Common Hub Lingo

This page has some specific (primarily OOC) slang that will likely come up in your time on the hub.

Game Types

Black Trenchcoat: The “smooth operator” type of game, with a focus on grittier realism, heavier consequences, often has more focus on the intrigue aspect of the setting. This type of gameplay emphasizes planning out details, coming up with backup plans, and heavy legwork. Shows like Leverage, Burn Notice and Hustle are good examples of the Black Trenchcoat style.

Mirrorshades: This type of game acts as a midpoint between Trenchcoat and Mohawk. These runs generally involve some planning and legwork, while leaving room to "go loud" when or if stealth fails. For examples of Mirrorshades, think along the lines of Deus Ex and Heat.

Pink Mohawk: These runs tend to be cinematic and involve more wild or action-filled plans. Emphasis is placed on style over realism, sometimes with bombastic setpieces and more action. This game type does not necessarily avoid legwork, but it sometimes takes a backseat to the more flashy parts of the run. Pink Mohawk can be seen in shows and movies like Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, and Hot Fuzz. It can also be seen in games like Hotline Miami, Just Cause, and Far Cry: Blood Dragon.

Milk Run: Two possible definitions. A milk run can be defined as a particularly simple run, designed for newer players to help get their feet wet into the setting and/or Hub. These runs are particularly easy, but they offer correspondingly low rewards. This definition is based off the idea of “it is as easy as running to the store to get milk.” A milk run can also be defined as a deceptively easy run that often has some sort of twist involved that makes it much more challenging or dangerous than it appeared (sometimes at a particularly bad moment), or a phrase a Johnson might say to make it seem like the job is nothing. There is an in-world saying regarding “there is no such thing as a milk run.”

Prime Run: A run with rewards between 18 and 25 GMP. A prime run is typically contains challenges only surmountable by veteran (150+ Karma) runners with extensive resources. The planning and execution of prime runs can take weeks of in-game time and can often result in the death or retirement of the runners involved. Prime runs require Thematics Division permission, as the events of a prime run can have meta changing results and worldwide fallout.

Hooding: A term that refers to doing jobs to benefit the weak, powerless, or less fortunate. Generally, these are ‘good feelings’ runs. These runs often have very little actual pay but can come with a higher karma payout or other varying rewards a smaller community might be able to give. The term refers to ‘Robin Hood’, the English folklore hero who stole from the rich to give to the poor.

Wetwork: Refers to a job regarding assassination or murder. Comes from the concept that the murder of a person makes your hands “wet with blood.”

Division Terms

ID: Interpersonal Division. Their role is to moderate interpersonal conflicts on the Hub, moderate for inappropriate behavior, and handle temporary bans. The ID charter can be found here.

CCD: Character Creation Division. These are the people who go through and approve sheets on /r/hubchargen. They can be identified by their tag and moderator status on /r/hubchargen. The CCD charter can be found here.

RD: Rules Division. These individuals oversee the house rules that we go by on the Hub and make decisions in situations where available texts are unclear on mechanical rulings. The RD charter can be found here.

Sheet Head: The head of Character Creation Division.

TD: Thematic Division. These individuals oversee the cohesive nature of the in-character universe of the Hub. They set the standards for "what things are logical" and "what kind of responses to things are reasonable" when big things happen, and they are often involved in specific rulings relating to in-character run consequences. They also interview potential GMs. The TD charter can be found here.

EB: Executive Board. The Executive Board are the five elected officials that can be considered the “top level” of administration. They act as the public face of RunnerHub. The EB charter can be found here.

Upkeep: The division that maintains many of the functions of the Hub, from the wiki to the EB elections. The Upkeep charter can be found here.

Leadership: The collective term for many of the divisions on the Hub.

Upkeeb: A term that refers to the members of Upkeep. Pun on the metaracial slur of ‘keeb’ against elves, referring to the Keebler Elves.

Runner Roles

Muscle: Muscles are characters who have a focus on combat skills. Most runs will require one muscle on hand to guard other characters or to engage in combat. These tend to come in two flavors: street samurai and physical adepts. The former is enhanced through 'ware, while the latter is enhanced through magic.

Face: Faces are characters who have a focus on social skills. Their main goal is to act as the negotiator of the group, with a secondary focus on social infiltration. Faces also generally have a larger set of contacts whom they can call upon to assist in legwork.

B&E: An abbreviation for Breaking & Entering, these characters focus upon stealth and physical infiltration skills. These specialists focus upon bypassing physical security such as locks and alarms.

Rigger/Wheelman: Wheelman is a generic term for someone who has a high skill in driving. Riggers are characters who invest into vehicles and drones. Their piloting skills make them good getaway drivers and recon specialists, as they can use drones to scout out areas. Riggers specifically have the control rig cyberware, which lets them jump into their vehicles and control them directly as if the vehicle were their own body.

Decker/Technomancers: Deckers and technomancers are Matrix specialists who focus upon hacking into security to find paydata, loop security feeds, and subvert control of electronics. They often play a role in legwork by using the Matrix to search for information. Deckers utilize a cyberdeck to interact with the Matrix, while technomancers are able to access the Matrix using only their minds.

Mage: Mages are able to summon spirits and cast spells to assist the team in combat, infiltration, and legwork. Often, the only way to deal with magical security is with magic, making a mage a key part of many teams.

Hub Terms

Chummer: Chummer has two alternate meanings. In universe, chummer means "friend" and is used in the same way as "pal" or "buddy." When used in reference to character creation, chummer refers to the program Chummer5, a free character creation program for Shadowrun 5th Edition.

HL: Abbreviation for Hero Lab, a paid character creation program for Shadowrun 5th Edition.

GMP: Abbreviation for General Merit Points. These are rewards earned for doing various things for the benefit of the Hub. General guidelines on GMP may be found here.

Hammers: A term for characters with a heavy focus on a singular role, often with particularly large or inflated dice pools to “hammer their way through a situation.” This often ties into the mindset of using a single skill to try to solve most, if not all problems. This refers to the saying, “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

Dooring: A term that refers to going through a door without checking what is on the other side via tools such as grenades, ambushes, and set defenses, historically often to the detriment of those on the other side.

Black Bagging: A term referring to the sudden capture of a character or NPC during a run or off screen, usually alive. This can result in 'Shelving' of a character or NPC. The term refers to the act of putting a black bag over the kidnapee’s head to prevent them from knowing where they are being taken.

Shelving/Stasis: When a character cannot be used to apply for runs as they are otherwise occupied by being out of town, on a run or otherwise preoccupied with in-world activity. NPCs that are shelved or in stasis cannot be used as a contact until they are free again.

Opfor: An abbreviation for Opposing Force, this term is usually used to refer to the enemies shadowrunners encounter during a job. These can range from gangers to spirits to corporate security personnel.

HTR: (Occasionally pronounced as Hitter) Abbreviation for High Threat Response. These enemies respond to situations with large amounts of force. They include powerful augmented and/or magical individuals, vehicles, and drones to neutralize the threat that the basic grunts could not. They appear on the scene after being called for, with the game master rolling for the response time based on the security rating of the district.

KE: Abbreviation for Knight Errant, the current in-universe security company in charge of the Seattle police force.

LS: Abbreviation for Lone Star, an in-universe security company that was formerly in charge of the Seattle police force. They still run many of the prison systems in Seattle.

Mr. Johnson (also: "the J" or Johnson): An in-universe term used to refer to the anonymous employers of shadowrunners. These often represent corporate middlemen who hire shadowrunners as deniable assets, but the term is used universally for the employer of a run. There are several regional variants that have the same meaning. Examples include: Herr Schmidt for Germany and Mr. Tanaka for Japan.

Bellevue Bombing: (BB, Bellevue Incident) An incident several years ago occurred where 4 armed runners resisted arrest and blew up an S-K building, the local sewer system, 2 Citymasters, 8 KE HTR, and the team's rigger in an attempt to get away. They were all captured within a week and executed privately.

Book Abbreviations

CRB: Abbreviation for the Core Rule Book of Shadowrun 5th Edition.

BTB: Abbreviation for Better Than Bad, a setting book about hooding.

B&B: Abbreviation for Bullets & Bandages, a supplement with medical rules.

BOTL Abbreviation for Book of the Lost, Campaign book about puzzles and tarot.

CF: Abbreviation for Chrome Flesh, a supplement with advanced augmentation rules.

CA: Abbreviation for Cutting Aces, a supplement with advanced social rules.

DT: Abbreviation for Data Trails, a supplement with advanced Matrix rules.

DTR: Abbreviation for Dark Terrors, a setting supplement with run plot hooks.

FA: Abbreviation for Forbidden Arcana, a supplement with advanced magic rules.

HT: Abbreviation for Hard Targets, a supplement on wetwork.

HS: Abbreviation for Howling Shadows, a supplement on critters.

KC: Abbreviation for Kill Code, a supplement on advanced matrix rules.

R5: Abbreviation for Rigger 5.0, a supplement on vehicles and drones.

R&G: Abbreviation for Run & Gun, a supplement on weapons, martial arts, and demolitions.

RF: Abbreviation for Run Faster, a supplement on qualities and new character options.

SL: Abbreviation for Street Lethal, a supplement with advanced combat rules and futuretech.

SSP: Abbreviation for Shadow Spells, a supplement with spells, traditions, and adept powers.

SS: Abbreviation for Stolen Souls, a setting supplement about CFD.

SG: Abbreviation for Street Grimoire, a supplement on magic.

Qualities

CoC: Abbreviation for Creature of Comfort, a quality that requires a character to hold a certain lifestyle standard.

CoH: Abbreviation for Code of Honor, a quality

CSS: Abbreviation for Cyber-Singularity Seeker, a quality

ExAtt: Abbreviation for Exceptional Attribute, a quality that allows characters to raise an Attribute one point above its natural maximum.

FCS: Abbreviation for Full Corp SINner, SIN, a quality

JOAT: Abbreviation for Jack of All Trades: Master of None, a quality that reduces all skill purchases post-gen up to rank 5 by 1.

LR: Abbreviation for Lightning Reflexes, a quality that grants improved initiative, incompatible with all other init boosts.

PSC: Abbreviation for Poor Self Control, a quality that captures bad behaviors from characters and forces them to follow-through.

ROF: Abbreviation for Records on File, a quality the means a corporation has your bio-metric data on file.

WMH: Abbreviation for Witness My Hate, a quality that increases damage of direct combat spells.

Miscellaneous

TWSA: Abbreviation for Two-Weapon Style Attack, a martial arts maneuver.

FBR: Abbreviation for Full Body Replacement, a character who have all their limbs and torso replaced.

FLR: Abbreviation for Full Limb Replacement, a character who have had all their limbs replaced.

ITNW: Abbreviation for Immunity to Natural Weapons, a Spirits Hardened Armor in Meat-space.

STT: Abbreviation for Sum-To-Ten character generation .

WFTP: Abbreviation for Work for the People, a hub method of converting money to karma.

WFTM: Abbreviation for Work for the Man, a hub method of converting karma to money.

WFTF: Abbreviation for Work for the Faction, a hub method of converting karma/money to faction reputation.

TPK: Abbreviation for Total Party Kill also known as everyone dying in a single run.