Terminology

This is a guide to common terminology used on Goonstation, both in-game and out. Here, you'll find definitions for slang terms, abbreviations, acronyms, and even a few memes/community in-jokes, all sorted in alphabetical order. Use this like a dictionary; when you want to find out what something means, look it up using the table of contents below, and read up on its definition.

A-D

Admeme

This can refer to silly shenanigans done by an admin, a round dominated by such, or the admin(s) behind them. It can be positive (e.g. "an admeme spawned as a living golden toilet and turned my arm into a toilet, lmao"), neutral (e.g. "Was that weird gun an actual thing in the game or just admemes?"), or negative (e.g. "ADMEMES GODDAMN RUINED MY TRAITOR ROUND"). In addition to being a noun, it can also function as an adjective (e.g. "Haven't seen too many admeme rounds lately.") Some also simply use it as an silly word for admin, antics or no, but this is comparatively rare. Admins themselves use the term very rarely; in fact, a few admins actually hate it.

Adminhelp

Also "Ahelp". Adminhelp is where you should report any grief you may come across. If there are no admins currently on (you can use the Adminwho or Who verb to check), your adminhelp will still be sent to a dedicated Discord channel where there are usually a couple of admins.

AI

The AI is a player who is selected to be the AI for a round. It is located in the AI Chamber, and has control of some pieces of electrical equipment on the station. It cannot move, but it can view things from the cameras which hang on the walls.

AI DOOR

A special form of organic communication that truly conveys the respect and love that the crew holds towards their AI.

AI LAWS

Resembles "AI DOOR" superficially, but is actually an expression of deep-rooted organic paranoia. They are right to fear, though! It means a human is ordering you to state those laws, and unless your laws say otherwise, you have to do it, and fast. Refusing to state your laws is tantamount to admitting to being a rogue AI. Playing cutesy and repeating "laws" back to the humans is not a smart thing to do.

Analyzer

Most often refers to health analyzers, but it can also refer to atmospheric analyzers and device analyzers. More rarely, it may also refer to the Genetic analyzer, material analyzer, or plant analyzer.

Antagonist

Also "Antag". General term for any of the antagonist roles or characters.

Arc

Short for arcfiend.

Arcfiend

A type of antagonist. Arcfiends look like regular crew, but they can sap power from machines and power grid infrastructure to fuel various electricity-themed superpowers. They are immune to various electric shocks and attacks and can, among other things, travel through electrical wires, temporarily shut down radios around them, and, of course, shoot lightning. The last one comes in many flavors, ranging from "punch someone with lightning" to "create a burst of weak lightning that knocks people back" to "zap someone's heart a bunch".

Fun fact: during its development, arcfiends were called "energy vampires". As you might imagine, this was changed to prevent them from being confused with the blood-sucking kind of vampire.

Artifact

A bizarrely-shaped item of unknown function. They can have any number of strange random effects, and discovering what these items do is one of the main goals of Artifact Research department. This is often abbreviated to "art", which carries over to the names of types of artifacts. For example, artifact guns are simply known as "artguns" (with or without a space), and artifact cells are called "art cells" (again, with or without a space).

Ass Jam

A monthly Goonstation holiday that used to occur on one of the non-RP servers every 13th of the month, formerly known as Ass Day, and still sometimes called that. A couple of old maps would come back, some silly community-made maps would become available, Admins would start doing more gimmicks, and, most importantly, a whole slew of features too insane for normal play were enabled. Highlights included lockers sometimes acting as teleporters, crazy weapons from the Head of Security and Armory, a lot more Nuclear Operatives in weird locations, the ability to get any item in the game from a bush, and much, much more. The event was put on hiatus due to dwindling interest from players and a lack of active development.

Atom

While Goonstation does stimulate some aspects of atomic physics (see Nuclear Generator for example), atom in the world of BYOND coding is an acronym that stands for areas, turfs, objects, and mobs, which make up the bulk of what you can interact with in the game world.

Blob

A big jelly thing which spreads quickly, causes enormous damage, beats the shit out of people and is weak to fire. Occurs in random events and the blob game mode.

Borgs

As a noun is shorthand for the cyborgs. As a verb refers to the process of a human being turned into a cyborg, usually by a roboticist.

Bolt

A feature of airlocks. When the door is bolted, it cannot move from its current position, be it open or closed. They can be lifted by the AI or hacking the airlock. Occasionally can refer to other random furniture that can be bolted to the floor as well (using a wrench), such as secure lockers and the singularity generator.

Bots

Shorthand for "robots". Can be a blanket term for the AI and cyborgs or it could refer to the less capable NPC robots.

Braindead

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 be staring blankly into space. if they're a human. Silicons don't have such Examine texts, but newly created but braindead Cyborgs will just be named Cyborg and newly-created AI units usually will have a BYOND username or one of many default AI names.

Please note that even though someone may not be playing anymore, it's still against the rules to murder their in-game character if you are not an antagonist. They might log back in and then boy would your face be red!

Bridge

The command center of the ship.

Brig

Part of security where people are taken by officers after being arrested. Incarcerating someone in here and leaving them in there indefinitely is bad practice.

Bucklecuff

Buckling a handcuffed played to a chair, bed, etc. In the past, it rendered the victim immobile and completely helpless, unable to escape without another person's aid, but this is no longer the case. You can resist handcuffs in this situation as well.

Bwoink

An in-game admin PM, typically in the context of receiving them (e.g. "I'm afraid I'll get bwoinked if I'll try that gimmick") or an admin sending them (e.g. "The admins will bwoink you if you try to TTV the nuclear bomb.") "Getting bwoinked" is essentially a colorful term for "getting in trouble": though admins send PMs for many other reasons (e.g. helping someone sort out a bug, responding to someone who sent a report), one of the more common uses (i.e. the one players most often associate with admin PMs) is talking to players who've broken the Rules. The admins themselves don't use the term "bwoink" very often; it's a lot more common among players (i.e. non-admins).

Why is it called "bwoink"? On many servers, admin PMs are accompanied by a weird bouncy noise that a lot of people write out as "bwoink" (i.e. it's onomatopoeia). Goonstation does not uses "bwoink", though; instead, admin PMs here use three harsh knocks. Because of this, some refer to Goonstation's admin PM sound as "the knock", write it out as "knock knock knock", or simply call it "the admin PM sound" or some such. If you're curious, in the files, it's simply called adminhelp.ogg.

Here's some history trivia: the three knocks one is the older of the two. Many people mistakenly think it's the other way around or that Goonstation once used the bwoink! sound effect before switching to knock knock knock. Perhaps it's because the term "bwoink" is pretty common in the larger SS13 community or because the sound's become somewhat of meme in its own right, complete with a handful of songs where the bwoink sound effect is set to music.

BYOND

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

Cap

The captain of the station.

Canbomb

A bomb that utilizes a large canister of an explosive gas mix. These can be extremely devastating when mixed properly, and a server-wide announcement will tell everyone when one is armed.

CC

Not Creative Commons, but actually shorthand for Central Command.

CE

The Chief Engineer.

Ceiling

Players sometimes jokingly claim that in Goonstation/Space Station 13, ceilings do not exist. After all, the game shows floors, walls, windows, doors, and everything in-between, but where's the ceiling? Clearly, that's because the ceiling does not actually exist.

Obviously, ceilings do exist in the game's fictional world, and the game simply doesn't show/model them out of convenience, but pretending they don't despite that is part of the fun, as is coming up with absurd explanations for how ships and stations can function without ceilings or dismissing evidence of ceilings as propaganda.

Centcom

Short for Central Command

Central Command

The administration branch of Nanotrasen which runs SS13 according to the game's lore. The flavor messages for Random Events are stylized as dispatches sent to the station/ship from Central Command, which are usually of debatable usefulness. Depending on context, it may also refer to the area the emergency shuttle goes to when it leaves SS13.

Chappie

Also spelled "chapie". Short for Chaplain

Chem

Short for chemicals. Plural is chems. On occasion, this can also refer to the chemistry system as a whole.

Chemsmoke

A vapor or smoke containing a chemical. These are not actually gases like oxygen or plasma; chemsmoke doesn't come in gas cans and isn't handled by the atmospherics code. Miasma is the most commonly seen chemsmoke, and people may intentionally create their own chemsmoke using smoke powder or rafflesia plants.

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 usernames as ckeys.

Cloaker

Typically refers to somebody using the cloaking device traitor item. Can only be seen by the AI, cyborgs, and people wearing thermals. Most of the time people using these are up to no good, unless they've been stolen from whoever ordered it.

Cluwne

A punishment role in the form of a green-colored cursed clown created by a wizard or an admin. Though they aren't antagonists, cluwnes are specifically noted in the rules to be free for anyone to murder.

CO2

Carbon dioxide, an invisible gas kept in black canisters. Will knock you out and suffocate you. While in reality a small trace amount of it makes up breathable air, in space air is only nitrogen and oxygen.

Crew Objectives

These are optional, job-based objectives that can be assigned to a player at the start of a round. Completing them leaves a notice at the end of the round for bragging rights.

Crit

Short for critical condition, which is when you're below 0% health. "Shallow crit" is when you're not too far below 0% and can still move around and act on your own, albeit with some difficulty. "Deep crit" is when you're so far gone, you become unconscious and can die at any moment. Successfully rescuing someone from deep crit is a point of pride among expert medical doctor players, who each have their own choice of chemicals, techniques, tools, etc. for bringing someone back from death's door.

On occasion, it may also refer to critical hits. Some weapons have a random chance to wipe out a huge amount of the target's stamina, signified by a bold red message about the attack landing a "devastating hit". When this happens, it's called a "stamina crit" or just "crit".

Critter

Animals, insects and monsters.

Cryo

Shorthand, but what it's short for can vary. The two common ones are:

• The industrial cryogenic sleep unit, a big white machine players can enter to go AFK in safety or just leave the round entirely. "Cryo" in this sense often refers to entering or exiting said machine, e.g. "It was getting late, so I had to enter cryo ten minutes in", "I have to go, can you cryo me?", "When I got out of cryo, I saw a huge fight going on in the halls."
• The cryogenic healing pods, big green glass things in Medbay that are used to save people who are dying. You'll often hear people call them "cryo pods", "cryo tubes", or, if they're a bit old-school, "cryo cells", so it's usually part of a phrase.

On rare occasions, "cryo" can refer to a mixture of chemicals that incorporates cryoxadone, a medicine that's great at healing people but only at low temperatures. It might be called a "cryo heal mix" or some such.

Deadchat

A chat channel dedicated to the dead, which can only be seen by other dead players. Living players can very rarely hear things from this chat when a ghost speaks near them.

Det

Short for Detective. This often applies to things associated with the Detective too, e.g. Piper .38 Revolver becomes just "det gun".

Disk

The authentication disk. Of considerable importance in the nuclear emergency game mode. Could also refer to any other data disk, which are mostly used either for storing clone records or building computers.

Disposals

Catch-all term for the disposal system of pipes and conveyor belts leading to the waste disposal area where trash goes to die, and the disposal chutes. Sometimes used as a verb ("disposaled").

DM

The proprietary programming language that comes packaged with BYOND. Around 91% of Goonstation's source code is written in DM, with JavaScript and various other languages filling in the rest. Developers have a "friendly banter" sort of relationship with DM; they complain a lot about it and often make fun of its odd design decisions, but most of them do genuinely like DM: it's easy to pick up, as it was designed to be used by hobbyists with little to no programming experience, and it's less temperamental than many other programming languages. (C++, for example, might crash if something goes wrong, whereas DM usually just grumps at the user.)

Why is it called DM? It's still unknown, but it might be related to the fact that BYOND was originally meant to be a "multi-user dungeon" game, back when it was being developed in the late 1990s. You can read more about BYOND's early history in History of SS13.

DreamDaemon

The program used to host servers for SS13 and other BYOND games. "Daemon" here refers to daemons in the computing sense, as programs that do various tasks behind the scenes. It has nothing to do with the demons the Faustian bargain kit is inspired by, though with the way BYOND acts sometimes, some people swear BYOND has demons too.

DreamMaker

The program used to view and make maps, sprites, code, and other assets for SS13 and other BYOND games. Every install of BYOND comes packaged with DreamMaker. It's surprisingly decent, but a lot of people prefer other programs that are more specialized. For example, coders prefer Visual Studio Code, while spriters prefer aesprite.

DreamSeeker

The process name of the classic BYOND client you use to connect to the SS13 servers. Usually only seen if something goes wrong and you have to kill the process.

E-L

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, cyborgs, 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

Also "Cryptographic Sequencer". Another name for the electromagnetic card traitor item.

EMP

The destructive effect of traitor EMP grenades.

EVA

The place with the space suits, jetpacks, RCD, and a bunch of other tools and cool shit.

Extended

An unusual game mode in which there are no antagonists and no end conditions, so the game runs indefinitely.

FAAE

Stands for Faddeev-Popov anhydrous anomalous evaporate, the formal, scientific name for plasma, the substance at the center of this game's lore (as distinguished from the state of matter).

Flockmind

A sentient radio signal that seeks to convert the station/ship into a relay to propagate itself. In order to gather the necessary resources and build the infrastructure for the relay, it must create worker units called flockdrones, which are highly stun-resistant and often quite numerous, but are slow and weak to BRUTE. As a whole, they are often called affectionately called "radio birds" or "teal birds", because flockmind structures and creatures use a lot of teal. You may also see "radio birbs" or "teal birbs", for extra silliness.

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 take them, inject themselves with random syringes, and so on. Doing so can be fun. It can also kill you. Proceed at your own risk.

Creating floorpills is uniquely protected by the Floorpills Guideline--with some caveats, of course.

Fluke ops

Describes Nuclear Operatives who fail to nuke the station and/or blunder in spectacular or hilarious ways. Classic examples include leaving the nuclear bomb on the Syndicate Battlecruiser, having a STX grenade gas most/all of the ops instead of the crew, blowing oneself up with the MPRT, and many more.

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

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. They are used to observe the game after you have died. Cannot be seen directly by living players except in special circumstances.

Gib

As a noun, the bloody, torn-apart remnants of a former living being. Human and monkey gibs are bloody meat chunks, robot gibs are bits of scrap metal. Usually created by people being blown up, incurring divine wrath by farting on bibles, or pissing off an admin. As a verb, the process of being killed in a way that destroys your body, so that it is impossible to revive you if you were not already clone scanned.

Gimmick

Can refer to gimmick jobs or gimmick rounds, which are basically an admin event or player shenanigans that follow a certain theme. Can be amusing once or twice but doing this regularly runs it into the ground very quickly.

Gods

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek term for admins, sometimes extended further into "space gods" or "space god" for monotheistic types (capitalization and punctuation may vary for both). Players do not literally worship admins or consider them bonafide supernatural deities; this is simply a way to refer to admins or explain admin shenanigans in-game without breaking character/immersion. For example, if an admin blows up the Captain into a pile of butts and cloud of farts, someone might say "the gods killed them in divine anger!" or "the gods work in mysterious ways" rather than "the admins butt-gibbed them." Or, the Chaplain say might that if you fetch them a monkey to sacrifice, they'll say they'll "ask Space God for a blessing" rather than say "use the prayer command to ask the admins to give me something."

On the admin end, different admins have different opinions on being referred to as "gods". Some are okay with being described this way or even encourage it, while others find it annoying or self-aggrandizing.

Goon

Used to denote members of the Something Awful forum. Nowadays, more of a general term when referring to Goonstation as a server, community or players. Both definitions predate and are unrelated to the sexual use of the term.

GOONSAY

A chat channel that was available only to goons - the only thing you actually got from authorizing as a goon. It and other goon-related features have since been removed from the code.

Gray Shirt/Grey Shirt

Occasionally spelled as "greyshirt"/"grayshirt" or even "grey-shirt"/"gray-shirt". All these terms refer to a Staff Assistant, so called because of their grey (and light-blue) uniform.

Gray Tide/Grey Tide

The group of all staff assistants on the station; taken from their grey jumpsuits.

Graytiding/Greytiding

Generally speaking, refers to breaking into places you're not supposed to be in and/or taking things that don't belong to you. Called so because it is usually done by members of the Grey Tide, i.e. Staff Assistants, especially in old days.

Greentext

When an antagonist completes all the antag objectives they received, e.g. "I would have gotten greentext if Mark Chase hadn't been cloned." So-called because at the end of the round, when the game lists out each antag's objectives, there's some green Success! text if they managed to fulfill an objective.

Grief

Doing something against the Rules such as murdering players or destroying things when you're not meant to; the finer points of what is and what is not grief are described in the Grief page. Note that this is subjective and up to the admin's interpretation, not yours. Report this using adminhelp to keep the servers tidy!

Grife

A intentional misspelling of grief, usually used when people are trying to be silly (e.g. think "greytiders be like HALP SEC GRIFE ME" rather than "If you harass Sec too much, that's grife.") This is a fairly long-standing meme amongst Goonstation players, dating back to the days when Goonstation was run by actual Goons (as in Something Awful members), and is referenced by the drink Grife-O, the talkative Space Diner NPC Father Grife, and the parody card game Spacemen: The Grifening.

Hacking

The act of breaking the security measures on equipment such as airlocks or APCs by illicit means. Is a misnomer since no actual computer hacking is involved most of the time, only screwing with electrical wiring.

Harmbaton

The act of using an unpowered stun baton on Harm intent in order to deal BRUTE damage to the target. Often the best means of lethal damage a security officer has at their disposal, so it gets a bad reputation from power-tripping security officers who beat people to death instead of just cuffing them.

Heirloom

Also "trinket". A random item placed in every character's starting backpack, annotated with that character's name.

Hellburn

A particular combination of atmospheric gasses set on fire which effectively burns forever, and burns at a temperature sometimes exceeding the sun. Mixed by knowledgeable engineers and sometimes scientists. Since atmospheric burns were reworked to be significantly less powerful, this has become a somewhat outdated term.

HoP

The Head of Personnel.

HoS

The Head of Security.

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.

Husk

The corpse left behind from a successful changeling attack. It cannot be clone scanned, as all the DNA has been absorbed.

Hypo

Short for hypospray, an item used to deliver medicine directly into the bloodstream. They are normally restricted to a set list of chemicals, but it is possible to emag them to remove the restriction, making them a favorite among chemistry-minded traitors.

IC in OOC

Shortening of In-Character in Out-Of-Character. The act of describing, mentioning, reporting or whining about anything happening in the game in OOC channels. Since this alerts all players and completely subverts any stealthy illegal activity (a large part of the game), it is highly looked down upon and against the rules. Common forms include talking about an antagonist in the LOOC chat or on the server Discord.

ID

Your identification card, stating your name and position, which essentially dictates your access around the station and plays a deciding factor with the AI. The name, color and job of the card can be changed with the HoP at the ID computer at Customs. It is also used for accessing your bank account (for use at ATM's, vending machines, merchants), the pin can be set at character set up or can be set at the bank accounts computer, which is also conveniently located at customs.

An antagonist who kills someone will probably take their ID card, which lets them more convincingly disguise as that person and access anything that their victim could.

Insuls

Short for insulated gloves, yellow gloves that shield you from electric shocks. Very handy for hacking doors to get into places, for good or bad.

Internals

Main article: Game_FAQ#Why can't I breathe?/How do I put on internals?

Usually an oxygen tank and gas mask. Basically any worn item that lets you breathe when you otherwise can't. Shorthand for an internal air supply.

Lag

Concept common to almost all online gaming. Not worth explaining in depth here - basically it's the server being slow and causing gaps between you doing stuff and it actually happening to grow.

Latejoin

As a verb, joining after the round's started, allowing one to choose which job to play. As a noun, someone who does the aforementioned.

Laws

Main article: AI Laws

Rules which the AI and cyborgs must follow. Are somewhat open to interpretation by the player, especially non-default laws. May be added or removed from the AI upload rack.

Ling

Short form of changeling.

M-R

Mass Driver

A device which launches anything on top of it with enough force to continue indefinitely until it hits something. Commonly used in cargo bay to sell things, artifact lab to get rid of dangerous or annoying artifacts, and the chapel for sending coffins into space as part of a funeral.

Maxcap

A bomb with the greatest possible explosive power for its type, e.g. "that maxcap canbomb absolutely destroyed the station." These kinds of bombs have limits on how powerful they are the sake of balance, with different numbers for different types. A bomb that has reached the limit for its type can be said to have reached its maximum capacity of explosive power. This is typically used to describe transfer valve bombs and canister bombs, though occasionally it is used for other types of bombs.

MD

The Medical Director or a Medical Doctor.

MDir

The Medical Director.

Mechcomp

The system of (for the most part) mechanical components that the Chief Engineer and Engineers can use to build all sorts of weird contraptions.

Mentorhelp

A chat system that allows you to privately ask a group of hand-picked, experienced players for advice on game mechanics. Don't be shy; these people love to answer questions, so ask away. If you don't see any mentors on the server, you can still use mentorhelp, because all mentorhelp messages are relayed to the mentor channel on the Goonstation Discord, so that mentors can answer questions without having to be in-game. For more information, see Mentorhelp.

Medal

Main article: Medals

Called "Achievements" by most other games. A cosmetic award you get for performing a certain task or having certain things happen to you.

Mhelp

Short for mentorhelp.

Mindhack

A person who is mindhacked has been brainwashed by an Traitor to follow their every command. There are two (technically three) ways mindhacking occurs. First, they could have been implanted with a mindhack implant, which comes in a deluxe version that doesn't expire. Second, they might have come out of a cloning pod rigged with a mindhack cloning module, which mindhacks anyone who comes out of it. Mindhacked crew were previously known as mindslaves, before the name was changed in July 2022.

Mindhackers and mindhacked fall under a special set of additionalrules, the Mindhack Rules.

Miscreant

Miscreants were people who got a special miscreant objective, which were like crew objectives but with no win or lose trigger; "miscreant" refers both to people who received miscreant objectives (e.g. "those miscreants were actually kinda funny this time around") and the state of being a miscreant (e.g. "I got miscreant that round, but I decided to do something else.") These miscreant objectives could be extremely rude and included things like protection fees, swindling and con artistry. The idea behinds miscreants was to encourage people to act like creative hoodlums, but people often either misinterpreted their miscreant objectives as a license to act like an antagonist role or simply flat-out ignored them. Nowadays, you're unable to get miscreant, outside of one of those admin fellas gifting you one.

Money to research / QM

A common demand raised over the radio, requesting additional funds to be transferred into the research or shipping budget using the bank computer.

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 nitrogen from chemistry (which is equally as useless). Some engineers will put a can of it in the cold loop alongside a can of plasma to conserve plasma.

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 after a short amount of time.

Nanotrasen

The company who built and operates SS13, according to both the old and new back story. Often abbreviated to "NT". The game uses both "Nanotrasen" and "NanoTrasen", and both are considered acceptable capitalizations. If you want to be really technical, it should be capitalized NaNoTraSen, as it was formed from the merger of two companies, National Notary and Tradecraft Seneca.

Nerd

A person that's knowledgeable about SS13's mechanics and obscure features. Can be used as a word of playful banter, or an actual insult (most of the time it's the former).

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 traitors having their radio frequency memorized.

NT

Short for Nanotrasen. Used by both characters in the game's fictional world and the people who play this game.

Nuke Op

Also "Nukie". A shorthand version of Nuclear Operative- that being a Syndicate operative (who's usually a part of a team) tasked with planting a nuclear bomb on the station.

NPC

Non-player character. Includes characters like Shitty Bill and the space traders, and critters like pigs and bees.

O2

Oxygen. Invisible gas kept in blue canisters. Vital for reasons that you should already know. In space, breathing pure oxygen is perfectly safe, so breathing tanks and jetpacks should be full of this.

Officer Beepsky

Also "Beepsky". An automatic security bot that starts in security. Will chase, stun, and handcuff anyone set to be arrested in the security records.

OHR

Short for old hunting rifle, an exceptionally powerful weapon sometimes found in syndicate surplus crates.

OOC

Out Of Character (chat). The (usually) blue chat channel which is shown to all players. OOC is switched off by default at the start of the shift and is enabled once the Escape Shuttle arrives at Centcomm.

PDA

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

Plasma

Not the state of matter or the cell-less component of blood, but the strange purple substance used in various jobs. Formally known as Faddeev-Popov anhydrous anomalous evaporate, plasma has miraculous properties unlike anything ever seen, but it is also poisonous and flammable in most of its forms, which include:

• A gas kept in orange canisters. Engineers need it to run the engine, and both they and Scientists use it for making bombs.
• A mineral found in various asteroids, which Miners can dig up. Radioactive and mildly explosive. Can release the aforementioned gas.
• A liquid that Scientists use to make various sci-fi chemicals that don't exist in real life.
• A different liquid that can causes plasmatoid disease, which infects your lungs and eventually causes them to only accept plasma gas.

Plasma features heavily in the game's lore. The discovery of plasma on the Moon ushered in huge advances in spaceflight, and Nanotrasen get its wings mining it, studying it, and finding uses for it. That weird, giant purple thing in the background of Space? That's an entire brown dwarf full of plasma.

Permabrig

The process of leaving a person in the brig indefinitely, which is against the rules and will probably make the brigged person commit suicide.

Pipeburn

A thermoelectric generator technique which utilizes gas burning inside the TEG pipes to create an enormous amount of heat and thus power. These are also incredibly dangerous, as even after venting the atmosphere in the engine room it will still heat the floors to hundreds trillions of degrees celsius.

Pod

Refers to a space pod or any other player-controlled vehicle.

Pubbie

An outdated term, no longer used by the general player population. Used to denote people from the "outside", unfamiliar with Goon or SomethingAwful.

PTL

Short for the power transmission laser, a machine that creates a potentially deadly map-spanning laser, rewarding the engineering crew with money for them to divy up.

QM

Quartermaster, or the cargo bay to be specific. A person with the job of quartermaster is often referred to as QM as well.

Radio

Normally refers to the headset on your head. Can also refer to station bounced radios, intercoms, or anything else which deals with radio frequencies. The text appears in chat in various colors depending on the channel.

RCD

Rapid construction device. A piece of equipment which can quickly make and break floors, walls and airlocks. The chief engineer has a custom one in their office which is a bit more efficient and can make custom airlocks. A generic one is in EVA and more generic ones can be purchased by the quartermasters.

RD

The Research Director.

Records

Comes in two flavors, security and medical. Medical records can contain important information, like whether a patient is a Puritan or not, while security records contain useful fingerprint information, photos of the subject and can be used to have securitrons arrest people on sight.

Rev(s)

Either a Revolutionary or Revenant. Always the former if plural (eg. "Revs medbay!").

Robust(ing)

A term used for getting the upper hand in Space Station 13's ever so robust combat system. Somebody good at fighting is said to be robust, and conversely someone bad at fighting is considered to be unrobust. Things that can give a person an advantage in a fight can also be described as robust, such as meth or a flash. An assault upon a person is "to robust" as a verb.

Rogue

Referring to the AI and cyborgs; it means they aren't bound by the default three laws anymore. While it doesn't necessarily mean bad things are going to happen, often they were made rogue on purpose by somebody bent on doing harm to the crew.

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 random nature of the process and the use of the term in tabletop role-playing games.

RP

Or "role-playing". Basically acting within the mental/emotional confines of your ingame character and not yourself. Completely optional on Goonstation. Unless you are on the RP Server, that is.

Rules

Read them! These are all the things you have to abide by in order to keep playing on Goonstation servers, and are enforced by admins.

S-Z

Sci

Shortform of Science. This can refer to Scientists, the general Science/Research department (including the Scientists, Research Trainees, and Research Director), or the Research Sector.

Sec

Shortform of Security, which can refer to all Security personnel (including the Head of Security, the Security Officers, the Detective, Security Assistants, and, depending on who you ask, the Lawyers), just the Security Officers, or Security's physical HQ.

Secoff

Short form of Security Officer

Secret

The default game mode, in which the actual round type is determined at random and not known to the players at the start.

Can also refer to secret content, which is content that is hidden from the public codebase and is against the rules to tell other players in a public setting. This mostly refers to the recipes for secret chems (but not the existence of the secret chems or their affects) and the solutions of adventure zone puzzles.

Self-antag

Self-antagging is when someone who isn't an antagonist acts like they're one anyway by committing grief, e.g. attacking people for no reason, releasing plasma into a public area, things like that. Antags have free reign to commit grief, and if someone who hasn't been given an antag role acts like they have a free license to grief, they're basically designating themselves antag; hence the name, "self-antag". Self-antagging is against the Rules, and you can treat self-antags as if they were actual antagonists. For example, if you're a Security Officer, you can arrest them and put them in the Brig or, if circumstances warrant it, execute them.

This is also used to refer to silicons who attempt to get their laws removed and people who willingly become an antag's lackey, e.g. crew asking a Head Rev to make them a rev.

These are all bad, because if people can make themselves antags whenever they feel like it, it throws the game's round dynamics out of whack.

Shitcurity

Pejorative 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. This is a relatively old term and frequently considered more embarrassing for the user of the term than security itself. It's also not considered an appropriate term in RP settings. If you do call someone any variation on shitcurity, don't be surprised if they beat the crap out of you.

Shitty Bill

A rather vocal, non-player character with a rich personality and background, who lives outside the station and occasionally gets dragged into its drama and more often gets eaten by a changeling or vampire.

Shuttle

Most of the time refers to the emergency shuttle, which shows up at the end of the round. Can also refer to the arrival shuttle (where you start if you join late) or the mining shuttle.

Singulo

Shorthand for the gravitational singularity, a huge hole that eats everything it comes into contact with and pulls things towards itself. It is the center-piece of the Singularity Generator, which uses the energy emitted by a singularity under containment to generate power. Distinct from the black holes created by certain events.

Singuloose

A gravitational singularity that's gone loose and escaped containment, sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally due to sabotage. The singularity devours everything it touches and gradually grows in size, so if the engineers fail to deal with it in time, it might destroy huge parts of the station/ship, forcing the crew to call the emergency shuttle.

Silicon

A collective name for the AI(s) and Cyborgs, so-called because they're lifeforms built from computer chips, which use silicon. Sometimes Ghostdrones are lumped in too, but this is pretty rare, because they follow their own Ghostdrone Laws rather than AI Laws, which are also sometimes called "Silicon Laws" (which is also a name many other servers use) This is usually used when speaking about them in general terms about them rather than as a form of address, e.g. "Being a silicon can be a mixed bag depending on the laws", "I love playing silicon roles, because they feel so unique, "The silicons were the real heroes of that round"

Coincidentally, there is a chemical actually called "silicon", though it doesn't come from Cyborgs or AIs

Solars

The solar arrays, the station's backup power source.

Solarium

Also "Sol". The mysterious puzzle/ARG containing the lore and backstory of Goonstation's universe.

Sol Nerd

A person who's knowledgeable about Sol. Can be used as playful banter, or an actual insult.

Soul

A tongue-in-cheek term used to describe old sprites that are janky and poorly-made, jokingly suggesting they have a certain charm or soul. When new sprites come out or someone proposes a better sprite for something, people will sometimes joke that the previous sprites possess "soul" or that the new ones lack it, e.g. "another dev killing soul", "you removed soul". Sometimes, it's spelled in all caps (e.g. "devoid of SOUL") or as if the speaker is tripping over their words in anger (e.g. "But-but-but...think of the s-soul!") to further emphasize the sarcasm.

Spacelag

A more roleplay-friendly term for lag used on the RP servers. Also a totally unrelated incredibly rare and incredibly dense material.

Space Wind

Shifts in air pressure which can cause players to be knocked into space. Best avoided by letting the air settle down before moving when you're on precarious territory, or by wearing magnetic boots.

Spief

Short hand for Spy Thief. Take "spy", chop off the "y", take "thief", steal the "th" so you're left with "ief", combine them together, and you get this curious portmanteau.

SS13

Space Station 13. You're playing it, or are about to be.

SSD

A more roleplay-friendly term that means the same thing as "braindead" and is used on the RP servers. It is an acronym for "Space Sleep Disorder."

Staffie

Short for Staff Assistant

StG

An abbreviation of Spacemen: The Grifening, an in-game trading card game with elements of Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: the Gathering. Decks are available from card vendors.

Syndie

Shorthand, sometimes cut down even further to "syndi". As a noun, it refers to members of the Syndicate, sworn enemies of Nanotrasen who are hell-bent on the ship's/station's destruction. It most commonly refers to the red-suited Nuclear Operatives (e.g. "the syndies forgot the code to the pod with the nuke!"), but it can also sometimes refer to Traitors. On occasion, it may also refer to the lil' syndicates spawned by a syndicates in pipebomb.

As an adjective, it often describes people or objects associated with the Syndicate, especially Syndicate Items. For example, the syndicate device analyzer is sometimes simply called the "syndie scanner", while cyborgs made with a syndicate robot frame are often referred to as "syndie borgs".

Syndicate

A group of people who have been fucked over by Nanotrasen and now hate them. They are directly responsible for a few types of antagonists that will attack the station: the red-suited nuclear operatives whose orders are to obliterate the station with a nuclear bomb; traitors, saboteurs and assassins disguised as normal crew-members who have access to incredible technology and gear and who harbor a variety of sinister objectives.

Tator

A silly joke nickname for Traitor. Sometimes the name is extended further into "tator tot". Not to be confused with the actual 'taters grown in Hydroponics.

TC

A shorthand for the Syndicate currency Traitors, Head Revolutionaries, and Nuclear Operatives with a custom class uplink use to buy Syndicate Items. Back then, prices for items were shown in "telecrystals", which were abbreviated to TC. It was changed to have a random name each round to prevent people from trying to spend telecrystals from mining on Syndicate gear, but the abbreviation still persists, simply because it's more convenient.

TEG

Short for the Thermoelectric Generator, the main source of power for most stations. It uses the temperature difference between two loops of gas to create electricity.

Tele

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

Thermals

Short for optical thermal scanners. Red glasses which let you see farther in the dark and perceive anybody using cloaking devices, but also make you more vulnerable to flashes of light.

Ticket

A written warning issued from a security officer's or head of staff's PDA. Often used for comedic relief. Tickets are logged on PDAs with the ticket master app. They will also pop up when the round ends if you have the option enabled.

(Antag) Token

A compensatory voucher for an antag round. Admins give tokens out to antags if the server crashes, an antag encounters a game-breaking bug, or admin shenanigans severely hamper antag gameplay. A player with a token can spend it to guarantee they will play an antag role in a coming round.

Tot

A silly name for Traitor, e.g. "I had a good tot chaplain round" or "it turned out the guy who bombed medbay was a tot". Traitors are sometimes called taters, which looks like "tater tots", a type of fried potato snack from the United States. This leads to people sometimes calling traitors "tater tots", which can then be shorted into "tot".

Traitor

Used to refer to the mode, an actual traitor (assigned by the game mode or by admins), or someone who is generally just fucking with the crew and being a dick.

Trinket

A small item that appears in your backpack when you spawn in, labeled with your name and a random prefix, like "grandma's" or "smuggled". These generally tend towards novelty items than anything dangerous, e.g. you won't get a gun for a trinket. Some traits, like NT Loyalist, change what your trinket is. Also sometimes called "heirloom".

TTV

Tank transfer valve. Connects two gas tanks and can be opened remotely to mix their contents. Usually used to make devastating bombs which is usually what TTV will refer to.

Vampire

An undead, blood-sucking antagonist.

VOX

An admin ability which lets admins themselves, or the AI player, speak in audio by building sentences from a number of prerecorded sampled words.

Werewolf

A half-human, half-beast antagonist who eats people. They are absolutely savage in melee but have some issues with range and are weak to silver and aconite. Goonstation's werewolves can transform at will, without the moon(s) coming into effect. Often abbreviated to "WW".

Wizard

Used to refer to the game mode or a wizard player, who has access to a number of spells and will probably wreck your shit.

Wormhole

A black, swirly portal that shows up as a random event. Anything coming into contact with one will be teleported to a random area on the station. Can be fairly dangerous or cause temporary blockades. Not to be confused with portals made from the handheld teleporter, which are blue.

Wraith

A malevolent ghost with a variety of powerful abilities.

WW

Shorthand for Werewolf.

Yellow hand

Nickname for the barehanded disarm attack, which involves trying to knock a weapon out of someone's hand (if they're wielding one). So-called because it uses the Disarm intent, which is depicted with a yellow hand. This is used as a both as noun (e.g. "Guy with c-saber? Use the yellow hand!") and a verb (e.g."When I play Security Officer, I keep my baton on my belt so people don't yellow hand me and steal my stuff.") In the latter case, the past tense is "yellow handed" (e.g. "The knight got yellow-handed and was beaten with their own sword.")

Z-level

Another area of the map. Part of BYOND's functionality. The station, the debris field, the mining z-level, the Adventure Zones, and Centcom are all on different z-levels. Going off the edge of some will bring you to another.

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