Gaming catchphrases, expressions, and idioms--what are yours?

[Heap Thaumaturgist]

Rolling a "Happy".

For some reason we've always called a natural 20 a "Happy". "Dude, I rolled a Happy."

Then there's: "Small hands."

A friend of mine ran a paladin with a totally unnatural fear of goblins. Nothing else. Just goblins. He attributed it to their small hands (grabbed from Austin Powers). It was sort of silly, but it made for some interesting situations. Now, even in regular conversation, if there's ever a joke or situation involving a totally irrational fear we shrug and say: "Small hands."

And making a little crooked bunny ears with your hand and hopping it along in front of your body. Hard to explain that one.

It started in game when the group's paladin was put on "watch". The other PCs were lying in wait for an ambush and they were trying to think of a signal that the paladin could use to alert the party without being verbal. They couldn't decide on anything until the player made the crooked bunny ears and hopped them in front of his chest and said: "This means evil approacheth, okay?"

That one stuck outside of game too, for some reason, and if we're about to get into a difficult situation or a decidedly unsavory person we don't want to get stuck talking to his heading over somebody will do the ears.

--HT

 

[Cedric]

Getting tired of explaining my routine to the DM for searching the room we'd just taken away from some baddies. I finally just started saying...I nuke the room!

Meaning, I search it thoroughly. This of course came from the fact that we were in the Navy Nuclear Power Program (class 9204!) which had a saying, You're nuking it! (think of the word smurf, we just substitute nuke).

It stuck, we used that phrase from then on.

Cedric

 

[Shadowdancer]

"Awarinating"

This came from our first "Cyberpunk" campaign. The skill that you use to keep from being ambushed is Awareness. But one of our players would always say "I'm awarinating" when he wanted to use that skill. So we all started saying it.

Now, we even use it in D&D and other games when we want to indicate to the DM that we are on guard against an ambush and trying to avoid being surprised.

"B-b-b-big!"

In our first D&D campaign, we were all pretty mercenary. Any time anyone would scout around by themself or look into a room that no one else could see into, we would have a DM pass us a note telling us what we saw rather than tell the whole group aloud.

In one dungeon, one of the players -- who in real life is very afraid of spiders -- eased open a door and peeked inside. The DM passed him a note telling him the room was full of spider webs, and a giant spider. As he read the note, the guy jumped.

One of the other players asked him, "What do you see?"

All the guy could stammer out was, "B-b-b-big."

So now, any time anyone looks into a room and it's occupied by a monster or monsters, that's how he lets the others know to get ready for possible combat: "B-b-b-big."

 

[Moe Ronalds]

this is my little sister's "catch phrase" that she plans to use once we start playing inquisitor (and I was the one that was dropped?) One of the other players is going to play an Arco-Flagellant character, and my sister's character and I are the ones who command his character. Anyway, my sister plans to say the command word over and over again, just so that the guy will end up killing something. All this trouble, JUSt so that she can say: You mister safety monkey have gone TOO far!

 

[Shiv]

Here's some of the more entertaining that I've actually catalogued over the years. I know, I know. Total geek.

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"# to the forehead"
Used to denote damage dealt via a Magic Missile spell. Magic Missile damage is ALWAYS to the forehead.

"# to the left lung"
Used to denote damage dealt via a sneak attack. Other acceptable organ targets include spleen, liver, pancreas, and kidney. Right lung, somehow, is not acceptable.

A$$ of Holding
A fictitious space where one stores all their really cool stuff, stuff that they don't actually have but may then refer to sarcastically. DM: “How are you getting through the triple-wizard-locked, triple-Symbol of Insanity door.” Player: “I guess I reach into my A$$ of holding and get out my Mighty Staff of Wizard Unlocking and Sanity Restoring.”

Chair rails
The sure-fire sign that a particular room/corridor/dungeon/etc. is of high quality and worth the time and effort of brave and powerful adventurers. Our group’s headquarters has chair rails.

Cluck
Colloquial term for a cleric.

"Could you go out for coffee?"
Request used as an attempt to remove the Paladin or other goody-two-shoes from the scene so that the rest of the party can be malicious and nasty.

Doom on a Stick
Phrase used to describe any person, item, place, or situation that is potentially amazingly deadly. Especially poignant if the item in question is a magical staff, rod, or wand. “A great wyrm? Jeez, doom on a stick.”

Flight for Life
A cleric or Paladin imbued with the ability to fly.

"I look under a rock…"
Phrase used to denote that your character REALLY wants something. Since the GM obviously is not going to award you the item in question for your spectacular role-playing, it becomes necessary to “look under a rock.” The item in question may be one of various things, including XP, a spellbook, a Holy Sword, an important clue, etc.

"I stand nonchalantly by the wall."
Phrase indicating that your character is basically just staying out of the way and trying not to be noticed.

Monk-y
Adjective used to describe how a Monk acts. Can be used to describe a Monk using special abilities in combat, prayer or meditation, or any general calm, rational behavior. “The wizards are studying. The cleric is praying. The fighter is breaking camp. What’s the monk doing? Meditating. You know, being monk-y.”

Tasty Cheese
A bit of lip-smacking fromage, the pursuit of which is referred to whenever a character has nothing particularly useful to contribute to a situation. Often, the Tasty Cheese is pursued in three parts and is exemplified by the innocuous situation, “(insert NPC) will answer three questions.” If one can’t think of anything better to ask, the three questions should be as follows: “Do you have any cheese?” “Is it tasty?” “Can I have some?”

Thick Darkness
Any darkness, magical or otherwise, which (contrary to common sense) manages to be totally unaffected by any sort of light, magical or otherwise, or dispel attempts.

"You implode"
The ultimate death scenario. The character is completely gone. Nothing left to raise. Generally utilized as a threat to get an annoying player to shut-up or calm down.

 

[Holy Bovine]

There's a paladin in my group that detects evil on every thing he possibly can.

The group calls him "palanoid."




Does anyone else have any amusing game related terminology?

Rollplayers and Roleplayers

I the group I play in (all guys with male charatcers) we have found that whenever anyone doesn't show up for a game his character is constanly referred to as 'she'. Don't know why it happened (I think its because one of the PCs' names really sounds female) but now our DM signs off emails to attend as 'Be there or be female!'

Not really a catchphrase but I think we could convert it into a battlecry

edit - Also in the campaign I ran whenever someone really started to tank on damage rolls (stuff like doing 8 points of damage with 4 Magic Missles or something) we would say that s/he was doing 'Monk Damage' tonight. Couse the Monk player rarely hit anything in combat and broke double digits in damage only when he used a Ring of SHocking Grasp to add 1d8+1 damage to his 1d12+6 open hand attack.

 

[Archangel]

Ranger

In a campaign I played in, a sort or pseudo-1st/2nd edition game with heavy house rules, the DM had a very difficult perception check. Basically, in order to notice anything (be it mouse or dragon), you needed to roll a 5 or 6 on a d6 (elves got a 4,5, or 6). Well, he was also very fond of Rangers and one of their extra abilities was a that they got another number on the perception check (non-elves - 4,5 or 6; elves - 3,4,5 or 6).

Anyway, one of the players had forgotten that I was playing a ranger and when I noticed something on a roll of 4, he questioned it. After explaining, he said, "all you had to say was Ranger". So now, whenever a player questions a character's ability (because he did not realize it was class-based), the other player will look at him and say Ranger.

Also, on the low end of the maturity scale (and realize that the group is all 30+), whenever an 8 is rolled (esp. for initiative) someone will say "yer an 8" (laughter ensues - and yes I also partake in this humor, what can I say).

 

[Clear Dragon]

Lemming(s) - term for Paladin(s) (specifically those tied to an organized hierarchy). My CG Cleric (servant of the Goddess of Luck in the campaign) coined this one due paladin following orders without question.

 

[toberane]

"I search the room for experience."

A partiucularly useful phrase for when the combat is over and it appears that the DM may have temporarily forgotten to hand out XP.

 

[Delemental]

We have two from our Earthdawn campaign.

1. "Hit him with the flat of the lightsaber"

One of our former players was playing, essentially, a Jedi Knight (don't ask). He had a 'lightsaber', which was actually a magical energy sword, but everyone just called it a lightsaber. At one point, his character was getting in trouble because he kept killing his opponents. So we get into combat, and he declares a subdual attack.

"How?" asks the GM. "You're using a lightsaber."

"I hit him with the flat of the lightsaber," he replied.

We all had a good laugh over that. Now we use the phrase all the time to refer to doing subdual attacks.

2. "Rock to hole vision"

At one point, all of the characters in the group has some form of astral sight (vision that allows you to see into the astral plane, useful for detecting magic and such in Earthdawn), either as a natural ability, or through talents, or magical items. Everyone except one character, an elven archer. We were in a wilderness area looking for the lair of some lizardmen-types, when we come across a large boulder. One of the characters with natural astral vision rolls well enough to break the illusion, and sees that the boulder hides a small cave. He alerts us, and immediately the rest of the party begins to activate their abilities, until all of us can see the cave - except, of course, our poor archer. We tell him repeatedly that there's a cave there, he insists its a rock. Finally, the player turns to the GM and says:

"I try to look at the boulder with rock-to-hole vision."

We now refer to all astral sight as "rock-to-hole vision."

3. "Rock farming"

Refers to the pursuits of anyone of dubious intellect. Another reference to our Jedi player, who left the game. He wasn't always the brightest; at one point, he'd been snatched up by a griffin, and was 400-500 feet in the air. He couldn't understand why it was a bad idea to choke the griffin into unconsciousness - he thought it was clever because he wasn't going to kill the beast with his powers, avoiding the corruption that had been plaguing him. Needless to say, he soon learned that there is a force more powerful than the Light Side or the Dark Side... gravity.
When the player left and the character retired, we decided that he'd gone home to take up rock farming.

4. "Overt operative"

I brought this one up running a game of Dragonstar. I believe one of the characters had just made a particularly poor showing of some Move Silently rolls, so we decided this was his new prestige class. It's the opposite of a covert operative; everything he does is blatantly obvious and loudly announced in a sing-song voice: "I'm opening the lock!" "I'm stealing the files!" "I'm going to assassinate your leader!" It hasn't quite hit common usage yet, but I like it, so I'm going to keep using it.

5. "Plan: Get 'em"

Refers to the usual adventurer tactics of charging a foe, any foe, head on and all at once. Vague reference to the movie Ghostbusters: "That was your plan, Ray? Get her?" And used disparagingly by those characters who would like to see their companions use a little more forethought. It started as a complaint about the Tactics skill in Earthdawn, which gives a bonus to attacks if a plan is followed. Unfortunately, the skill doesn't specify it has to be a good plan, so "Get 'em!" still works.