What sorts of lingo do you use in 3.5/PF context?

[SangoProduction]

(At least, which lingo do you use, which might not be immediately obvious to everyone.)

I was recently made aware that "(un)friendly AoE" isn't as common a term as I thought it was. A friendly AoE is one where it does not negatively affect your allies (and it doesn't positively affect your foes). An unfriendly one is one that doesn't discriminate targets within the area.

And I was wondering what sort of lingo you guys like to use, as the above question.

[Buufreak]

Actually, I do all I can to not use lingo or jargon. I have found, over years, using the most broadly understood terminology helps people grasp concepts and understand what you are trying to say. It helps for people who are trying the game out for the first time as well as many year vets. And it helps for far far more than just a tabletop hobby.

[SangoProduction]

Actually, I do all I can to not use lingo or jargon. I have found, over years, using the most broadly understood terminology helps people grasp concepts and understand what you are trying to say. It helps for people who are trying the game out for the first time as well as many year vets. And it helps for far far more than just a tabletop hobby.

Well, yes. But it's also the case that it's a lot easier to discuss "These birds evolved longer beaks to get at larger flowers." Rather than the more spelled out version, which makes it clear that evolution is a random process, wherein a certain strain of random mutations incidentally helped by giving them a new potential food source, until ... blah blah blah. You get the point.

"Jargon" isn't invented just to sound cool, or to have a secret club feel. It's because when there's sufficient shared understanding of a subject, a lot of the explanation can be distilled down to "blah blah blah, you get the point." Or (insert random mechanic's tool's name here), instead of a description of (the tool).

Now, obviously, we use BAB and what have you (which is definitely meaningless jargon to anyone outside PF/D&D). But I do specifically ask for terms that might be less than universal even within our small enclave of interests that we find ourselves.

[pabelfly]

In real-life games, I don't use abbreviations or lingo. Most of my group aren't online discussing optimization, so they're not familiar with abbreviations and shorthand. Discussing words and terms in full is easier since I don't have to go back and re-explain myself.

I'll typically use shorthand on here for general discussion, but write everything out for judging or competition entries to prevent any possible misunderstandings or confusioin.

[Kurald Galain]

And I was wondering what sort of lingo you guys like to use, as the above question.

For example, we have the term "dwarven lockpicks", which refers to opening the door with a battle axe.

[Psyren]

Do you mean stuff that wouldn't be obvious to anyone outside the hobby, or stuff that wouldn't be obvious to anyone outside my individual table?

One piece of jargon I use frequently is "gish" but I find that D&D groups understand it pretty readily (it even got dropped in Baldurs Gate 3!) whereas I find other RPG communities, even ones that allow for gish-type character builds like Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls, don't.

[Telonius]

I'm pretty sure I've used "Barbarian trapfinding" a few times. (As in - [Explosion] "Found one!" [Explosion] There's another!")

[SangoProduction]

Do you mean stuff that wouldn't be obvious to anyone outside the hobby, or stuff that wouldn't be obvious to anyone outside my individual table?

One piece of jargon I use frequently is "gish" but I find that D&D groups understand it pretty readily (it even got dropped in Baldurs Gate 3!) whereas I find other RPG communities, even ones that allow for gish-type character builds like Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls, don't.

To be fair, Gish literally comes from Githyanki's mage warriors... Gish. It is admittedly a niche reference.
But I guess the term was just useful enough in D&D as to catch on.

(And to answer your question: Really whatever you think would be an interesting/fun response. [See above] I specified it not being immediately obvious to avoid just basic stuff that hardly needs explanation, Like "BAB is short for base attack bonus, which is a bonus to certain rolls that are made to determine whether or not you hit an attack, gained from levels at a rate..." OK. I'm going to stop. Point made.)

[Psyren]

To be fair, Gish literally comes from Githyanki's mage warriors... Gish. It is admittedly a niche reference.
But I guess the term was just useful enough in D&D as to catch on.

Oh I know the etymology behind it - I'm just saying that it's one of those lingo that tends to be more D&D/PF-specific, despite the concept of a spellblade-type character being more universal.

[Kurald Galain]

Another term we use is "Fireball Formation", meaning that the party (or the enemies) have unwisely positioned themselves so that they can all easily be hit with a standard AOE spell.

[Troacctid]

Some jargon terms in my lexicon include: 3.PF, ACF, action economy, BAB, bag of rats, BBEG, BFC, build, char-op, cheese, CoDzilla, core, crunch, diplomancy, DMM, DPR, ECL, E6, fluff, fudge, full caster, gish, gish-in-a-can, grognard, LA, LA buyoff, MAD, mailman, metagaming, nova, OGL, -op, PAO, PEACH, persistomancy, PO, PrC, Pun-Pun, RAI, RAW, RHD, SAD, SRD, swordsage'd, tier, Tippyverse, TO, TWF, ubercharger, UMD, WBL, WotC, and XP.

[Ramza00]

Prepare to Die, you may roll for initiative :smalltongue:

[Jay R]

From my "Rules for DMs" document:

37. Describe the action in English, not gaming jargon – even if you explain it in gaming jargon in the next breath. “The ogre loses his temper completely. He just smashes wildly with his club. He’s using Power Attack, so there will be +6 damage if he hits, but his attacks are at -3.”