Terminology

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 can also refer to atmospheric analyzers and device analyzers.

Antagonist

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

Artifact

Also "Art". Random bizarrely-shaped item, usually bought from alien traders or recovered from asteroids by miners, which can have any number of strange effects when touched. May need to be activated by science first.

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.

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.

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!

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."

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.

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 announcemnt will tell everyone when one is armed.

CE

The Chief Engineer.

Centcom

Short for "Central Command", the administration branch of Nanotrasen which runs SS13. Will periodically send messages to the station which are usually of debatable usefulness. Also refers to the area the emergency shuttle goes to when it leaves SS13.

Chemsmoke

A vapor or smoke containing a chemical. These are not actually gasses like oxygen or plasma are in the sense that they don't come in gas cans and aren'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.

Critter

Animals, insects and monsters.

Cryo

Either the big white machine players can enter to go AFK safely, or big green glass things in medbay. Putting dying people in here can save them.

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 - the chaplain hears talking ghosts more often as his special ability.

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").

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.

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 traitors and no end conditions, so the game runs indefinitely.

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 sarin 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.

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.

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.

Grey Tide

The group of all staff assistants on the station; taken from their grey jumpsuits. Also an occasionally-used admin ability which respawns every dead player as an assistant.

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.

Grief

Doing something against the rules such as murdering players or destroying things when you're not meant to. Note that this is subjective and up to the admin's interpretation, not yours. Report this using adminhelp to keep the servers tidy!

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.

Hard-mode Traitor

A sort of "generic" or "vanilla" antagonist with spawned with no special abilities or items, frequently manifesting a Traitor without a Syndicate uplink or random event antag critter. See Traitor#Hard-Mode Traitors for more.

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 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.

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.

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.

Spacelag

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

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.

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.

MD

The Medical Director or a Medical Doctor.

MDir

The Medical Director.

Mechcomp

The system of gadgets that mechanics have access to in order to build their weird contraptions.

Mentorhelp

Mentorhelp is basically like adminhelp, and pretty much a copy/paste of that code, except here you can ask a little group of experienced players for advice on pretty much everything.

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.

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

Formerly like a crew objective, but there was no win or lose trigger. They were also extremely rude and included protection fees, swindling and con artistry. Their idea was to be a creative hoodlum, but ended up being confused as an antagonist objective or simply just ignored. Nowadays, you're unable to get them outside the ability for one of those admin fellas to gift 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.

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.

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.

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

Purple gas kept in orange canisters. Poisonous and flammable. Nothing like actual plasma. Very important for running the engine and for making bombs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Silicon

The AI and/or Cyborgs.

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.

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.

SS13

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

StG

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

Syndie

A member of the Syndicate, sworn enemies of Nanotrasen and hell-bent on the station's destruction. Most commonly refers to the red-suited nuclear operatives but can also frequently be used about traitors.

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.

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

An item occasionally issued by admins as a prize or mulligan. A player with a token can spend it to guarantee they will play an antag role in a coming round.

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.

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.

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.

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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