Gamer euphemisms
 

I've run into a few of these over the years.

"Related" and "syndrome" tend to show up in in phrases like "He succumbed to adventurer-related death syndrome."

"Steel poisoning" tends to mean "was killed with weapons."

Have you used any that weren't about deaths?

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CRS - "Can't Roll for #!*^"

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"Class 20 Autocannon to the pride" from old BattleTech games.

"He elects to receive" when failing a defensive roll.

"That looks serious, you should return to character generation."

"Do you have [x trait] on your character sheet?" (said to a person)

There's the old "I'm making a run to Thac0 Bell, anyone want anything?"

We have inflicted "dice damage" on players who have fallen asleep (because he wasn't paying attention).

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He failed a Spot check.

Or Perception check

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One I've used as GM when PCs have made a successful Stealth or similar check preparatory to an attack is "You're the Spanish Inquisition.". Often when the npcs have disasterously failed their opposing Perception check.

Also related to bad rolls: "I wave my weapon in his general direction.".

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I've sometimes commented that I have just missed a "Spot Obvious" roll.

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Our group has two I can think of we use related to events in old campaigns.

Nice shoes for a really bad perception based roll.

He's holding his action when someones turn comes up and they're on a bathroom break.

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After playing the caravan to Ein Arris adventure, we used to refer to motion sickness caused by any form of motion (by ship, car, in space etc.) in any setting as "camel sickness". "Severe camel sickness" was when one vomited.

That's in-game. OTOH, the friends of an old early GURPS campaign still tend, some 20 (!!) years later, to say: "I'll roll against Diplomacy" when they state that they plan to try to sweet-talk someone, or make amends after some controversy, etc.

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They went off to compare charisma scores in private.

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Diplomancy - rolling against very high social skills to make problems go away.

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"Rub the (X) on it" - use X's special ability (detect secret doors, traps, magic, etc.)

When someone has just done something egregiously daft: "you're player characters, aren't you?"

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Failed to die and failed to win became phrases my main HackMaster group used often.

Failed to die came from those savings throws against death or where failure would cause death. It was a riff off 'failed to live.'

Failed to win was probably a riff off 'for the win,' indicating that someone had not succeeded.

Murderhobo is often a synonym used for player characters. I think I picked the term up at RPG.net and in one game the players said, 'we're organized murderhoboes. We have a party charter. . .'

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Godbothering - using D&D's Commune spell or equivalent.

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You definitely want to Elf secret doors (even if you're a Dwarf using stonecunning).

"Alignment: DWARF!" is for someone who cranks the drinking and tavern brawling to 11.

A dice roller app which never gives the average roll, always bouncing between high and low rolls is one that gives "erratic juju", to the point that the players joke that "erraticjuju()" is the name of the function inside the program. :)

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Did we have "rocks fall, everyone dies" (as in, you successfully forced the GM to rage quit)?

The whole "dump stat" concept?

Referring to someone as being built on more points than you are?

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My <something> sense is tingling!

"pinging" (detecting as a given alignment)

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I initially thought the question was about using gamer phrases and concept outside of game. I suppose that could be its own thread.

But in game, I think nearly all of us have referred to some gung ho nitwit as "Leeroy Jenkins" at some point.

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Only nearly - I had to look him up.

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Nobody makes Leeroy Jenkins jokes in my presence since I left the Corps.

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I didn't bother to. I've never heard anyone in my circle make the reference though.

I don't count on anything but Monty Python beign really universal and I'm not sure about that for the real youngsters of our group. We've even got one under 40.

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That's a wonderfully vague warning. Is your real name similar? Do you play, or play with, impulsive characters?
The possibilities are endless.

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Is this addressed to me or Fred? Fred is above your post, but context seems to make it seem unlikely...

My real name isn't a secret, I don't publish under a pseudonym or anything.

I was also called "Pretty Boy" presumably for the reasons that seven foot men are called "Tiny". And certain clever colleagues of mine discovered that "Preeeetttteee Booooy JENK-ins" has the same cadence as Leeroy's infamous battlecry. Which, like Leeroy, I found it best to simply own. I too, at least, ain't chicken.
I struggle with impulsivity in real life, so I actually prefer thoughtful characters, although my most recent character was definitely a shoot first and hope he got it right kind of guy (it was his dharma, after all) and I admit it was refreshing to play to type for once.

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I guess he posted while I was writing. So yeah, directed at you, Sir Pudding.

I'm horrible with names, so if someone doesn't use it as their tag, I will forget it.

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The "official" recording has Jenkins saying something more suggestive of race stereotyping, and doesn't seem to be very popular in my circles.

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When asked to run boring errands, I often comment that "If I received 1 EXP for every time I've ran this errand, I'd be level 5".

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There's an app for that. ;)

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"I'm admiring the wall." Said after failing a Spot check.

"Pointy end goes in enemy." The 'speech' given by the tactician for his mid-combat inspiration attempt.

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GM to a player who failed hir Perception check: "You're contemplating your navel."

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"Despite all your precautions..." Said by a GM when firmly forbidding the players to derail his plot.

"Honest Townsman": Thief.

"Captain Oblivious": Any character (not just a superhero but that's where it started) who cannot make a Perception roll to save his life.

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"Sure, you think that:" my standard response to player questions about unconfirmed theories, such as "hey, we think that the Dean is a vampire?" It's not really an answer to the implied question.

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"Legitimate businessman" Organised crime boss.

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Well that semi-unfair as that question is more asking if there character has an setting/skill based info that they as Player might be missing.

"You have no info that contradict that thought" is more fair.

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That seems like one of those social subtleties that depend entirely on the specific people interacting.
Some gamers may unintentionally use the GM's answers as a crutch forgetting to focus on their character and RP-ing. I can see myself falling into that trap, so am not one to judge.

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"Gentlemen of negotiable morality" - a typical adventuring party.

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In the right contest, "legitimate ethnic businessman" for an Italian / Serbian / Haitian / etc. organised crime boss.

(In the Crimson Skies campaign I think we had "he's out at a meeting of the Legitimate Ethnic Businessmen's Association" = he's off dealing with his fellow crime bosses.)

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"Alternative morality" - evil.

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Does that app give me an increase to BaB or to HP or to saves and cool class abilities that I could use IRL? Otherwise, not interested! :P

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It gives +10% to task management (or so)...

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"Violated the integrity of his chemsuit" - comprehensively shot.

This one comes from a Shadowrun campaign, where a street samurai who didn't have much biology left had taken to wearing a "chemsuit" NBC coverall all the time. He hadn't got the senses to feel it was uncomfortable, and I suspect he may have been short of immune system too. He was gunned down by a heavy machinegun - I no longer understand the Shadowrun damage system - but the thing the player was worried about was if his chemsuit was still sealed.

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One could modify that slightly for one of those Badass Boasts: "sure, you can shoot me, but are you really immune to all the diseases and toxins I've got swimming around in here with me? Is the rest of the city?"

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He or she "has an allergy to high-velocity pieces of lead."

Someone makes a "kinetic rebuttal."

"That's grim!" (for something really dangerous or hazardous)

"IQ is his/her dump-stat." (for when somebody does something really stupid).

"DX is her/her dump-stat." (for when somebody does something comically clumsy).

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This is now my new description of Taylor's collection of Disadvantages that constitue his Chronic Hero Syndrome:

"Him? Oh, Self-preservation is his dump stat."

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Climbing the Rope: Any action a character or group must take if the players want to be involved with the adventure. If they don't, either the adventure never happens, or it happens to someone else and they are left behind.

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Unclosable trap: A poorly designed scenario in which all possible outcomes amount to "PCs win" and "game comes to an end." So called because, as the GM has no plans to end the game at that time, he will never go through with it.

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"I have feet!" - used to announce critically failing Perception/Spot, because clearly you were too distracted inspecting your feet.

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Our group's equivalent is "examining the wallpaper".

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"What castle?" Inspired by a run of critical failures in spot checks

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Ours is either "Ow, my eye!" or ". . . And [X] pokes [his/her] eye out."

A lo-oo-oo-ong time ago, we used "It says 'this face toward en--.'"

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Another one to do with a failed default roll. "You fail to find a button that says (fire all guns*)"

*insert any other task here

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Back when I gamed with the pagans, lesbians and pagan lesbians, a failed Perception roll meant the player looked around at the walls and ceiling and said, "Beige!"

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"Duncan Logic," when you have a very well thought-out and reasoned solution which, ultimately, turns out to be wrong.

"James Logic," when you have an obscure, bonkers, off-the-wall solution, which, while functionally wrong at every turn (or almost every turn), ultimately (somehow) leads to the correct answer.

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"F*** it. I shoot the wyvern." -- when a player has gotten so bored with endless thrashing over what to do that he/she just acts. "Dang, he shot the wyvern", sometimes comes up in reacting to media heros doing something similar.

"Now that's an aspect" "Must be an aspect" -- used now to describe media characters. (Refers to FATE's aspect system where a character's iconic elements are used to generate tokens giving bonuses or used to compel the character into action.)

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"Jerry Logic," when you take gold in jumping to conclusions on plot points then insist that the GM is doing it wrong when new evidence is discovered that renders your hypothesis invalid.

"Keelia Logic," usually anything but. Tends to be hilarious and wrong, but more fun to listen to and extrapolate on. Occassionally incredibly insightful and helpful.

“Bill Logic,” someone has to be wrong in this situation . . . and it isn’t me. Usually cited in response to Jerry Logic (full disclosure: I’m Bill).

"Duh, Dave," said in response to someone making a declaration of discovery that was so blatantly obvious to everyone else, that they didn't see the need to address it.

"You're the shaman, DO-OO something!" Said mockingly after someone makes a ridiculous (potentially deadly) request of another character.

“Scienced!” Blown up. Usually said as “I scienced the hell out of [x]!”

"Don't look at me, I'm just an NPC," said when another PC is trying to avoid being roped into something, obviously, stupid. Occasionally said by the GM to indicate that this NPC will not take actions to drive the plot forward, it’s up to the PCs.

"I'm just here to carry the goat," similar to 'Don't Look at me, I'm just an NPC," usually said as the character.

“Least I brought marshmallows,” said in response to realizing that the current “mission” has crashed and burned. Usually accompanied by actual marshmallows being broken out (amongst the players). Rarely said as the party watches an actual building burn.

“No-oo, why would we ever need a T-Sat?” Usually said after someone objects to the expenditure of party funds over something they consider frivolous, but turns out it would be highly useful in the current situation.

“Hold me!” Said during slam/charge attacks (especially in BattleTech).

“Pilgrimage,” making a Pilgrimage to the Porcelain Altar. Just a euphemism for “going to the bathroom.”

“Moo,” Greetings, hello. Also, the correct response to being “Moo’d” at.

“Sure, why not,” or “we’ll go with that” usually said as a dismissive statement to something obviously wrong but offered as a genuine suggestion.

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"the elevenses" as in "Got him right in the elevenses!" or "Augh! My elevenses!" - groin shot, often as a random hit location table result.

In Werewolf:tA and a number of other games we played in highschool (Including GURPS I might add), 11 seemed oddly common as the number for "groin" on random number hit location table. W:tA designers didn't get the probability curves they were designing with, so kept coming up disturbingly often.

We had one PC castrated by a direct hit to the elevenses, and another take a W:tA Battle Scar to the elevenses (also castration)... after being decapitated and growing his head back in combat like that alien from Men in Black. Because the rules said to roll, and we were in highschool.

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"Showing off the goods" - behave in a sexually provocative manner, usually one which results in swift retribution.

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In a pulp game, "Castling" was the attempt of one particular character to pull spectacularly unlikely scenarios out of his butt to explain current goings-on. Because our gm flowed that way, they often turned out to be true.

In another campaign, the same player, built almost exclusively on luck and serendipity, once drew a treasure map leading to us the Maltese falcon. We followed it and, lo and behold, found it at the X.

"I [task]ed the hell out of that". Shot, stealthed, enchanted, what have you, on a crit.

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I've been around gamer friends who have used those phrases when we saw a near or almost traffic accident happen nearby.

- Ed C.