Glossary
I have tried, where possible, to explain the words that I have used in these pages as they came up, but here is a list of words, abbreviations and acronyms commonly used in M*ing that you might not be familiar with. Obviously it's not a complete list, but this should hopefully explain most of them and the rest you can ask about on game as they come up.
AFK: Away From Keyboard. Just a brief acronym telling you that the player is getting up from the computer briefly. We can't sit for hours in front of a keyboard without at least needing to use the toilet, after all.
Alt: I think it stands for alternative character? At any rate, that's pretty much what it is: a second character on the same game. Most people have them, but they often prefer to keep them secret, so if you happen to know that Foofoo has the same player as Goober, don't go around telling people unless you're certain it's public knowledge.
BBL/BBS/BRB: Be Back Later/Soon, Be Right Back. Again another acronym explaining that the player won't be responding for a bit.
Char: Character. See PC, NPC and Creating a Character for more details.
Client: That nifty little program through which you connect to the M* and type out what you want to say. Your computer should connect you through raw telnet by default, but raw telnet's a pain and there are so many other clients out there. Check out The MadROM MudClient page or the links page for further info.
Desc: A description. Every 'physical' object (i.e. anything with a database reference number) on the game should have a description when you look at it that somebody has written. See also the description section under Creating a Character.
Emoticons: Those apparently random punctuation marks people stick in their sentences on channels and such. For most of them, you'll want to turn your head to one side to see them, so :) becomes a smiley face, ;) becomes a wink, >:( is a frown, :p sticking your tongue out, 0:) is an innocent smiley (think halo), etc, etc. Generally used in OOC rather than IC actions. See the grammar section under Rules for RP for details.
Global: A command that lets you make an OOC gesture to another character such as hug, poke, tickle etc. You should be able to set your response messages for when somebody does this to you, e.g. Goober hugs Foofoo! Foofoo melts into your arms. Goober's typed in the actual command: hug Foofoo, but melting into the hugger's arms is how Foofoo has set her automatic response. As with a page, only Foofoo and Goober will be able to see this on their screens. Most games will have standard globals for everybody and others that you can get by adding features. Ask on game for the technicalities.
IC: In Context or In Character. When you are saying what your character is doing as opposed to what the player is doing. See also the IC vs OOC section under Netiquette.
Idle: When a character is connected but is not actually doing anything. Can be used as a verb, eg Foofoo needs to idle for a few. BRB. She's just warned that she's not going to be responding for a few moments, but she'll be right back. Note: If you are going to idle for a good length of time, try to make sure you're not in a public area. Go home first. It's annoying to see somebody out, go to RP with them and then find that they've been idle for an hour.
IMO/IMHO: In My Opinion/In My Humble Opinion. Another common acronym that you'll see used in discussions.
LOL/LMAO: Laugh Out Loud/Laugh My Ass Off. Quick way to show you're laughing. Also ROTFL, which see.
Mav: Posing something to the wrong place. For example saying something on the wrong channel, or posing your character instead of their pet dog: Foofoo barks and wags her tail. As you can see, there's great potential for amusement there—and embarrassment. Apparently it was named after a Maverick who did this frequently.
M*: MUSH, MOO, MUD, MUCK, MUX, maybe more... M* (also Mu*) refers to all these games in general. Online RPGs where people from around the world connect via the internet and act out a vast interactive soap opera with characters that they choose and create. The different letters distinguish the different code bases, although the acronyms themselves are fairly random, e.g. Multi-User Dungeon for MUD, Multi-User (dungeon) Shared Hallucination for MUSH or Multi-user (dungeon) Object Oriented for MOO. I'm not clued up on the technical differences myself, although you can try this page if you like: MU* Explanation. Just be aware that not all of them follow the guidelines set out here. These pages are for games which are RP based but not of the 'hack and slash' variety.
Newbie: Unsurprisingly enough, somebody who is new—to the game if not necessarily the theme. Often said as something of a term of affection, so don't regard it as an insult. Inevitably, newbies will make twinkish mistakes, but we don't expect them to come fully clued up to the vagaries of the game any more than we'd expect that cute little puppy we just bought to come housebroken. How's that for a patronising comparison? Seriously though, newbies may take a while to settle in, but people should be and are a lot more tolerant of their mistakes than they are of people who've been around for six months or more. See Twink for further information.
NP: No Problem. That should be self-explanatory?
NPC: Non Player Character. A 'filler' character as it were. Very useful for background histories and conversations. If Foofoo's parents aren't actual characters on a game, then they are NPC's. ICly, they exist because how else would Foofoo be alive, but nobody actually plays them. They may be in an NPC village somewhere (i.e. a village that ICly exists on the world, but OOCly has not been built on the game). They may ICly live in the PC area where Foofoo does. They can even feature in RP. Foofoo looks up in sudden horror as a new figure appears, "Dad... hi...." Her father stares down at the girl with a gaze that makes her cringe. "And what are you doing here with Goober, young lady?" Only Goober and Foofoo are technically in the room, but Foofoo has included her father's appearance and actions in her pose.
OOC: Out Of Context or Out Of Character. Saying what the player is doing rather than what the character is doing. OOC talk should be confined to channels and pages where possible. See also the IC vs OOC section under Netiquette.
PC: Player Character. A character that really does exist on the game and has somebody to play him or her. Unlike NPC's you need to be careful when mentioning these characters in poses and your history in case you powerplay them. PC is also used to describe areas on the game that have been built and are running as well as 'on-camera' events.
Pose: the action that you type out for your character to do. E.g. for a single pose: Foofoo smiles. Generally referring to IC actions.
Powerplaying: Including another PC's actions or reactions in a pose, or forcing them to do something that they do not want to do. See also the Powerplaying section under Rules for RP.
RL: Real Life. Also IRL: In Real Life. Just a handy acronym for the player to talk about themselves when they're not M*ing. Yes, we can't spend all our time online, you know.
ROTFL: Roll On Floor Laughing (plus variants—see under LOL). For those moments when you're highly amused. Has evolved into simply Foofoo rolls!
RP: Roleplay. That's what you're doing on the M*. Playing out the role of Foofoo or Goober or whoever. RPG=RolePlaying Game.
SO: Significant Other. I.e., husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend.... It's short and it also keeps up the anonymity as to your gender or sexual orientation, if that's how you like it. ICSO would be your character's love interest. Also RLSO: Real Life Significant Other.
Spam: An abundance of text. For example spammy poses that are over eight lines long, spammy descs that are twenty lines or above or spammy RP where there are so many people posing so fast, that you can't read what's happening before it scrolls off the screen. Spam is considered by most to be a bad thing, so try to avoid it. And please don't spam people as a joke unless you know them well enough to be sure they won't mind, and even then make sure they're not busy with anything. If you're still confused, trust me, you'll know spam when you see it.
Twink: Somebody who will not play by the rules or conventions of the game. This is very different from a newbie who does things wrong out of simple ignorance—a twink is a person who knows better but does not care. They can vary from a person who has no respect for the game and other people on it, through one who abuses it to use as nothing more than a chat room to air their personal problems, to the person who is always whining that nobody will ever RP with them and won't accept that this is because they've consistently refused to listen to the advice people gave them about playing. See also the Rules for RP and the Netiquette pages.
TP: TinyPlot. Most RP sessions are spontaneous, just done when two people who want to RP bump into each other and start posing. Sometimes however, people will plan one ahead of time, either for the purposes of developing their character, or to hold an event to help keep the M* active. TP's can range from two characters getting married to an entire area getting flooded. Either way, if it involves more than one character, it needs to be planned and organised somewhat ahead of time.
TS: TinySex. RPed sexual intercourse. For obvious reasons this is a touchy subject, but on most M*s you'll find that people keep such activities in private rooms only. Also most M*s have a policy on TS to protect players from harassment since they can be shut down for such things. And it is sexual harassment. Don't pressure people into it, and if somebody's pressuring you, tell somebody. Just as you would in RL.
WB: Welcome Back. Again, self-explanatory.
