The Terminology of Role‐Playing Games

David White White 1 4/30/13 ENGL 432 S. Davis Lingos & Jargon: The Terminology of Role‐Playing Games Different groups in society have their own “language,” a conglomeration of words and terms unique to them and their group. These group‐specific languages, or terminologies, act as a unifier between the members of the group, but are an alienating factor and barrier to those outside of the group who therefore possess no knowledge of what the group’s unique terminology refers to. Perhaps one of the most alienating group terminologies is that of the gaming subculture, specifically the subculture of fantasy role‐ players. Many people outside of the fantasy role‐playing subculture are just as turned away by the subculture’s lingo and jargon as they are by the fantasy role‐playing game’s (FRPG) subject matter. To role‐players, this terminology comes naturally and can oftentimes trickle into a conversation with those outside of the subculture. Just as with most cultures’ terminology, the lingo and jargon of the FRPG subculture arise from things pertaining to the subculture’s activities, namely the playing of FRPGs. This subculture’s terminology deals mostly with terms that refer to in‐game mechanics, lore of different FRPGs, and different widely popular nerd cultures, such as Star Wars or Star Trek. In his book Talk the Talk: The Slang of 65 American Subcultures, Luc Reid says the following about the terminologies that arise out of subcultures: Subculture slang is more than a specialized vocabulary. Adopting slang is a way to invite people in or to keep casual onlookers out; a way to show your attitude toward what you’re doing while you do it; of confirming or denying White 2 relationships; of marking your particularly territory in the strange countries of stamp collecting, gambling, bodybuilding, or any of the other subcultures this book covers. (Reid 1) Below are some of the most popular terms that arise in FRPG settings such as Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder RPG and what they mean in layman terms: Table 1 FRPG Terms Meaning “buff”/”buffing” refers to effects on characters that increase their statistics, often used in the form of spells or items; buffing is the adjectival phrase attached to such effects “crit”/”critting”/”critical success” rolling the highest available number on a dice, in most situations, rolling the maximum number available on a die means instant success in whatever the character is attempting to do; the term “critting” can also refer to a player succeeding in an action with superb ability “critical failure” like critting, but on the reverse side, rolling the lowest number on the dice often results in automatic failure and is called a “critical failure” or “fumble” “roll a character” In games where dice are rolled to create a character’s statistics, “rolling a character” refers to creating a character. AC “armor class”, what a player needs to roll to damage a target, the better the target’s armor, the higher the AC attack roll when the player assembles the appropriate dice as detailed on his character sheet and rolls to see if his attack against a target is successful campaign a complete RPG storyline, generally with a particular goal for players to accomplish by the end character sheet a sheet of paper given to the players to keep track of their characters experiences, weapons and skills character‐knowledge What the character knows from his fictional past experiences; the lore of the world CR “challenge rating,” the difficulty of a monster White 3 often juxtaposed to the level of the players to determine how much EXP (see below) the player’s character receives and whether the party is a high enough level to defeat such a monster damage the effect of a character’s attack, usually subtracted from the target’s Hit Points die sizes (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d%) Many roleplaying games feature dice as a core mechanic, these are the abbreviated forms of four‐sided die, six‐sided die and so on. d% refers to a 10‐sided die with multiples of 10 instead of the numbers 1‐10. This dice is often rolled in addition to a d10 to randomize chance in a player’s choice, be it good or bad. EXP experience, reward for defeating monsters or completing quests, in most FRPGs after receiving enough EXP the character levels up (see below) GM/DM “Game Master” or “Dungeon Master”, acts as a referee and storyteller throughout the game, creating the world and explaining the consequences of the players’ actions Hit Points/HP/Health in most FRPGs, a character has a limit as to how much damage he can take from an opponent’s attacks; once the sum of a damage equals the character’s amount of HP, the character is rendered unconscious or sometimes dead initiative the order of action in combat or other situation level up/leveling up In most FRPGs, after attaining enough EXP the character gains more skill to add him or her in their quest; leveling up is the act of transcribing your new character’s skills to their character sheet (see below) NPC “non‐playable character,” the minor characters of the story, usually enemies or characters that advance plot PC “playable character,” the heroes/main characters of the game’s story player‐knowledge What the player knows in his real‐world experiences, players are often discouraged from granting their character player‐ knowledge such as a monster’s statistics (Compiled from research taken from Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Talk the Talk: The Slang of 65 American Subcultures) White 4 Some of the terms listed above share similar phrases. Such as the terms “PC” and “NPC.” These two terms are similar both in spelling and in their general meaning because they both refer to a character, albeit two very different types of characters (represented in the acronym by the letter “C”). The term “PC” refers to a player character and the term NPC refers to a non‐player character; two different items that share similar terms. Another such pairing is “critical success” and “critical failure.” Both have very opposite effects ranging from glorious success to catastrophic failure, respectively. This pairing shares similar terms for two reasons, 1) because both terms have to do with the outcome of a dice roll and 2) both terms deal with rolling an absolute number on the dice. In the case of “critical success” this absolute is rolling the highest number possible on a dice. In the case of “critical failure” this absolute is rolling the lowest number possible on a dice. These four terms have very different meanings, but deal with similar game mechanics. This similarity creates similar terminology for the two different occurrences despite their overall difference. Some terms, on the other hand, share a similar spelling or acronym and have little to do with each other. For example, the term “Initiative” listed in the table above is often abbreviated as “Init” which is very similar to the abbreviated “Int” which stands for “Intelligence.” The two terms share nothing in common, representing two very different game mechanics, with one another. Similar terms like this can oftentimes be a source of confusion to new players and even to veteran players who are hurriedly glancing over their character sheet or a rulebook entry. There are a few such terms that exist in FRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, but through years of development and play testing, most of these confusing terms have been renamed. White 5 The list above is just a sample of the many terms contained in the FRPG game subculture and serves to show how much of the subculture’s terminology arises out of game mechanics. In his essay on “The Business and The Culture of Gaming,” W. Keith Winkler says: Gamers employ a wide array of jargon, so that on‐line video gamers may speak of “buffs”, “mobs”, and “agro”, and collectible trading card gamers may talk of “tapping” and “mana” while role‐players are enthusiastically discussing “armor class” and the “plus” rating of magical items. Gamer discourse is also laden with quotes from movies, television and comics, usually drawn from the fantasy and science‐fiction genres. (Winkler 148) Unlike most other gaming cultures, the FRPG subculture draws from a larger pool of references outside of their game mechanics, drawing from terms such as the ones above listed by Winkler, and therefore has access to a larger array of terms. Reid says “Subculture slang is illuminating too because knowing what kinds of terms a subculture adds to the language tells us something about what’s important to that subculture” (1). The reasons such terms arise in the FRPG subculture is for quick and easy reference. Most societal terminologies arise from a familiarity with the terms and everyday jargon of a job or activity. The same goes for FRPGs. Instead of wasting time describes something at length or saying the entire wordy term, players abbreviate or connect a term with an outside reference from another nerd culture; as in the FRPG‐inspired movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, where one character has a weapon called a “psionic soulblade” which closely resembles the copyrighted lightsaber of the Star Wars movies, so the cross‐culture reference is established and the psionic soulblade is colloquially called a lightsaber to avoid White 6 copyright infringement. Likewise, in a FRPG gaming session, characters may come across items or effects that remind them of outside sources and they connect the in‐game term to an outside cultural reference. The amount of FRPG terms is certainly numerous, but how many times is this terminology used? On Monday March 25, 2013, I hosted a five‐hour role‐playing gaming session and decided to keep track of how many times certain words and terms arose in the time span of the game.

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