Vernacular
The slang, checked against the corebook's own glossary, plus the words this city added.
Slang does more work than description. A character who says chummer has been placed without a paragraph. Use it lightly, a couple of terms a scene rather than a dialect, and never gloss it in-fiction: people don't explain their own vocabulary.
Everything in the first table is the corebook's, at printed pages 17 and 18. The second table is words the books use in running text without listing them. The third is ours.
Vernacular
The corebook's own glossary
| Term | Means |
|---|---|
| chip truth | the truth, flatly |
| chipped | enhanced by cyberware: senses, reflexes, muscle, skills |
| chrome | cyberware, especially the obvious kind |
| chummer | friend, in the sense of pal or buddy |
| comm | a commlink, which is the phone, the computer, the music and the rest |
| cred | money, and separately reputation |
| dataslave | a corporate decker, or anybody else processing data for a salary |
| deckhead | a simsense abuser |
| drek | the workhorse profanity |
| dumpshock | what being thrown out of the Matrix mid-run does to you |
| exec | a corporate executive |
| frag | the other workhorse profanity, and the usual intensifier |
| geek | to kill |
| hoi | hello, from the Dutch |
| ice | security software, from intrusion countermeasures |
| jack in / jack out | connect to, or disconnect from, the Matrix or a device |
| meat | the body, and by extension the physical world |
| mojo | magic, or a spell. Caribbean |
| Mr. Johnson | an anonymous employer, whoever they turn out to be |
| mundane | not a magician. Rude |
| nutrisoy | cheap processed soy, which is most of what most people eat |
| nuyen | the currency |
| omae | a close friend, from the Japanese, and usable sarcastically |
| pawns | Knight Errant officers |
| paydata | a datafile somebody will buy |
| plex | a metroplex |
| razorboy / razorgirl | somebody built for combat, extensively |
| samurai | muscle for hire, with the implication of a code or a reputation |
| sarariman | a corporate employee, from a mispronounced salaryman |
| simsense | a recording of what a nervous system did. See Simsense |
| SIN | System Identification Number |
| SINless | without one. See The Basics |
| SINner | somebody who has one, with the second meaning of an honest person |
| soykaf | coffee that isn't, made from soy |
| spider | the decker or rigger minding a host or a building's security |
| sprawl | a metroplex, and as a verb, to slum |
| the Star | Lone Star |
| suit | anybody with a management job |
| tinman | a Lone Star officer, after the grey badge |
| trideo / trid | what television turned into |
| vatjob | somebody rebuilt far enough that they spent time in the tank |
| wagemage | a magician on a corporate payroll |
| wired | fitted with cyberware, reflexes especially |
| wizworm | a dragon |
In the books, but not in the glossary
Attested in the corebook or the stretch goals as running text rather than as glossary entries. Safe to use, and worth knowing they aren't on the official list.
| Term | Means |
|---|---|
| the face | the crew member who talks. Used throughout the rules text |
| fixer | the broker who finds work and takes a cut |
| credstick | how money moves |
| hot-sim | full-bandwidth Matrix immersion. Always hyphenated in the books |
| black IC | the kind that kills you |
| BTL | Better-Than-Life, the chips people burn themselves out on. chiphead for the addicted |
| street doc | the surgeon who doesn't ask |
| talismonger | magical supply |
| wageslave | somebody with a SIN and a badge |
| milk run | a job that sounds easy. Nobody says it sincerely |
| wetwork | killing, as a line item |
| DocWagon | medical extraction on subscription, and naming your tier is a flex. CrashCart is the cheap rival |
| paracritter | the Awakened bestiary |
| wiz, wizzer | excellent. Dated by 2060, which is why older runners say it |
| scan | understand. You scan? |
| bug | insect spirit. Said quietly, if at all |
| geek the mage first | proverbial, and printed as such |
Los Angeles, 2060
Ours. Nobody outside this city would know them.
| Term | Means |
|---|---|
| stack | a subdivided building: one address, one riser, one pump, forty households |
| the Tide | the Green Tide of 2056, never given its full name by anyone who lived through it |
| El Infierno | the cordon around the poisoned coast: harbour, refinery belt, wetlands, and the beach cities. One name for the refineries and the beachfront, which is the whole point |
| ash country | the burned, uninsurable canyon belt where the money used to be |
| the cuts | the six ways through the Santa Monica bluff, all gated since 2056 |
| thirty-four | an oceanwide floor used as an address, and by extension any meet that costs you a climb |
| day permit | a Pueblo weekend crossing, and the people holding one |
| going over the docks | moving cargo through the port rather than by air |
| the Blue Line | the A Line, which has been its actual name since 2020 and is what every sign says. Nobody says it. Same for the E Line, which everybody calls the Expo. Letters are printed; colours are spoken: the signage hasn't been replaced since the Games and the trains are still painted |
Slurs
They exist and they are handled per the portrayal audit. The corebook glossary carries dandelion eater and pixie for elves, squishy for anything smaller than an ork, and trog and tusker for orks and trolls; halfer for dwarfs turns up in the stretch goals. They come out of named NPCs' mouths with intent, never as table banter and never as scene-setting colour. If a slur isn't doing characterisation work, it isn't in the scene.