- Akrelo (AK-rel-oh, n): The Great Old One of dice rolls and statistics. Praise him when your dice fall to 001, you may never see it again. It is He who blesses or curses the d100.
P: "I can't believe that I fumbled that Spot Hidden!"
K: "Akrelo giveth, Akrelo taketh away..." - NEN (en-ee-en, abbrv.): "Not Even Nyarlathotep"; when the Keeper or anyone else does something so cruel or so evil that even the Crawling Chaos would ask them to tone it down a notch.
"You hid a box of horrific pornography in the cultist's house just
to show how evil he is? Not Even Nyarlathotep, Keeper..." - One Bad Day Threshold (also OBD, oh-bee-DEE; phrase): When an Investigator hits SAN that is so low, only one more bad SAN roll would cause permanent madness. An Investigator should generally retire from play once they reach this point, as defined by the Keeper. Taken from the Joker's speech in The Killing Joke: "One bad day, that's how far everyone else is from being me."
"I haven't considered making a new Investigator yet, my current
one hasn't quite hit OBD." - Armitage (AHRM-ah-tahj, v): When an Investigator does something really awesome and lives to tell the tale, something so awesome that it is comparable to Dr. Armitage's defeat of Yog-Sothoth's kid in "The Dunwich Horror".
"Holy shit, you just rammed Yig with an RV and killed him!
Nice Armitage!" - NIMGP (NIHM-ghip, abbrv.): "Not In My Game, Pal." Often used when someone says the rulebook does something differently than you, or mentions a certain Mythos entity or scenario type you do not like/want to use.
"A werewolf subplot in Masks of Nyarlathotep? Not In My
Game, Pal." - Herbert Westing (HERH-berht WES-ting, v): Remaking the same character as your last one thus resurrecting the old character; actually resurrecting your old character; any time a player tries to bring a dead or insane character back somehow.
"I told you, Mike - no more Herbert Westing! Let your poor
Investigator die in peace already! - Shotgunning Hastur (HAST-ehr, var. HAS-toor; phrase): To do something so unbelievably stupid, such as shooting Hastur's mask off, that it causes a TPK.
"I thought that Kevin had a clever plan when he approached
the King in Yellow by talking to him, but then he pulled out
a grenade. Turns out he was just shotgunning Hastur..." - Old Man Hendersoning (also Hendersoning, HEHN-durr-sun-eng; v):
- a) To make and play an Investigator in such a way that it instead drives a bad Keeper insane rather than the players.
"My Keeper is being a dick, so I'm going to Old Man
Henderson her with this half-Yithian warrior princess
from China that has 90 SAN!" - b) To play in such a way that your clear intent is to derail the plot or otherwise cause problems for the Keeper and players both; a Munchkin or Min-Maxer.
"Nick, you're Hendersoning. Stop it or you will not be
allowed at my table again."
- a) To make and play an Investigator in such a way that it instead drives a bad Keeper insane rather than the players.
- Brown Jenkens (BROWHN JEHN-kinz, n): A plot point or object that seems like something mundane (such as a rat) until it is found out to be eldritch and horrible (such as a Rat Thing); the opposite of a red herring; a Mythos thing hidden in plain sight. The human equivalent of this is a Wilbur Whately.
"That lamp? Oh, it's a Brown Jenkens - in reality, it's a Mi-go
tool used to transfer human brains into storage jars." - IT-50/ITR (EYE-TEE-fif-tee/EYE-TEE-ARR, also MoN Ratio, MAWN RAY-shee-oh; abbrv.): "Investigator Turnover (Rate) 50%"; a measurement of campaign lethality or Investigator Turnover; the difficulty level (on a scale of 1-10) at which half of all Investigators involved will be killed or driven permanently mad. Its alternate name comes from the notorious lethality of Masks of Nyarlathotep; a campaign with a high MoN Ratio is very lethal.
"Masks of Nyarlathotep is known for its very high IT-50.
Most players lose their first character somewhere in
Cairo or Kenya, if not sooner!" - Nyarlathotep (NYE-arr-LAT-hoe-tep, var. NEE-arr-lat-hoe-tep, nyarr-LATH-oh-tep, etc.; n, slang): A Keeper with a GM style that causes significant Investigator suffering in some way, usually by exacting high or excessive SAN costs; a "Killer Keeper"; a Keeper who makes the game unnecessarily hard for their players.
"Sugary can be a bit of a Nyarlathotep when she Keeps - her
campaigns soak up SAN like a sponge!" - That Ship Set Sail for the Dreamlands (slang): A phrase murmured whenever a ship between two characters is implied or desired.
"Randolph Carter/Nyarlathotep? Sail that ship to the Dreamlands!" - Ultharian Rancher (n, slang): A slightly disparaging term for the Keeper, since getting players to do what you want can sometimes be like herding cats.
"So yeah, the Ultharian Rancher of the last game I was in had trouble
with their players - they were all used to D&D, so... - Strange Aeon (n, slang): An unconventional or uncommon setting or time period for a game, especially one that has no dedicated supplement for it. CoC games are most commonly set in the Classic era (c. 1920's), Gaslight (Victorian Era), and the Modern era. Many other supplements exist such as Dark Ages (Medieval times), Invictus (Roman era), Dreamlands, End Times (Apocalypse), Icarus (Space-Faring Future), Atomic Age Cthulhu (1950's), and even a Mythic Iceland setting. There are also several supplements that have scenarios set in times or places that do not fit the above settings.
Ripples from Carcosa contains none of the most common CoC settings,
so it takes place in strange aeons. The adventure The King of Shreds
and Patches occurs in the Elizabethan era, therefore this is also a
strange aeon. - Azathoth (AH-zah-thoth, n, slang)
- a) A Keeper or Player that is lazy, bad at what they do, or doesn't have enough common sense to know when they are doing something stupid; an absentminded Player or Keeper.
"Quit being such an Azathoth and roll Stealth already!" - b) The interstellar space-time length used by the Outer Gods; one Azathoth is equivalent to several light years of travel time.
"The trip from Earth to Aldebaran is five Azathoths, or
about 500,000,000 light years."
- a) A Keeper or Player that is lazy, bad at what they do, or doesn't have enough common sense to know when they are doing something stupid; an absentminded Player or Keeper.
- NMCNMOO (NIMH-ken-moo, abbr.): "Not My Campaign, Not My Old Ones", a phrase said between Keepers that is translated either as...
- a) "I don't like the changes you proposed to [X premade campaign], but I respect that you run it differently from me."
"I'm not a fan of that take on Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, but
hey, Not My Campaign, Not My Old Ones..." - b) "Your players will take this campaign differently from my players and I can't give specifics as to how they might do so."
"London is the best first stop after NYC in MoN, but you
could really go anywhere from there. Not My Campaign,
Not My Old Ones." - c) "You will run your game however you see fit and it's not really my place to tell you whether it's right or wrong."
"Not My Campaign, Not My Old Ones - everyone Keeps a
little bit differently."
- a) "I don't like the changes you proposed to [X premade campaign], but I respect that you run it differently from me."
- Lovecraft's Law (phrase): States that for every possible thing out there or any given plot thread, there is always at least one thing about it that is suitably eldritch and frightening enough to make the plot a horror story.
P: "I don't see how film reels can be all that scary..."
K: *evil grin* "Lovecraft's Law, my friend, that's how!" - The New Dark Age Clause (phrase): States that an Investigator that wishes to leave the investigation may do so at any time with the permission of the Keeper, out of a desire to "flee into the safety of a new dark age" and not continue learning more about the world's horrors. Most Investigators are very bad at doing this...
"Keeper, I don't think my Investigator Barry can handle another
session, can I invoke the New Dark Age Clause and start with my
backup Investigator Joe instead?" - Shub-Niggurath (SHUB NIH-guhr-AWTH, n, slang): Any Keeper that tends to spew forth waves after waves of enemies at the players, with little to no end.
"Sugary became a bit of a Shub-Niggurath when she started
throwing all those Deep One Hybrids at us all at once..." - Hildred Castaigning (HILL-dred cass-TAYN-eng, also Castaigning; v): Any circumstance in which a character could be considered both unreliable and highly ambitious; being an unreliable NPC or PC in terms of one's mental state. This can apply to both NPCs and PCs.
"Once your Investigator starts Castaigning, it might be time
to consider making a new one..." - Yellow Sign (YEH-low SIGHN; v, n):
- a) OOC (v): To accidentally point out an iffy real-world connection to something horrific in the game, thus freaking out everyone at the table in real life.
"Kat, why the hell did you have to Yellow Sign everyone? Now
I won't be able to sleep for weeks!" - b) IC (n): Any inconspicuous-looking item, object, clue or symbol that is not a tome and causes SAN loss greater than 0/1d4.
"This Yellow Sign might look like an ordinary piece of gold,
but the Aklo and Deep One art on it has a high SAN cost
to translate!"
- a) OOC (v): To accidentally point out an iffy real-world connection to something horrific in the game, thus freaking out everyone at the table in real life.
- Deep One Hybrid Theory (phrase): The scientific assumption that Deep Ones, and indeed most if not all human-eldritch hybrids, can hybridize their genomes with humans by genetics as we currently understand them, and therefore can be for simplicity's sake plotted out using Mendel squares and other basic genetic knowledge. Often used to explain messy and unexplained reasons for things such as why a Deep One Hybrid may or may not turn, how a person could have the "Innsmouth Look" but not be a true Hybrid, etc. This does not necessarily indicate that reproduction between a human and eldritch being is sexual, though it often is.
P: "According to Deep One Hybrid Theory, it is actually possible for
my Investigator to be a Yith-human hybrid..."
K: "Nice try, Peter..." - Time to Weirdness (also TTW, TEE-TEE-DUH-buhl-yoo; phrase): The arbitrary relative length of time it takes for a campaign to go from mundane to bizarre. Campaigns that save the eldritch bits until the last possible second, or never have them at all, are considered "slow-burn", while those that place the eldritch components front and center are considered "quick-start".
"Can someone give me an approximate Time to Weirdness for Escape
from Innsmouth, please? I'm about to run it next week!" - The Holy Trinity (also Holy Three, Great Three, etc.; phrase): Spot Hidden, Library Use, and Stealth (Hide in older editions), the three most commonly used skills in every CoC game.
"The Holy Trinity of skills is a valuable addition to any Investigator." - Investigator's Law of Action vs. Reaction (phrase): No matter how well you plan for something, your players WILL go all over the place and do just about everything except for what you intend them to do.
"Because of the Investigator's Law of Action vs. Reaction, we can
predict that no two playthroughs of a given campaign will be the
exact same!" - Wilbur Whately (WIL-buhr WATE-lee, var. WHAT-lee; n): The NPC equivalent of a Brown Jenkens - a plot-important human that has some distinct inhuman quality hidden beneath the surface.
"That Jazzman NPC is a classic Wilbur Whately - he's actually
Nyarlathotep in disguise!" - The Nyarlathotep Clause (also Nephren-Ka Principle, Akrelo's Principle; phrase): At some point, somewhere in your campaign, the dice will fail so miserably in either your or the players' favor that it causes something tough to be too easy, or something easy to be too hard.
P: "Why am I constantly rolling like shit tonight?!"
K: "The Nyarlathotep Clause strikes again!" - Shining Trapezohedron (also Trapezohedron, trahp-EEZ-oh-HEE-drawn; n): A plot-important item; a plot coupon or MacGuffin around which much of the plot or the plot's solution hinges. For example, a certain spell the players must obtain to stop a Great Old One rising. A person or piece of information can also be a Trapezohedron. Not every Trapezohedron needs to be relevant to the overarching plot of the campaign; some may be relevant only to one chapter of it. A Shining Trapezohedron is so integral to the plot that it stretches across the entire campaign as a linchpin.
"The Girdle of Nitocris is a Trapezohedron for the Cairo chapter
of MoN, but has nothing to do with the rest of the campaign. The
bomb parts, however, is a Shining Trapezohedron; they have a
direct connection to the end of the story no matter where the
Investigators start." - Dead Warren (n): A red herring that, despite having no bearing on the plot, is shocking to the players when uncovered and causes SAN loss.
"That nice old woman NPC is a Dead Warren. She's really a
terrifying Serpent Man pretending to be an old woman!" - Yog-Sothoth (YAWG-suh-THOTH, var. YAWG-suh-thoth, etc.; n): A Keeper that likes world-building, dicking around with timelines, or both.
"Keeper Rob is a classic Yog-Sothoth. All of his campaigns
tie together nicely, and a lot of them have alternate
timelines, too!" - YMU (EE-moo, also Take Off Your Mask; abbr.): "You Must Unmask", usually said to a player who continues to be in-character or distracted when everyone else is out of character. "We've gone meta, you can stop acting now."
"We're going on a break, Kelsey, You Must Unmask!" - IWNM (EEW-nim, also No Mask; abbr.): "I Wear No Mask", i.e., one is switching from OOC to IC; to put on one's "game face".
"No Mask - sorry about that, I was on the phone!" - Zadok Allen (simp. Zadok, ZAY-dawk; n): A drunkard NPC that has important plot information. An Investigator can become drunk, but by definition can never be a Zadok.
"Why don't we ask the town's Zadok about those rumors?" - SBA (ess-bee-AY; abbr.): "Sweet Buttery Azathoth!" An exclamation of surprise similar to "Oh my God" or "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" Sometimes lengthened to "Sweet Buttery Azathoth on a Biscuit". Other variations include "Sweet Galloping Carcosan Christ", "Jesus Hastur Christ on a Cracker", "Son of a Shoggoth", "Sweet Sputtering Star-Spawn", "Merciful Mi-go", etc.
"Sweet Buttery Azathoth, your player did what?!" - Code Yellow (adj.): Of or pertaining to the King in Yellow, Hastur, or the Yellow Mythos. Can lead to the following:
- Code Green (adj.): Of or pertaining to Cthulhu.
- Code Blue (adj.): Of or pertaining to Dagon/Hydra/Deep Ones.
- Code Prism (adj.): Of or pertaining to Nyarlathotep.
like a Code Blue if I ever heard one..."
- Send In The Agents (also abbr. SITA; phrase): Uttered when a campaign has gone so horribly awry that it's time to wipe the slate clean; the agents referred to are theoretical Delta Green agents.
"Send in the Agents, half the party just died..." - Fish Hunt (also Fish-Kill; n): Any campaign that involves slaughtering a vast amount of mook monsters or cultist NPCs, "Like shooting fish in a barrel".
"Really, the only reason I'm throwing all these ghouls at the players
is to fool them into thinking this is just another Fish Hunt." - Clevergirl (CLEH-vurr-gurl; n): Any Serpent Person, regardless of the Serpent Person's actual gender, since Serpent Men look an awful lot like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.
"So I'm planning to throw about five or six Clevergirls at them while
they try to take out this Yig rite. Too many?" - Flaming Jellyfish (n): Any Fire Vampire, due to how the 7e manual renders them as looking.
"I figure I can always just use the Flaming Jellyfish as a deus ex machina
if they start asking questions about the fire." - Amigo (ah-MEE-goh; n): Any Mi-go. Sometimes nicknamed Buzz. Usually not friendly.
- Squiddy (SKWID-dee; n): Any Star Spawn or tentacle-faced creature. Does not apply to Cthulhu himself.
"So, Squiddy over there is trying to sink the ship, what do you do now?" - FIWDIL (FEW-dil; abbr., phrase): "Fuck It, We'll Do It Live"; to run a campaign with a lot of improvisation or without strong (or any!) notes.
follow my breadcrumbs anyway!"
- Quotelist (v): The act of writing down player quotes as a record of the game.
"Sugary, please don't quotelist that..." - Mountains of Corpses (n, slang): A tongue-in-cheek nickname for MoN due to its high lethality.
K1: "Can anyone give me some information about Kenya in the 1920's?"
K2: "Running Mountains of Corpses, I see..." - Propstorm (v): To invest a large amount of time into creating props for a campaign, especially if the campaign has many props in general. A portmenteau of Prop and Brainstorm, or Prop and Shitstorm if you prefer.
"I'm not too worried about the time it will take to get this campaign
together, I can always propstorm over the weekend if I have to." - NGBM (NIG-bihm; abbr., phrase): "No Gods But the Mythos"; a play style in which no outside deities are used. August Derlath's Elder Gods may also be removed from this sort of play style.
"No, I am absolutely not including Bast in this game. No Gods but
the Mythos at my table." - The Five Investigator Stock Band (simp. Stock Band; phrase): Consists of a Token Action Girl/Minority, a Brawler/Combat Specialist, a Persuader/Smooth-Talker, an Investigative Type, and an Academic or other specialist. Very common in Classic Era (1910's-1930's) games.
"My group's got a nice Stock Band thing going." - D&C (also DnC, DC; abbr., phrase): "Dead and Crazy", used to describe a character that is very, definitely, NEVER EVER coming back according to the keeper, because they're... well, Dead and Crazy.
"Sorry, but Rick's Dead and Crazy. He's never going to be okay again."