: A PC designated by the rest of the party as their spokesman or final decision-maker. In D&D/AD&D games, this often went to a character of lawful good alignment (or whoever had the closest alignment to it). In other games, party leader would often go to the PC with the highest rank or status. (Note: many PC groups scoff at the notion of a party leader).
Make footmap a synonym for battlemap or battlemat.
Synonyms for “party”:
Maybe in the form “From GAMENAME, synonym for party.”
– convent – Ars Magica
– coterie – Vampire: The Masquerade (and probably sequels)
– team – Shadowrun
Power Gamer should probably list twink and munchkin as see also.
Rules Lawyer should probably list Power Gamer and perhaps Twink and Munchkin as see also.
Rule One – Alternate definition; I don’t know how widely spread it is: “Don’t wear your con badge outside of the convention.”
We use ‘on-the-die’ for this too.
Shawn Says:
March 9th, 2007
Pure Roll, Raw Roll, or Unmodified Roll: The sum of the dice you rolled before any bonus or penalty was accounted for.
From joe.caffeinated (trackback above):
“Monty Hall (DM||Campaign)
A campaign- or DM-style of play where treasures exceeds action or XP advances characters too quickly. From the gameshow Let’s Make A Deal and its host, Monty Hall.
Rules Lawyer
A GM or player well versed in every rule, be they from core and/or supplement rulebooks, that [the rules] are always “on the table†in adjudicating game play. May result in an Emergency Break [sic]”
And from another comment thread here, “One True Way” (noted here so I can keep all the glossary candidates in one spot).
My wife and I are buying a house, so I didn’t get to the glossary this past weekend. I’m hoping to have a chance to do that in the next day or two. Stay tuned, and if you have any more glossary suggestions, don’t hesitate to add them here. 🙂
Kitchen Sink: Any campaign that allows just about any official and unofficial elements.
Place Holder: A premade character (or one quickly rolled on the spot) given to a player after his own character just died in order to allow the player to play out the rest of the session. The Place Holder is replaced by a new character at the beginning of the next section.
Rewrite: A more severe form of Retcon, where clearly established elements are overtly changed (“I know you all got killed last week, but I’m rewriting the scene so that you negotiated rather than attacked”).
Gruntie – (1) a combat monster who “stays in character” by not saying anything other than an occasional grunt. (2) Someone who makes odd grunting sounds when they roll well, especially during combat. (3) Synonym for “Mook”.
“Four basic food groups” (thanks Walt C for reminding me of this) – Another term for covering the basics of a party: Tank (fighter/combat monster), healer (cleric/medic), brain (wizard/techie), and thief (they’re the same in all games).
I’m partway through updating the glossary. It’s taking longer than I thought — many of the terms I’ve added have, in turn, prompted me to add other terms.
When it’s done, this glossary is going to be quite comprehensive. 🙂
So…close… I’m almost done with the revised glossary. I’ve made several passes, adding your suggestions as well as more basic terms and acronyms that popped up while I was making the revisions.
It’s not too late to add more terms, if you’ve got jargon to share. Look for the full revision to be done in the next couple of days, and thank you for being so patient!