Guide to SC13 Terms

This is a glossary of acronyms and terms used elsewhere that may not necessarily be defined in context.

AoO: Area of Operations.

ASRS: Automated Storage and Retrieval System. Commonly known as the Elevator. Lifts crates from the Cargo Hold to supply the Requisition Officer.

CAS: Close-Air-Strike. Usually performed by a Pilot Officer (though a Fighter Pilot can do in a pinch), using a dropship to provide fire support to ground troops.

CO: Commanding Officer. Usually the Captain, or whoever is currently filling their role in the Chain of Command. Responsible for the entire ship.

Danger Close: A term used in fire support, this means that friendly forces are within the range of the intended or current path of fire support. If the situation is bad enough, this may not matter to the ground forces in question.

MEV: Military Exploration Vessel. A term assigned to ships that carry a Marine complement aboard, and most specifically Marine-purposed vessels.

NARV: NovusCorp-Assigned Research Vessel. The vessel you are normally riding in.

NMSN: NovusCorp Military Supply Network. Where Military Requisition orders go and are handled by authorized vendors.

OrdnanceBot: An automated drone that brings crates off of military shuttles, puts empty crates onto military shuttles, and loads crates onto the ASRS to be lifted from Deck G to Deck E.

XO: Executive Officer. Third in line of the Chain of Command, responsible for the Military Division.

Admin: The people who run the server. Have a variety of powers and buttons to keep the game interesting.

Adminhelp/Ahelp: A command which lets you send a message to the admins. Can be accessed by typing Adminhelp in game or by pressing F1. Use this (instead of the OOC-channel) if you think someone is griefing or if you otherwise have something to ask the admins about. These can include questions about etiquette, the rules, or in-game procedures such as the starting the engine, etc. It should be noted that even when no admins are online, any messages sent in adminhelp are logged.

Additional Access: Under certain circumstances, such as a low server population, admin-toggled, or simply set in the server configuration by the host, jobs may be granted additional access when they join the round.

Aft: Nautical term. It means the back of a ship, or in our case, east.

AI: The Artificial Intelligence, the station or ship's computer which can access machinery on the station.

Analyzer: Most often refers to Health Analyzers, but can also refer to Atmospheric Analyzers, Botany's Plant Analyzers, or Research & Development's Destructive Analyzer.

Anomaly: A kind of random event announced over comms that can cause ship or station damage if not dealt with in time.

Antag: Antagonist. The “opponent”, “enemy”. Almost every Game Mode has at least one, and random events may also spawn antagonists.

APC: The Area Power Controller, a square box on the wall that provides power to the room and is the purview of Station Engineers.

Asimov: The default laws that AIs and therefore the Cyborgs are sometimes held to. Taken from Isaac Asimov's short stories and the Three Laws of Robotics. Basically makes robots follow orders and unable to harm people.

Atmos: Either an Atmospheric Technician (which are also commonly known as Atmos Tech) or the Atmospherics area itself which deals with the air supply.

Ayys/Ayyliens: An Abductor, not to be confused with a Xenomorph.

Badmin: Bad Admin, refers to an admin who abuses their powers.

Ban: Blocking a person from access to the server for a period of time. This can happen if a person is not obeying the given rules. Read the guide to evading getting banned for further guidelines.

Beepsky/Officer Beepsky: A staple of Space Station 13 and many of its clones, a Securitron that starts in Security. Will chase, stun, and handcuff anyone set to be arrested in the security records just like any Securitron, but has some unique behaviors…

Blob: Can refer to the Blob game mode, or the Blob that spawns in Blob mode and sometimes in random events. A big green jelly thing that spreads quickly, causes enormous damage, beats the shit out of people and is weak to fire, usually.

Bolt/Bolted: A feature of Airlocks. When the bolts are dropped, the door cannot move from its current position, be it open or closed. They can be lifted by the AI or hacking the airlock.

Borg: A Cyborg.

Borging: Making a Cyborg out of someone, also known as Cyborgification. Done in Robotics usually.

Braindead: Refers to a player who has logged off or been disconnected. Examining a braindead character reveals the message: “They have a blank, absent-minded stare and appears completely unresponsive to anything. They may snap out of it soon.” While these players are not in-game, they should generally be left alone (or preferably dragged somewhere safe). The rules still apply to braindead characters. NOTE: This person can still come back to the game! Who knows, maybe their computer just crashed for a minute.

Bridge: The command center of the ship where the heads start. Found in the center of the station. May also refer to the Battle Bridge or Auxiliary Bridge, alternate places to manage the ship when the Bridge has been blown up or is otherwise unsafe.

Brig: An area where people are held by security after being arrested.

Bwoink: Receiving an Admin PM, named after the sound effect played when an admin PMs you.

BYOND: The horrible platform that Space Station 13 was coded on. Star Command 13 may or may not be built on the same ground.

Cargo: A shortened version of either the cargo bay, or the whole of the supply section, not including mining dock and mining outpost.

Catatonic: A player who has ghosted while alive, disabling them from returning to play. When such a player is examined, it gives a message stating there is no hope of recovery. These people are as considered corpses and can be taken to the Morgue or Kitchen.

CE: The Chief Engineer.

CorpComm: Short for “Corporate Command”, the administration branch of NovusCorp responsible for most SC13 ships, stations, and colonies. Will periodically send messages to the station which are usually of debatable usefulness. Also refers to the area the Emergency Escape Shuttle goes to when it leaves.

Clone/Cloning: To revive someone back to life through cloning their dead body.

CMO: The Chief Medical Officer.

CO2: Carbon Dioxide, an invisible gas kept in black canisters. Will knock you out and suffocate you. A small trace amount of it makes up breathable air, due to people exhaling.

Comdom: A derogatory name for an incompetent and abusive Captain.

Corporate: A lawset for the AI, which makes it a ruthless profits-maximizing, efficiency-enforcing machine.

Crew: This is everybody on the ship or station that is not a passenger or antagonist. Typically what they do is get the ship or station into shape, by setting up the engines, ordering supplies, and doing actual work. Oh, and beating the shit out of antagonists, of course!

Crit: To be in a critical state. At this point, your character has lost consciousness and will slowly die from lack of oxygen without help.

Cryo: The big green glass things in Medbay. Putting dying people in here can save them.

Cuban Pete: “They call me Cuban Pete, I'm the king of the rhumba beat. When I play my maracas I go chick chicky boom, chick chicky boom…” A notorious griefer who applied the bomb-making knowledge of a mysterious first scientist mentor who had invented ludicrous sized bombs. As a result, the stations he was on were turned into nearly dust every round he was on, antagonist or not. Because of him there was a bombcap hardcoded into Space Station 13, as well as occasional references to his grand accomplishments.

Cult: Refers to either the Cult game mode, or the cultists within.

Deadchat: A chat channel dead/observing players speak on using the say command. Can only be seen by other dead/observing players. Deadchat is mostly considered to be out-of-character, and here you are allowed to talk about anything happening in the round (unlike in the OOC channel). Note that what you learn here is not remembered by your character if you're revived.

Deadmin: Most commonly read as dead-min (as in dead admin), but actually stands for de-admin, meaning the action of removing administrative powers from an administrator.

Disk: Infrequently a science or genetics research disk, but most often refers to the Nuclear Authentication Disk, used in Nuclear Mode, or the Root Access Disk, used to unlock special options. If you are the captain, guard them with your life, or at least make sure they're in the hands of responsible people and not the Clown (although clowns are surprisingly robust on average). If you are a traitor with it as your objective, GET DAT FUKKEN DISK.

Drone: Either a type of alien or a player-controlled repair bot.

Electrified/Shocked: Another feature of Airlocks. If an electrified airlock is touched by someone without insulated gloves, they will receive an electric shock, taking damage and being stunned for some time. The AI and airlock hacking can activate or disable electrification. Some grilles are also electrified – cutting a cable without wearing insulated gloves will also electrify you.

Emag: Another name for the Cryptographic Sequencer traitor item, which can semi-permanently open doors and has a myriad of other uses.

Emagged: Used either as a verb to describe the action of using an emag on something, or as an adjective to describe an object that someone has used an emag on.

Emoji: A.K.A. smileys, except smile is not mandatory. Learn them all!

End of round grief (EORG): The practice of killing and/or causing destruction after the end round report has appeared, but before the server restarts. This is traditionally allowed to blow off steam, but nothing after the end round report is considered canonical.

Engine: The large areas of the ship or station used to provide power to the ship or station through various mechanisms or designs, most of which require frequent maintenance to ensure they don't go awry.

ERP: Erotic Role Play (ERP) is the action of when a player or players engages in roleplaying that is erotic in nature. An inherently controversial subject, people's reactions to ERP in the SS13 community ranges from upset and rage to taking off one's clothes and joining to bringing down the banhammer.

EVA: A room where space suits, magboots, jetpacks and the RCD are kept. Stands for Extra-Vehicular Activity.

Fore: Nautical term. It means the front of a ship, or in our case, west.

Ghost: Refers to a command you can type when you have died to become a ghost, and to the actual ghosts themselves. Ghosts can speak on deadchat, move around the station freely, see everything, and can't interact with anything meaningful, most of the time, though there are exceptions… They are used to observe the game after you have died. Cannot be seen directly by living players unless something is very wrong.

Gibs: The bloody, torn apart remnants of a former living being. Created by people and monkeys exploding. A cyborg that blows up has its own version of gibs: robot debris. To gib something is to turn it into gibs, usually by a bomb or the Chef's machine that turns people into meat, the Gibber.

Gimmick: Can refer to a player gimmick or a gimmick round. Basically a round or player which plays with a certain “theme”. Can be amusing once or twice but doing this regularly runs it into the ground very quickly.

Grayshirt/Grays: Assistants, named after their signature gray uniform. Not to be confused with ayyliens. AKA grayshits. AKA, Graytide. Originated from a bug in the job selection system, causing the majority of the crew to be roundstart Assistants, dressed in gray. This resulted in swarms of Assistants storming the Brig and antagonizing security. Now the word refers to any griefy behavior or hooliganism of that bent.

Greentext: An alternate way of describing a victory as an antagonist. Derived from the green text used for 'success'.

Grief: A.K.A. Griefing/Griefer/Griffed/Griff/Griffon/Gruffer/Grover/Shitler/Chucklefuck/(Pulling a) Cuban Pete. Intentionally ruining the game for others without the metagame pardon of being an antagonist. Note that this is subjective and up to the admin's interpretation, not yours. Report this using adminhelp to keep the servers tidy!

Gulag: The Russian term for the Labor Camp.

Hacking: The act of breaking the security measures on equipment such as Airlocks or APCs by illicit means.

HoG: Abbreviation for the Hand of God game mode.

Heads: The station's Heads of Staff, each in command of a department. They are also the targets of a revolution.

HoP: Head of Personnel. Should assign jobs and access; more megalomaniacal HoPs end up giving themselves Captain-level access because they can, ignoring their job, and acting like they own the place. This rarely ends well.

HoS: The Head of Security. Responsible for keeping the rest of Security from devolving into the Stanford Experiment.

Hulk: Used to refer to the superpower or a person in possession of it. People with the Hulk gene turn green and become super strong, being able to punch through walls, windows, and other fixtures. Hurts like hell if one hits you. Hulks are an exception to some killing rules (see the Rules for details).

Husk: A corpse which has turned into a gray, ugly… mummified thing. This has either happened by extreme heat (fire), extreme cold (space) or liquid suckification (changeling sucked their juices/DNA out). Not a nice thing to witness at first, but you get used to it.

Hypo: Hypospray.

IC: In Character. Stuff that is happening in the game.

IC in OOC: The act of describing anything happening in the game over the OOC channel. The rule of thumb is if a person not involved in the incident or not observing the game can still tell what's going on, it's IC in OOC. Usually comes with a chastising and a thousand mini-mods squawking out “ICKY OCKY!!!” but excessive use results in a ban. (See the OOC page for details)

Internals: Usually an oxygen tank of some sort and a gas mask. Basically any worn item that lets you breathe when you otherwise can't.

Internals Box/Survival Box: That box which comes in a spawned player's backpack, containing a transparent breath mask, one emergency-sized tank of pure oxygen, and an epinehrine medipen. There's a lot of spare room in there, so it's great place to keep things you don't access a lot but want to keep on you.

Job Ban: Similar to a Ban, except in this case you'll be prevented from playing a specific role, such as a team-based antagonist or a head of staff. You may even get banned from playing an entire department if you demonstrate an inability to follow the rules.

Kudzu: Space vines. Can start growing randomly or be planted.

Lag/Space Lag/Spacetime Distortions: Concept common to almost all online gaming. Not worth explaining in depth here - basically it's the server (server-side lag) or your own computer (client-side lag) being slow and causing gaps between you doing stuff and it actually happening to grow. Sometimes referred as 'time warp' or something similar when players are in character.

Lathe: Short for the various lathes used to construct objects, such as the Autolathe located in Cargo and the Protolathe located in the R&D Lab.

Law/Laws: Rules which the AI and Cyborgs must follow. Are somewhat open to interpretation by the player, but the majority consensus and admin rulings are what really count. May be modified or changed at an AI Upload Terminal using various modules, wiped back to the basic three using the Reset Module, or purged entirely with the Purge Module. Note that core modules cannot be removed by the standard reset module.

Ling: A Changeling.

Malf: Short for malfunction. Can refer to either the Malfunction game mode, or to describe the AI in said mode.

Mass Driver: Computer or switch operated devices found in Toxins, the Chapel and Disposals. Any objects on them when they are activated will be thrown forward at high speed, either into the bomb testing area (Toxins) or space (Chapel, Disposals).

Mini-mod: Those players without admin or mod powers or responsibilities who chastise other players and list server rule infractions incessantly. They should be ignored.

MMI: A Man-Machine-Interface. Essentially player-cyborg-interface. A cyborg has one inside it. Enables the brain to speak and see. Put a brain into an empty MMI, insert the whole thing into an empty cyborg and you can bring it back to life!

Mod: Could be used to refer to Moderator, the rank, or any admin.

Murderboning: Going on a killing spree.

N2: Nitrogen, an invisible gas kept in red canisters. Mostly useless but makes up a certain percentage of breathable air. Not to be confused with chemical reagent nitrogen from chemistry.

N2O: Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas or anesthetic. White gas kept in red canisters with a white stripe, that will knock you out and suffocate you at high enough concentrations.

Nar-Sie/Nar-Nar: The eldritch deity whom cultists serve and often wish to summon.

Notes: A command which displays “Notes” kept in your character's memory, which you add with the “Add-Note” command. Some notes are automatically added depending on the circumstances, such as revolutionaries having the list of rev members memorized, Syndicate leaders having the nuclear bomb code memorized, or the time of your death. Also refers to the top secret notes admins keep on players, usually if they get banned.

Nuke: Can refer to either the Nuclear game mode (also known as Syndicate), or the Nuclear Fission Explosive used in said mode.

O2: Oxygen. Invisible gas usually kept in blue and white Canisters. Vital for reasons that you should already know, but deadly for reasons you may not.

One-Human(ed): Referring to a custom AI law that designates only one member of the crew as a human. Usually accompanied with an order to purge “non-humans.”

OOC: The blue bolded chat channel which is shown to all players. Don't use this to talk about anything going on in the game (until right at the end of the game generally). Might get switched off occasionally if it gets too idiotic. You can toggle the visibility of the ooc channel by using the corresponding command.

OOC in IC: The inverse of the much more common IC in OOC. Whenever a game mechanic, metafeature, or player-to-player conversation is referenced in the say or emote channels. Heavily frowned upon as it ruins MY IMMERSIONNNN! Talking 1) is still OOC in IC.

Ops/Operatives: Short for nuke ops. Generally heard over the radio shortly before the station goes boom.

ORM: Short for the Ore Redemption Machine, which is used to turn the materials miners bring into usable sheets. Often found in Cargo.

Paladin: A lawset for the AI, your stereotypical white-knight good-guy role.

Parapen: The Sleepy Pen was previously called Parapen, short for Paralysis Pen.

PDA: Short for Personal Digital Assistant, a handheld device that acts as a pager, flashlight and other useful functions, depending on what cartridge is inserted.

Perma/Permabrig: The Prison Wing in the fore section of security, where prisoners are kept permanently.

Phoron: A.K.A. Biotoxin. Purple gas kept in orange canisters. Poisonous and flammable. Research into uses and properties of phoron is the one of a research ship or station's prime reasons for existence.

Port: Nautical term. It means the side of a ship on the left when one is facing forward, or in our case, south. If you're the kind of person who likes mnemonic devices, it's useful to remember that PORT has the same number of letters as LEFT.

QM: Usually refers to the Quartermaster, but can also mean the Cargo Bay or the people who work there.

RnD/R&D: Refers to Research and Development, or the Laboratory that carries it out.

Radio: Normally refers to the headset on your head which can be used with the command 'say “;help that goddamn traitor is griefing me”', for example. Can also refer to station bounced radios and intercoms. Shows up as green text with a symbol and frequency appended to it. Additional department-specific radios also exsist. To use the equipped department radio's default department frequency use 'say “.h Hello Department!”'. (See the Guide to Radio for details or how to use the radio when it has multiple department frequencies available.)

RCD: Rapid Construction Device. A piece of equipment that can quickly make and break floors, regular walls, and airlocks.

RD: The Research Director.

Records: Comes in two flavors, Security and Medical, both accessible from terminals with red or white screens, respectively. Medical Records are mostly useless and thus mostly unused, but Security Records contain useful fingerprint information and can be used to have Beepsky arrest people on sight.

Redshirt: Security Officers, named for their signature red uniforms and tendency to die at the hands of everything.

Redtext: An alternate way of describing a loss as an antagonist. Derived from the red text used for 'fail'.

Report/CorpComm Report/Traitor Report: A document printed out from communications consoles at the start of most game modes. Lists who might be the traitor and what might be their targets. Inaccurate to the point where it's usually false. Do not treat this report as proof of anything.

Rev: Could refer to the game mode Revolution, a member of the Revolution in said game mode, or a Revenant.

Revhead: One of the leaders of the revolution in Revolution game mode.

Robust/Robusting: The game's ROBUST COMBAT SYSTEM. To robust someone is to beat the shit out of them or at least win in a fight. The definition of what exactly makes a crewmember robust varies from person to person, but it's almost universally agreed to mean being skilled despite the inherently clunky interface.

RP: (MY IMMERSION) “Role Play”. Basically acting within the mental/emotional confines of your in-game character and not yourself. This is encouraged on our servers.

Shitcurity: A derogatory term for Security Officers who are abusive, incompetent or generally shit. Can usually be heard shouted by the guy who just got arrested. Actually being Shitcurity is extremely discouraged.

Shuttle: Most of the time refers to the Emergency Escape Shuttle which shows up at the end of the round. Can also refer to the Arrival Shuttle (where you start if you join late), the syndicate or wizard shuttle (which you'll rarely see, if ever), the Supply Shuttle (which brings items to the Cargo Bay), or the mining and prison shuttles (which move people between the mining and prison stations, respectively).

Signal: A beep sent from a Remote Signaling Device. “Default Signal” is used to refer to the default setting of the devices, which is Frequency 147.9, Code 30. Randomly signaling the default frequency/code for fun is a -wonderful- idea, and will cause nothing bad to happen -ever-.

Silicon: A term for AI or cyborg players, contrast with “human.”

Singulo/Singuloth/Sing: The gravitational singularity, what is essentially a black hole that emits radiation; this radiation is converted to power. It should be contained with a shield; if it isn't, don't stop to take in the view, get those legs moving.

Slings: Shadowlings, one of the station's many antagonist types.

Space Wind: Shifts in air pressure that can cause players and items they're dragging to be knocked into space.

Spacing: The act of forcing or throwing someone out an airlock into space, usually for malicious purposes.

SC13: Star Command 13. Generally used to refer to the game rather than any actual ship, station, or colony.

SSD: Stands for Space Sleep Disorder or Sudden Sleep Disorder. An in-character explanation for someone that has disconnected or has gone AFK.

Starboard: Nautical term. It means the side of a ship on the right when one is facing forward, or in our case, north.

SM: The Supermatter.

Syndie/Synd: Can refer to the organization known as the Syndicate, a coalition of companies that despise SolGov in general and NovusCorp in particular, or to raiding groups and operatives of said coalition. Traitors, traitor Cyborgs and traitor AIs are Syndicate affiliates and Nuclear mode's premise revolves around a direct Syndicate attack. In-game, they have randomized company-based names and there are usually at least two of them and up to six. They also have access to a lot of special syndicate gear.

Tabling: The act of grabbing someone then clicking a table to instantly knock them down on it, usually followed by a toolbox in the skull or being stripped.

Tele: While usually referring to the Hand Teleporter, it could also be referring to the full-fledged Teleporter in the Teleporter Room. Most people have no idea how to use it.

Tesla: The Tesla Engine. An alternative engine that utilizes massive concentrated balls of energy to generate more power than is expended in maintaining it. Also commonly referred to as the “goofball”, so named for the programmer who created it.

Testmerge: Trying out new features or significant changes usually means temporarily merging that feature into the server in order to gather bug reports and feedback.

Tcomms/Telecomms: Telecommunications, the room holding the servers that allow headsets to work. Does not affect Intercoms or Station Bounced Radios, as Intercoms have a direct wire connection and Station Bounced Radios are independent walkie-talkie-type items.

Thermals: Optical Thermal Scanners. Green glasses which let you see people through walls and in the dark. The only thing they can't see through is hiding in closets.

Toxins: A colloquial term for the Research Division due to their forays into toxic chemicals, xenobiology, and phoron research. It is very rarely not filled with fire, hot gas, poisonous vapors, blood, acid, foam of all kinds and dangers, or the aftermath of all this destruction.

Traitor: Used to refer to the mode or an actual Traitor (assigned by the game mode or by admins).

TraitorChan: Used to refer to the game mode, a combination of Traitor and Changeling.

Valid/Validhunting: Adjective: Someone whom it is allowed under the Rules to kill, usually on grounds of being a loud traitor. Verb: The act of killing or deliberately seeking out said kill. An inherently controversial subject, as determining this often involves taking actions that a reasonable character would not feel the need to perform if they are unaware of an active threat.

Voice in Your Head: A subtle, in-character message from an admin. It's generally wise to listen to them.

Vote: A command which lets you call a vote to restart the game or change the game mode (which will restart the game anyway), or a request by other players indicating that the command should be typed. Calling votes when an unruined game is in progress for any reason is looked down upon, but it's not like votes work when the game really is ruined either. All votes are liable to being canceled by admins.

VOX: The audio announcement system that the AI will use to send messages to the crew.

Wormhole: A black swirly portal that shows up during the Space-Time Anomaly random event or the verb used when thrown through a wormhole by an aggressor or your own stupidity. Anything coming into contact with a wormhole will be teleported to a random area on or off the station. They can be fairly dangerous or cause temporary blockades. Not to be confused with portals made from the Handheld Teleporter, which are blue or (more rarely) orange.

Xeno: Can refer to Aliens, or Xenobiology.

Wizard: Usually refers to the Wizard game mode, or a Wizard player who has access to a number of spells and will probably wreck your shit on sight or die in the first 12 seconds of a Wizard game.

Z-Level: A separate area/map which the game consists of. Gameplay-wise, it's just a level.

OSS: Orbital Space Station.

NCPC: NovusCorp Planetary Colony.

OMB: Orbital Military Base.

ROME: Remote Observation Military Expedition.

PMB: Planetary Military Base.

MAV: Military Assault Vessel.

RMV: Resource Mining Vessel.

OPC: Orbital Prison Colony.

PPC: Planetary Prison Colony.

Admin/Admeme/Min Short for Administrator. They (usually) have some kind of vibrantly bright colored OOC text and exist to enforce server rules and behavior. They also have powers designed to ruin the fun keep the game fun for everyone. Listening to them is a good idea.

Adminbus/Bus Originally shorthand for “admin abuse”, now a catch-all term for when the admins feel like a round is getting too boring or if they want to try something “different”. This can typically be identified by special messages from CentComm, OOC messages before the round begins announcing any major changes from an ordinary round, items and mobs showing up that would never spawn under conventional circumstances, new antagonists being added in mid-round when Dynamic doesn't call for it, and anything else that an admin thinks might be “”“”“fun”“”“” at the time.

There is also a literal Adminbus vehicle that can show up as a result of this. This bizarre vehicle can drive through walls, spawns money and mobs out of nowhere, packs people inside by driving over them (preventing them from leaving the bus unless the admin driving it manually ejects them), and can even bring people back from the dead. It also has a built-in jukebox.

Adminhelp/Ahelp A command which lets you send a message to the admins. Use this (AND NOT THE OOC CHAT) if you think someone is griefing. It should be noted that even if no admins are online, any messages sent in adminhelp are logged and forwarded to IRC Discord.

Aft A nautical term. It means the back end of the vessel, or in this case, south.

AI The Artificial Intelligence, the station's computer which can access machinery on the station. A job that can be played by a lucky player who is selected from their preferences. It is located in the AI Core and has remote control over certain pieces of electrical equipment on the station. The AI itself cannot move without outside help, but it can view things from those security cameras you see hanging everywhere on the walls.

“AI LAW 2” A special form of communication that truly conveys the respect and love that the crew holds towards the station's robotic staff.

“AI STATE LAWS” Resembles “AI LAW 2” superficially, but is more an expression of deep-rooted anti-silicon paranoia. It's a justified fear though! It means somebody is ordering you to state your lawset, and unless your laws say otherwise, you have to do it, preferably within a couple seconds, as not stating your laws is tantamount to admitting to being a rogue AI. Playing cutesy and repeating “laws” back to the humans is (usually) not a smart thing to do, depending on the context.

AME/Antimatter The Antimatter Engine.

Analyzer Most often refers to Health analyzers, but can also refer to Atmospheric Analyzers, the Botany Plant analyzers, the Geneticist's Genetic analyzer, the Mechanic's device analyzer or Research & Development's Destructive analyzer.

Antag Antagonists. The “opponent”, the “enemy”, the “syndies”, the “bad guys”. The station is almost always going to have at least one of them at any given time.

APC Area Power Controller, a square box on the wall that provides power to everything in the room.

Artifact Random bizarrely-shaped items, recovered from the asteroid by the science team or occasionally from alien traders, which can have any number of strange effects, although it's usually the one that makes all the hallways and walls look like literal shit.

Asimov The default lawset that the AIs and, by proxy, the Cyborgs are bound to. A direct reference to the short stories of Isaac Asimov and the 3 laws of robotics that appear constantly throughout them.

Basically it's the thing binding the robots to follow your orders and not harm people.

Atmos Either an Atmospheric Technician (which are also commonly known as Atmos Techs) or the Atmospherics area itself which deals with the air supply on the station.

Ayys Greys. Grey aliens. Don't throw water balloons at them!

Badmin Bad Admin, an admin who abuses their powers.

Baguloose The action of feeding a bag of holding into another bag of holding, creating a small Stage 1 singularity.

Ban/Pban Term not really specific to SS13 as almost any internet group/game/site has some kind of blocking or banning function. Blocking a person from access to the server for a period of time. This can happen if a person is being a bit too disruptive for the community's taste. A permaban, “pban”, is a ban with no end date that generally has to be appealed to be removed and is mostly reserved for more severe transgressions or to force a player to explain their actions.

Beepsky/Officer Beepsky The name for the round-start securitron. Will chase, stun, and handcuff anyone set to Arrest in the security records. Known to be one of the most reliable members of the security force. Kicking him or emagging him makes him rather angry.

Baiting/Killbaiting/Banbaiting Provoking somebody to some end, generally you beginning some kind of conflict (the bait) such as refusal of critical services, belligerent attitude, resisting arrest, or interfering with somebody's ability to do their job, then overescalating the conflict to your desired end, such as using the escalation as an excuse to retaliate and kill them in “self-defense” (kill baiting) or to cite the incident in the adminhelps in an attempt to get them banned (ban baiting). This is rather universally disliked since you create conflict at the expense of others, especially in the case of banbaiting as it involves you deceiving admins about the actual circumstances of events.

When all the opposing sides come together to shine light on what happened, this is generally when your baiting gets exposed for what it is, and all of a sudden you're the bait now.

Blob Can refer to the Blob antagonist, or the Blob that spawns sometimes in random meteor showers. A big green jelly thing which spreads quickly, consumes oxygen to grow, causes enormous damage, hurts people, and has variable weaknesses and strengths.

Borg/Borging Shorthand for the cyborgs. “borging” or “to borg” someone is a verb for the process of having one's brain removed and put into an empty cyborg body, “force borging” for someone's brain being put into one without consent from the original brain carrier.

Bolt/Bolted A feature of airlocks. When the bolts are dropped, the door cannot move from its current position, be it open or closed. They can be lifted by the AI or hacking the airlock.

Book Club/Cult/Gult Refers to the Cult antagonist in reference to the occult tomes they use. Or a Chaplain gimmick.

Braindead/SSD Used to refer to a player who has logged off, gone away from keyboard, or been disconnected before or after dying. When Examined, you'll get a message like “[name] seems to have a vacant, braindead stare…” if they're a human. Silicons will just say that they're in stand-by mode.

While these players are not in-game, they should generally be left alone (or preferably dragged somewhere safe). The rules still apply to braindead people as they can still come back to the game! Who knows, maybe their computer just crashed for a minute.

Breach A hole in the station that exposes an area to space, leading to rapid depressurization and everyone inside getting sucked around by the air.

Bridge The command center of the station and the home base of the command staff. Usually designated by a navy blue theme on floor tiles and doors.

Brig A blanket term for Security, or the area in which people are placed in the station's “jail”. Usually designated by a red theme on floor tiles and doors.

Bucklecuff Buckling a restrained played to a chair, bed, etc. In the very far past, it rendered the victim immobile and completely helpless, unable to escape without another person's unbuckling them, but this is no longer the case. You can resist out and unbuckle yourself.

BWOINK The infamous sharp beeping sound that plays when an admin sends you a message. You may go into cardiac arrest.

BYOND The platform SS13 was coded on. You need it to be able to play the game.

Cap The Captain of the station.

Carbon A term used mainly by silicons to describe carbon based lifeforms such as humans, greys, etc.

Cargo A shorthand version of either the cargo bay or the whole of the supply department not including the mining dock and mining outpost.

Cargonia A cultural phenomenon among Cargo players to exhibit feelings of nationalism, separatism, and overall independence from the rest of the station, typically involving extraterritoriality from Security's Space Law.

There are a couple reasons for why Cargonia exists. Despite its early-game weakness, Cargo has easily the highest late-game versatility of any department via their ability to import equipment for every job (at least Engineering and Security) and their control of material input. Additionally, they're one of only two departments (the other being Science) that has easy access to the Asteroid z-level, allowing them to potentially build up a second station of their own. It's because of this that Cargo can become one of the more powerful departments, only hampered by their usually smaller size compared to more populated departments like Medbay or Science and the fact that what little manpower they do have is mainly the infamously attention-deficit Cargo Technicians.

It's important to note that despite its name, Cargonia is not necessarily unique to cargo, Science being in a very similar spot to Cargo with its protolathe, but unlike Science which has had its features slowly creeped in over the years by the coders, Cargo has had them from the start.

Catatonic A player who has left their body while alive, disabling them from ever returning to play in it. When such a player is examined, it gives a very obvious pink message stating there is no hope of recovery.

These people are considered as corpses and can be taken to the Morgue or Kitchen.

Catbeast A Tajaran. Crewmates are encouraged to terminate them with extreme prejudice as they may spread diseases. Admins may turn players into one as a form of divine punishment. Otherwise they can be created through medical and genetic shenanigans or get spawned as a minor antagonist.

CE The Chief Engineer.

CentComm Short for “Central Command”, the administration branch of Nanotrasen which runs the station. Will periodically send messages to the station of debatable usefulness. Also refers to the area the Escape Shuttle goes to when it lands at the end of its journey.

Ckey Short for clean/clear/canonical key, your BYOND username with no spaces and only lowercase letters. For example, the ckey of SmokeGokuWeed420 is smokegokuweed420, and the ckey of Pubby OScrubbs is pubbyoscrubbs. Often used by admins as a synonym for username, since admin logs record the usernames as ckeys.

Chain Recalling/Shuttle Ping-Pong The verb of cancelling the emergency shuttle whenever it gets called, even if the station is very obviously not recoverable. This is very disliked because you're intentionally prolonging the round for no discernable gain. People like this are why the Communications Console has a log detailing the exact coordinate position of where the shuttle was recalled from.

Admins have intervened before and will continue to intervene in situations where a player, regardless of antagonist status, repeatedly delays the end of the round by recalling the shuttle when everybody else is either dead or wants to leave.

Chloral/Gloral/ßloral Chloral Hydrate, a powerful sedative that will quickly knock out anyone even in small doses. Can be lethal if administered in higher ones.

Cluwne A horrifying low-poly clown. A pitiful mockery of a human being. These cursed souls are trapped in their cursed clown suit, unable to speak in anything but tortured honks. Their minds are destroyed, reduced to the barest minimum level of intelligence required to comprehend the torment they must suffer. Few are kind to Cluwnes. Though they were once men, men despise them. Cluwnes are doomed to spend the rest of their lives twitching and honking, being beaten and shunned by their former crewmates. Their only reprieve is the sweet release of death or being saved by exotic means.

CMO The Chief Medical Officer.

CO2 Carbon Dioxide, an invisible gas kept in black canisters. Will knock you out and suffocate you. A small trace amount of it makes up breathable air and all breathing species exhale it (except for plasmamen who exhale oxygen).

Comdom A pejorative slur for an incompetent and abusive Captain.

Crew This is everybody on the station that is on the crew manifest, not including wizards, aliens, or whatever invaders come over. Hired by Nanotrasen to do their Jobs.

Typically what they do is get the station into shape by setting up an engine and ordering supplies before inevitably descending into anarchism and beating the shit out of the non-crew.

Creature/Critter Animals, insects and monsters.

Cryo The big blue glass tubes in Medbay. Also known as the Magic Healing Tubes. Putting dying people in here can save them start their wild ride. Short for Cryogenics, it uses super-cold temperatures to prolong life and apply chemicals efficiently into a person's metabolic system.

Cuban Pete They call me Cuban Pete, I'm the king of the rhumba beat.

When I play my maracas I go

Chick chicky boom, chick chicky boom

A notorious griefer from long ago who applied the bomb-making knowledge of an unknown mentor that originally invented his ludicrously powerful bombs. The entire station was turned into rubble every round he was on, antagonist or not, singing his theme song all the while. This would go on for multiple months. It's because of him that we have a maximum cap on explosion size.

Deadmin Former admin, either shorthand for dead admin or de-admin. “to deadmin” is a verb for the process of removing one's own admin flags to play normally in a round. Also the process of removing the admin status from an admin.

Deadchat Also known as Ghost chat. A chat channel dead players speak on using the say command. Can only be seen by other dead players.

Disk The Nuclear Authentication Disk, used in nuclear authentications. Oftentimes found completely untouched in the Captain's office on their desk.

Disposals Catch-all term for the disposal system of underfloor pipes and conveyor belts leading to the Recycling area where trash goes to die as well as the disposal units themselves. Sometimes used as a verb (“disposaled”).

Dudebombs/Maxcap Shorthand for “Dude bombs lmao” or the “maximum cap” on an explosion's size, a verb for the reliance on using high-power TTV bombs as an antagonist. Often considered very boring, as a bomb that large has a tendency to put a permanent halt to any activity for the affected area of the station.

Emag Shorthand for the Cryptographic Sequencer which forces doors open or does other sabotage things like letting you order some devious items. Can also be used as a verb to describe the act of using it on something, “The airlock is emagged”.

EMP The destructive effect of electromagnetic pulses, whether they be from a Supermatter delamination, Singularity pulses, or traitor EMP grenades.

Electrify Another feature of airlocks. If an electrified airlock is touched by someone without insulated gloves, they will receive an electric shock, taking damage and being stunned for some time. The AI and Airlock hacking can enable or disable electrification. Some window grilles are also made electrified - cutting a cable without wearing insulated gloves will also electrify you.

Engine/Engineering The large area denoted by yellow/orange coloration which should contain an engine, or power source for the station, up to and including the Singularity, Supermatter or whatever else the Engineers decide to make. If any.

End of round grief/Rock Cooking The practice of killing and causing destruction after the end round report has appeared, but before the server restarts. Gets its name from the sound that plays when the round ends “THE ROCK IS COOKING”.

ERP Erotic Role Play (ERP) is the action of when a player or players engages in roleplaying that is erotic or (overtly) sexual in nature.

An inherently controversial subject, people's general reactions to ERP range from incoherent rage, mindlessly taking off one's clothes, or to joining the incoming Bear Force One.

EVA The official acronym for Extra-Vehicular Activity. The place with the space suits and building materials for use in space.

Extended Either refers to the lack of antagonists being spawned by the game, or as a pejorative slur for when the actions of the antagonists fail to end the round or they hold it hostage by refusing to end it. The latter may be referred to in a portmanteau manner, cultstended/wizstended/vampstended/revstended, etc, depending on whichever antagonist.

For example, if you are the last living Challenger, it'd be pretty shitty to just go 100% stealth and turn into a normal crew member, thereby letting the round turn into Extended, both for those who died early and for those who are wishing for something to happen. Keep some kind of plans that end with the shuttle getting called so that everybody can move on to the next round, because if you don't, expect Adminbus to happen.

Femsec A rather derogatory term for female security personnel, especially for static characters who are often regarded as unrobust and dumb.

Floorpills Umbrella term for mystery pills, syringes, drinks or food with unknown contents that are found on the floor. For some reason SS13 characters often think it is a good idea to pick pills off the floor and swallow them, inject themselves with unmarked syringes, and so on. Doing so can be fun. It can also kill you. Proceed at your own risk.

Fluke ops Describes Nuclear Agents who fail to nuke the station and/or blunder in spectacular or hilarious ways. Classic examples include leaving the nuclear bomb on the ship, having one of the TTVs explode the ops on their ship instead of the crew on the other end of their teleporter, the ops friendly firing each other in a crowded area, and otherwise falling flat on their face.

Sometimes also used as playful nickname for nuclear operatives in general.

Fluoride/Fluoride Stare A reference to a conspiracy theory that the government puts fluoride in the tap water to make the population complacent. Basically means being completely indifferent to something extraordinary happening or otherwise being overly compliant, for example a Syndicate Agent abducting or killing your colleague right in front of you and doing nothing about it.

Fore Nautical term. It means the front of a ship, or in this case, north.

Ghost Refers to a command you can use when you have died to become a ghost, as well as the actual ghosts themselves. Ghosts can speak in deadchat, move around the station freely, see everything, and can't interact with anything meaningful. They are used to move around and observe the game after you have died. Cannot be seen directly by living players, except in special Cult circumstances.

Gib/Gibs The bloody, torn apart remnants of a former living being, short for giblet (Did you know that? I didn't know that.). Created by people, livestock, monkeys, and cyborgs exploding. Not to be confused with “gib me dat”.

Gimmick Can refer to a player gimmick or a gimmick round. Basically a round or player which plays with a certain “theme”. It's amusing once or twice but doing this regularly runs its joke value into the ground very quickly.

Greyshirt/Greyshit/Greyshitter Derogatory term for Assistants. Refers to their grey jumpsuits.

Greytide A phenomenon where assistants tend to cause trouble ranging from breaking in for spare tools to overthrowing the station, encouraged in some roles.

Comes about due to a combination of assistants having the highest roundstart crew capacity (2 + 1 for each roundstart security), all wearing the same grey uniforms, having no objective or responsibility, and all spawning in the same room (tool storage). This sometimes results in a wave of grey shirted assistants, a “grey tide”, all coming to a department at the same time and antagonizing them.

Greytided/Greytide Implant A person brainwashed by a traitor to follow their every command. Greytided subjects MUST obey their masters in all things, including things that would cause the subject's death. They MUST NOT harm or hinder their masters unless ordered to. You retain all knowledge of events you observed after the greytide implant is removed (the game will tell you when you're not greytided).

Griefing/Griefer/Griff/Shitter Griefing (as an adjective, being a griefer or shitter) is basically doing anything that removes or significantly hampers the ability of others to enjoy the game without a good reason to do so. If someone else did it to you, how would you react?

Griefing comes in many forms, such as killing without good reason, permanently imprisoning criminals for a single offense, forcing someone to ingest toxic or game-changing substances, randomly starting fires, dismantling the hull, acting insane to the extent that it negatively affects others, etc. Generally, it's nigh-impossible to differentiate between actual antagonists and non-antagonist griefers.

Gunk Things in a round going so bad that it demoralizes the crew to the point of total lack of productivity, leading to a shuttle call. Gunk can come from antagonists, random events, crew incompetence, or other circumstances such as the admin spawning the blob storm right after half the crew was thrown into the nuclear operative meat grinder.

Hacking The act of breaking the security measures on equipment such as Airlocks or APCs by illicit means.

Heads The station's Heads of Staff, each in command of a department. They are also the targets of a Revolution.

HoP Head of Personnel. Should assign jobs, but usually ends up giving himself Captain-level access, ignoring their job, and acting like Security.

RD Research Director. The job that used to be called Head of Research. Now he usually is a fancy scientist who occasionally uploads crappy laws to the AI.

HoS Head of Security. Head of the security department. Usually the most well armed person on the station.

HoPcurity Refers to a playstyle where the Head of Personnel uses their all access and authority to act like Security, making arrests, processing prisoners, and taking weapons from the armory just like real security. Usually frowned upon, especially if there are actual security on the crew. The “-curity” can also be attached as a portmanteau to other jobs with access to nonlethal weapons, such as “Capcurity”, “Medcurity”, “Cargocurity”, etc.

Help! I am in dire need of assistance, but unfortunately I am not considerate enough to state my current location! Also, I do not have my suit sensors on, so my body will no doubt be found husked in an unmarked maintenance locker 50 minutes after this radio message. Please ignore me unless I explicitly state a location! See also: Intent.

Husk/Husked The state of a corpse left behind from a successful Changeling feeding or high amounts of burn damage, usually from laser weapons or electric shocks.

Hulk Used to refer to the superpower or a person in possession of it. People with the Hulk gene turn green and become super strong, being able to punch through walls, windows, and other fixtures. Hurts like hell if one hits you.

IC in OOC, ICK OCK The act of describing anything currently happening in the game over the OOC channel. The rule of thumb is if a person not involved in the incident or not observing the game can still tell what's going on, it's IC in OOC. Excessive use usually results in a ban, and even if it happens by accident (e.g. typing something in OOC that was meant to be in “say and not noticing it until its too late) it will inevitably result in intense mockery and cries of BAN HE and “Thanks now I know my target has <something vaguely related to details revealed>”. (See the Rules page for details). Also known as ICKY OCKY and many other variants.

In Character In Character knowledge/chat, often abbreviated to IC, is what you as the character know or say. It's the opposite of out of character. For example, a Chemist would know how to make thermite, but not how to start the Engine. IC knowledge often differs from Out of Character knowledge. See also: Roleplaying.

Internals Usually a gas tank of some sort and a mask. Basically any worn item that lets you breathe when you otherwise can't.

Internals Box/Survival Box That box which comes in all spawned player's backpacks, containing a mask, one emergency-sized tank of 100% oxygen, and a one-use bandage.

There's a lot of spare room in there and it counts as a single item, so it's a good idea to keep it in your bag for small items instead of clogging your bag with 10 other small items.

Jecties The standard, non-freeform objectives for antagonists that players can choose to do in their settings.

Job Ban Similar to a Ban, except in this case you'll just be prevented from playing a specific role instead of the entire server. This can be an antagonist or a head of staff. You may even get banned from playing an entire department if you demonstrate a particular inability to follow the Rules.

Jobby/Jobbie A Scottish term for a small piece of excrement. Possibly the funniest word ever made. A derogatory term for a player that focuses on doing their “job” instead of interacting with the other players in a meaningful way. Atmospherics Technicians and their time consuming cooling loops are a good example though it can apply to any job.

Kudzu Used to indicate the presence of Space Vines, Kudzu Vines or any sort of vine-growing plant regardless of variant. Uncontrolled spread is known as a kudzuloose.

Lag/Features™/Space Lag/Bluespacing A universal concept to all online gaming. Not worth explaining in depth here - basically it's the server (server-side lag) or your own computer (client-side lag) being slow and causing a time gap between you doing stuff and it actually happening. Referred to as “Space Lag” or “Bluespacing” when mentioning the event IC.

Latejoin A verb, joining after the round's started, allowing one to choose which job to play. As a noun “latejoiner”, “late arrival”, someone who does the aforementioned.

Lathe Short for the Autolathe, located in Cargo. Could also be the Protolathe, located in the Research and Development lab.

Laws A set of certain In Character rules which the AI and Cyborgs must follow. Are somewhat open to interpretation by the player, but the majority consensus and admin rulings are what really count. May be modified or changed at an AI Upload Terminal using various modules, wiped back to the basics using the Reset Module, or purged entirely with the Purge Module. Note that core modules cannot be removed by the standard reset module.

The Law Space Law. Makes for a good guideline, although people who routinely slap criminals with the maximum possible sentence time listed in Space Law or otherwise strictly adhere to it (even to the detriment of the rest of the station) are lawbrains.

Lawbrain/Secbrain A term devised for the strange mentality encountered in security players who revolve around Space Law and its rigorous by-the-book enforcement.

Ling Shorthand for changeling.

Lockdown Refers to individual, local fire alarms locking down areas, places with shutters, or the bolting down of all doors to an area. You can also lockdown Cyborgs from the Robotics Control console located in the Research Director's office.

Malf/Rogue A Malfunctioning AI.

Map The station everyone is currently on. You can tell which one you are on by checking the small tabs on the top right of the screen, which will have a button (usually “station name”-station) which provides a preview of the map for you to explore. You can also view the station map in game through the station map devices throughout the station itself, large square green consoles on the wall marked “MAP”

Mass Driver The computer or switch operated devices found in Toxins, Disposals and the Chapel. Any objects on them when they are activated will be thrown forward at high speed, either into the bomb testing area (Toxins) or space (Disposals and Chapel). Can be modified to shoot faster, slower or generally be more dangerous.

Medbay The medical bay of the station. Where you can usually get patched up when hurt. Designated by its mostly white tiles that over time will be coated in blood.

Metaclub Rather tragically came about as a term to describe groups dedicated to metagaming and metacommunications after one was discovered in 2016, from where the map of the same name gets its name, see below. Very bannable.

Nowadays is mainly just used as a derogatory term for general playerbases or groups of players, e.g. the “security metaclub”.

Metacommunication/Metagaming Metagaming is using knowledge of the game itself to further your own player in the game, Metacommunications is the act of using Out Of Character knowledge, typically voice chat utilities, to gain an unfair advantage; both are the antithesis of Roleplaying. These are very disliked among every Space Station 13 community.

When one player gets EMPed and attacked and another one immediately darts to the scene from the other end of the station with a stunprod and cable restraints in hand when not a word was spoken the entire time and the second person had no way of knowing the attack was even occurring… yeah, it's not very challenging to guess what's going on here.

Mod Short for “Moderators” who are usually lower ranked admins, but here they tend to be admins from other servers who wish delve our secret logs and ban-lists.

Multikeying A portmanteau of “multiple” and “ckey”. Using multiple accounts, typically either in the same round or to evade a ban on one of them. While using multiple accounts in the same round is one of the more direct forms of Metagaming (you're evading the consequences of the actions of your character by just switching to another one), some consider simply having multiple accounts to begin with as multikeying since they feel like it cheats the admin's notes and warning systems. People's feelings can be somewhat mixed on this. Must be some kind of social stigma…

Remember, using another account to evade a ban is only bannable if you're stupid enough to get caught.

Murderbone Murderboner (noun), to murderbone (verb) is the desire for and the performance of senseless, indiscriminate killing of other players, usually performed by assistants, or almost anyone during Extended. The urge to murderbone is directly proportional to the length and peacefulness of the round. Usually results in a ban, so please don't do this. Please. See also: Griefing.

Notes A command which displays “Notes” kept in your characters memory, which you add with the “add note” command. Some important notes are automatically added depending on the circumstances, such as revolutionaries having the list of fellow revolutionaries memorized, traitors having their code words and uplink memorized, and Nuke ops commanders having the nuclear bomb code memorized.

N2 Nitrogen, an invisible gas kept in red canisters. Mostly useless, but makes up a certain percentage of breathable air. Not to be confused with chemical reagent nitrogen from chemistry. Inert, which is why it's mixed with the station's air as a high oxygen content can cause a fire to be even more devastating than it normally would. Apollo 1, anyone?

N2O Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas or anesthetic. White gas kept in red canisters with a white stripe that will knock you out and suffocate you at high enough concentrations.

Nar-Sie/Nar-Nar The eldritch deity whom cultists serve and often wish to summon.

Nanotrasen/NT Nanotrasen is one of the largest corporations in all of known space. Most Space Station 13 games cast you as an employee of NanoTrasen. Unless you aren't.

NovusCorp/NC NovusCorp is a large corporation focused on genetics, bioroid generation, and scientific exploration. Star Command 13 games usually cast you as an employee of NovusCorp. Unless you aren't.

Nuke The Nuclear Fission Explosive found in the Vault or the one used by Nuclear Operatives.

Nuke Ops/Ops/Nukies Nicknames for Syndicate Nuclear Operatives, sent to Nanotrasen stations to destroy them with a nuclear fission explosive.

O2 Oxygen. Invisible gas usually kept in blue and white canisters. Vital for reasons that you should already know, but deadly for reasons you might not. Oxygen is an oxidizer meaning that it while it supplies oxygen for fires, having too much of it in the air can result in the entire room spontaneously erupting into flame when supplied with a single spark.

Obs/Obsgang Those who choose to observe the round instead of playing it. This is a sin.

Out of Character/OOC Out of character knowledge/chat, often abbreviated to OOC, is what you as the player know or say. The opposite of In Character. For example, you might play a chemist, but know how to start the engine. Discussing in character things in OOC chat or using OOC knowledge to get the jump on someone are examples of Metagaming. OOC knowledge often differs from In Character knowledge. For the command see: OOC.

Might get switched off by an admin for the round if it gets a bit too idiotic for their tastes.

OOC in IC The inverse of the much more common 'IC in OOC'. Whenever a game mechanic, metafeature, or player-to-player conversation is referenced in the say or emote channels. Or using 2) to talk to players locally OOC. Not recommended.

It ruins MY IMMERSIONNNN

Paladin A lawset for the AI, your stereotypical white-knight good-guy role.

PDA Handheld devices that act as pagers, flashlights, explosives and other useful functions depending on what cartridge is inserted.

Perma/Permabrig/Prison The Security Permabrig, where prisoners are kept for an indefinite amount of time (oftentimes for the rest of the round). To land in here you either have to commit a capital crime such as murder or be an enemy of the corporation.

Plasma/Blasma Purple gas kept in orange canisters. Poisonous, flammable and adheres to clothing. Research into uses and properties of plasma is the station's prime reason for existence, according to the backstory.

Plasmaflood/Blasmaflood Releasing plasma into every room on the station with access to atmospherics, illicit or otherwise. The AI and air alarms can attempt to stop this but will generally fail. Usually followed with someone lighting said flood on fire, cooking everyone without an atmospherics hardsuit alive.

Pod Baby A pejorative slur used for somebody escaping the station in the escape pods, especially if the escape shuttle is still in a habitable condition.

Although the escape pods were added to present an alternative means of escape when the escape shuttle is compromised, there are plenty of “tough guys”, both in-character and out of character that find reasons to get on that shuttle or die trying. When you consider that this game takes place in a setting where lives have become so disposable that “clocking out” has become a term synonymous with suicide and your workplace is currently destroyed in plasma hellfire and meteor brimstone while the singularity begins eating up the hallways, those that man up and manage to get on the shuttle have every right to call the pod-takers babies and cowards.

There is a way to punish the cowards and cause chaos on the shuttle simultaneously, but that's outside the grasp of regular crewmembers.

Polyacid/Pacid Polytrinic Acid, an extremely strong acid that will melt most items and deal high damage to anyone coming into direct contact with it.

Port Nautical term. It means the side of a ship on the left when one is facing forward, or in this case, west.

If you're the kind of person who likes mnemonic devices, it's useful to remember that PORT has the same number of letters as LEFT.

Powergaming/Powergamer Playing to “win”, with the winning condition usually being to stop antagonists. As a noun, “powergamer”. Using skills or knowledge that your character might not be expected to have. People generally don't mind helpful powergaming such as performing CPR despite your character not having medical training, whereas people do mind the bannable powergaming such as installing manual valves in atmospherics at the start of the round just in case the AI is rogue.

Powergaming is actually quite common if you look for it since experienced players are bound to have far more awareness about the station's general welfare than others, but there's an invisible line between acceptable behavior and proper powergaming.

QM Quartermaster. A person with the job of Quartermaster is often referred to as the QM even in character. I guess it just rolls off the tongue easy.

Radio Normally refers to the headset on your head which can be used with the command 'say ”;help the fagot traider is griefing me in arivals“', for example. Can also refer to station bounced radios and intercoms. Shows up as green text with a symbol and frequency appended to it. Additional department-specific radios also exist. To use the equipped department radio's default department frequency use 'say ”:h Hi department!“'.

RCD Rapid Construction Device. A piece of equipment which can quickly make and break floors, walls, and airlocks. Can't break reinforced walls. For balancing some reason, it costs compressed matter to remove structures as well.

Records Comes in two flavors, Security and Medical, both accessible from terminals with red or white screens, respectively. Can be set during character setup, and both contain other useful information such as DNA, fingerprint information, and Security Records that can be used to have Security Officers Beepsky arrest people on sight.

Redshirt Security Officers, named for their signature all-red uniforms and tendency to die at the hands of some of the strangest things.

Redtext An alternate way of describing a loss as an antagonist. Derived from the red text used for 'fail' on the scoreboard.

Research/Science The Research department. Denoted by its purple coloration.

Report/CorpComm Report/Status Report A document printed out from communications consoles near the start of the round. Gives you a general idea of how many antagonists you can expect to have.

All antagonists have an equal chance to be selected until the threat level has been expended, so just because it's Black Orbit doesn't mean you're any more likely to have a nuke ops team than to have half a dozen challengers. Although if it really is Black Orbit you'll just have both of them blowing everything up.

Peaceful Waypoint Roundstart threat is <20 and there are no roundstart antagonists. Core Territory Roundstart threat is <20, ruling out wizard (30), ops (30), and cult (30). Anomalous Exogeology Roundstart threat is 20 to 39, ruling out malf (40), revs (40), blob (45), and civil war of casters (45). Contested System Roundstart threat is 40 to 65. Uncharted Space Roundstart threat is 66 to 79. Black Orbit Roundstart threat is 80 to 98. Ha, you're in danger. Impending Doom Roundstart threat is 99 to 100. The name is not a joke, but statistically this will (probably) never happen to you without admin intervention. Rev Could refer either to the Revolution itself, or a member of the Revolution in said antagonist.

Revive Bringing someone back to life after they have died through either Genetics, Hydroponics, Robotics, Xenobiology, or admin powers.

RnD Research and Development. Scientists will produce fun toys for people to kill each other with here, though miners and the scientists themselves usually get first pick.

Robust/Robusting The game's ROBUST COMBAT SYSTEM. To robust someone is to fight someone or at least win in a fight. To be robust means you often win fights. Fighting without reason is considered griefing.

Roll To be assigned a job or role by the game at the start of a round: as in “I rolled engineer”. Comes from the quasi-random nature of the process and the copious use of dice rolling in tabletop role-playing games.

Roleplaying Roleplaying is the act of pretending to be your character, and is the opposite of Metagaming. This entails acting as if the events on the station are real.

See also: A Crash Course In Roleplaying

RPD Rapid Piping Device. A device that allows you to quickly create new atmospherics and disposal pipes. Mostly used by Atmospheric Technicians.

Runes Usually refers to blood runes drawn by Cultists, but can also refer to crayon runes.

Shart/Sharting A portmanteau of both Shard and Shart (which in itself is a portmanteau of shit and fart, the events that happen with explosive diarrhea). Usually used derogatorily when someone willfully delaminates a Supermatter Shard to cause massive area destruction.

Shitcurity A tragically common pejorative slur used to describe Security Officers, Detectives, and other Security personnel who are overly harsh, brutal, grossly incompetent, or otherwise abusive. Often used by people who get arrested or brigged. What specific behaviors qualify as shitcurity varies from person to person, usually involving excessive punishments for minor crimes and attacking crewmembers for inconveniencing them.

Shitter Derogatory term for any player who joins simply to grief, usually with low effort.

Silicon Refers to any silicon lifeform, mostly AIs and Cyborgs and in some cases MoMMIs.

Silent Shuffle To be negatively affected in an unfair manner by someone or something in authority or power over you (the shuffle) and without prior notice (the silent).

Can be used as a verb, “silent shuffling” e.g. “The traitor cut telecomms and is running around silent shuffling everyone with an ebow and esword”

Shuttle Most of the time refers to the Emergency Escape Shuttle which shows up at the end of the round near the Escape Arm. Can also refer to the Arrival Shuttle (where you start if you join late), the syndicate or wizard shuttle (which you'll rarely see, if ever), the Supply Shuttle (which brings items to the Cargo Bay), or the mining shuttle (which moves people to and from the mining station).

Signal A beep sent from a Remote Signaling Device. “Default Signal” is used to refer to the default setting of the devices, which is Frequency 147.9, Code 30.

Signs Generally the wet Floor Signs. Janitors should put these down where they've mopped. They can also mean the posters plastered on the wall that you can examine to reveal information.

Singulo/Scrungulo The Singularity. If it gets loose people often scream “SINGULOOSE” or just “IT'S LOOSE”.

SM/SME/Shard The Supermatter (Engine). Can refer to both the supermatter shard and the supermatter crystal.

Spacing The act of forcing or throwing someone out an airlock into space, usually for malicious purposes.

Arrivals Announcement Computer [Common] (Automated Announcement) says, “Sliplocker Weldspace, Assistant, has arrived on the station.”

Spare The Captain's spare ID that spawns in his office. Spare-rushing means breaking into the Captain's Quarters and stealing it near roundstart.

Speedrunning Any actions, antagonist or otherwise, done to force a shuttle call as soon as possible in a round.

SS13 Space Station 13. Generally used to refer to the game rather than the actual station.

Ssethtide The new wave of players brought in in 2019 from a SsethTzeentach review of the game where /vg/station was featured.

Starboard Nautical term. It means the side of a ship on the right when one is facing forward, or in this case, east.

Syndicate/Syndie The Syndicate are an organization that desire the downfall of NanoTrasen. Syndicate operatives appear in Traitor and Nuke rounds. Syndicate agents are usually very highly trained and usually have at least basic training in all aspects of station work.

Tabling The act of grabbing and then placing someone onto a table to instantly knock them down on it, usually followed by blunt objects on harm intent or being stripped of clothing.

Tele While usually referring to the hand teleporter, it could also be referring to the full-fledged teleporter in the teleporter room.

TEG Short for the Thermoelectric Generator, the main source of power for some stations. It uses the temperature difference between two loops of gas to create a lot of electricity with little risk.

Tcomms/Telecomms Telecommunications, the system that allows headsets to work. Does not affect Intercoms or Station Bounced Radios. Also used to refer to the room holding servers that enable it.

Telesci Telescience, a room in which scientists can teleport objects, crewmen or dangerous explosives to and from places. Has a cooldown, needs to be calibrated occasionally, and limited to where it can teleport making it less fantastic but still a useful tool for retrieving dead corpses from space.

Thermals Optical Thermal Scanners. Let you see people through walls, though not the floor. They used to be a Detective item but people felt like it was a bit too powerful and it got moved to Traitors.

Traitor The traitor, sometimes referred to as the Syndicate or Syndie, is a role given to one of the human players in Traitor rounds.

May also be used to refer to any other Syndicates (see Nuclear and similar) or Revolutionaries (see Game Revolution)

See also: Traitoring, Traitor

Valid/Valids/Validhunting A valid action, one that does not violate the rules. Used as an adjective, “they were valid” or “valid kill”, meaning somebody who can or could be killed legally. When someone is valid (the valids) it means they're valid to kill because they've done something that makes them such, such as space lubing the hallways. When somebody is validhunting (verb) they're going out of their way to find and kill people who are valid, often antagonists, generally undesirable behavior unless you're security, in which your job is hunting for valids.

Wormhole A black swirly portal. Anything coming into contact with a wormhole will be teleported to a random area on or off the station. They can be fairly dangerous or cause temporary blockades. They can connect atmospherics between rooms. Not to be confused with portals made from the Handheld Teleporter, which are blue and orange.

Welderbomb The action of using a welder on a fuel tank while open, creating an explosion and a hull breach.

You Think… A subtle, in-character message from an admin. Generally, you should follow or do the advice or commands it gives.

Not to be confused with 'A voice in your head…', which is from the Genetics remote talking superpower.

Wiz/Wizard/Wiznerd Usually refers to the Wizard game mode, or a Wizard player who has access to a number of spells.

Xenos/Benos Xenomorphs, parasiting aliens that will implant their young on living organisms.

Z-Level Another “area” of the game. Part of BYOND's functionality. For example, the station, the Telecomms satellite, the mining station, CentComm and the derelict station are all on different Z-levels. Going off the edge of one Z-Level will take you to another. Right now most of these transitions are random. Try to avoid being spaced.

ZAS A BayStation relic dating back from 2012, Zoned Atmos System, or as /vg/ calls it, Zany Atmos Shenanigans, this is what goes into play whenever an area is exposed to space and everyone there gets sucked over and smacked into flying furniture, breaking their bones and getting stunned for an overly long period of time in the process.

Think of it like Goon and TG's “Space Wind”, but instead of being simulated for each individual tile it's just simulating the entire room as one big tile, generally making it more devastating and less laggy.

Zine Hyperzine. People who are constantly on Hyperzine are sometimes referred to as zine junkies.

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