Glossary

But, like an organism, all languages grow, diverge, evolve, and hybridise, leaving books like this one to sit, idle and unused, abandoned by the passage of time. Nevertheless, I hope this short handbook will be a worthy guide for the contemporary user. And to you from the hazy horizon of the future, may you read these words and remember us.

– An extract from the introduction to A Concise Guide to Carto-speak, First Edition.

Over the course of Ventures, you may come across words or phrases that you are unfamiliar with. This page mainly contains OURPGSoc Terms (information, events, places, and people which exist in the real world, i.e. outside the world of Ventures), but there are a few Setting Terms (terms which the refer to things in the world of Ventures), as well as some General Science Terms, indicating the meaning of certain scientific words that come up frequently. There are also Uptime Terms, which are useful calls that may be used by a player or GM to convey important information or requests during Uptime.

A term for roleplaying romantic or similarly emotionally intense relationships between characters. This should be checked OC with other players or GMs involved before beginning. NPCs will not initiate ballgowning with player characters unless they have the "Romance Me" Quirk.

Someone who serves the role of GM but either in a more limited capacity, for fewer sessions, or both. At present, there are no Cameo GMs in Ventures.

The CAMPaign Organiser, the person responsible for coming up with the idea of a society game and consequently leading it. Our CAMPO is Harry W.

Assistant gamerunners who take direction from the GMs, or people who want to play the game with less commitment than a full player. In Ventures they can either be Narrative focused or Personal focused. Narrative Crew receive a brief detailing an important NPC that they then play over the course of the game, whereas Personal Crew are free to create their own character, playing the game much more like a player, but without submitting Turnsheets. For more information on what crew might get up to, see Crewing. For our current crew, see the Crew List.

The debrief is an OC session after the game is over. In the debrief, the GMs and players discuss the game. Players will have the opportunity to share what they got up to during the game, and GMs can share “behind the scenes” details about the game. This will take place in person after the final session. See When and Where for more details.

Downtime refers to the period of time between sessions, which will last one quarter of a year in character. During Downtime, you may finalise your plans with other characters by email if you wish, though the key part of Downtime is the Turnsheet. We strongly recommend taking a look at our Downtime page for more information.

Short for 'don't worry about it' - a tongue-in-cheek phrase commonly used in OURPGSoc as a light-hearted response to player questions that don’t require an answer, particularly useful when you want to leave them in just a little bit of doubt as to whether or not they really ought to worry about it.

A writeup by the GMs about what happens to a character after the end of the game. Writeups for this include broad-scale descriptions about the progress of the galaxy and the characters' lives, as opposed to describing specific actions. Players are also welcome to submit personal eternities, although these are subject to GM approval.

A term for the non-mechanical aspects of a game which add flavour and nuance. Think along the lines of character backstories, casual interactions between characters, and building up your personal narrative around the basic mechanics of the game.

Short for ‘find out in play’, a response you may get to questions to which the answer is intended to be found out in the course of playing Ventures.

The nine people who moderate the Uptime sessions, read through your Turnsheet submissions, keep the Wiki up to date, and generally run the game. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions, or take a look at our page if you'd like to learn more about us!

These terms are used to describe events, places, and people which exist within the world of Ventures (IC) or in real life (OC).

Can also be used to flag whether you're mentioning something out-of-character (OC) e.g. a question in an email to GMs, or indicating the emotional intensity of an email thread is getting too much and could others please tone it down slightly.

The gesture for indicating that you are dropping OC during Uptime involves raising your index and middle fingers on one hand.

Metagaming is the practice of using OC knowledge to determine the course of your character's actions, for example by finding out a character's plans or schemes through a conversation at the pub after a session. While we understand that such knowledge may be acquired unintentionally, we trust players not to abuse it.

Characters played by the GMs or by Crew members rather than by current players. Some NPCS are listed here and in various setting pages on this wiki.

Short for physical representation, this term refers to accessories/outfits worn by players to represent their characters. For Ventures, physrep is completely optional.

Characters played by the players rather than the GMs or Crew members. You can look through the PC list here.

Terms describing the types of conflict which a character may face. PvE (Player versus Environment) refers to conflict between a Player Character and the world around them, while PvP (Player versus Player) refers to conflict between individual Player Characters. Due to IC restrictions (and OC limitations), PvP will not happen during sessions.

A piece of writing the players submits to GMs with information about their Downtime, and the plans for the remaining quarter of a year in-character. Templates for these can be found at the bottom of your user page, and should be completed by Thursday 11.59PM after an Uptime session, unless you have asked for and been given an extension by a GM. Each turnsheet will receive a writeup, detailing the events that happened in it.

Turnsheets in Ventures are much larger in scope than other recent society games, with much longer to do them in-character. For more about what is involved in a turnsheet, take a look here.

Uptime refers to the fortnightly sessions of Ventures, which will take place in person. During uptime, you will be roleplaying as your character in the quarterly meetings on the Cartographers' Guild Station. We strongly recommend taking a look at our Uptime and Sessions page for more information.

Androids are sapient robots designed to resemble living creatures. They have a wide range of appearances, but all can be considered sapient and capable of consciousness.

The Balra are a sapient species native to the planet Corico. Physically, they are a bipedal, reptilian-like species, with poison glands nestled in the frills of their neck.

The inciting incident for Ventures is the discovery of faster-than-light (FTL) travel, which enables travel in specially designed spaceships in hours to places that are several light-years away. This invention was made by researchers working with the Cartographers' Guild.

The Rissi are bipedal, avian-like beings native to the planet Kallimar. While they have long feathers across their arms, tailfeathers, and a feathered plume between bony crests above the brow, the remaining feathers are short.

The Sailors are the ammonia-based inhabitants of the Thousand Colours Moon. They resemble octopodes, and use bipedal suits to survive in most environments.

Also known as “the Cartographers” or sometimes just “the Guild”, a spacefaring organisation dedicated towards mapping out and learning about the galaxy. At the start of the game, all player characters are assumed to have membership or association with them, and are able to use their technology. In character, Uptimes take place on board the main station used by the Cartographers.

The Xhuva are not technically a species, but refer to the various bipedal lifeforms that emerged from experiments performed by the Rissi to uplift pre-sapient life. As such, they have a wider range of appearances.

Since many real-world units have a basis in real-world definitions, many commonly used units have been recontextualised to fit the canon of the Ventures universe. As a rule of thumb, metric units will be used as standard, with a few special cases.

• Days and Years are defined by the rotation of the Cartographers' Guild space station.
• If on another celestial body, “rotation” and “cycle” will be used to mean that body's day and year, respectively.
• Minutes, hours, weeks, and months will not be used.

The Asteropause is the physical 'border' of a Star System. Space within the Asteropause is considered part of the Star System, while space external to it is considered Interstellar Space.

The time it takes for a planet to complete a full revolution around the star it is orbiting. This time is different for each planet.

A collection of stars, dust, and other celestial objects, all bound together under gravity. Galaxies contain 100 million stars on average and might have a diameter of around 100 thousand light years, but can vary significantly. They tend to be millions of light years apart from each other.

The distance that light can travel within a year. Sometimes abbreviated to “ly”.

A celestial body that orbits around a star, but is not itself a star. These typically have enough mass that they are approximately spherical, under their own gravity. Unlike in the real world, there is no distinction between a planet and an exoplanet: if it orbits around any star, it is considered a planet.

Planets are often (but not always) named according to the star they orbit around. For example, the 3rd planet out orbiting around the star Sol would be called “Sol 3”.

The time it takes for a planet to make a complete rotation on its axis. This time is different for each planet.
For planets that are tidally locked, this time might be the same as the time it takes to do a complete loop around the star (1 cycle).

The capacity for thought, reasoning, and rational decision making. Sapience is the criterion for if a creature is “aware” and has a consciousness. Not to be confused with sentience, which refers to the ability to percieve and respond to your environment, but does not necessarily indicate a higher awareness.

For OC reasons, you can assume that every playable species in Ventures is sapient.

Typically refers to a group of individuals capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring, but it is also used here to refer to the various options available at character creation (which includes Xhuva and Androids, which aren't technically species).
The term “species” is preferred over the term “race”, to avoid real world associations.

A celestial body that generates light, consisting of a cloud of gas held together under its own gravity.

A collection involving a star and all the celestial bodies that orbit around it. The system is named after the star(s) at the centre. For example, the system with Sol at the centre would be called “the Sol System”. The star at the centre can be called the “sun” for that system.

A call used by GMs at the start of session, or after “time out” has been called, to indicate that everyone should begin acting in-character.

A call used by GMs to indicate that everyone should stop acting in-character and pay attention to the caller. This may be used at the end of a session, or during a session if GMs need to get the whole playerbase's attention or address a problem OC.

This is a safety call meaning 'tone it down', to be used when player interaction is getting too intense and you would like to signal to others to tone it down without shutting down the roleplay altogether. This is particularly important in angry, argument-based scenarios or highly emotional scenarios that deal with sensitive themes.

This is a safety call meaning that the user does not wish to further engage in this topic. Once this call is used, other players may carry on roleplaying, but should treat the player calling Out as if they are not/were never part of the interaction.

This is a safety call meaning that everyone in that conversation must stop roleplaying the current topic. All players hearing this call must stop roleplaying the topic in question. When used by a GM, this may indicate that the topic has strayed into themes which are forbidden in the game.