The FrogComposband Glossary

While playing FrogComposband, discussing it with other players, or even 
just reading the help files, you are likely to run into many esoteric 
game concepts, mysterious abbreviations, or words that have specific 
meanings within the game. It is by no means necessary for a new player 
to read this file before starting play - most players can (and do) just 
figure things out as they go along, the glossary includes many advanced 
topics in addition to the basics, and all the important concepts are 
also covered elsewhere in the help. But you can refer to this list as a 
quick cheat-sheet if you are unsure about a particular word or game 
concept, or just read the whole thing for your amusement :)

See [a] for item attribute abbreviations.

Common Words, Abbreviations and Game Concepts

AC: Armor Class; a measure of how hard you are to hit, or of how hard a 
monster is to hit; also directly reduces the damage you take from some 
types of melee attacks.

ambush: A random situation that forces you to leave the global map. 
Ambushes often surround you with a large number of hostile monsters.

Arena: 1) A level 50 to 80 dungeon with the Metal Babble as its bottom 
guardian, characterized by its distinctive winding corridors and bubble 
rooms each containing a single high-level monster. 2) A special 
building, found in Thalos and Lite-Town, where you can fight one 
monster at a time until you lose. 3) Monster arena; a building where 
you can bet on cloned monsters fighting each other. 4) Arena level; a 
description of a dungeon level where rooms are connected by open space.

artifact: A special item that can only be found once in a game. 
Includes both standard artifacts, which remain the same or almost the 
same from game to game, and random artifacts, which are unpredictable.

aura: 1) An elemental sheath around a monster, dealing a small amount 
of elemental damage when the monster is hit in melee; also, similar 
elemental sheaths around the player, dealing damage to monsters. 2) A 
description of the White Aura and Black Aura mutations, which provide 
good luck and bad luck respectively.

auto-destroyer: A system for automatically destroying items; either the 
Mogaminator or the easy auto-destroyer.

average object: An object without any magical enchantments or curses.

awful: The object feeling for a cursed ego item.

ball: An effect centered on a particular square, affecting all squares 
and monsters within a given radius of that square unless blocked by 
walls. Radius-0 ball: a ball that only affects one square but differs 
from a bolt in that it is not reflectable and can hit the target even 
if there are monsters between the target and the ball's source.

base element: One of the four most common elements: acid, cold, fire or 
electricity; occasionally used in an extended sense to include poison.

beam: An effect that affects all squares and monsters in its path, does 
not stop at the first monster it hits, and cannot be reflected. Compare 
bolt, ball.

berserk strength: Also berserk rage, super-heroism; a mixed-blessing 
effect. Gives +30 max-HP, a melee to-hit bonus (usually +24 to-hit), 
level-dependent melee damage bonuses (up to +13 to-dam at CL 50), and 
complete immunity to fear; but also reduces all non-melee skills, gives 
a small AC penalty, prevents the player from casting book spells, and 
blocks most other spell-like abilities. Permanent for Berserkers and 
bear-formed Beornings, otherwise temporary. Most magical healing or 
curing effects remove Berserk Strength. Compare heroism.

blessed: 1) An item attribute; makes the item somewhat resistant to 
being cursed, and allows priests to use it with no penalties if it is a 
weapon. 2) Blessing: a spell and scroll effect, temporarily increases 
the player's AC and to-hit.

blink: Short-range teleport; Phase Door.

body type: Also body template; a race-dependent list of your equipment 
slots and the types of item they accept. The most common body type is 
humanoid, shared by nearly all normal player races, but Monster Mode 
races often have distinct body types.

bolt: An effect that only hits the first monster in its path, and can 
be reflected by monsters (or players) with Reflection. Compare beam, 
ball.

bottom guardian: Also: final guardian, dungeon guardian, dungeon 
keeper, dungeon boss. A strong unique monster found at the bottom of a 
particular dungeon. All fixed dungeons except the Anti-magic cave and 
Anti-melee cave have a bottom guardian. Killing bottom guardians gives 
a free stat-up, often also a fixed item. Compare entrance guardian.

brand: An elemental multiplier to weapon damage dice, applied only when 
the monster attacked does not resist that element. Essentially the same 
as a slay, just based on an element rather than monster type. Compare 
slay.

building: 1) A place in a town where quests or services are offered; a 
special building. 2) Any town structure, including shops, museums, 
quest structures and the player's home.

burden: The total weight of all equipment, projectiles and inventory 
items carried. Overburdening: the condition of carrying more items than 
your strength comfortably allows, slowing you down and causing you to 
take damage from drowning if you enter deep water without Levitation.

chaos patron: A Chaos-Lord taking a particular interest in your 
character, giving you gifts or punishing you as you level up. Each 
patron hands out slightly different gifts and punishments.

character dump: An HTML file containing a character sheet.

character level: An indicator of how advanced your character is. 
Character level depends on experience, and affects your skills, spell 
and racial power availability, spell and racial power fail rates, mana 
and hit-point pools, and the power of many spell effects and saving 
rolls; it also triggers stat-ups, demigod talents and player-monster 
evolution, and may give additional bonuses or have additional effects 
depending on your personality, class and race.

character sheet: Also character description; an extended account of 
everything important about your character, accessible on your current 
character through the 'C' command. Can be dumped with the '|' command.

CL: Character level.

class: The type of character played; essentially, the character's 
profession, selected at character creation and unchangeable for the 
duration of the game. The selection of class is the most important one 
made during the birth process.

coffee-break mode: A birth option that accelerates the game and turns 
the wilderness off. Automatically turned on if Beginner Mode is 
selected.

confusion: 1) A status effect, affects both players and monsters. See 
[b]. 2) An element, causes the status effect if not resisted.

curse: 1) Item curse; a negative, usually removable object attribute 
that prevents you from unequipping that object while it remains cursed. 
2) A monster or player-monster spell attack, particularly one that 
offers a saving throw, deals non-elemental damage and may cause item 
curses; one of Wounding Curse, Evil Curse, Mighty Curse, Death Curse or 
Hand of Doom. 3) One of a number of special effects with similarity to 
item curses, such as the Amberite blood curse.

dazed: Stunned; afflicted with the Stun status effect.

demigod powers: Also demigod talents; the special permanent mutations 
available to Demigods, Humans and some Human-like races. See [c].

depth: A theoretical indicator of how far removed a dungeon level is 
from the surface, and a practical indicator of how dangerous monsters 
who generate on that level can be expected to be; expressed in either 
levels or feet. One level equals 50 feet.

device: A self-recharging magical item with a particular effect: a 
wand, rod or staff; sometimes used in an extended sense to include 
scrolls, occasionally even potions. Device skill: the primary skill 
that determines your failrates for wands, rods, staves and scrolls.

disarming: 1) Removing or attempting to remove floor or chest traps. 2) 
Disarming skill; the skill that affects your ability to remove traps 
safely.

disenchantment: 1) The name of an element. 2) The reduction of to-hit, 
to-dam and to-AC bonuses (rarely pval) on an equipped item, caused by 
the element.

DL: Dungeon level, in the sense of an indicator of depth. "Unmakers are 
native to DL 77." More dangerous monsters and more valuable items will 
appear at higher dungeon levels. In an extended sense, danger level; 
usually this is the same as the dungeon level, but wilderness areas 
have a danger level without having a dungeon level.

double move: A situation where a monster attacks you twice without you 
getting a chance to react in between, either because the monster is 
faster than you are or because you got unlucky with energy randomness. 
Also, the analogous situation where a player receives consecutive moves 
against a monster.

dual-wielding: Simultaneously wielding two weapons. Dual-wielding 
proficiency: the acquired skill that reduces accuracy penalties from 
dual-wielding.

dungeon: An area built of interconnected, randomly generated 
non-permanent levels and generally treated as if it were underground; 
any game location apart from towns, town quests and the wilderness, or 
all such locations collectively. The game is won by entering the 
Angband dungeon, reaching dungeon level 100 and defeating the Serpent 
of Chaos.

dungeon book: A high-level spellbook that does not usually generate in 
town shops and so needs to be acquired in the dungeon.

dungeon level: 1) A particular random level that has generated within a 
dungeon. 2) DL; a particular depth.

ego: Also ego item, excellent item; an exceptional item that is not an 
artifact, or a type of such exceptional items. "Protection is a common 
ego in the early game."

eldritch horror: A sanity-blasting monster. See [d].

element: 1) A damage type, such as fire, acid, chaos, disenchantment, 
or nexus. 2) More narrowly, one of the base elements: fire, cold, acid, 
electricity or poison. Elemental protection; temporary resistance to 
the elements.

elemental: 1) Based on or pertaining to an element. 2) A monster with 
the letter symbol E; each elemental is strongly associated with a 
single element. Available as a Monster Mode player-monster race, with 
several subraces.

energy: 1) Energy determines how often the player (or a monster) gets 
to move. Players and monsters with higher speed accumulate energy 
faster, and therefore get turns more often. Energy randomness: limited 
randomness in how much energy a player or monster needs to accumulate 
before getting another turn. Energy cost: the amount of energy consumed 
by an action. 2) A monster flavor for some lightning breathers: energy 
hound, energy vortex.

entrance guardian: A monster who guards the entrance to a particular 
dungeon, and who must be killed or avoided to enter that dungeon. Only 
some dungeons, mostly high-level ones, have an entrance guardian. "The 
entrance guardian of Crystal Castle is an ethereal dragon, so watch 
out." Compare bottom guardian.

equipment: 1) The items your character is currently wearing or 
wielding, visible on your character sheet or through the 'e' command. 
2) Items that can be equipped.

ESP: Extrasensory perception. Full or partial telepathy.

evolution: 1) The process by which monsters who have gained enough XP 
turn into stronger monsters. Seen in the player's pets, and in undead 
monsters who drain experience from the player. Also sometimes caused by 
the element Time. 2) Player-monster evolution; player characters in 
Monster mode usually evolve into stronger subraces after leveling up 
enough. This may give new stat bonuses, resistances, abilities, attacks 
or equipment slots.

EXP: Also XP: experience. The most basic way of keeping score in the 
game, experience determines your character level. Monster experience: 
experience collected by a monster, usually a pet.

FA: Free Action; the item attribute that protects against paralysis.

fail rate: The probability, usually expressed as a percentage, of 
failing to cast a spell or use a particular item.

fame: A measure of how many memorable feats your character has 
performed. Killing uniques, completing quests and winning Arena fights 
increases your fame; failing quests or losing an Arena fight decreases 
fame. Shop pricing and reforge power are affected by fame.

fear: A status effect. Can prevent some actions, or in the case of 
extreme fear, cost a turn or partial turn without any actions. Fear 
resistance: a resistance that improves your chances of avoiding the 
negative effects of fear.

feeling: 1) Level feeling. "A special feeling means there's an artifact 
on the level." See [e]. 2) Object feeling; the quality of an object as 
indicated by pseudo-ID.

flag: An indicator of whether an object, player or monster attribute is 
present or not present. Equipment and player flags are displayed on the 
Character Sheet.

friendly monster: A monster who is not hostile, especially one who is 
also not a pet; such a monster may help you in fights, but you cannot 
command them to do so.

frost: A synonym for the element cold, used to make it sound cooler. 
Distinguish from Ice, a separate (if related) element. Compare 
Lightning as a synonym for electricity.

fuzzy telepathy: Telepathy that shows all otherwise invisible monsters 
as being white, regardless of their usual color; the game's default 
option for how telepathy works.

genocide: An attempt to remove a monster species (all monsters sharing 
the same glyph) from a dungeon level. Does not affect uniques. See [f].

global map: Also overworld map; a scaled map of the FrogComposband 
world, accessible in towns and the wilderness through the '<' command 
and generally used for travelling from towns to dungeons or from 
dungeon to dungeon.

good object: An item that has some magical enchantments on it, but is 
not an artifact or ego item.

haste: A temporary bonus of +10 to the speed of a player or monster.

health bar: Also status bar; a bar on the right side of the screen, 
displaying the health and status of the monster being fought; or a 
similar, optional bar for the player. See [g].

heavy curse: An item curse that cannot be removed with normal Remove 
Curse, but can be removed with a Scroll of *Remove Curse*.

heroism: A positive effect, gives +10 max-HP, +12 to-hit (both melee 
and ranged), and one level of resistance to fear. Usually temporary, 
but can be permanently gained by player-monsters by killing their 
racial boss.

high resist: A resistance to an element other than the base elements 
and poison.

hostile monster: Any monster who is neither friendly nor a pet. The 
vast majority of monsters encountered will be hostile.

HP: Hit points. A character or monster whose hit points drop below 0 
will die.

icky wield: Equipping an item unsuitable for the class, giving 
class-dependent penalties while the icky item remains equipped.

ID: Identify. *ID*: *Identify*, full identification of an item.

immunity: 100% resistance; an attribute that completely negates all 
damage and side effects from an element. Genocide immunity: acquired 
immunity to genocide. Destruction immunity: acquired immunity to 
destruction.

infravision: The ability to see nearby monsters who are invisible but 
not ghostly or cold-blooded.

innate attack: A player melee attack not based on an equipped weapon or 
on martial arts. Many Monster-mode player races have no equipment slots 
for a melee weapon, and rely on innate attacks such as biting or 
clawing to harm enemies in melee, but most normal player races can also 
acquire innate attacks through a mutation.

inscription: 1) Text appended to an object's description by the player 
or automatically by the Mogaminator, it can be either pure flavoring or 
give instructions to the game about how to treat that item. See [h]. 2) 
Anything appended to an object description, including the standard item 
attribute abbreviations.

inventory: 1) Pack inventory, the list of items currently carried by 
your character, accessible through the 'i' command; in an extended 
sense, the pack itself. 2) Any similar list of items: shop inventory, 
home inventory.

invulnerability: A temporary player or monster condition. Gives a 12 in 
13 chance of taking zero damage from any given attack. Invulnerable 
monsters have white stars (p[********-]) in their health bars. Some 
special damage sources, notably Psycho-Spears, ignore invulnerability.

item score: The monetary value or estimated value of an item, generally 
the higher the more powerful the item is.

jump: A monster attack that blinks the monster and generates a large 
elemental ball centered on the monster's pre-blink location.

keymap: A remapping of a particular key to represent another key 
command or combination of commands in the game's underlying command 
set. Compare macro.

kin: Monsters that share their species (letter symbol) with a given 
monster, e.g. yeeks for Boldor; mostly used in the context of summons. 
For players: monsters whose letter symbol is associated with the 
player's race.

level: 1) Character level; CL. "A level 46 character." 2) Dungeon 
level, in either the "explorable area" sense ("You have a bad feeling 
about this level") or the "depth" sense ("Unmakers are native to level 
77"). 3) Danger level of a town quest or wilderness area. "Spawning 
Pits is a level 80 quest." 4) Monster level; the depth a monster is 
native to. 5) Spell level; the character level at which a spell becomes 
available. 6) Device level; a measure of how difficult a magical device 
is to use, determined by the device's effect and power.

level guardian: A random quest monster in the Angband dungeon; in an 
extended sense, any monster tied to appearing at a particular depth in 
a particular dungeon, including Oberon, the Serpent of Chaos and 
sometimes dungeon bosses.

levitation: The ability to float. Levitation gives access to dark pits 
and mountainous areas of the wilderness, allows you to avoid some 
traps, eliminates movement speed penalties in wooded and snowy areas, 
and reduces damage from standing in or over dangerous terrain. See [i].

life points: A measure of your attachment to life, displayed on a range 
of 0% to 99% if depleted. Losing life points reduces effective maximum 
HP; if life points drop below 0, the character will transform into an 
undead race, or die outright if this is not possible. See [j].

life rating: 1) Random life rating; a measure, ranging from 0 to 76, of 
how lucky you got with random hit-point gain rolls in your current 
life; life rating as revealed by Self Knowledge. See [k]. 2) Life 
multiplier; a fixed non-random HP multiplier based on your race, class 
or personality, not directly related to the random life rating. 3) 
+Life and -Life; item attributes that modify a constitution-based HP 
multiplier.

lightning: A synonym for the element electricity.

lite-town: The version of the town Outpost as it appears in 
no-wilderness games.

living: Of a monster: not an undead, a demon or a nonliving monster. 
Not strictly an antonym of nonliving, since demons and undead are 
neither living nor nonliving.

logrus: A synonym for the element chaos, often used for exceptionally 
powerful chaos effects.

macro: The mapping of a keypress to represent one or more other 
keypresses, for example to cast with a single keypress a spell that 
normally requires multiple actions. Differs from a keymap in that 
macros accept a somewhat wider range of input, keys within macro 
sequences can trigger keymaps, and macros are applied in some 
situations (such as prompts and menus) where keymaps are not applied. 
See [l].

mana: The spell points of the player or of a magical device.

Mark of Chaos: A random slay or brand, re-rolled for each blow. One of 
only two generally available brands that can stack with another brand.

melee: Armed or unarmed hand-to-hand combat. Melee skill: your talent 
for such combat. Melee weapon: a weapon used in melee.

Mogaminator: The auto-picker; the system for automatically picking up, 
destroying, identifying, inscribing or leaving on the floor particular 
items based on your pick-up preferences. Editable through the '_' 
command. So named for its original author, Hengband developer Mogami.

monster: Any creature, hostile or friendly, encountered during the 
game.

monster list: A list of all currently visible monsters, available as a 
subwindow or through the 'Y' and '[' commands.

monster mode: A mode of play, selected during character creation, in 
which your character gains the qualities of a monster race instead of 
choosing a normal race and class.

monster race: 1) A monster kind, e.g. filthy street urchin, or small 
kobold. 2) A player monster race; a race selected at character creation 
in Monster mode.

mount: A pet you are currently riding; a monster suitable for riding.

mutation: A player attribute, positive or negative, that is listed in 
the Mutations section of the character sheet. Removable or unlocked 
mutations; mutations which were acquired during the game, can be 
removed in various ways, and are not tied to the character's race, 
class, personality or equipment. Permanent or locked mutations: demigod 
talents, other racial talents, and class- or personality-guaranteed 
mutations such as the White Aura from Lucky personality.

nameless: A Mogaminator keyword for a non-ego, non-artifact item that 
does not have a Weaponsmith essence on it.

nexus: An element, seldom deadly but often highly annoying due to its 
side effects.

nice: A monster status; nice monsters will not use breath or spell 
attacks, and damage from exceptionally powerful melee hits is reduced. 
Nice monsters also never resist destruction. Nearly all high-level 
monsters are initially nice when summoned; the main exceptions are the 
Olympian gods and playing in Nightmare Mode. Niceness stops when the 
player has had a chance to react to the monster's presence.

non-ego: An item that is neither ego nor an artifact; a nameless item. 
"Reforging, Crafting and Artifact Creation only work on non-ego items."

object list: A list of all known objects on the current dungeon level, 
accessible as a subwindow or through the ']' and 'O' commands. Can be 
used for travelling and to display additional features such as stairs.

out of depth: Appearing at an unexpectedly shallow depth; used of 
monsters and items native to higher depths. A monster native to DL 80, 
encountered on DL 60, is said to be twenty levels out of depth.

overworld map: See global map.

pack: 1) The player's backpack; the inventory. 2) A group of similar 
monsters acting together.

parent monster: A monster's parent is either the monster who summoned 
it, or the monster whose escort it belongs to. Not all monsters have a 
parent. Monsters with living parents feel some loyalty to the parent, 
and therefore make poor pets and unreliable mounts. Pets summoned by 
other pets often leave the level if their parent dies or disappears.

permanent curse: An item curse that can only be removed with Mundanity. 
Other curses on an item with a permanent curse may still be removable.

personality: A character attribute, selected at character creation and 
unchangeable during the game. Each personality gives its own set of 
bonuses and maluses to your character, and many also have special 
effects like the chaos patrons on Chaotic or the aggravation on Sexy.

pet: A friendly monster you can give commands to.

pet upkeep: The cost of controlling all your pets and keeping them 
happy; consumes spell points if it exceeds 100%, forcing pets to be 
dismissed if you have no spell points left. Very high upkeep, above 
roughly 500%, may result in pets turning hostile.

polymorph: 1) Temporary race polymorph; the condition of the player 
character temporarily belonging to another player race, as the result 
of a monster spell or player spell. This is indicated in red brackets 
(e.g. [Cyclops]) and wears off after a while. 2) Permanent race 
polymorph; the player permanently turning into another race. This is 
never triggered by a monster spell, but can be triggered by chaos 
patrons (other than Chardros and Hionhurn), by the Polymorph item 
activation, by the Polymorph power, by some other conditions such as 
running out of life points, and rarely by unresisted monster toxic 
waste attacks. Can be disabled as a birth option. 3) Monster polymorph; 
a monster turning into a different monster, or the act of causing this 
to happen. A wand effect, and an occasional effect of the element 
chaos. 4) Potion of Polymorph; a potion that randomly gives or cures 
mutations. This does not trigger race polymorph.

primary stat: Spellcasting stat, as opposed to other stats; see 
spellcasting stat.

proficiency: Your level of mastery with a particular task or item. 
Weapon proficiency: accuracy bonus from experience with a particular 
weapon kind. Spell proficiency: mana cost and fail rate bonus from 
experience with a spell. Riding proficiency, dual-wielding proficiency, 
martial arts proficiency.

pseudo-ID: Pseudo-identify; the system for giving object feelings; the 
object feelings so given. "At level 20, the Mogaminator starts 
automatically destroying all weapons and shooters that pseudo-ID as 
{average}."

pval: Bonus size value. An indicator of the size of any stat, skill and 
ability bonuses (or maluses) on an item; for example, an Iron Helm of 
Might that gives +3 to speed, strength, dexterity and constitution and 
-3 to intelligence has a pval of 3.

quest: A mission within the game, with rewards for completion.  The 
game is won by completing the quest to kill the Serpent of Chaos. Town 
quest: any quest offered and rewarded by some building in a town, 
especially one where the quest level itself is also accessible from the 
town. Angband quest: any of the ten random level guardians who appear 
in the Angband dungeon.

race: 1) Player race, selected at birth, and usually expected (though 
not guaranteed; see polymorph) to remain the same throughout the game. 
Race selection fundamentally affects a character. 2) A monster race; a 
monster kind, e.g. filthy street urchins.

racial power: A spell-like ability you receive as the result of your 
race, used through the 'U' command ('O' with roguelike keys); e.g. 
Create Food on Beornings and Hobbits. In an extended sense, any power 
used through the 'U'/'O' command, regardless of its origin.

random teleportation: 1) An item curse and mutation effect that causes 
the player to teleport unpredictably. 2) A positive object attribute 
that allows the player to follow teleporting monsters, and causes the 
player to teleport unpredictably but allows the choice of not 
teleporting.

ranged combat: Combat based on shooting or throwing projectiles at a 
monster; in an extended sense, any non-melee combat.

ranged weapon: A weapon suitable for ranged combat; a shooter; a sling, 
bow, or crossbow.

realm: A school of magic based on a particular set of four spellbooks; 
e.g. the Arcane realm, the Chaos realm.

recall: 1) Most commonly, Word of Recall: a spell or device effect that 
takes you from the surface to a dungeon or from the dungeon (or a 
quest) back to the surface. "Recalling out of a town quest will fail 
the quest but might save your life." 2) Less commonly, monster recall; 
monster knowledge look-up. "Press '*' to look at a monster and 'r' to 
recall information about it."

reflection: The ability to turn back 75% of incoming bolts, available 
to both players and monsters.

reforging: Turning an artifact into a new artifact, using a good or 
average destination item as the base for the new artifact. A town 
service offered at Fighters' Hall in Morivant and Lite-Town. See [m].

regeneration: Your ability to recover lost HP and SP over time; also, 
the ability of a monster to recover lost HP over time.

resist/resistance: An attribute, available to players and monsters, 
that reduces damage and blocks or mitigates side-effects from the 
resisted element. The opposite of a vulnerability.

resist base/rBase: Resistance to all of the four base elements.

restoring: Using an item, spell or town service that reverses stat 
drain, XP drain and/or loss of life points.

running: Walking into an indicated direction until disturbed (by a 
fork, a monster, an interesting object etc.) or interrupted.

sanity blast: The Eldritch Horror effect; can be triggered by the sight 
of an eldritch horror, or by reading from the Necronomicon.

scrambling: 1) Stat scrambling. 2) A flavor message for auras and melee 
attacks based on the element nexus; these attacks do not trigger stat 
scrambling, but share its connection to nexus.

searching: 1) Searching skill; the skill that determines your ability 
to locate traps and secret doors. 2) The act of searching for traps and 
secret doors, using the 's' command. Searching mode: a mode toggled 
with the 'S'/'#' command, causes you to automatically search every 
other turn. 3) Searching within help files with the '/' and '\' 
commands.

shaft: A connection between two dungeon levels or between a dungeon 
level and the surface. Differs from stairs in that most shafts skip a 
depth; downstairs on DL 8 will always lead to DL 9, while a shaft down 
will lead to DL 10 unless there is a quest on level 9.

shop: Also store; a building where thematic objects can be bought and 
sold. Compare building.

shuffle: 1) Shop shuffle; paying a shopkeeper to restock the store with 
new items. 2) Equipment shuffle; updating multiple pieces of equipment 
at once. 3) The Shuffle spell, a spell in the Trump realm with highly 
unpredictable effects.

skill: 1) One of the eight primary skills your character has; Melee, 
Archery, Saving Throw, Stealth, Perception, Searching, Disarming or 
Device Skill; in an extended sense, any similar improvable attribute 
like Digging or Infravision. See [n]. 2) Your level of mastery with a 
particular weapon or spell; proficiency. See [o]. 3) Anything a 
Skillmaster is or can be proficient in.

slay: A multiplier to the damage dice of a weapon, applied only against 
monsters of a particular type. Compare brand. See [p].

SP: Spell points; mana.

spell: 1) Book spells; magical effects learned by the player from 
studying a spellbook, and used through the 'm' command. 2) Any magical 
or mental power used through the 'm' command. 3) Monster spells, 
inherent to a particular monster race. 4) Powers; racial, class-based 
or mutation-based spell-like abilities used through the 'U'/'O' 
command.

spellcasting stat: A stat that affects your spell failrates and/or the 
size of your mana pool; usually the same stat for all normal spells, 
but not necessarily for racial or mutation powers.

stat: One of the six basic statistics your character has; Strength 
(STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution 
(CON) or Charisma (CHR). See [q].

stat base: The value of a stat before race, class, personality, 
equipment and mutation bonuses are accounted for.

stat cap: The highest value a stat base can take. Between 18/70 and 
18/130.

stat drain: Reduction of a stat, usually as the result of monster 
attacks, indicated by the stat turning yellow. Drained stats can be 
restored.

stat scrambling: The permanent swapping of two stats' current base 
values as the result of an insufficiently resisted Nexus attack, 
avoidable as a birth option at the cost of suffering a curse effect 
instead.

stat-up: An opportunity to increase a selected stat.

status bar: See health bar.

status effect: A temporary condition, especially a negative one such as 
confusion, blindness, poisoning, stunning or hallucination. Both the 
player and monsters can be affected by status effects. See [r].

subwindow: A window other than the main (Term-0) game window, used by 
some players for convenient display of monster and object lists, 
equipment, recent messages or other information.

summon: To cause new monsters to appear; an instance of summoning; a 
monster so summoned. "I'm buried in summoners who summon summoners."

the surface: All non-dungeon and non-quest areas collectively; the 
wilderness, including towns.

sustain: Stat sustain; an attribute that protects you from most effects 
that might reduce that particular stat. Exceptional sources of stat 
drain, particularly Time attacks, can ignore sustains.

tailored item: An item guaranteed to be of a type suitable for your 
race and class; includes all Acquirement results, most quest rewards 
and a small portion of regular item drops.

telepathy: The ability to know the type and location of nearby monsters 
without the need to detect them or see them directly.

terrible: The object feeling for a cursed artifact.

to-AC: Armor class bonus; the Y in [+Y] or [X,+Y], typically a magical 
enchantment. Often vulnerable to damage from disenchantment or acid. 
Distinguish from base AC, which is the X in [X,+Y] and cannot be 
damaged by either disenchantment or acid.

to-dam: Damage bonus; the item attribute that improves your damage 
output; the Y in (+X,+Y) in an item description. Your character has 
separate to-dam for melee, ranged combat and spells, and an item may 
affect one or more of these.

to-hit: Accuracy bonus; your ability to hit monsters; the item 
attribute that improves your ability to hit monsters; the X in (+X,+Y) 
in an item description. Your character has separate to-hit for melee 
and ranged combat, and an item may affect one or both of these.

town: An area where shops and other buildings are located.

town service: A service offered by a town building, usually for money, 
such as Research Item (*Identify*), Restoration or Sleep for the Night.

trap: 1) A floor trap; a square on the floor that does not allow item 
drops and will usually attempt to harm or inconvenience the player if 
entered. 2) A chest trap; a mechanism, sometimes very nasty, that needs 
to be disarmed before a chest can be opened safely. 3) A monster trap; 
a floor trap set by the player for monsters to walk into.

travelling: 1) The automated process of walking to another point on the 
level, commonly as a result of using auto-get or the 'H' or 'J' travel 
commands. 2) Manual travelling; manually walking from location to 
location, especially in the wilderness.

unique: A named monster, usually more dangerous than regular monsters 
at the same depth, and immune to slowing, annihilation and genocide. 
The same unique can be encountered repeatedly and on different level 
until it has been killed, at which point it will not generate again.

unlife attack: A monster melee attack type. A successful unlife attack 
makes the attacker more powerful and the attack's target less powerful. 
More powerful monsters hit harder and cast more dangerous spells. 
Compare and contrast with vampiric attack.

vampiric attack: A player or monster attack that drains hit points from 
a living target, healing the attacker and slightly reducing the 
target's max HP. Compare unlife attack.

vault: A special area of a dungeon level, characterized by the presence 
of permanent walls and a high concentration of both dangerous monsters 
and exceptional loot. In an extended sense, any special dungeon room 
with many out-of-depth monsters.

vulnerability: An attribute that causes you to take more damage from an 
element, and makes your items more likely to be damaged or destroyed by 
that element. The opposite of a resistance.

wanted monster: A monster whose corpse, skeleton or ears can be turned 
in at various town locations to collect a reward. Daily wanted: a 
non-unique wanted monster with monetary rewards, changing from day to 
day. Wanted unique: any of the 20 uniques on the list of wanted 
monsters for that game, with an item reward when the unique is turned 
in.

wilderness: The areas outside dungeons and town quest levels; the 
surface; or more narrowly, areas of the surface not in the immediate 
vicinity of a town.

XP: Experience; see EXP.


Less Formal Words and Abbreviations

The following terms are either slang, informal expressions or terms 
used in the code that you won't run into very often or at all during 
play, but might see used by fellow players:

AFC: Ancient Foul Curse, the nastiest curse effect in the game. Also 
known as TY, Ty or TY_CURSE, after ZAngband developer Topi Ylinen.

ASC: Anti-summoning corridor. A tunnel dug into the dungeon walls by 
you, especially one that zigzags, to limit space for summons and reduce 
the number of monsters that can attack you at once.

band/*band: Any game descended from the original Angband, including 
FrogComposband.

bravery: The quality displayed by your friend when he did something 
that by all rights should have got his character killed, but actually 
didn't because your friend is a lucky bastard. "That was pretty brave."

buff: 1) Make stronger; something that is strong; an instance of making 
something stronger, in the context of game development. "The J is too 
weak and should be buffed." 2) A positive temporary effect, such as 
haste or heroism.

bump: Melee; to hit things in melee. "Warriors get great bump attacks 
but not much else." Bump class: a class that relies on melee.

cheese: A strategy that works but is considered uncool, usually because 
it either is extremely dull or relies on some exploit in game mechanics 
(or both). "LOS cheese is a lot less effective in FrogComposband than 
V, but still works at times."

CLW/CSW/CCW: Cure Light Wounds/Cure Serious Wounds/Cure Critical 
Wounds; the three common minor healing potions, staple items of the 
early game.

cuddlywug: Quylthulg, as spelled by someone who pretends not to 
remember how to spell it.

diving: Play characterized by rapid progress to high depths; the 
opposite of grinding.

DSM: Dragon Scale Mail. BDSM most commonly means Balance Dragon Scale 
Mail, but should be interpreted in context :)

easily: Also: just easily. Usually said of something very difficult or 
risky, especially something that requires luck or is patently not 
viable at all in the short-term. "Easily kill Nodens"; "easily find 
Ringil"; "easily get the BDSM from Spawning Pits".

fix: To improve things, to make things better, to repair problems; 
definitely not a synonym for "break" at all.

glhfdd: Good luck, have fun, don't die; an expression of good wishes to 
a fellow player.

grinding: Slow, meticulous play aimed at making a character stronger 
through accumulation of experience and loot before moving into more 
dangerous areas; the opposite of diving.

hat: A cap, crown or helmet; especially, an extremely powerful artifact 
such as the Crown of Amber or the Golden Crown of Dragonkind.

Hugostyle/Hugo-style: A playstyle characterized by very high early-game 
melee damage, rapid level gain, and spending much time in the 
wilderness; in an extended sense, any character resembling a Hugo-style 
character. So named after the style's main proponent, the player Hugo.

Indy/Indy's whip: An artifact found in the I Hate Snakes! quest. "Do 
snakes for Indy if you don't get any decent weapons early."

J/the J: The Serpent of Chaos, the final boss of the Angband dungeon 
and the monster you must kill to win a game of FrogComposband. "Going 
to J tonight?"

loot: 1) All items and money discovered. 2) A particularly valuable 
item; an item worth picking up. "Don't forget to pick up Sam's hat, 
that's loot."

LOS: Line of sight, of the player or of a monster. LOS effect: an 
effect that affects everyone in line of sight.

mild inconvenience: Something that didn't get described as the worst 
because keepers of secrets are the worst.

mut: A mutation.

nerf: Make weaker; an instance of making something weaker, in the 
context of game development. The opposite of buff. "Tourists are too 
strong and need to be nerfed."

OOD: Out of depth.

OP: Oppy; overpowered; extremely strong, to the point where it probably 
ought to be nerfed for game balance. Said of whichever class or race 
you just finally got your first win with. OPLotharang: the battle axe 
Lotharang, a legendarily powerful artifact.

PD: Phase Door.

post-game: Gameplay after the game has already been won by killing the 
Serpent of Chaos; the parts of the game that become accessible once the 
Serpent has been killed.

pot: A potion.

quythulg: Quylthulg, as spelled by someone who actually does not 
remember how to spell it.

randart: Random artifact.

resist hole: The condition of lacking a particular resistance, 
especially on a strong character who has most or all other resistances 
covered. "Fighting Nebiros with dark and nether holes is brave."

rfe: Request for enhancement; a serious or sarcastic request for 
FrogComposband to be changed in a particular way. "RFE: New mut that 
gives a flat chance of just teleing right next to the highest-DL 
monster on the level."

rip: Rest In Peace; in an extended sense, to die. "RIP me"; "rip 
Oberon"; "rip tourists being OP"; "argh, just ripped to J again".

Scroll of Disappointment: Scroll of Acquirement.

statstick: An item, especially a melee or ranged weapon, that is not 
very good as an actual weapon but gives valuable resistances or stat 
bonuses. "Soulsword is a great statstick."

swap item: An item that is not regularly equipped, but is carried in 
the inventory and can be temporarily equipped (to gain a particular 
resist, increased speed or damage etc.) when desirable. "I'm carrying 
Narya as a swap in case I find balrog uniques."

tag: To very briefly visit a dungeon for the sole purpose of 
establishing a recall point there.

telefail: A failed attempt to use a Scroll of Teleportation, Staff of 
Teleport or some other means of teleport self. A common cause of player 
death.

TO: Teleport Other. "TO the summons and easily kill Glaurung."

trickshot: An attack by a player or monster that damages a target not 
in line of sight.

V: Vanilla Angband; the game Angband, as distinguished from its 
variants.

wargs: That quest with wargs in. "You should do wargs early." 
Similarly, thieves for Thieves' Hideout, snakes for I Hate Snakes!, 
mimics for The Mimic's Treasure etc.

the worst: Used in the set phrase keepers of secrets are the worst to 
indicate that Keepers of Secrets are literally the worst possible thing 
a character can run into. Otherwise used to mean that a thing is 
annoying, dangerous or a mild inconvenience, but not literally the 
worst thing due to Keepers of Secrets being the worst.


Original   : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice
Updated    : FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak