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  1. #1
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Default Unofficial Rumbles Shorthand Dictionary

    Here on Rumbles, we use high-end feats based on a character's consistent presentation to define said character's abilities. However, sometimes it can get awfully long-winded to spout out a ton of feats and compare them to existing characters, especially if we've done it a few dozen times already.

    So here, I'm going to list specific Rumbles Shorthand that tends to be used to give a benchmark for a character's abilities, just for people to reference.

    NOTE: None of these shorthands are legit bases for comparison. Saying someone is a bullet-timer doesn't mean their feats shouldn't be trotted out for examination if requested, and compared against those of other characters. These phrases are just short, lazy methods of assessing characters without bothering to provide feats for comparison.

    Feats are still necessary if questions are raised.

    Aim-Dodging/Aim-Dodger - The act of moving with such skill and speed that people cannot draw a bead upon the character, or a character capable of such a feat. Batman and Captain America are essentially the poster-people for this kind of movement.

    BFR/Battlefield Removal - See 'Ring-out'.

    Blitz - To have a sufficient speed advantage that one can attack another character and simply hammer home blows too quickly for them to defend.

    Bullet-Time/Bullet Timer - Used to indicate the speed of someone capable of reacting to bullets after they've been fired, or a character capable of such a feat. Swatting bullets out of the air with a thin, metal club, waiting until they're fired then dodging or activating a power, these sorts of things must be explicitly shown. Usually considered sufficiently fast in hand to hand combat to blitz a Comic Book Peak Human.

    -Buster - Suffix generally used to indicate a level of strength/power capable of destroying the object to which the suffix refers. 'Mountain-buster', for example, indicates a character capable of (through use of powers or sheer strength) shattering/destroying a mountain. Note: Fern-Buster. Occasionally used in mockery of Yours Truly to refer to a nerfed Dr. Strange due to an accidental misspelling of 'planet'.

    CBPH - See Comic Book Peak Human, below.

    Class (Number) - The Marvel handbooks introduced a Class system for strength, where the number after 'Class' indicated the tons a character could press overhead (ie, Class 80 = 80 tons). Comics promptly violated this system, with Class 50's carrying locomotives, Class 80's making weapons out of compressed buildings and juggling tanks, and Class 100's lifting mountains and demonstrating even greater feats. These days, it's considered shorthand for 'Has feats of strength on a par with people Marvel considers to be that strong'. Ie, someone who can juggle tanks like toys and make hand to hand weapons out of sufficient compressed steel to make a building, or use an airplane to hit another character, might be called Class 80, or in the same sort of strength as Ben Grimm/The Thing. Why? Because it's easier than saying 'he has this feat, this feat, and this feat, and that puts him at about the same strength as the Thing so he should be able to do the same sorts of feats as Ben Grimm.'

    Combat Precognition/Precog - Having some sort of method of knowing an opponent's actions before they carry them out. Some examples include genuine precognition (seeing the future) that has been shown as useable in combat (the character in the movie 'Next'), advanced body reading (Cassandra Cain, Post Crisis Shiva, Daredevil to a lesser extent), Telepathy shown to provide this skill (Mr. X), specialized systems (Midnighter's Combat Computer), etc.

    Comic Book Peak Human aka CBPH - Having feats placing the character in the same area of physicality as Captain America or Batman, who are the poster-children for this sort of thing in Marvel and DC respectively.

    Composite - A composite character takes the best stats/abilities from all of their different incarnations (comics, movies, animations, books, whathaveyou, including different editions of each -- ie, Silver Age Comics Superman, Post-Crisis Superman, and Nu52 Superman) and mashes them together into one. Not to be confused with a Stacked Composite. Note: weaknesses are NOT included; going back to the Superman example, a Composite Superman would gain his best-presented resistance to Kryptonite, magic, and so forth, not the worst.

    Curbstomp (included for completeness) - When one character utterly crushes another (see 'Bambi versus Godzilla' or the like). It's not considered kosher to deliberately make such threads on Rumbles, though mistakes happen.

    Dimension Dump/Dumping - Sending someone into an alternate dimension/universe, resulting in a Ring-out if they cannot return.

    Forfeit, The - Something that almost never happens.

    Glass Cannon - A character whose offensive output vastly outstrips their defensive capabilities, creating an extreme imbalance. On the one hand, they can damage/defeat powerful beings if they can bring their offensive abilities to bear; on the other, they are sadly vulnerable to most, if not all, attacks.

    One-Shot - To take someone out of a fight with a single attack.

    Ring-out - When a combatant is removed from the field of battle (normally Khazan Arena) and cannot return in any fashion under their own power. This includes physically tossing them off the planet (if they cannot be space-tossed, they can return...though it might take considerable time), dimension dumping, etc.

    Ringer (often used incorrectly) - In Rumbles parlance, a Ringer is someone who breaks the 'comic book peak human threshold' without being a metahuman, for whatever reason. The important thing is the lack of enhancement from anything - they achieve this level simply through natural abilities and specialized training. Cassandra Cain, Shang Chi, Elektra, Daredevil, all would be considered 'ringers' with regards to their speed. Classic Wilson Fisk demonstrates durability and strength FAR beyond anything shown by a Comic Book Peak Human, and would rightly be considered a Ringer for those characteristics. The term is sometimes incorrectly used to qualify someone faster than a peak human but slower than a bullet-timer.

    Shunpo - This refers to the common trope in anime and manga of having characters who fight and move by literally seeming to disappear and reappear in front of other characters. Obviously this is in no way a uniform thing but there was certainly a time when this in common parlance. The terms Shunpo and Flash Step are the Japanese and English names for the high speed movement technique used in the series Bleach which caused the phrase to be coined back when it was extremely popular. Aka Flash Step movement.

    Space-toss - To hurl a combatant from the planet, resulting in a Ring-out if they cannot return.

    Stacked Composite - A stacked composite takes all of the incarnations of a character and adds all of their abilities/powers/skills together, rather than merely choosing the best (see: Composite, above). A stacked Batman would have the strength of all 'Batman' characters through every incarnation (movies, TV shows, animations, various different comic book editions, etc) added together, making him many times stronger than a 'Composite' Batman, who takes the 'strongest' version of the character and uses those feats to gauge his strength. The stacked version effectively already has that strength, with the strength of every other Batman added on top of it.

    Street-Leveller - Used to indicate a character who operates on a level much more close to normal human. The term comes from the idea of 'street-level' stories, where characters deal with low-powered supers or criminal organizations. Daredevil, non-JLA Batman, Shang Chi, and similar characters tend to be considered examples of street-level. Spiderman, for all that many of his stories take place on the street, is generally considered too powerful to be a legitimate Street-Leveller.

    Ten-Count A method of winning involving one character preventing the other from carrying out any kind of activity for ten seconds. Paralysis, webbing, beating a regenerator into goo, sitting on a significantly weaker opponent (ie, one who has no chance of breaking free), these are all methods of ten-counting. Tossing someone OUT of the arena is not (they can make their way back, even if it takes more than ten seconds, and they are not incapacitated).


    I'll take other applications below.
    Last edited by Sharpandpointies; 12-14-2022 at 08:05 AM. Reason: ...poor choice of words...
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member Cody's Avatar
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    Really appreciate this. Should be made into a sticky really.

    Question: What about those who are somewhere in between Real life Peak human and CBPH? What's the name for them? Aka guys who have shown to be physically superior to Real Life Peak humans in physical stats, yet still rank below CBPH's?
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  3. #3
    Extraordinary Member Pendaran's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cody View Post
    Really appreciate this. Should be made into a sticky really.

    Question: What about those who are somewhere in between Real life Peak human and CBPH? What's the name for them? Aka guys who have shown to be physically superior to Real Life Peak humans in physical stats, yet still rank below CBPH's?
    Sigh. Really it should just be "below comic book peak human" and there's no... "category" for that, it's kinda bleah for me that people try to make one, like "arrow timing", which, okay, the origin of "arrow timing"?

    There was, several board reboots/crashes ago, a poster that really, really advocated hard for Buffy against all sorts of people, even ones with reflex showings the living crap beyond her. To get around this, he started to refer to her reflexes and those of several others as "arrow timing", in a way to try and equate them all if it was said enough. After all, if they're all in that "category", they can't be that different! We get board memes about a character's capacity sometimes or an event that are based in things that it turns out were never even implied to have happened (oh, Buffy in that case caught arrows, sure, but like nothing on the scale of people she was being lumped together with), but we said them enough that they took hold anyway (and I'm not myself immune to getting caught up in that), and when we're already going from "basically we're creating logic for a thing that has nothing to do with logic in order to have nerd debates", the whole thing kind of falls apart if we double down on nothing, if you can dig it.
    Last edited by Pendaran; 04-14-2015 at 11:14 AM.

  4. #4
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    People whose feats are better than real life people.

    Remember, we go by feats. People 'between real life humans and comic book peak humans'...that's a HUGE area to cover. Silver Sable, Black Widow, those two pull off stuff that real life humans couldn't manage, but they're not on the same level of physicality as Nightwing, for example. Putting a label on that - calling them 'Comic Book Human' - can give the idea that they're all in the same area. We have enough of a problem with Bullet-Time for that (all bullet-timers are NOT the same speed, it's all about feats).

    It's better to just say 'This character does stuff that could not be replicated by real life people.' And then give examples.
    Last edited by Sharpandpointies; 07-13-2021 at 05:18 AM.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  5. #5
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Ninja'ed by Pendaran.

    As noted, basically it boils down to 'these things are shorthand, they're not evidence in and of themselves'.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  6. #6
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    As a side note, I will NOT be adding Arrow-Timer or Laser-Timer or any other stuff like that, so please don't ask. :(
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  7. #7
    Prince of Duckness Beadle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    As a side note, I will NOT be adding Arrow-Timer or Laser-Timer or any other stuff like that, so please don't ask.
    Egg-Timer: A device used for timing how long an egg should be boiled for.

  8. #8
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    You. Out.

    :)
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  9. #9
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beadle View Post
    Egg-Timer: A device used for timing how long an egg should be boiled for.
    Fernbuster - Dr. Strange post-Classic levels of power. A term coined by a mysterious poster.
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

    Arx Inosaan

  10. #10
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    ....I can see this is going to be a never-ending cavalcade of 'You. Out.'
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  11. #11
    Mokkori... FrenchGemini's Avatar
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    No-brainer: Shorthand for people able to push nosebones into brains?... I think a lot of your Berserk Buttons are going to be pushed in this thread, indeed.

  12. #12
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Sharp's Wife - The woman who is going to murder us all shortly,
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

    Arx Inosaan

  13. #13
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FrenchGemini View Post
    No-brainer: Shorthand for people able to push nosebones into brains?... I think a lot of your Berserk Butntons are going to be pushed in this thread, indeed.
    And then I thought, 'I set myself up for this, didn't I?'

    Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
    Sharp's Wife - The woman who is going to murder us all shortly,
    Too busy laughing at me, I suspect.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  14. #14
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    No Curbstomp?
    Original join date: 11/23/2004
    Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.

  15. #15
    Extraordinary Member Derek Metaltron's Avatar
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    Wonder if a situation where a character will (apparently) always win if they have prep time should be called Batprep? Owning to the character it generally gets connected to. Might need a more detailed explanation but that's my take.

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