New In-Game Slang Based On Your Games

[PerryParker]

Khayman and I were Gaming last night, enjoying a good Planescape game, and all of us were discussing our "slang" we use, and so I thought I would post a few more goodies:

"I'm actively probing it."
- Term used to denote a thief checking for traps, but not actually touching anything.

Origin: I had a hobbit thief in a Middle Earth RPG waaaay back in the day, and checking for traps was a little more invasive than it is now. So, when the GM asked what I was checking and how, I used about three different phrases about how I was touching the chest by NOT touching it. This last phrase has still stuck around.

"Send in the 5th level fighter! He HAS to do it!"
- Term used when the players know something horrible is about to happen, and they want to send someone else in.

Origin: I'm a little ashamed of this one, but it makes people giggle now. Waaaay back in the day, when I was a mere lad of thirteen in the early 80's, my buddies and I were playing Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits. We were all high level charactes, and one of us had a Deck of Many Things. So, for whatever reason, we pull a couple of cards, and one of us gets "Gain the Services of a 5th level Fighter." Cool, we think. So, we're in some kind of tower or something (memory kind of fuzzy here), and we KNOW there are traps ahead, so we use the 5th level fighter as a "bomb detector." Well, as you might suspect, a 5th level fighter didn't last too long in a high level module. And for several years afterwards, whenever someone didn't want to endanger their character, they'd say the phrase "Send in the 5th level fighter! He HAS to do it!" Yeah, juvenlie, but heck, we were 13! (heh-heh).

 

[Squire James]

Bane in a Box - A dangerous object.

Origin: In one Forgotten Realms campaign, we found a box that apparently contained Bane's soul. None of us ever got to open the box, but the way all the evil forces in the Realms seemed to be chasing us we figured that the mysterious box must have had a god in it.

I always had this vision of the box having a hidden crank that made Bane leap out of the box after a pitiful tootling of "Pop Goes the Weasel".

 

[jeffh]

To "Go for a ladder" is for a plan to go disastrously wrong. This started when someone in a Traveller game literally went to get a ladder during a firefight, and by a chain of events I'm not sure of, this resulted in the deaths of two other PCs. I wasn't in that game (well, for one session I was, but it wasn't that one) but most of my players at the time were participants in it, including the GM of that game, the player who went for the ladder, my sister and my then-girlfriend. So naturally the phrase spilled over to my group.

"That's only three for each of us!" is used as a putdown whenever someone expresses willingness to do something that it's obvious to everyone else would constitute going for a ladder. This one is my fault; it was the line I uttered in a D&D game I was playing in that convinced a party of first and second level characters to as good as charge into something like twelve skeletons and six zombies; there was only one survivor. (Of course, it didn't help that the other five players all thoguht getting a wall behind us was somehow a good idea; even in the stupidity that had apparently gripped me, I knew enough to fight that part of it, but I lost.)

Another one that migrated over from a game I wasn't in was "But there's fish!". This is mainly used one one character (not necessarily player) doesn't want to do something because of trivial dangers or because it involves something gross. It started with a fairy character in a Rifts game refusing to dive into a river to retrieve something. The character was so small a fish might swallow her; this would do her no harm whatsoever, as the character had megadamage capacity (if you're not familiar with Palladium mechanics think of it as DR 100 / Tank shells), but ewww.

 

[Testament]

"I have shoes!" or "Where have my shoes gone?!"
Context: Failing a spot check or search check. The second is usually reserved for negative results.

Origin: One player was running a low wisdom fighter. A VERY low wisdom fighter. Throughout three sessions, the highest modified result he got on a spot check was 3. One session they found themselves in prison, and the GM said that "you notice all your equipment is gone, including your shoes." To which the player responded "I had shoes!?" It developed from there.


"You see Elvis"
Context: As above.


"LANDBRIDGE!!!!!"
Context: When someone's missing the bleedingly obvious.

Origin: Not actually in-game, but several of my gaming associates are also fans of 8-Bit Theatre. You can guess the rest.


"OOOO-TEEENY!!!!"
Context: Insanely daring kamikaze run.

Origin: In a game of Living Force (RPGA run Star Wars d20) one character's Jawa Jedi (don't ask) decided that the situation was going really really bad, and we needed to escape. So he decided that to buy time, he'd use Force Flight to move himself straight at the enemy and hold them off. The player then stood up, threw the 20-sider and screamed, at the top of his lungs "OOOOOO-TEEEENY!!!!!"


(Sung to tune of Waltzing Matilda) "Strange dimensional vortex man, strange dimensional vortex man, ripping the fabric of time and space..."
Context: Impossible entrance of an NPC OR blatant DM retcon

Origin: One character was a bard when an NPC entered into a dimension locked area with now doors. He just appeared. And the player's a fan of the Scared Weird Little Guys, so he started singing it in character.


"The Pianos are circling!", "Boxed Text paralysis"
Context: Used heavily when we playing Living modules to remind us that we're in boxed text, and thus cannot act.

Origin: The first term here started when one player, after the game, casually asked what happened if we acted during boxed text. The GM, who also shares our hatred of "Boxed Text Paralysis" (this term, as I understand it, is ANCIENT) responded "I don't know, maybe a piano falls on you!". The pianos have stuck.


"Piano Deployment System"
Context: Common in Year 2 Living Greyhawk modules, and in the occaisonal later LG mod. Occaisonaly appears in other Living Games. Essentially, whenever the party is attacked during boxed text, and thus doesn't get a chance to respond in any way.

Origin: See above.


"DC = Plot"
Context: Once again, used in Living Games for an unspecified DC, usually for a spot or search check. Some GMs use it for scaled DCs.

Origin: The GM asked "So what are your spot rolls?" When they came back, and all sucked, he responded "lucky for you, there's no DC here!". I responded "DC PLOT!" and it stuck.


"IGMOO!"
Context: Any rare, exotic mineral in D&D is now called Igmoo. This is the newest term we have.

Origin: In a game of Living Arcanis: Nishanpur, we met a merchant who had the metal Ignium for sale. F'Tharkas, a character in the party is an INT 6, WIS 6 Barbarian whom everyone adores, since he is so damned funny, saw the metal for sale, and asked what it was. When told it was Ignium, he responded "Igmoo you say? I like it, it's soooooo reeeeed!" (yes, it was an "Azumanga Daioh" reference there, complete with drawl.). We tried to teach him how to say Ignium, but he insisted on Igmoo. By the end of the session, we were practically in tears from laughter. He now wears 1 pound of Ignium around his neck, is insanely jealous of another PC who has an Ignium sword, and seeks to find more of this "splendiferously red Igmoo!"

By the end of a recent convention here in Melbourne, nearly every Arcanis GM and Player was also using the term Igmoo.

 

[DragonLancer]

"Detonate!"
Usually cried out by the rest of the table when one player does something he knows won't work but tries it anyway.

Source: In an old 2nd ed AD&D game, one guy had a psionicist and insisted on attempting to to detonate an ogre every round for about 4 or 5 rounds, even though everyone pointed out to him that it only worked on inanaimate objects!

"Pete!"
Another cry used when a character steals the kill from another character, when the monster is down to 1 or 2 HP.

Source: We had a player named Pete who did just that, nearly every combat and it really hacked off the rest of the table.

"Twinking!"
Fun jib directed at any 1st-5th level character who manages to roll 25+ on a skill check without rolling a 20 on the dice.

Source: I have a powergamer in my group, and this came about as a friendly rib. Since then its become rather common at the gaming table.

"Going Off-Book."
When the players take a course of action that isn't covered in a written module or the DM's notes.

Source: Comes from a Buffy: TVS game a couple years back when the GM put aside his gaming notes to wing the session. Since then its been called in numerous D&D and Call of Cthulhu sessions.

 

[Gulla]

"We're Rangers dang it!"
Used whenever anyone does something stupid, dangerous or both.
The background is from when the two rangers in a FR game climbed down a cliff to look into a cave containing spellcasting monsters. When one of the players doubted the wisdom of dangeling at the end of a rope outside a cave of known spellcasters the dangeling ranger replied "We're Rangers dang it! We know what we're doing." (And promptly was bathed in burning hands and barely survived).

Håkon

 

[DarkSoldier]

"So, we're on Gand."
Origin: SWRPG. The GM started, "So, you're on Gand," to catch us up with where we had ended the week before. Unfortunately, that was as far as he got due to out of game conversations, and it was a few minutes before we stopped, paid attention, and I repeated, "So, we're on Gand." Every other game session, regardless of if it's SW, D&D, or if we're actually on Gand, somebody says, "So, we're on Gand."

"Bodies in the Trunk"
Origin: SWRPG. We had interrogated a street thug, but he had no useful information regarding why our base of operations (a laundromat) had blown up. I cuffed him twice, and the second killed him (Damn cheap thugs). I stuffed him in the trunk of my landspeeder, and figured I could bluff my way through the police blockade. No such luck, even with my high Bluff modifier. Now, whenever we get a mode of transport with built-in cargo space, somebody always checks the trunk for bodies.

 

[Tinner]

Our group literally has a notebook full of these. We have one player who has been keeping this journal of our slang for over 10 years. I don't have a copy on me, but here are some I remember off hand.

10 extra boxes: NPC's, Henchmen, etc. accompanying the group for the sole purpose of soaking up damage. Synonomous with a "Red Shirt" from Star Trek.
Usage: "Alright, the samurai can come with us. We can always use 10 extra boxes."
Origin: Shadowrun - Since the condition monitor in Shadowrun is made up of 10 boxes, this one was obvious. It really became part of our slang when a player wanted to bring a known incompetant PC into our game. He was christened 10 extra boxes, and the name stuck. The term has even migrated into other games.

Put him in the Meat Drive: To messily dispose of any character
Usage: "What do we do with the prisoner?" "Put him in the Meat Drive."
Origin: Star Wars(WEG) Our little band of smugglers was so down on our luck, we were forced to outfit our ship with a fossil fuel burning drive system. Our GM made the mistake of telling us that this system would run on any organic matter. "So it's a Meat Drive?" we asked, and he jokingly agreed. We never worried about where to dispose of any compromising corpses after that. It also made a great threat to use on crew members. "Do you want to work in the Meat Drive?" Now in any game if we want to messily dispose of anyone, we "put them in the meat drive."

I don't have any skin!: Exclaimed as a last ditch effort to avoid any unpleasant efect the DM throws at you.
Usage: GM: "You fail your save, and take 33 damage from the fireball." Player: "But I don't have any skin!"
Origin: D&D1e - Isle of Dread. I was running a group through the Isle of Dread. Many of the players were first time players, so I was trying to be especially descriptive and dramatic. In the underground caverns with the boiling mud pits one of the newer players was randomly splashed by boiling mud doing maximum damage. This would have killed his PC, and he was desperate to find any way to avoid the damage. I described the damage to him by saying "You are doused in boiling hot mud, it sears away your skin doing xx damage." The player was trying to whine and say that since he was heavily armored, he had no exposed skin, and should not take the damage. However in his frantic whining, all that came out was "But I don't have any skin!" This ridiculous and blatant whine is now common usage among players who want to try to whine away any unpleasant effect.

I'll have to see if I can get ahold of that notebook sometime and post the rest of our slang as well.

 

[DarthQueeg]

This is Awesome

Great responses!!!!

My fave so far :

"Boromir's in trouble!"

 

[broghammerj]

Get the spoon
Reference to the Gates of Firestorm peak. I believe it was Spriggans guarding the 10 foot high stone wall. When you would approach they would morph into giant size and would arm themselves with halberds. Any attempt to climb the wall would result in being struck by a deadly reach weapon. After about five attempts to enter including storming the walls with ladders, flying overhead, throwing the halflings and dwarves over, etc. I was starting to get really mad as my fellow gamers as they had sabotaged every plan by donig something stupid. I devised my own plan without telling anyone. It consisted of going to town and buying a 15 ft wagon with a team of horses. I backed the wagon up to the wall so the horses were out of reach. I then climbed under the wagon for protection and took a spoon to slowly chip at the mortar with a spoon. When everyone asked why a spoon, I said because they couldn't screw it up.

No move, no attack!
One of our players thought it would be a bright idea to use his halfing with boots of striding and springing to jump over the head of a hill giant. That giant batted him out of the air on an AoA with a critical. The critical chart we use said that his leg was broken resulting in no move/no attack. Every round he kept trying to do something and we would shout, "No move, no attack!"

Getting Montie Cooked
After playing Return to the Banewarrens, we decided we liked Montie's rule supplements rather than his adventures. How we came to this decision you might ask? After fighting yet another templated monster, ie the bugbear with a level of cleric one of the players replied, "We keep getting Montie Cooked."

Start up the grill
In reference to the same group playing Return to the Banewarrens. We became so frustrated with running such an endless and mindless dungeon crawl, with puzzles that no one found fun to deal with, and battling yet another templated monster that we actually started up the grill and burned our characters. Now used in reference to games not going anywhere