Gaming jargon through the years...

[Mark]

A lot of the short form words we have today trace back to Gygax's first RPG but much of what we take for granted as gaming jargon comes from outside of paper and pencil games (perhaps most noticeably from computer gaming). What words have you learned since being introduced to gaming and what do you know about their origins?

 

[Darkness]

Jargon...

Those broken munchkin won't get the shaft in 3.5, alas.

 

[Eridanis]

Clerics never "buffed" players until their Everquest counterparts came along, AFAIK.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Isn't "mobs" an EQ thing?

And of course: Crit! Natural 20!

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Some common words early on in D&D that stuck out to me:

* campaign - came from wargames, and in turn came from military jargon.

* milieu - this word seemed to be used a lot, especially by Gygax, when referring to a campaign setting. It doesn't seem to get much use anymore.

* melee - another common word early on, that has fallen into disuse.

* module - "adventure" wasn't used all that often early on in my gaming experience, in lieu of this word. Fell out of common use for a number of years - in favor of "adventure," don't ya know - but has been making a comeback. I don't know exactly where the gaming use of the term came from.

 

[geezerjoe]

Hello?!

THAC0! Dnd jargon at its finest

[sarcasm] And it was SOOO simple to understand too!! [/sarcasm]



Joe2Old

 

[Buttercup]

Well, I first encountered the whole nDx (as in 4d6) construction in the old Might & Magic computer games, but I'm sure the developers got it from D&D.

And saving throws is a phrase you won't hear outside of RPG/CRPG circles.

 

[WanderingMonster]

"make your save"
"roll to hit"
Hit Points
AC
alignment
XP
"level"

 

[dpdx]

Interesting thread!

All I can think of atm is the tendency to leave off the words "mail" and "armor" when describing types of armor: "Full Plate", "Elven Chain", "Leather", "Studded Leather," etc.

Oh, and Fortitude usually gets shortened to "Fort," after the abbreviated version in PHB, etc. "Make a Fort save."

I'd also put "Con" as the shortened form of convention, but I think this usage predates DnD. However, the three letter abbreviations of ability scores, when pronouncable, often get used in speech, too: "WIS", "INT", "CON", "DEX".

Monster names sometimes get jargonized, too. "Hobgobs." (Can't think of any others.)

 

[Drawmack]

Shedding some light:
Module was a term used in military games for add on packs to the basic rules. They were dubbed this due to their modular nature because they covered tactics and such that would be mostly rules independent.

This terminology carried over into rpg's, at first and was later replaced by more descriptive terms adventure, sourcebook, etc.