GameBanshee Forums

hi all

As a new member around here, it has occurred to me that a glossary would be really helpful for newcomers to the forum/genre.

Does one already exist? I did try a search but didn't find anything...

Knowing what, just to pick a few examples, everyone meant by buffs, cheese, munchkins, AoE, tank, pulling, would be really helpful - not just to understanding what the hell everyone is talking about, but also to understanding tactics. Once I found out about tanks and pulling for example, a whole new strategy opened up. I still don't know what cheese is! A cheat?

b/

I think that's a good idea - I know I didn't understand all the acronyms/terminology at first. Here's my input:

Buffs/Buffing - Using spells and/or innate abilities to give your characters a boost before battle. Could be increasing stats like Str/Dex/Con, increasing movement/number of attacks, improving their AC, etc ...

Cheese - Basically taking advantage of some flaw in the game that makes something (typically a battle) really easy. There's some debate over where to draw the line, but I think of it this way - it's something you can do in the game that in pen and paper AD&D the Dungeon Master would never allow you to get away with!

Munchkin - A player who creates an extremely powerful character, often refering specifically to stats. e.g: Someone who spends an hour rolling to get really good stats, or uses the cheat code to get 18 in every stat.

Tank - Someone who can stand up to a lot of enemies in melee combat. Typically refers to someone with a really low AC (who therefore rarely gets hit), but also implies they can deal out a fair bit of damage as well. Generally means a fighter-type that can wear any armour (i.e: NOT a Kensai or a Ranger).

Pulling - Seperating one or two enemies from the pack, so that you can deal with them a few at a time.

Mod - A player-created addition to the game. For example, it can add new NPC's, character kits, modify the abilities of some enemies, modify the AI for certain types of enemies, add more opponents to certain combats, add new combats, add whole new areas, etc ...

And a few acronyms that you might see:

HLA - High Level Ability
UAI - Use Any Item (Thieves HLA)
DUHM - Draw Upon Holy Might
PnP - Pen and Paper (refering to AD&D played WITHOUT a computer)
SK - Shadow Keeper - an editor that lets you modify your characters

These are all acronyms for various mods:

EoU - Ease of Use
SoS - Shadows of Soubar
TDD - The Darkest Day
TS - Tortured Souls
BP - Big Picture
RoV - Reign of Virtue
AoE - Ashes of Embers

Cool! Excellent, many thanks indeed; I hope it proves useful for other newbies too..

this would be a good sticky.

Or post it in the BG FAQ above. It would serve there just as well.

Glen, thanks! That helped a lot!!! Keep extending the list A good idea to put it in the faq section, too!

(Still don't know what SYM is...?)

SYM - "Speak Your Mind", the Off-Topic area of the Gamebanshee Forums where you can talk about almost anything