Gaming jargon through the years...

[The_Gneech]

• Anything that has to specify the number of sides that are on a die
• Wandering monster
• Eps, exp, experience points
• Dungeon being a place where monsters lurk, instead of a place where prisoners are tortured
• Dragons being anything but green
• The word "cleric" actually being used
• Charisma, ego, and presence being different terms for the same thing
• Elves being just slightly shorter than humans (instead of tiny, or taller than humans)
• Trolls having fronds on their heads and regenerative powers
• Gnolls being something other than grassy banks
• Gnomes being taller than a foot.
• Being attacked by ooze
• Wands being a collection of spells in a stick; scrolls vanishing when you read them
• Kobolds being anything at all.
• Tenser, Bigby, and Mordankienan
• "+2 against..."
• Turning the undead
• Priests who fight; martial artist monks who can't
• Stones that whizz around your head
• Putting a sphere of annihilation inside a bag of holding
• The (insert body part here) of Vecna

-The Gneech

 

[Tidus4444]

Turning the undead

Perhaps it wasn't the terminology, but rebuking undead is 2003 years old. Don't you remember Jesus and disiciples rebuking and forcing evil spirits out of townspeople?

 

[Mark]

Hmmm... I'm also trying to think of anything from Fantasy fiction that may have become regular words in RPGs, and perhaps in general usage...

 

[Joshua Randall]

Isn't "mobs" an EQ thing?

People who play MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) were using the word "mob" when the EverQuest players were still stacking up alphabet blocks.

Okay, that mild ribbing aside, the term "mob" is short for "mobile" and is used on MUDs to refer to any creature, monster, or NPC (in D&D terms) that is controlled by the computer. Sometimes there will be a distinction between plain-old ordinary mobs, which just sit there until you interact with them, and aggressive mobs ("aggro" or "aggie"), which will attack you as soon as you enter their area.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/mud-faq/diku/ has a short section on MUD jargon, much of which overlaps with D&D.

You might also check out The Jargon Dictionary .