Canon:RPG Terminology

Apple Stacking

1. The social currency equivalent of Greyhawking. Essentially, a common phenomenon in social currency systems where you can perform small favors that add up to very, very big favors in return.
   • "I give the King an apple a day for a year, then ask for the kingdom."

Beer n' Pretzels Game

1. Game style whereby rules are arbitrated looser to accommodate casual game play and game flow. Often accompanied by drinks and snacks.

BBEG

1. Big Bad Evil Guy
2. Big Bad Enemy Guy

BDF

1. Big Dumb Fighter
   • The name says it all. Stereotypically a character with very little depth who uses their brawn to solve as many problems as possible. They often do not scale well in part to their lack of depth. Although are often fun to play in low level campaigns and/or for beginners to the hobby.
2. Also known as DMF and VAH

Closet Troll

1. "Typically" a melee specialist who does massive damage when s/he/it can catch a target at close range.
   • A troll out in the open is a reasonable challenge for a party of appropriate level(CR/etc) because they can move around and not be full attacked. But a troll in a tightly enclosed space (like a closet) is a nightmare.

CoDzilla (dnd-wiki explanation)

1. A very powerful Cleric or Druid build; typically game breaking as levels accumulate.
   • Named for how they can wield considerable magic power as well as having better combat skills and abilities than their pure "reality twisting" rivals. Better Base Attack Bonus and armor opportunities as well as shapeshifting and Natural Spell for druids.
   • 1d4chan explains it pretty well
2. Clericzilla
3. Druidzilla

DM (Dungeon Master)

1. The judge, referee, story-teller, rules arbitrator.

DMF (Dumb Melee Fighter)

1. See 'BDF'

ECL

• Effective Character Level

Gentlemen's Agreement

1. "A player may allow his character to do whatever he wants so long as that action doesn't decrease the fun had by anyone else at the table."
2. Agreement under which it is understood that everyone around the game table is gathered to have fun and actions must be carried out "in character" that maintain fun for all participants.

Glass Cannon

1. A Player Character build that emphasizes high damage output at the expense of survivability. Such builds usually involve ranged attacks rather than melee to offset their vulnerability.

GM (Game Master)

• See 'DM'

Greyhawking

1. Plundering every last bit of wealth
   • "Plunder everything that isn't nailed down. Then take everything that IS nailed down. THEN take the nails from the walls. Finally, take the walls." [1]
   • Presumed to have started because RPGA started assuming players acquired all available treasure, so if you didn't take literally everything, you were behind the curve. [2]

Judge (RPG)

• See 'DM'

LWQW

1. Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
   • A phrase coined to quickly explain the problem between magic users and melee players.
   • "Melee classes gain power at a linear rate as they level up. Magic users gain power quadratically as they level up."
   • TVTropes.com explains with charts!

MC (Mister Cavern)

• See 'DM'

1. Mister Cavern is loosely translated from the term used for DMs in the RPG Draci Doupe Plus. DD+ was first published in the Czech Republic during the days of the old Soviet Union. Adopted by The Gaming Den as an alternative to the Dungeon Master label.

Metagaming

1. An action or actions made by the Player Character based on out-of-character knowledge.
   • For example, a Player's Character uses fire to fight a troll even though the Character is ignorant of trolls, because the Player has knowledge of the troll's weakness to fire from previous gaming experience.
   • While it is very difficult to not metagame to at least some small degree while playing an RPG, the act of metagaming is usually frowned upon.

MTP (Magical Tea Party)

1. MTP for short. A term for describing the "make it up" advice in RPG texts when some event or action is not covered by the rules.
   • Not inherently a derogatory comment, it is often used with a negative connotation due to MTP commonly being used in place of rules that are either bad, or incomplete enough, to be useless.

Nova

1. A Player Character build or style of play that focuses on dealing as much damage as possible in a single attack or round of attacks, often by using tricks to gain additional actions (known as 'breaking the action economy'). The act of doing so is referred to as "going nova."

NPC

1. Non-player Character
   • Characters played and controlled by an RPG campaign/game's DM.

Off the RNG

1. When bonuses or negatives accrue to make it so that no number a character can roll will impact their success or failure.

• Related to RNG

Oberoni Fallacy

1. Stating that there is nothing wrong with a game because Rule 0 exists. See this for a more detailed explanation.

One-Off

1. A game designed to be played as a single adventure to completion in one game session rather than as a multi-session campaign. (Also referred to as a "One-Shot.")

Padded Sumo

1. The opposite of Rocket Launcher Tag. Where combat is grindingly slow and each attack is a tiny drop in a massive bucket.

PC

1. Player Character
   • The character, or characters, controlled directly by the players in an RPG campaign/game.

Phlebotinum

1. Phlebotinum is the versatile substance that may be rubbed on almost anything to cause an effect needed by a plot. Examples include but are not limited to: nanotechnology, magic crystal emanations, pixie dust, a sonic screwdriver, vented drive plasma, and Green Rocks. [3]

Powergaming

1. Also referred to as Character Optimization, this refers to the practice of using a Player's extensive knowledge of an RPG system's rules in the most advantageous way possible to the Player, resulting in a more powerful than average Player Character. While not inherently good or bad, this can lead to friction between powergamers and more casual players due to the resulting disparity in power levels between PCs.
   • When taken to extremes, powergaming is often referred to as 'Munchkining,' which carries a more negative connotation with most gamers.

RNG

1. Random Number Generator. In Dungeons & Dragons, this most often refers to the range numbers fall within for dice rolls.

RLT (Rocket Launcher Tag)

1. Refers to combat that is so offense-heavy that the first person to attack will likely immediately win.

Rule Zero

1. The DM is the final arbiter in ruling mechanics decisions.

Session

1. A gameplay session.

SGT (Same Game Test)

1. The Same Game Test, or SGT, is a balance guideline used to gauge the level of power a character class or option brings to the table. It is derived from the definitions and explanations of encounter challenges in the Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual.

Story Teller (RPG)

• See 'DM'

Stormwind Fallacy

1. In laymen's terms, using the statement "roleplaying, not rollplaying" is committing the Stormwind Fallacy (who says you can't do both?). See this for a more detailed explanation.

Stunlocking

1. A term used to describe when a character can attack in such a way as to prevent his opponent from ever being able to take an action.

• Also known as 'Tekken Juggling'

TBT

• The Bullet Test

1. Whether or not characters in a TTRPG are assumed to regularly survive, or be immune to, bullet wounds. Essentially being super-heroic in nature.

Tekken Juggling

• See 'Stunlocking'

TTRPG

1. Tabletop RPG
   • It all started with pencil and paper...

VAH (Vanilla Action Hero)

1. A character common to action movies who has no reliable access to or unilateral control of phlebotinum and has to rely on plot armor and mundane (if preternatural) human abilities to accomplish things. VAHs are allowed to use their plot armor to bend probability--such as being shot at by twenty bad guys and having them all miss--but can't use it to do something that's impossible to a layman's WSoD--such as surviving a harpoon to the heart. Has a lot of overlap with Dumb Melee Fighter

WFM

1. Weaboo Fightan Majick
   • I'll add a description later

Wish Economy

1. Referring to characters in Dungeons and Dragons who can have unlimited wishes and therefore only value things wishes cannot grant. ~deanrule87