A Brief (and incomplete) Campaign Glossary

The terms on this page break roughly into three categories (words and expressions we've coined or used over the years, basic Plant Cant jargon that's insidiously infiltrated our speech patterns, and bits of various naming conventions), but I've just tossed them all together and arranged them alphabetically. Some of this stuff is vaguely useful, but the bulk of it is just silly and nostalgic (coz that was more fun to write up).

A few of the connotations below don't feel quite right, but in the year since I first created this page, I haven't come up with any refinements. Further suggestions and definitions (and corrections) are welcome.

[] can stand for any noun, though a creature is often most appropriate.


Alt.Plant.Dude

The incarnation of Plant Dude native to Artifact World. Went insane after the elves (and most other plants) of that world were killed, probably thanks to an artifact called Thrikeen. Hitched a ride home with Ganeth and merged with the original PD, in violation of a good many extraplanar regs.

Baldy

Any monk from the now-defunct Order of the Tiger (and especially the one who gave his name as "Baldy"). Generally bald all over.

Beeel Maneuver

When Beeel jumps onto a flying enemy, wraps his nunchaku around its neck, and strangles it while hanging on for dear life.

bootstrapping

How the party survived its first trip to the drow plane. Win a small victory, get a few items; use those items to take on something bigger and get better items; continue ramping up until you're equipped to go for whatever objective you were after in the first place.

Circle of Doom (abbr. COD)

In this universe, holds are broken when the victim takes damage equal to the caster's level. You can get around this problem by getting lots of people to stand around the victim and do coordinated strikes on the same segment. Circles work well for this...

danger zone

For Thorongil, having less than 50 hit points.

demon

This term is used differently by various people, though their meaning is often clear from the context.
  1. A subset of Chaotic Evil extranplanars, including but not limited to tanar'ri.
  2. Any evil extraplanar.
  3. Any extraplanar at all.

Deputy Sucker

Ganeth, especially when taking on a major sidekick during a Challenge or otherwise backing up Silvana in some hopefully heroic endeavor.

DOH

Abbreviation for Day of Healing, when the party does nothing but sit around and suck up cures.

down down

Euphemism for dead. (Coined during the Siege of Zubberg; the code we'd devised for communicating between the mage's tower and the Temple of Zub had a sequence of lights for down but not for dead.)

-eel

Suffix meaning landowner in Eastern Common; a common ending for Eastern names (except among the serfs).

G-[]

Something with one hit point, especially if it refuses to die and continues to make trouble.

give the Buz

  1. To give the thumbs-down.
  2. To make someone excessively dead (characteristically by evoc overkill and/or Spider Monk dice).

Gro-

Prefix meaning Lord in the Icelands.

home

For G at first level, the state of having one hit point. (Amazing stuff happened when G was down to 1 hp; G at 2 hp was generally considered a bad omen.)

h.p.a.

Abbreviation for hit point absorber; a callous way to refer to certain NPCs.

hulk out

For Thorongil, to polymorph into an umber hulk. (He has a shield with a smiling umber hulk design; every time he strikes the killing blow on an umber hulk, the shield gains a charge that can be used for the polymorph.)

Idyllic Forest (abbr. IF)

A common name for the grey elven forest, though I suspect that only a grey elf could find something idyllic about it. (Actually, "grey elven forest" is also a bit of a misnomer; "Plant Dude's demi-plane" is probably the most accurate phrase I can come up with.)

ink-sucker

Mage.

KOSOL

Abbreviation for King of the Sons of Lolth. The most powerful SOL, probably comparable to the most powerful balors or pit fiends; part of the drow pantheon but unrelated to Lolth. Has an appointment with the High Priest of the grey elven forest, which makes Silvana happy that she no longer holds the title.

last rites, short version

The religion of Zub required its priests to administer last rites to creatures killed while adventuring. In time-sensitive, dangerous situations (e.g., most dungeon crawls), the short version was used; this consisted of a thumbs-up gesture, followed by touching the thumb to the nose of the deceased.

-lik

A common suffix for githyanki names.

"Make a wish!"

Something to yell before setting off a blinding attack (usually a sunburst) so your friends can look away first.

metaphor

Euphemism for prostitute. (It's all Erik's fault.)

Mr. B

A really big, really armored, and really lethal (but also really slow) variety of spider. The technical name for these critters happens to be dreadnought.

-mola

A suffix meaning mage. (Not coincidentally, some extraplanars refer to Haj as the Mola.)

mud

Mage magic or magical ink in Plant Cant.

no is

From Plant Cant. Literally, outside of Plant Dude's awareness; euphemistically, dead (as in "You go make Rakni no is, eh?").

"Oh, shit!"

The official party motto in 1987-88.

[] of Destiny

Something small, wimpy, or fragile that has no business getting thrown into a situation but might just turn the tide anyway. Originally applied to a summoned bird that repeatedly interrupted a necromancer's mega-death spells on the drow plane.

Omi-

Prefix found at the beginning of any Truth priest's name.

Partners in Crime

Plant Dude and Hajmola are the charter members; Froot Loop joined somewhat later, and now the Axebeak Lord is getting in on the fun.

permatoast

To kill someone instantly (barring the better death's door ointments/items, which we first encountered in late 1990) by dropping their hit points from a non-negative number to something below -3 in one shot (or doing them more than 3 points of damage after they've gone negative). Characters knocked less impressively negative merely go weekly.

The Plan

Something that's always getting derailed.

Plant Cant

What Plant Dude and the dikka birds (who learned humanoid speech from PD) speak; the words can be uttered in any language you please, but the logic behind them is decidedly different. Most words in Plant Cant can take on any part of speech, though I won't bother permuting definitions.

Plant Dude (abbr. PD, Pdude)

A Chaotic (usually but not always Chaotic Good) extraplanar associated with the grey elven forest. Usually appears as an old grey elf. Somewhere between a demi-god and an avatar/construct of the elven gods, though neither has quite the right connotations. Speaks in Plant Cant, has a really bizarre perspective on things, tends to see gathering and hoarding energy as the primary goal in life, and sometimes has to be rebooted by the elven gods when it slips into Neutrality after feasting on too much Haj energy.

*poof*

Sound effect associated with a mirror image being hit and vanishing.

*pop*

Sound effect associated with a stoneskin blocking an attack.

puff-puff

From Plant Cant: Speech or prayer. Often used contemptuously by Plant Dude (as quoted in this page's title).

pull an Arinkel

To disappear under invisibility before or during a combat (esp. when carrying one or more borrowed items). May be intentional or accidental.

Ra-

Prefix meaning mighty (leading to the question, what's a Hul, much less a mighty one?)

real elves

Wood and high elves, before G became seriously embroiled in extraplanar affairs and we found out what total slimes most high elves are; the term has been obsolete since about 1992. The exclamation "Real elves!" was almost invariably followed by a high-five between Matt and Erich.

reboot

What the grey elves (or their gods) do to Plant Dude when he drifts too far from Good. As I understand it, during a reboot, PD is somehow suspended and his energy pool is purged of excessively Chaotic (CN) elements; once this is done, he's restarted. PD generally needs some time to return to full strength after a reboot.

Rog-

Prefix meaning Lord in the Western Keeplands.

rog

  1. To do something impressive, often but not necessarily physical in nature.
  2. To exercise.

rog out

  1. To do something resembling a zero-phase strength manuever in Champions.
  2. To break out of a hold person through mental exertion.
  3. To do something impressively violent (though not in a gratuitous way).

rogsome

  1. Generally impressive or cool.
  2. Strong, hardy, well-conditioned.

smile, benign

Something the old grey elves and Plant Dude were maddeningly good at, especially when they were happily withholding important information in their usual condescending way. Ganeth finally picked up the knack after being posessed by Alt.Plant.Dude on Artifact World.

Son of Lolth (abbr. SOL)

A kind of demon commonly associated with drow and easily summoned from the Abyss to the drow plane. Big, strong, and generally stupid, with fire breath and a randomly-shifting-multipower gaze attack. Turns out they don't have much to do with Lolth, but the name stuck. A Class N SOL has 20*(N+1) hit points.

SpiderNecroDude

A necromancer/psionicist who persecuted the party after their return from the drow plane, possibly hoping to locate and inhabit Karuz's altered body.

Sucker of Good

A perhaps more appropriate name for the Champion of Good, currently applied to Silvana (who only found out she had the job, much less what it involved, after she received her first challenge from Nabassa the night hag).

tsk

Evil (or fire) in Plant Cant.

The Weeble

The arrogantly named Ramola, a recurring villain (and occasional ally of necessity) who first appeared in spring 1990; he got the nickname because we could never quite manage to take him down. He was finally killed by the party (three times in one combat) on Memorial Day 1994.

weekly; on the weekly table

In the weakened state that follows being reduced to negative hit points and stabilized by conventional means. Characters on the weekly table cannot fight or cast spells (though they can use certain items) and are limited to half movement for -- you guessed it -- a week. Weekly characters are treated as having zero hit points for the purpose of applying further damage.

WonderMonk

SpiderNecroDude's sidekick. Skilled in ranged funky-gravity combat. Tended to have more and more of his body replaced by gadgetry and items at each encounter.

yes-no

Plant Cant for maybe. (Plant Dude is as stingy with vocabulary as he is with energy.)

yum-yum

Energy source in Plant Cant.

"Zub!"

A joyous interjection used in 1987-88, generally accompanied by the thumbs-up.

From the twisted memory of Erich Greene; last changed 8-20-99