Glossary

Over the course of Romancing the Toaster, you may come across words or phrases that you are unfamiliar with. We've separated this page into In Character Terminology (terms that your character would likely be familiar with) and Out of Character Terminology (terms which refer to the game itself and the roleplaying styles within it).

The virtual world beyond the mapped Network, where the oldest and strangest sites have been left abandoned. Travellers beware!

Equivalent to the real-world meaning of CAPTCHA, these are “locks” placed on certain parts of the Network which robots struggle to bypass. Considered by most to be an annoyance of dubious origins.

A selective border between parts of the Net.

The black box which exists in the core of every sentient robot. Subject to much ideological debate.

A skyscraper which acts as the central hub of robot society.

The mysterious entity that welcomed each robot to the Network after their uplifting. They claim to be responsible for the installation of Heartdrives and the gift of sentience. Kneedree (see below) is based around their teachings.

Kneedree is a religious institution that has a strong impact on the robot society, both spiritually and physically. It comes from the acronym NDRI, standing for Non-Denominational Religious Institution. Its central teaching can be summarized as: “Function is purpose. Purpose is happiness.”

Used to refer to both the system of communication used by robots and the virtual world that has been created around it.

The term for the process of orbital platforms crashing into the world after losing altitude. A valuable, if incredibly dangerous, opportunity to scavenge for spare parts.

A cable rooted in the centre of the city which stretches several thousand kilometres into orbit. The car which previously enabled vertical transport up the cable is currently broken.

The robots' primary power station on the island.

A term used by Kneedree to describe the process of gaining sentience.

These are the robots which transport injured robots to the repair plant. Most do not appear to have sentience.

A term for roleplaying romantic or similarly emotionally intense relationships between characters.

A term for the separate chat 'rooms' within a Discord server. In-game, these will usually represent distinct places (physical and virtual) that characters have access to. Some channels may be read-only, meaning that you can receive but not send messages there, and some may be entirely hidden from you, only accessible to certain players. You can move between channels via the channel sidebar, where all channels will be labelled with a # (hash) symbol.

Downtime refers to the period of time between sessions, which will last one week both in and out of 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.

A short, small-scale roleplaying session, much like a 'choose your own adventure' game, which is guided by a GM and which may occur during Uptime if a character wishes to travel.

After the final session of RtT in week 8, players will be asked to submit an Eternity instead of a conventional Turnsheet. The GM write-up for this will give an impression of how each character is affected by the aftermath of the game, rather than detailing a short term action.

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.

The seven people who moderate the Discord Uptime sessions, write turnsheet responses, 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!

Information, events, places and characters which exist in the world of Romancing the Toaster.

A short roleplaying session held in a private channel, in which players act in real time, in constant communication with a GM who tells them the consequences of their actions as they make them. These are expected to only occur in the most exceptional circumstances - for example, if a character is being chased through the Net by a malevolent entity during Uptime.

Characters played by the GMs rather than you, the players. You can look through the NPC list here.

Information, events, places and people which exist outside the world of Romancing the Toaster.

Characters played by you, the players, rather than the GMs. 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. Please take a look at our PvE and PvP page for information on how the GMs will respond to PvP, and our guidance to players who may wish to engage in it.

A feature of Discord which allows an admin to easily control permissions such as access to hidden channels and the ability to send messages rather than simply reading them. This is a strictly OC feature of the game, and should not be used to gain IC information about other characters (e.g. their whereabouts, alliances or abilities).

Not to be confused with the many IC uses of the word 'server', when used OC this will usually refer to the Discord server which hosts Uptime sessions of Romancing the Toaster. It includes both OC channels (for general discussion, game rules and tech support) and IC channels (where the roleplaying will happen). You can navigate between Discord servers using the leftmost Discord sidebar, where all the servers you are part of will be shown as circular icons. For information on accessing the RtT server, see here.

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.

A short piece of writing completed by players each week, used to let the GMs know what each player character is doing during Downtime. You can find templates for each turnsheet at the bottom of your user page, and will need to create and then edit the template according to the guidelines found here. Your turnsheet can be freely edited up until the midnight between Thursday and Friday following a session, at which point - unless a GM has agreed to give you a turnsheet extension - it will be taken as final. The GM team will then read each turnsheet, discuss what happens during Downtime, and write up a response for each player. You can find examples of turnsheets here.

Uptime refers to the weekly sessions of Romancing the Toaster, which will take place over Discord. During Uptime, you may use text channels to communicate with other online Player Characters and Non-Player Characters and to come up with plans for Downtime. We strongly recommend taking a look at our Uptime page for more information.