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Tag Archives: gamer jargon

Promoting Clarity in Fudge

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Fudge, to my knowledge, goes further than any other role-playing game to make the hobby understandable to newcomers in terms of reducing jargon. This, I maintain, is one of the greatest assets of Fudge, and it is a byproduct of one of its design goals, which includes “a character sheet you can understand without having [...]

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A Wise Consistency Is the Ki-Rin of Great Minds

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I only recently acquired a copy of the Fudge 10th Anniversary Edition, and although my favorite is still the Fudge Expanded Edition, I must say I was pleased with one of the changes I noticed: reducing game terms to lowercase. It always annoyed me that there were Difficulty Levels and difficulty adjustments, Subjective Character Creation [...]

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Yet Another Glossary Update

Monday, February 2, 2009

I added a few more terms to the Glossary of Fudge and General Role-Playing Terms, such as “action resolution,” “mini-scenario,” “one-on-one,” “solo scenario,” and “task resolution.”

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A Very Happy Unbirthday to You

Monday, February 2, 2009

Thinking about gamer colloquialisms reminded of one that I coined during my AD&D, 1st Edition days: unmodule Any role-playing without the use of a written module, usually occurring during “downtime” between adventures and allowing player characters to pursue personal goals, run errands, buy equipment, carouse, or embark on missions of their own design. Derived from [...]

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Gamer Colloquialisms

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Related to the previous article, I just remembered an example of a gamer colloquialism not used by anyone in my own gaming group. I heard it in the 1980s when I was attending NOWSCon, a small gaming convention held by the Northern Ohio Wargaming Society. I was playing in the first round of an RPGA-sanctioned [...]

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GMing Terms Added to Glossary

Saturday, January 31, 2009

I have added three terms to the Glossary of Fudge and General Role-Playing Terms: “GM fiat,” “GM on the fly,” and “GM whim.” I have also pondered whether it would be justifiable to include what may be considered gamer colloquialisms, but ultimately I think it would clutter the glossary, the aim of which is to [...]

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Glossary Updated

Sunday, January 18, 2009

I’m not sure why it has taken me so long, but I finally updated the Glossary of Fudge and General Role-Playing Terms to include the variant of “Game Master” used in the rest of the English-speaking world: “Games Master.” I also remembered to add “gamer” and “grognard.” Not exactly earth-shattering, but an update is an [...]

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Promoting Clarity in Gaming

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

To promote clarity in gaming is to promote gaming itself. If one wants to reach others, one attempts to communicate with them. Most game companies do not wish to exclude potential customers, but sometimes their adherence to old habits of convenience (such as the ridiculous overuse of acronyms and initialisms) is more an obstacle than [...]

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Deliberate Obfuscation in Gaming

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Sometimes a little issue reminds one of a bigger issue. In this case, the little issue is that of the occasional difficulty of interpreting a role-playing game’s attributes so I can include them in my List of Attributes by Game. Sometimes the only access I have to a game is its character sheet, which is [...]

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