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# "I give the King an apple a day for a year, then ask for the kingdom."
'''{{Anchor|Balance by By Giant Salamander}}'''* A style of Dungeon Mastering where a DM achieves game balance by designing the campaign encounters in such a way to tailor to or work against the strengths of party members who are deemed overpowered or underpowered for relative to the rest of the party. If * For example, a fire wizard that regularly clean-sweeps most encounters with their fireball spell, they could be brought down to power would be countered by using lots of fire-resistant monsters such as the Giant Salamander. Similarly, if the party rogue is lagging behind the rest of the party in combat effectiveness, the DM might introduce use more monsters that are especially vulnerable to sneak attack.* While Balance by Giant Salamander is one of the least intrusive ways to maintain fair play, but it's possible to go too far. If the party encounters nothing but fire-resistant monsters the wizard might think that he was being picked-on. Contrariwise, if the rogue encounters nothing but monsters that take extra damage but from critical hits the rogue might think that he's being patronized from all of the [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#DM_Pity|DM Pityunduly patronized]].
'''{{Anchor|Balance by Obfuscation}}'''
'''{{Anchor|Basket Weaving}}'''
* An attempt to avert the [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Stormwind_Fallacy|Stormwind Fallacy]] by from people who think that the fallacy is otherwise valid; this involves taking expansion options that are known to be significantly suboptimal in hopes of achieving better roleplay. While almost every character has to basket weave to some extent, a true basket weaver will intentionally take suboptimal options above and beyond what's necessary to realize their concept out of a belief that anyone who optimizes at all is some sort of [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Munchkin|Munchkin]].* A D&D Basketweaver would do something like make a half-orc commoner 1 / expert 1 / wizard 1 with an INT of 12. Justification? 'Thoggus was a house slave that won his freedom, got rich, and then studied at an arcane college. The expert level was because he took longer than normal to learn how to cast spells'. This character is, to the Basketweaver, supposedly inherently deeper and more interesting than Slade, the Human Wizard 3 with an INT of 18.* Named after the snarky neologism 'underwater basketing weaving', a hypothetical college class used to criticize the idea of courses that are perceived to be academically and vocationally useless and only really serve to inflate grades or fool the student people into believing thinking that they're achieving enrichment because of university culturewere being enriched and actualized in non-conventional ways.
'''{{Anchor|Batman Wizard}}'''
* The other big factor that leads to [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#LWQW|Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]. The Batman Wizard is named for how a properly built wizard can have an answer to seemingly any problem and does it with enough power to invalidate the need of other party members due to the versatility and power of their spells. While [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#CoDZilla|the CoDzilla]] inspires jealousy because they can beat fighters at their own game, the Puppetmaster Buffer inspires jealousy because their buffs are so dominating that it invalidates the build choices of the fighters, the Batman Wizard inspires jealousy because they don't need fighters at all.
* The Batman suffix prefix comes from a character in superhero from DC Comics whose combination of wealth, training, contacts, and especially his utility belt allow him to punch way above his expected weight class, making it impossible to actually beat him. Cheekily He always seems to have extensive but devastatingly effective back-up plans for any scenario no matter how bizarre or unlikely the situation is. The character's improbable efficacy is cheekily summarized with something like, 'If Batman has sufficient prep time, he can even beat Chuck Norris'.
'''{{Anchor|Beer n' Pretzels Game}}'''
* Also known as [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#DMF|DMF]] and [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#VAH|VAH]]
'''{{Anchor|Captain HoboSyndrome}}'''* A theoretical character in a system which generically surcharges game effects based on their utility and directs the player to fluff their effects post-hoc. He's used as a shorthand for the dangers of assigning weak fluff without regards to its relative in-game effect; Captain Hobo's super-speed is described as being the side-effect of 'too much energy drinks and vodka', his 12d6 attack (the max he's allowed to buy out of chargen) is a broken chair leg, his toughness is described as 'layered clothes from Goodwill with cardboard and tape', etc.* The problem with Captain Hobo is that merely by ''existing'' he makes everyone else's character less cool. Your badass magical martial artist with mastery over the four elements is only as effective at superheroics as a drunken smelly guy. A less extreme but no less pertinent example would be someone playing a James Bond clone whose PP7 could do more damage than the mortar shots of Artillery Man or someone playing a Conan clone who could outwrestle someone's Superman cloneexpy.
'''{{Anchor|Cherrypicking}}'''
'''{{Anchor|Closet Troll}}'''
* "Typically" a melee specialist who does massive damage when s/he/it can catch a target at close range.* ''A troll out in the open is a reasonable challenge for a party of appropriate level(CR/etc) because they can move around and not be [[SRD:Full-Round Actions#Full Attack|full attacked]]. But a troll in a tightly enclosed space (like a 15' by 15' closet) is a nightmare.''
'''{{Anchor|CoDzilla}}''' ([http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Dungeons_and_Dragons_Wiki_talk:Article_Balance/Naming_Convention_Voting#CoDzilla dnd-wiki explanation])
* A very powerful Cleric or Druid build; typically game breaking as levels accumulate.#* ''Named for how they can wield considerable magic power as well as having better combat skills and abilities than their pure "reality twisting" rivals. Better [[SRD:Attack Roll#Base Attack Bonus|Base Attack Bonus]] and armor opportunities as well as shapeshifting and Natural Spell for druids.''#* [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/CoDzilla 1d4chan explains it pretty well].
'''{{Anchor|Diplomancer}}'''
* A character build in TTRPGs where someone's bonuses to a skill system is so high that they can get people to do anything they want, even outrageous requests such as convincing their blood oath enemy who has a vendetta against them to sacrifice their kids to their cause and become your slave. Because diplomacy rules tend to get short shrift little attention compared to other rules in the game, these kinds of characters often break these systems and force hastily forged [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Gentleman's_Agreement|Gentlemen's Agreements]] and [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#MTP|Magic Tea Party]] sessions to blindsided groupsunwilling to let the Diplomancer run roughshod.
'''{{Anchor|DM}} ([[Canon:Dungeon Master|Dungeon Master]])'''
'''{{Anchor|Dumpster Diving}}'''
* The practice of picking and choosing favorable options across many optional rulebooks, often just snatching a single feat or spell from the entire book. While many tables deeply frown on this practice as a sign of powergaming, it isn't foolproof: a lot of unbalanced builds ([[Canon:RPG_Terminology#LQWQ|most appositely spellcasters]]) only rely on one or two books for their effectivenessand so escape the Banhammer while weaker but more complicated builds feel the wrath of [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Rule_Negative_One|Rule Negative One]].
'''{{Anchor|ECL}}'''
* Effective Character Level
'''{{Anchor|Elothar's Gear Problem}}'''
* Named after the model character of the [[Elothar_Warrior_of_Bladereach_(3.5e_Prestige_Class)|Elothar, Warrior of Bladereach Prestige Class]], this is a method of enforcing [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#QWQW|Quadratic Warriors]] that ends up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
* Elothar's original flavor was that of a tricksy and elegant mortal swordsman that fought with two weapons; in an actual campaign, however, this signature ability of his becomes less and less important compared to his non-swordsman class feature. By the time he completes the class, his usefuless wouldn't be particularly affected even if had both of his hands chopped off; as long as he is able to use abilities such as '''Der'renya the Ruby Sorceress''' and '''''I've Got That!''''' he's still a fully-functioning party member. Similarly, if he traded in all of his non-sword abilities for a boost to attack and damage, he'd be consigned [[Canon:RPG_Terminology:LWQW|back to the pit of uselessness]]. In the end, his swordsmanship matters as much to his adventures as the party wizard's 14 ranks in Profession: Cooking.
* What this amounts to is that after a certain point of ability acquisition, the Elothar's Gear Problem ends up being a complicated way to tell the fighter and rogue and similar classes that their character can't ''really'' advance the whole length of the game the way the [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Batman_Wizard|wizard]]] and [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#CodZilla|cleric]] are; their original concept '''must''' be retired for the game to go on, but the game will distract them from this endgame.
'''{{Anchor|Fantasy Heartbreaker}}'''
* Essentially, a D&D clone that tries to be 'D&D but better'. * While there's nothing inherently bad about Fantasy Heartbreakers are , as D&D in all editions is a heavily flawed game, such revisions unable to do a serious reexamination of the tropes and clichès that make D&D what it is and end up recreating many of the same quirks and mistakes. These games end up thoughtlessly recycling shibboleths from D&D that don't and shouldn't fit their imagined vision of the gamemerely because that's how D&D did it and the game designers can't imagine a game that does it any other way.* If your Fantasy Game uses D&D-specific game mechanics or setting elements such as THAC0, Skill Challenges, Beholders, Base Attack Bonus, Vancian magic, etc. it's highly likely that you're making a Fantasy Heartbreaker.* ''The basic notion is that nearly all of the listed games have one great idea buried in them somewhere.... That's why they break my heart, because the nuggets are so buried and bemired within all the painful material I listed above.''' - Ron Edwards, 2002
'''{{Anchor|First Law of TTRPG Protagonists}}'''
* Unlike protagonists from movies, books, video-game cutscenes, etc. ''mathematical 'mathematically defined risks and consequences are real and can happen to you'''. * Your plan won't automatically work just because it's your last desperate act with the fate of the kingdom on the line, the guards won't miss with their bows and arrows just because you and your ragtag party members have loads of character development, so-on. Because the story isn't (ideally) written out in advance, what the rules say are thousand-to-one odds are actually thousand-to-one odds. * Suspending this law when there isn't an pre-written rule for it (such as Shadowrun's Edge-burning) requires explicitly invoking in-universe or out-universe [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Plot_Armor|Plot Armor]]. The amount of damage this does to Willing Suspension of Disbelief is so extensive that it's generally preferable to allow the heroes to fail rather than fudge the outcome to what would be more traditionally narratively satisfying. I.e. while Stormtroopers regularly missing Luke Skywalker with what should be a lethal barrage of volley fire is acceptable in the movie ''Star Wars'', doing that in the TTRPG of ''Star Wars'' would irrevocably damage the game by showing people that dice rolls don't matter.
'''{{Anchor|Five Minute Workday}}'''
'''{{Anchor|Five Moves of Doom}}'''
* An organization of a subset of otherwise fungible and swappable actions that is so effective that deviating from the sequence is mechanically suboptimal. For example, a particular Warblade from the Book of Nine Swords will always open up with their most powerful boost plus strike, then their second-most powerful boost plus strike, spend the next round recharging, then goes through the same sequence again.
* Because Five Moves of Doom tends to be uninteresting after the first few times it is used, many DMs and game designers try to introduce ways to break people out of the combo. [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Balance_By_Giant_Salamander|Balance by Giant Saladmander]] is probably the most popular waymethod, but most permanent solutions tend to involve overhauling the [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Resource_Management_System|resource management system]]. It's for example very hard for a player to be able to stick to a script when their hit points aren't low enough for the Berserk Meter to dole out their better moves.
* Named after professional wrestler Bret Hart who had a finishing combo that never deviated from: inverted atomic drop, Russian legsweep, backbreaker, elbowdrop from the second rope, and Sharpshooter despite there being no particular reason to use that many moves in that order.
'''{{Anchor|Focus Fire}}'''
* A tactic in which all members of an opposing team dogpiles one member and tries to quickly take them out. Can be viewed as undesirable because few non-[[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Tank|tank characters ]] are built to withstand this tactic, though some games use this threat as an incentive towards making people get acquire and work with a party tank.
'''{{Anchor|Gentlemen's Agreement}}'''
'''{{Anchor|Gygaxian}}'''
* A set series of DM and Game Designer ethos that one of the creators of 1st Edition ''Dungeons and Dragons'', Gary Gygax, was both apocryphally and authentically known for. These include:
* A style of running games which encompasses one or more of the following:
# The GM behaves in a somewhat to very adversarial manner to the PCs running the game.
# Players are expected to handle adversity, even if the outcome is unfair, arbitrary, or punitive with a minimum of fuss.
# The campaign is very deadly, with TPKs caused by bad luck or poor player choices being readily handed out.
* A method of passive-aggressive method of game balance in which, rather than explicitly invoking [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Rule_Zero|Rule Zero]] or talking to players about expectations, the DM voices their displeasure through in-game eventsin hopes the players will catch on and avoid repeating their mistakes. ''Actual suggestions include'':
# DMs who don't like psionics thwarting the psionics fans by introducing a bunch of overpowered psionic monsters who will repeatedly kill psionic users until the players go back to playing regular players.
# Quoting TvTropes: 'The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters' Guide even suggested using "blue bolts from the heavens" and "ethereal mummies" on PCs to keep their players in line.'
# From the same guide: Gygax an editorial about how anyone who wants to play a monster is an incorrigible power gamer trying to ruin the game for everyone, so if someone wants to play something less human than a dwarf you should let them play an adult gold dragon at first level and then send impossible challenges against the party to kill their character and then repeat until the players go back to playing normal races.
'''{{Anchor|Judge}} (RPG)'''
'''{{Anchor|Judge}} (RPG)'''
* A style of gaming which focuses on large-scale economic, political and military management, especially when [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Murderhobo|Murderhoboing]] is the default assumed style.
'''{{Anchor|LWQW}} ( Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards)'''* ''A phrase coined to quickly explain the problem between magic users and melee playersnon-magic users (AKA warriors, martials, fighters, etc.''* ''"Melee ) : non-magic classes gain power at a linear rate as they level up. Magic users gain power quadratically as they level up."''
* TVTropes.com explains [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards with charts!]
* See also [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#QWQW:Quadratic Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]].
'''{{Anchor|Magician Superhero Problem}}'''
* Imagine you're playing a superhero game where three players build three different characters with different points: one character has power over ice, the other over sound, the other is simply a magician. For typical superhero challenges such as stopping a bus from crashing or thwarting bank robbers or rescuing a building full of hostages, the characters perform equally. Unfortunately, balance problems start to crop up when the heroes are faced with unusual situations. For example, imagine an adventure in which the heroes were attacked by ghosts and they had to travel to the dream world to stop them. The Magician superhero can participate in the adventure very easily (I cast a spell at the ghosts; I cast a spell that lets me transport to the dream world); the sound hero has an easy but not trivial answer to the ghosts (I modulate the frequency of my sound waves) and has to think a little harder about how to go to the dream world (I adjust my binaural beats using my sound powers until I slip into a supernaturally lucid dream state). The ice hero will probably be unable to think of a way to use their powers at all and will have to sit the adventure out entirely. It doesn't matter how good his ice powers are, if he can't think of a way that the situation applies then his score might as well be zero as far as this adventure is concerned.
* The Problem is thus this: The Magician Superhero can operate at full theoretical effectiveness no matter what the situation because the player can always go 'it's magic; I don't have to explain it' when asked how their power will apply to their situation. On the far end, less open-ended power sources such as the sound and ice hero will often have to employ more creativity than the magician and if they can't rise to the challenge, face not being able to use their power at all.
* The Magician Superhero Problem is somewhat related to [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#LWQW|Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]] except that an especially creative player of a 'weak' power source can still outclass a less imaginative player of an open-ended power source. For LWQW, no amount of creativity in playing your 18th level barbarian will close the gap in utility between you and a [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Batman_Wizard|properly played wizard]].
* Unfortunately, naively averting the Magician Superhero Problem by letting people with less open-ended power sources achieve the same effects (the reason I can transport to the dream world with my power over squirrels? ''Just because, okay?'') as those with more open-ended ones has its own set of problems. See [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Captain_Hobo_Problem|Captain Hobo]] for more information.
'''{{Anchor|MC}} (Mister Cavern)'''
* [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#DM_.28Dungeon_Master.29|See 'DM']]
* Mister Cavern is loosely translated from the term used for DMs in the RPG [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dra%C4%8D%C3%AD_doup%C4%9B Draci Doupe Plus]. DD+ was first published in the Czech Republic during the days of the old Soviet Union. Adopted by [http://tgdmb.com The Gaming Den] as an alternative to the Dungeon Master label.
'''{{Anchor|Metagaming}}'''
* An action or actions made by the Player Character based on out-of-character knowledge. While it is very difficult to not metagame to at least some small degree while playing an RPG, the act of metagaming is usually frowned upon.
* For example, a Player's Character uses fire to fight a troll even though the Character is ignorant of trolls, because the Player has knowledge of the troll's weakness to fire from previous gaming experience.
'''{{Anchor|The Metagame}}'''
* A phenomenon distinct from [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Metagaming|Metagaming]], the Metagame is the culture and widespread expectations that governs the actual playing of the game -- that is, how the way everyone else is playing, portraying, or affecting the game can and will affect your particular game. For example, if a new and popular fantasy movie portrays a typical wizards as the a precocious primary schooler, more players will play their wizard according to this archetype (instead of the previously popular wizened old seclusive scholar), DMs and Adventure Writers will introduce more wizardly villains who are preppy bullies, game developers will write expansion options catering to this kind of character, etc.
'''{{Anchor|Monty Haul}}'''
'''{{Anchor|PC}} (Player Character)'''
* ''The character, or characters, controlled directly by the players in an RPG campaign/game.''
'''{{Anchor|Phlebotinum}}'''
'''{{Anchor|Powergaming}}'''
* Also referred to as Character Optimization, this refers to the practice of using a Player's extensive knowledge of an RPG system's rules in the most advantageous way possible to the Player, resulting in a more powerful than average Player Character. While not inherently good or bad, this can lead to friction between powergamers and more casual players due to the resulting disparity in power levels between PCs.
* ''When taken to extremes, powergaming is often referred to as 'Munchkining,' which carries a more negative connotation with most gamers.
'''{{Anchor|Puppetmaster Buffer}}'''
* The third leg in the unholy trinity of [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#LWQW|Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]], the Puppetmaster Buffer is a character build that is so counterintuitively helpful that it invalidates the choices of the other characters at the table. The Puppetmaster Buffer hands out buffs to their party members so large that it makes the build choices of other characters meaningless; the difference between a lightly armored swashbuckler and a tanky, well-armored berserker becomes trivial when both are getting such enormous defensive buffs and offense multipliers that they'd only perform slightly better from a basket-weaving commoner, let alone each other.
* Puppetmaster Buffers tend to get overlooked in balance discussions because the damage they do to intraparty balance isn't as obvious as other casters; indeed, what makes them so hard to balance is that up to a certain threshold, they're the most popular member of the party. No one really objects to someone giving them an extra attack, but when they're giving you three to your original one attack that's when problems start. Even (''especially'' even) the result is balanced or expected. While 3E D&D didn't really have a good Puppetmaster Buffer classes (CoDzilla and Batman Wizards were more dominating) they reared their ugly head in 4E D&D of all places with the balance-wrecking Warlord and Clerics.
'''{{Anchor|QWQW}} (Quadratic Warriors, Quadratic Wizards)'''
* A method of advancement in which the Linear Warriors are designed in such a way as tog ame
* Most game designers view QWQW as a foolproof way to thwart LWQW, but they come with their own problems that need to be taken care of. Typical issues with Quadratic Warriors, Quadratic Wizards include:
# The [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Captain_Hobo_Problem|Captain Hobo Problem]]: What happens when you allow characters to build their own fluff on top of generic game mechanics.
# The [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Elothar's_Gear_Problem|Elothar's Gear Problem]]: What happens when a method of keeping quadratic warriors quadratic by giving them unrelated superpowers, typically granted through magic items and setting rewards, ends up clobbering their previous fluff.
# The [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Magician_Superhero_Problem|Magician Superhero Problem]]: What happens when you have several [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Phlebtonium|sources of power]] that have unequal narrative utility.
# [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#WFM|Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]: A derogatory term aimed at fighters who do things deemed as too fantastical or 'anime'.
'''{{Anchor|Railroading}}'''
# '''Die for the Superman''': Individual uses of Superman's powers are worth more than most people. In an absolute value social credit system, Superman can ask people to die for him in exchange for favors that are completely trivial to him.
# '''I'll trade you a paper airplane''': Superman's powers don't take a lot of time or effort for him to use. So a relative effort social credit system would predict that you can get Superman to knock down a building in exchange for a paper airplane or a carrot.
'''{{Anchor|Tank}}'''
* A party member designed to absorb damage and shield other party members from harm by getting enemies to focus their attacks on them.
'''{{Anchor|TBT}} (The Bullet Test)'''
'''{{Anchor|Trial by Devil Axe}}'''
* In a system with highly random or uncertain character design but don't punish failure with permanently sitting out of the game (as doing so has its [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#Playing_Smash_Bros.|own set of problems]]), people are encouraged to force their characters to take risks that are not generally consummate with the rewards because the worst punishment is that they'll have to play with a different character.
* 'My fighter, who rolled nothing above a 14, walks up to the chained owlbear and punches it square in the eye. Time to roll another character, with better stats.'
* Named after a playing style of early Fire Emblem games, in which A.) characters have highly random level-ups and B.) are largely undifferentiated and C.) you get more of them than you will ever need. Questionably advanced characters are given a Devil Axe, an weapon that does huge amounts of damage but has a high chance of backfiring and killing the characters.
* Tabletop RPG
* ''It all started with pencil and paper...''
'''{{Anchor|Vancian Magic}})'''
* ''I'll add a description later''
'''{{Anchor|VAH}} (Vanilla Action Hero)'''
* A character common to action movies who has no reliable access to or unilateral control of phlebotinum and has to rely on plot armor and mundane (if preternatural) human abilities to accomplish things. VAHs are allowed to use their plot armor to bend probability--such as being shot at by twenty bad guys and having them all miss--but can't use it to do something that's impossible to a layman's WSoD--such as surviving a harpoon to the heart. Has a lot of overlap with [[Canon:RPG_Terminology#DMF|Dumb Melee Fighter]], but note that not all VAHs are DMFs; James Bond is a Vanilla Action Hero but not a DMF. Similarly, The Thing is a Dumb Melee Fighter but not a VAH.
'''{{Anchor|WFM}}(Weaboo Fightan Magic)'''* Weaboo Fightan Majick
* ''I'll add a description later''
