The Gaming Den

This is something I've wanted to have for a while, because the Den is a close-knit community with a language all it's own, and a lot of times I have no idea what the hell people are talking about, because even though I've been here for over three years, I'm still moderately clueless when it comes to table-top gaming and the lingo involved. This is mostly for my benefit, although I'm sure new users or people who are unfamiliar with the Den will think it useful. I'm also including more common universal RPG terms. Maybe if this is popular enough, it could get stickied! Imagine, me getting a stickied thread!

Please keep in mind two things: first, that this list probably most definitely contains flawed definitions, since they are based on my current understanding of the terms. If I got something wrong, please don't hesitate to correct me. And, if anyone wants to add to the list, you're more than welcome to. After all, y'all probably understand this stuff better than I do.

Second, this list is also incomplete, because the terms here are the ones that I remember and/or could figure out the definitions to. Again, please feel free to add to the list.

And yes, I realize that it's not pretty. I'm not good at formatting. Once again, if you have a suggestion to make it better, I'm willing to listen.

So, let's start.

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D20 - A twenty-sided die. Used for making all of life's important decisions.
srd - System reference document
RNG - Random Number Generator
DM - Dungeon Master, the person who runs the game and your life
GM - Game Master, generic term for player who runs the game.
MC - Mister Cavern, analogous to DM. For some reason, I always read this as Mister Caravan.
BAB - Base Attack Bonus
AC - Armor Class
DC - Dice Difficulty Class, standard Target Number for d20-system games.
THAC0 - A confusing mess from 2e involving algebra. Like with AVALANCHE, I've never been able to figure out what it stands for. Apparently, it means To Hit Armor Class 0 (Zero).
NPC - Non-Player Character, controlled by the DM.

D&D - Dungeons and Dragons, the classic TTRPG
GURPS - Generic Universal RolePlaying System, a TTRPG with rules and settings for everything. The Rule 34 of gaming.
AS - After Sundown, a TTRPG created by Frank Trollman
*World/Bear World - Apocalypse World, a shitty game with bears
Warhammer/Warhammer 40k - Popular TTRPG that uses miniatures
MtG - Magic: the Gathering, a popular TCG
WoTC - Wizards of The Coast, publishers/makers of D&D and Magic: the Gathering. Usually used disparagingly.
Hasbro - Owners of Wizards. They care more for the Transformers franchise than they do Dungeons and Dragons.

Transfan - A fan of Transformers. Do not confuse with transfan.
4rries - Derogative term for fans of the fourth edition of D&D.
5uckers - Derogative term for fans of the fifth edition of D&D.

Tome - Set of supplemental rules and fluff created by the Gaming Den community for D&D and other TTRPGs.
Kitchen Sink - Taken from the phrase "everything but the kitchen sink"; an RPG that throws everything it can into itself. D&D is an example of this, as it is basically every fantasy trope tossed into a blender.
Fantasy Heartbreaker - "Heartbreaker means an RPG system that is a derivative of another popular system. It's deciding "I'll make my own {popular system}! With blackjack! And hookers!". It's called a heartbreaker because it will always break the designer's heart, either because it will never fix all of the base game's problems or because it will never be seen as a proper successor." - Mask De H. Coined by Ron Edwards.
OSSR - Old School Source book Review. Usually done while drunk.
Steve - An creature or individual who is unique, the only one of it's kind. Or, if you're a Transfan, a Vehicon who often meets an unfortunate end.
RAILIZM - When a game or setting tries so hard to be realistic that it's quality suffers. Coined by Darth Rabbitt. Yes.
Monstrous - Misspelling of Monsterous, as in the Manuel.
IC - In character
OC - Out of character
LP - Let's Play, a play-through of a game book/choose-your-own style book, where users vote on which path to take. Darth started this ugly trend.
Meatspace - Term used for the real world outside the internet.

Nifty - Old forum that a lot of Den users used to use before migrating here for a variety of reasons. The biggest difference between the old Nifty forums and here is that Nifty had a yellow color scheme.

Suck a Barrel of Cocks - Standard insult/mating call of the Den
shitweasal - Another common term of endearment commonly used on the Den
twatshitter - A troll

cjeck - Misspelling of check.
fvck - Obsolete means of circumventing swear filters. Mostly used as a legacy thing.

Common Internet Terms for Dummies
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary
AFAICT - As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
IRL - In Real Life
LMAO - Laughing My As Off
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing
IDK - I Don't Know
GTFO - Get The Fuck Out
ISHYGDDT - I Seriously Hope You Guys Don't Do This. Used to express disapproval. Mainly used on 4chan, I've included it here because nockermensch has it in his avatar and I keep forgetting what it means.

Words that are filtered: [EDITED], [EDITED], [EDITED], and kitchen

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Yeah, it's meager (for now), but as I think of more terms, I'll add 'em here.

1) Most of your terms are not unique or even originating from TGD.

2) Many of your definitions are wrong or incomplete. Saying that RNG stands for Random Number Generator doesn't explain the concept to someone who doesn't understand it.

3) This thread: http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=26663& ... sc&start=0

4) Book Names is probably the second most common Den anachronism that confuses people. You need them.

Kaelik wrote: 1) Most of your terms are not unique or even originating from TGD.

I know that most of them aren't. The point of the list was to mostly catalog terms I didn't know that are commonly used on the Den.

2) Many of your definitions are wrong or incomplete. Saying that RNG stands for Random Number Generator doesn't explain the concept to someone who doesn't understand it.

I wrote:Please keep in mind two things: first, that this list probably most definitely contains flawed definitions, since they are based on my current understanding of the terms.

3) This thread: http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=26663& ... sc&start=0

I actually did not know about this, and it now I feel kinda silly.

4) Book Names is probably the second most common Den anachronism that confuses people. You need them.

Extrapolate, if you will.

GM - Game Master, general RPG term for the player that runs the world
DM - Dungeon Master, D&D term for GM
MC - Mister Cavern, translation of the term for GM from a Czech RPG Draci Droupe.

d20 - General RPG term(s), not a Den term.
1. A dN, where N is a number, denotes a die with that many sides, or something that acts like one. For example, d100 or d% is used by many systems and usually takes the form of two d10s, one of which stands for the 10s digit.
2. The d20 System is the basic chassis of 3rd edition D&D, as well as other much less well known products.

DC - a D&D term for TN in d20 rolls.
TN - Target Number, a general RPG term for 'if you roll this number, the roll succeeds'. Systems can be divided into roll-over, where rolling the TN or more wins, and roll-under where rolling the TN or less wins.

Tome is specifically D&D. Named after two of the 4 fully completed installments, Tome of Necromancy and Tome of Fiends.

*world - short for Apocalypse Worls / Dungeon World, two RPGs sharing a system and thus often referred to collectively.
Bear World - *world, due to the game inspiring the term Bear Attack

Bear Attack - a situation where the GM conjures up enemies for the players to fight, often ambushing the players. Term used to underline the random and arbitrary nature of such events.

THAC0 - To Hit Armor Class 0 (Zero), a roll-under to-hit system from 2nd edition (A)D&D. Known to be confusing due to the need to subtract positive bonuses (i.e. a "+3") and needless amounts of subtraction in general.

Book names is the alternate names for some of 3rd ed D&D supplements. Partial list below.
* "It's Hot Outside" = Sandstorm
* "It's Cold Outside" = Frostburn
* "It's Wet Outside" = Stormwrack
* "It's Not Outside"/"It's Inside Outside" = Dungeonscape
* "It's Crowded Outside" = Cityscape
* "D&D Joke Book" = Epic Level Handbook
* "Races of Short" = Races of Stone
* "Tome of Weeaboo Fightan Magic" = Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords
* "Complete Garbage" = Complete Mage
* "Calamari Cooking!" = Lords of Madness
* "Skip Hates Sorcerers" = Tome & Blood

Shrapnel wrote:RAILIZM - When a game or setting tries so hard to be realistic that it's quality suffers. Coined by Darth Rabbitt. I think.

Yes, it was me, in my our 2e Arms and Equipment Guide review. I spelled 'realism' increasingly wrong. I think it's stabilized (and standardized) at "raelizarm."

Shrapnel wrote: DC - Dice Class

Difficulty Class. It's the standard Target Number for d20-system games. AC is used as the DC for attack rolls for legacy reasons.

Shrapnel wrote: *World/Bear World - Apocalypse World, a shitty game with bears

This got it's name from the Quantum Bear problem that the game has. It came from a situation in the example text of the rules in which the bears didn't exist until the players looked for them. So, this wasn't an example of an ambush due to a failed perception check, or something. The MC created bears as a result of the check to see if they were there.

RobbyPants wrote:It came from a situation in the example text of the rules in which the bears didn't exist until the players looked for them.

No, it doesn't. Bears are not mentioned anywhere in the text of Apocalypse World, and so long as I'm making corrections the alleged quantum ambush is not actually said to have been invented on the spot in the actual example text, nor is there any particular indication that this is the case. The term comes purely from hypothetical situations created by Denners.

Chamomile wrote:

RobbyPants wrote:It came from a situation in the example text of the rules in which the bears didn't exist until the players looked for them.

No, it doesn't. Bears are not mentioned anywhere in the text of Apocalypse World, and so long as I'm making corrections the alleged quantum ambush is not actually said to have been invented on the spot in the actual example text, nor is there any particular indication that this is the case. The term comes purely from hypothetical situations created by Denners.

Ah. I thought the bears were what was found in the rules text for something like Read a Stitch. What was the example mentioned in the text, then?

RobbyPants wrote:

Shrapnel wrote: DC - Dice Class

Difficulty Class. It's the standard Target Number for d20-system games. AC is used as the DC for attack rolls for legacy reasons.

Y'know, I had a feeling I was getting this one wrong, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was I was screwing up.

Shrapnel wrote: *World/Bear World - Apocalypse World, a shitty game with bears

This got it's name from the Quantum Bear problem that the game has. It came from a situation in the example text of the rules in which the bears didn't exist until the players looked for them. So, this wasn't an example of an ambush due to a failed perception check, or something. The MC created bears as a result of the check to see if they were there.

No, it doesn't. Bears are not mentioned anywhere in the text of Apocalypse World, and so long as I'm making corrections the alleged quantum ambush is not actually said to have been invented on the spot in the actual example text, nor is there any particular indication that this is the case. The term comes purely from hypothetical situations created by Denners.

All I know is that A-World was connected to the whole bear meme here on the Den, but I wasn't entirely sure how, which is why I had an ambiguous description.

RobbyPants wrote:

Chamomile wrote:

RobbyPants wrote:It came from a situation in the example text of the rules in which the bears didn't exist until the players looked for them.

No, it doesn't. Bears are not mentioned anywhere in the text of Apocalypse World, and so long as I'm making corrections the alleged quantum ambush is not actually said to have been invented on the spot in the actual example text, nor is there any particular indication that this is the case. The term comes purely from hypothetical situations created by Denners.

Ah. I thought the bears were what was found in the rules text for something like Read a Stitch. What was the example mentioned in the text, then?

The example in the text is "I scout/look around the temple 'success'" followed by "You find an invincible army of all the psychic ninjas that instantly foil any plan you have and you lose GOOD DAY SIR!"

RobbyPants wrote:Ah. I thought the bears were what was found in the rules text for something like Read a Stitch. What was the example mentioned in the text, then?

The actual example is that the player rolls to case the Water Temple, gets best success, and discovers that the temple is guarded by a large number of psychics who are now converging on his location. By *World RAW, those guards did not exist before they were looked at; deciding how many guards are at a facility and how formidable they are is prepping too much ahead of time. Concrete things like that are supposed to be improv'd by the MC when they come up, hence the 'quantum' part of the description. So if the ambush wasn't 'invented on the spot,' then the example of play wasn't following the rules it was supposed to be an example of. And while that would be really shitty, it would still be better than 'yes, getting best success on your scouting mission actually can mean: mission fails miserably, roll to run for your life.'

edit: Bonus Question: What can you expect to happen if you roll best success on running for your life?

angelfromanotherpin wrote:

RobbyPants wrote:Ah. I thought the bears were what was found in the rules text for something like Read a Stitch. What was the example mentioned in the text, then?

The actual example is that the player rolls to case the Water Temple, gets best success, and discovers that the temple is guarded by a large number of psychics who are now converging on his location. By *World RAW, those guards did not exist before they were looked at; deciding how many guards are at a facility and how formidable they are is prepping too much ahead of time. Concrete things like that are supposed to be improv'd by the MC when they come up, hence the 'quantum' part of the description. So if the ambush wasn't 'invented on the spot,' then the example of play wasn't following the rules it was supposed to be an example of. And while that would be really shitty, it would still be better than 'yes, getting best success on your scouting mission actually can mean: mission fails miserably, roll to run for your life.'

That makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

angelfromanotherpin wrote: edit: Bonus Question: What can you expect to happen if you roll best success on running for your life?

Good question.

angelfromanotherpin wrote:deciding how many guards are at a facility and how formidable they are is prepping too much ahead of time.

This is the opposite of true. MCs are explicitly advised to keep track of what's going on in places the player is unaware. There is nothing in the example text to suggest that the ambush wasn't planned ahead of time, nor is there actually anything in the rules text which suggests you can't figure these things out in advance.

We did add some terminology to the wiki a while back. >_> (It's even in my sig)

I started adding the vulgar stuff but Tarkis rightfully corrected that error.