Champions Jargon

[Maccabe]

I was part of a Champions group many years ago that seemed to use

certain words to describe combat effects. Here are some I remember;

 

PRANG- An attack that did not get beyond the characters DEF was said to have made this sound.

 

GUMMO- An acronym for "at Game Masters Option" , when a character was

at -31 STUN or more.

 

Did any of you guys ever have something like this???

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Yeah, my old group had some slang we threw around the table:

 

BOX SHOT -- An attack requiring so many dice that a "kill box" was required to contain the dice thrown for a reasonably random roll. Essentially, this was a cardboard box or convenient tupperware container to keep the dice from scattering to all points of the game room when an overly zealous player would toss the dice for that massive haymaker Grond was going to dish onto Dr. Destroyer...

 

SNIT (From Revenge of the Snits) -- An enemy agent. My players saw a lot of these guys because I loved taking advantage of the "multiple opponents" rule to make these guys an actual combat threat. The players who created characters with AOE or Explosion attacks started becoming very popular in this campaign...

 

There were others, but I used to hang with a fairly rude dog group, so these are the only ones that are family friendly.

 

Matt "Still-wishing-the-old-gang-was-still-around" Frisbee

[Guest HeroPink!]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

FARMER: character that uses Haymaker a lot.

 

One player kept calling his EB "The Britanica" (as in Encyclopedia Britanica). Funny a couple of times, not after a hundred times. Had to stifle him.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Splort: Any damage that simply didn't need to be rolled. For example, a character who had jumped from the plane only to find his chute was still safely under his seat, or, in a supers game, when a character attempted to steady a building that had been knocked over by a villain with demolitions. As the building began to teeter over, the character realized that not only was he not strong enough, he couldn't push enough, either. Splort.

 

School Bus: I had a set of yellow dice with black pips-- highly visible-- that I required new players to use so that experienced players could help them figure totals, etc.

 

Short bus: a set of similarly-colored very lage dice I bought specifically to address one player's habit of blatantly lying about his rolls.

 

Captain @$$-saver: Any NPC who was sent in specifically to ask in a booming God voice: Are you guys _sure_ this is what you want to do?

 

Dandy: Recovering D&D player.

 

WelfareMan!: Character with absolutely no possible way to make a living or live a life outside of combat. Usually had obscenely potent attacks and combat skills. Couldn't think his way out of a wet paper plot device.

 

Spandex Commandos: supers in general, particularly the 'gritty' type, such as Batmunch and Punisher.

 

Rapist: player who felt it to be an essential part of the game to exploit every meta-aspect of the rules at every possible moment-- Gamism run to psychosis. Usually found playing WelfareMan.

 

Mason: player who _always_ played a brick. See also Shriner.

 

Stripper: the guy who _always_ played a woman, no matter what. And usually a comely one, with identical personality in every genre, and every campaign. See also things I won't say in public.

 

Roundhouse Rex: any character that relied on Haymaker but refused to understand the CV penalties involved. Sometimes for years.....

 

Dice Storm: I think we all know what this is, and I think most gamers call it that.

 

You know, it occurs to me that I've been gaming too long......

 

I need to stop, because I think my group may have a book-length lexicon in the works!

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Spang: And Prang above - the sound effect of damage not effecting a character.

 

Brick a roll - to roll very badly - from the fact that bricks usually have low CVs, and tend to miss a lot.

 

A Lesslie roll - a very bad damage roll - named after a player who was amazingly unlucky with dice rolls. We tracked her damage rolls for three months, switching dice every month. Her average was 2.8 or so.

 

Time to pay / you have to pay. - Said after a very bad joke or movie quote. Comes from the Punny back, a jar we keep that if you make a bad joke or movie qoute you have to pay into (dime to dollar depending on severity). Even on days that were declared "no pay days" still said to show appreciation.

 

Dmm Dmm Dmm (as a descending base guitar line) - to go off in a stupid or off kilter direction. Quoted by a barbarian in a fanstasy game as the sound effect when he wandered off bored with what the rest of the party was doing.

 

Sport Model Brick - a character type - Brick but not bulky and usually had some ancillory power - quite often Flight. Descriptions of Wonderman, Warbird, Rogue, Superman, Wonder Woman.

 

Splort (or other such onomopeatic sound effech) - used when the man sized amoeba character Meeb does his area effect str attacks, or does a move through.

 

Hit the jackpot - Rolling a six on a killing attack stun mulitple. From the term "stun lotto"

 

Moving hte curtain (a gesture) - taking the hand and moving it across the face as if moving aside a curtain - to show that what was being said is said out of character. Curtain is then returned back for in character play to resume.

 

Machstick (an item) - Yardstick - marked off with the rangemods on it, with big black lines on the breakpoints. An old speedster, named Mach, had 36 inches combat movement - so she could move the distance of the yardstick.... ie Machstick.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Oh, almost forgot a favorite amongst the original group:

 

"Cowboyed it:" when a character does something insanely stupid and through blind luck and phenomenal dice rolls manages to get away unharmed.

 

Inspired from a term first coined by one of the original players, and still in use in our group:

 

John Wayne Armor: A character caught in the open and seriously outnumbered who manages to fight his way to cover without ever getting hit. Rare, but always funny to see the look on the GM's face when all the to-hits come up as misses!

[Black Rose]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Sport Model Brick - a character type - Brick but not bulky and usually had some ancillory power - quite often Flight. Descriptions of Wonderman, Warbird, Rogue, Superman, Wonder Woman.

 

... snipped...

 

Moving hte curtain (a gesture) - taking the hand and moving it across the face as if moving aside a curtain - to show that what was being said is said out of character. Curtain is then returned back for in character play to resume.

I really like both of these. Sadly, the groups I've played with never got into the supers groove. The closest thing I have is from our Fantasy games:

 

Watered-Down Horse Pi$$ - first attributed to my friend Jaime's attempts to make sun tea, and our complete impatience with the scheme. Later bestowed upon (again) Jaime's attempts to make us drink Crystal Light (cheap) instead of his Dad's Root Beer (not cheap), and finally pretty much anything we drank at his place. Occasionally crappy drinks, but great fresh-baked bread with real butter. :thumbup:

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Theres been a ton, but scattered across different eras and group compositions. A few that are pretty consistent (mostly because I use them and thus they transition):

 

Staggered: we call being CON Stunned "Staggered"

 

Comatose: way way in GM's disretion

 

GDL: GMs Discretion Land, basically the same as Comatose but not as bad.

 

Take a Coffee Break: your character isnt going to be on stage for a while, might as well do something productive away from the table

 

Insta-gibb'd: One shotted fatality

 

Alpha-strike: Opening up with ones most powerful attack on the first action in a combat.

 

Hiawatha: pretty much any bow weilding character

 

Lamont: any character that runs around trying to be excessively stealthy, even when its not warranted

 

Yahtzee! Any attack that required so many dice it was easier to roll them in a cup.

 

Coffee-can O Damage: Like Yahtzee, but even more dice.

 

Magic Bullet Theorist: any player that gets stupid with bouncing rules.

[Moonblade]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

We had some general phrases we liked

 

"Oh, a Tad" -- A very large amount

 

"Gaff" -- a particularly damaging attack (usually RKA)

 

"Box Cars" -- A roll of all or mostly sixes.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

"Mortgaged" - Like in Monopoly, when a character's chit-marker is turned over to indicate they are -30 STUN. As in, "Ooh, Boll Weevil is mortgaged!"

[Trebuchet]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Wombat: A character built with every conceivable loophole and Limitation to maximize power. Flight bought "Not Underwater", Energy Blasts and Force Fields bought with exceptionally rare Limitations (Not in Intense Magnetic Fields; Not on Odd Numbered Tuesdays) adding up to +1 or more. Our group's equivalent to "munchkin" or "cheese."

 

Combat Wombat: A PC built and optimized solely for combat. Has no non-combat skills or abilities at all; in fact may not even have a name for his Secret ID or a method of earning a living in said Secret ID. Really bad ones may not even have a superhero name (He's still "Bob's character" after two years of play.) Usually has "Current (nameless) Girlfriend 11-" as an NPC; particularly egregious ones may take this several times ("He fools around."). Often applied to characters (I use the term loosely) with totally unrelated Powers with an overarching "concept" ("Um, he's a nanotech-enhanced mutant bitten by a radioactive weasel. Yeah, that's the ticket. He fights crime!") A Combat Wombat may or may not be a Wombat (see above).

[Chuckg]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

PRANG- An attack that did not get beyond the characters DEF was said to have made this sound.

 

In our group, we called that particular sound effect a "boink".

[Outsider]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Holding Himself Hostage

 

Form 1)

What is said of a player who whines, moans, compains and holds grudges in an excessive manner so much so that the GM (loathing the out of game consequences) arranges it such that nothing happens in game to that player's character that will set him off. Normally, a Hostage Holder complicates matters by making a character with sub-standard defences, and then does incredibly risky things with them. None of the regular players in my old group did this, but we had visitors who did. Short term visitors, because I didnt put up with this form of Hostage Holding.

 

Form 2)

Instead of the whining, moaning, complaining, and grudge holding acting as a deterrent to the GM giving the character what he probably deserves, the threat is delay of game while the player makes a new character and/or overt expression of boredom while he waits around with his character unconscious or dead. Again, form 2 Hostage Holders tend to make characters with sub-standard defenses and then take ill advised risks with them. I had more of this, and (alas) did put up with it to a great degree. The point of getting together to game is for everyone to have fun, and someone consistently sitting around doing nothing because they are constantly in a coma isnt much fun for them.

 

 

Recrimination Phase

Unlike a character's normal phase, or post 12 recovery phase, the recrimination phase can happen at any time, and is taken by the player, not the character. Actions allowed during Recrimination Phase are whining, moaning, complaining, and often bringing up past grudges. Excercising a Recrimination Phase does not make a player a Hostage Holder (see above) if the recriminations are kept within reason.

 

 

Klingon Butt Hook Maneuver

Originating back in my Star Fleet Battles days, this term has come to signify any attempt by one player to bring up and use minutae of the rules (or a variant interpretation of them) as a means to beat another player. Especially if the minutae contradicts how the players in question normally play the game, and is kept secret until the optimal tactical moment. Not so much of a problem in HERO system, because the rules arent as arcane/obscure as the SFB rules were, because the players can appeal to the GM, and mainly becuase the players rarely play competitively with each other. (A player trying to pull the Klingon Butt Hook Maneuver on the GM would have an unpleasant experience from then on, I'd bet)

[Guzalot]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Splort: Any damage that simply didn't need to be rolled. For example' date=' a character who had jumped from the plane only to find his chute was still safely under his seat, or, in a supers game, when a character attempted to steady a building that had been knocked over by a villain with demolitions. As the building began to teeter over, the character realized that not only was he not strong enough, he couldn't push enough, either. Splort. [/quote']

I love this one!

 

From my group: Chit--Critical Hit or natural 3. "oh chit..."

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

I love this one!

 

From my group: Chit--Critical Hit or natural 3. "oh chit..."

 

HAH! I love that one!

 

uh.... how about that.... "Jinx" and all that!

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Wombat:

[snip]

Combat Wombat:

 

[snip]

 

Funny how many things are universal:

 

Wombat=Rapist

 

Combat Wombat = WelfareMan!

[Trebuchet]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

The difference is that in our vernacular Wombat refers to the character, not the player. So to amalgamate the two, a Rapist would typically design and play a Wombat.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Let's see ...

 

BLASTREX: An impressively high damage roll on a Normal attack, named after a character who was incapable of rolling less than 45 STUN on 10d6, tested with a variety of dice in a variety of situations. I say 'character' rather than 'player' because he could only do it while playing Blastrex.

 

PENSE ROLL: Named after Pensativa, a character who rarely did more than 10 stun on 5d6 of Ego attack, except for that one critical fumble where she did 29 on 5d6 of Ego Attack ... to herself.

 

RADLAND: In the negative-triple-digits of STUN, named after the first PC (Rad) to accomplish the feat, however involuntarily.

 

CARDBOARD CANNON: A character who's all offense, no (or rather, little) defense. Not unique to my past, I'm sure.

 

ANOREXIC ARMADILLO: A brick who's failed to purchase any additional movement.

 

"Who says statistics don't lie?": Any time a character, regardless of system, behaves in a way contrary to his ability scores. Low STR characters trying to powerlift trucks, low DEX Characters relying on DCV, low INT characters acting brilliant or high INT characters being stupid, etc etc. Sometimes used for players who overestimate their character's TK level, like thinking a 20 STR TK will stop a plummetting load of I-Beams.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

"Ping" -- the sound made when an attack fails to penetrate a character's defenses...not even the STUN.

 

"Squirp" -- the sound made when a massive attack is dealt against a target -- typically a henchman or grunt -- that has no prayer of remaining concious or in operational condition after it lands.

 

"Yahtzee!" -- the vocal signal that a player has rolled lots of sixes on his handful of damage dice.

 

"And tonight, the part of Sentinel will be played by..." -- Sentinel's player has a very useful habit of thinking so far outside the box he can't even read the label on the lid, and coming up with brilliant, obvious, "why-didn't-I-think-of-that" ideas and observations...so much so that the other characters, in a situation that even has the super-geniuses (like Dr. Anomaly ) stumped, they turn to Sentinel and ask him if he can come up with anything. The phrase in question is applied when someone other than Sentinel comes up with one of those "outside-the-box" ideas.

 

"Cinematic success" or "Cinematic roll" -- a roll that's so good (usually a natural 3) that the success is far and above the result being aimed for, requiring extra narration by the GM describing the "movie-hero-esque" results, and accompanying "oooh's" and "aaahh's" from the other players.

[SatinKitty]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

FLUMP !!!!

 

The sound made when someone falls over or flops down, for whatever reason, usually to rest.

[McCoy]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

Humm, not that much jargon.

 

Several people have mentioned attacks that don't penetrate defenses, in my game they are said to "tink."

 

A character who has made a sucessful breakfall roll, especally to avoid knockback damage, is said to have "nailed the dismount."

 

And there's "yadayada" (accompanied by a rapid shaking of the head), the sound a stunned character makes on their next phase.

[Gummibear]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

"ANYWAY"- Phrase used by the GM (me) when the players have wandered away from the game and are well into the "last weekend I had the greatest time at a movie" territory. Most recently used by one of my players, "Can we get an anyway and move on with the game?"

[ghost-angel]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

"ANYWAY"- Phrase used by the GM (me) when the players have wandered away from the game and are well into the "last weekend I had the greatest time at a movie" territory. Most recently used by one of my players, "Can we get an anyway and move on with the game?"

I know I've uttered that a few times myself ... usually when City Of Heroes comes up as a discussion topic.

 

don't forget

 

Scads! - when a Skill roll is made by ten or more.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

"ANYWAY"- Phrase used by the GM (me) when the players have wandered away from the game and are well into the "last weekend I had the greatest time at a movie" territory. Most recently used by one of my players, "Can we get an anyway and move on with the game?"

Yah. I think we've all used that one at least once....

 

"So, ANYWAY, back in HERO LAND...."

[Pogo]

Re: Champions Jargon

 

I see the free quarks! Said when a PER roll is particularly good.

 

Fall down go BOOM! Character is at minus lots on stun.

 

Not Enough. Always the answer when the GM asks "What's your PD/ED/DCV." Should be spoken in Gothic letters if possible