Additions To The Gaming Lexicon
These are terms and
colloquialisms which have been used by my various gaming groups; feel free to
apply them to your own campaigns and weird situations. The format of this page was inspired by The Gamer Jargon Website – check it out
if you want more cool gaming words and phrases, or just to get a good
laugh. Enjoy!
New terms are
marked with a *
angst wagon noun/WoD-ism 1) A fictitious wagon or load that any overly angsty characters seem to be pulling around behind them at all times. Typical of vampire characters (“Oh, woe is me, for I am no longer human and must kill to preserve my own existence!”) Note, again, that this is no “normal” angst, this is super-deluxe mega-angst. 2) The player characters in any World of Darkness game (but especially in Vampire). (Coined by Loki)
* ass magic noun/hunter-ism Slang term for Hunter: The Reckoning's level 2 Avenger edge, Trail.
Big Nasty noun The main villain of a campaign (although it can be applied to just about anyone or anything undesireable).
Blind Flash Of The Obvious check noun In World of Darkness games, a Perception plus Alertness roll, difficulty 2. Employed whenever the Storyteller wishes to alert the players to some completely obvious piece of information they are missing. Failing causes the rest of the group to make fun of you. Botching causes severe brain hemorrhages.
"Bloooood!" (also spelled "Bleah!") interjection/vampire-ism/all-purpose phrase By far the most common word spoken by members of a certain coterie of vampires. Can be used in absolutely any context. Means whatever you want it to mean. To get the full effect, bare your teeth, make a claw shape with one hand, and adopt a thick, freaky Transylvanian accent.
blowing blood points phrase/vampire-ism Vampiric sex.
butt pirate noun In Earthdawn, a practitioner of the Air Sailor discipline. Frequently preceded by the adjective “orkish” (since the original butt pirate, Valeris Skyblood, was an ork).
cheese flows noun Mystical forces to which all people born in Wisconsin are supernaturally attuned. Source: A garbled pronunciation of "chi flows." Our group at the time contained three Wisconsinites, so we liked this one right away.
* cleaning the pool phrase Euphemism for masturbation.
cold-cock verb/vampire-ism/all-purpose phrase 1) To render unconscious. 2) When applied to vampires, to perform almost any action (although not surprisingly, it is usually applied to sexual situations...think about it).
Dark Fate stamp noun An imaginary rubber stamp which the GM applies to NPCs who are clearly doomed from the start. Most frequently used with regard to Innocent hunters, the most doomed beings on the face of the planet.
drunk in the wagon
phrase Descriptive term
applied to any character who is not present for the main action with no good
reason due to the absence of a player.
Example: “Hey, where’s the halfling?” “Ryan hasn’t shown up yet.
He’s drunk in the wagon.”
falling in the sticky vat phrase The results
of a somewhat contrived plot device which forces one’s character to stick
together with the rest of the group, whether (s)he wants to or not. Synonym for “being run over by the plot
wagon.” See also plot wagon, sticky.
fast like a mole phrase Sarcastic interjection used for one of two purposes: 1) To demonstrate that the person or thing to which this term has been applied is not fast at all; or 2) To make fun of the player who thought it was a valid metaphor.
fast like the wolf phrase Extremely fast. In fact, the suffix “like the wolf” can be applied to any adjective to intensify it.
* filing something in the silly hole phrase To dismiss an idea as foolish or likely to fail. Example: Player: "Oh, I've got it! What if we lure all the vampires out into the middle of a field and repeatedly use Burden on them until the sun comes up?" GM: [astonished look] Player: "Um, on second thought, file that in the silly hole." Always accompanied by a reverse nose-picking gesture (implying your nostril is the silly hole). Source: Iain and Noel, of course.
grossly dabu adjective 1) Hideously misspelled Japanese-English interjection which roughly translates as “grossly, grossly fat.” Frequently applied to monsters, villains, Big Nasties, and the like. 2) Motto of the Dabu Six (poster children for why you shouldn’t pick a cabal name at 2 am by leafing through the quote book).
Hitokiri Battousai
noun/adjective 1) In the
anime Ruroni Kenshin, the name that protagonist Himura Kenshin was known by
during his days as an assassin and all-around vicious dude. 2) In gaming, an adjective used to describe
any character who enters a vicious, bloodthirsty killing frenzy. Example: “I’m going to hunt those Nephandi
down and go all Hitokiri Battousai on their asses.”
hitting the reality button phrase An imaginary button that players and/or GMs usually announce they are using whenever too much OOC conversation and action is taking place and they want to get back to the game at hand. Comes from my frequent, ironic usage of the phrase “Okay, back to reality” whenever groups get sidetracked.
hunter kaer noun Describes any session which, while really excellent, runs on far beyond its allotted time and becomes the cause of huge amounts of player and character angst. Example: “Sure, I can do an extra session on Monday, but only if you promise it won’t turn into a total hunter kaer.” Source: In Earthdawn, kaers are the long-lost refuges that contain treasure, people needing to be saved, and/or nasty things that adepts often go dungeon crawling to obtain, rescue, and/or slay. Our Hunter group originally gave this title to a gargantuan and very memorable climactic session in which we raided a deserted Technocratic compound, took down our Big Nasty, and killed off half of our group in the process. The session encompassed 14 hours over the course of two days, in the middle of a school week, while most of us were preparing for midterms.
* "I like revenging!" phrase Interjection spoken after being wronged by the Big Nasty, an NPC, or even another character, meant to alert the GM and the other players that the speaker fully intends to avenge the wrongdoing. Example: Player 1: "We found the guy. He was surrounded by twelve dead humans and..." Player 2, interrupting: "Oh goody! I like revenging!" Source: Another Simpsons-ism, specifically from the episode where they parodied Hamlet. Ralph Wiggum, portraying Laertes, said this after being told to avenge his father's death.
ix-nay adjective Used to describe any character who died and was later resurrected. Unlike “undead,” using “ix-nay” implies that said character is friendly and, apart from his unusual life history, the same as anyone else. Coined by Takahashi, a 9½-year-old Hollow One who, after asking a few too many questions about the substantial number of resurrected members of the Prodigal Sorcerors (Gabriel, Marcus, Timber…), was told only “Sssh! Ix-nay!” by Jennifer and assumed this was the word used to describe such people.
killing Gabriel phrase Making a radical character change (as a
player) or (more commonly) introducing a major plot twist (as a GM) that is so
sudden, unexpected, earth-shattering, and all-around bad that it causes
actual OOC distress to the players as well as dramatically altering the
direction of the game. Source: A Mage
campaign in which the heroic death of an NPC named Gabriel moved to tears (and
probably emotionally scarred) every player involved (okay, some of us more than
others…but I plead the Fifth in this matter).
Example: “So I announced that my character was leaving the group and
becoming a vampire. Then the player of
my best friend started crying, and I knew I had just killed Gabriel.”
“Kitty’s gonna save us from the Technocracy.” phrase Sarcastic interjection used whenever a player suggests a really
bad plan. Originally spoken by an NPC
Virtual Adept who, after discovering that a PC had managed to get tagged with
an NWO locator chip, jumped out a window in pursuit of a cat on which to stick
the chip. The Technocracy caught up
with, and killed, the NPC in the very next session (though he was later
reincarnated as the Microsoft office assistant – it’s a long story). Example: Player 1: “Hmm. How are we going to get past these beholders?” Player 2: “I know! I can seduce them! I have
high Charisma!” Player 1: “Yeah, and
kitty’s gonna save us from the Technocracy.”
* leaving it in the sugar phrase Euphemism for sex.
love and peace phrase The life philosophy of Vash the Stampede, the main character from the ridiculously cool anime series Trigun. Although its use was originally (and still can be) mostly arbitrary and only came about because it’s really fun to say, it is often directed at players who seem a little too combat-ready and need to be alerted to their use of excessive force. This line must always be quoted in a loud voice, with a thick Japanese accent, and while crossing your fingers and holding them out to the person in question (if you’ve seen this anime you know exactly what we’re talking about).
* "Make it be that way!" phrase A command, usually given by a player to the GM, requesting that a
speculation, possibility, or request that has just been thrown out be
recognized as fact. Often said in
reference to things the person it is directed at has no control over (that's
what makes it funny). Source: A Hunter
session in which, after one player engaged in some idle speculation about why
an NPC was effectively putting himself through hell for the sake of a PC,
another player announced, "No, I picture [the NPC] as helping [the PC]
because he's madly in love with her. [GM],
make it be that way!"
making metis phrase Werewolf sex. The werewolf equivalent of blowing blood points.
manch noun The male equivalent of a wench.
metagaming paradox noun/mage-ism 1) The backlash of reality bending against magical change caused by the use of the Tenth Sphere, Metagaming. 2) More specifically, the resentment, often leading to ejection from a group or violent repercussion, that builds up toward gamers who consistently metagame (use out-of-game knowledge and information). (Coined by Eric Zawadzki)
naked gremlin boy noun Title granted to any player who aids and abets the GM with evil ideas or becomes a sounding board for said evil ideas. Example: “I didn’t know what to do for Werewolf this week, so I talked to Iain for a few hours and pretty soon I had the next few weeks planned out. He’s such a good little naked gremlin boy.” (Note: This term is usually applied regardless of the gender of the person being referred to.)
Nosferatu in the basement noun A mythological vampire who inhabits Hilleboe-Kittlesby Hall at St. Olaf College. According to legend, he was imprisoned because of his remarkable dehumidifying capabilities and strikes back at his captors by banging on the furnace pipes with a spoon. The result is Hill-Kitt's notoriously noisy furnace. He can be blamed for just about any happening on campus if you think about it hard enough. Oh, and he also answers to “Marcus.”
opera house noun Any action which, while flashy and fun, serves no purpose, attracts undue attention, gets you in metric assloads of trouble, and is basically stupid and pointless. Source: A Mage incident where three mages and a kuei-jin attempted to stop the first Nephandi from destroying the world by blowing up an opera house.
organizing your papers phrase Euphemism for masturbation. Source: In an episode of Trigun (the greatest anime series ever!), after seeing Vash the Stampede without his shirt, Meryl Strife averts her eyes and leaves the room hurriedly, mumbling “I’m going to go organize my papers.” The three dirty-minded geeks who were watching this at 2 a.m. found this very amusing indeed.
orkish drinking game noun Any in-character display of ridiculous and pointless machismo. Source: A truly senseless Earthdawn incident in which an orkish butt pirate and a homosexual elvish nethermancer spent a night finding out which one could drink the other under the table.
Patrick noun Any unimportant NPC whose basic character concept is that of a supervisor, manager, bureaucrat, PR guy, or “suit.” Source: A Trinity campaign in which every single one of the squad’s supervisors was named Patrick.
plot tentacle noun A plot twist, usually taking the form of a monster or hostile NPC, meant to direct a group of wayward PCs toward something more closely resembling the session’s main story. Coined in homage to the 2001 film version of “The Fellowship Of The Ring,” in which a large beastie with many tentacles forces the Fellowship into Moria just as they decide they’d rather turn back. An offshoot of the term “plot wagon.” See also plot wagon.
plot wagon noun The main storyline of a game, although this phrase implies that said plot is somewhat heavy-handed or contrived. Accepted usages include "climbing on the plot wagon" (locating the adventure hook), "falling off the plot wagon" (getting sidetracked by unneccesary details), "carjacking the plot wagon" (hogging the spotlight, wrestling control of a game away from the GM), and most commonly "being run over by the plot wagon" (having the GM regain control of the plot and beat you into submission with it).
pop culture check noun In World of Darkness games, an Intelligence plus Culture roll, difficulty 2. Employed whenever a painfully obvious, intentionally funny pop culture reference made by the Storyteller is met with blank stares from the players, and (s)he wishes to alert them to the fact that they should be laughing.
pulling an Althea phrase The act of catastrophically botching an attempt to question, interrogate, or otherwise obtain information from another player, usually by rashly accusing them of indiscretions (which subsequently strains relations with that character). Inspired by Althea Ypsilanti, an eshu who, among other things, accused the Prince of Los Angeles of being a member of the Sabbat, and a sidhe she had just met five minutes earlier of destroying two commoner freeholds.
pulling a Kenley phrase The act of attacking a fellow party member out of fear, confusion, or believing them (often mistakenly) to be an enemy, especially by shooting them or blasting them with highly destructive magic. Inspired by Dr. Kenley Chial, a Son of Ether renowned for crippling the members of her cabal with a “smite button” because her paranoid, mistrusting nature often made her mistake them for the Big Nasty.
raiding the marketplace at dawn phrase Any bizarre and funny situation resulting from a series of
misunderstandings. Source: A GURPS
incident involving a babbling bard and a hard-of-hearing mercenary.
recockulous adjective Synonym for “ridiculous” (say both words out loud and you’ll get it eventually).
Rule Zero noun “Don’t give the GM ideas.”
* schnitzy adjective Posh or overly luxurious. Carries a negative connotation. (Coined by Noel Helgesen)
screaming into the soup phrase Description for the shame, guilt, and angst experienced after the fact by a character who horribly violates his or her moral code. Example: “So Marta finally quit deliberating and shot the guy, and right before Chet ripped him apart he looked up at her and said, ‘I thought you were different from them,’ and the next thing you know she’s screaming into her soup.” However, this phrase has now become prevalent to the point where just about any reference to soup is acceptable and funny. Source: Yes, it’s another Trigun reference. Deal.
Spilled Milk Award noun A small amount of experience points given to any player who says something so funny and/or outrageous that it causes the GM to accidentally expel a beverage out of his/her mouth and/or nose.
sticky noun The shared goals and interests that bind a group of player characters together. Example: “Our coterie used to work pretty well together, but after those 800 years of downtime, our motivations are so different that we just don’t have sticky anymore.” (Coined by Nikki Walker)
sub-orchestra pit
noun In a theatre, the
mythical area below the orchestra pit where they put the drummers "because
they play too loudly." Brought up
when we want to make fun of the ST who claimed such a place existed. You'd be surprised how often this phrase can
make its way into normal, everyday conversation.
Teflon adjective 1) Brand
name for a chemical coating used on cookware to keep food from sticking to pots
and pans. 2) Descriptive term for any
character whose actions are actively detrimental to maintaining sticky in the
party. Often followed by a noun
denoting the character’s race or class (Teflon vampire, Teflon tanak, Teflon
nethermancer). See also sticky. Example: “She sleeps all day, she hangs
out with completely different NPCs, she never tells us what she’s doing, and
the only time we get involved with her is when she hunts Anathema in our
backyard. Isabella is such a Teflon
vampire.”
“That’s where I’m a Viking!” phrase Interjection shouted out after the GM calls for a roll to alert the rest of the group that the roll in question uses one of a character’s specialties. Sometimes modified to “That’s where I’m not a Viking!” to alert the group that the character really sucks at a requested roll. Example: GM: “You start following him. Roll Dex plus Stealth.” Player: “Oh, boy, Stealth! That’s where I’m a Viking!” Source: Ralph Wiggum, from “The Simpsons”: “Mrs. Krabapple, my worm crawled into my mouth and I swallowed it. Can I have another one?” “No, Ralph. Just go to sleep.” “Oh, boy, sleep! That’s where I’m a Viking!”
toke up verb/vampire-ism To drink enough blood to fill one's blood pool. This phrase is occasionally extended to mages charging up on Quintessence at a Node, or werewolves meditating to regain Gnosis.
walking in the rain phrase A sarcastic default response to any number of questions, often employed when the answer is either a) unimportant or b) not something the player should really know. Example: Player: “Ooh, what did Emily and Adrian do in that one-on-one session the other night?” GM: “They walked. In the rain.” Source: The song “Rain” from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, in which the phrase “walk…in the rain” is repeated approximately three zillion times. I’ll be the first to admit that this is probably one of those things that’s only funny after a long night of gaming.
* walking one’s pants phrase Visiting the bathroom; using the restroom. Example: “I’m taking five minutes to walk my pants. Don’t go into the guy’s haven until I’m back.” Source: A comment by an acquaintance which was misheard in the exact same way by everyone– when he stood up from our table in a restaurant and announced, “I’m going to go wash my hands,” we looked at each other and said at the same time, “Did he just say he needed to walk his pants?”
way-back machine noun Imaginary
device used by the GM to skip back to previous events in a game session in
order to involve new characters or tie up loose ends. Example: “You guys moved on to Tuesday morning while I was in
the bathroom? Hey, can we hop in the
way-back machine? There are a few
things I needed to do on Monday night.”
what-the-thud verb/adjective 1) An ambush usually resulting in the quick and messy death (or at least incapacitation) of the target. 2) The last words of a person who has just been what-the-thudded. Comes from Vivaine, an extremely accident-prone Dreamspeaker mage. After being backstabbed in the 1000 Hells, her last words before falling into a yearlong coma were "What the—" followed by a wet, squishy thud.