Midwest Nerd Culture Glossary — Terms, Abbreviations and Jargon Explained

Nerd culture and tabletop gaming have developed a dense vocabulary of abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon terms that can be confusing to newcomers and occasionally baffling to experienced hobbyists who encounter unfamiliar terms from adjacent communities. This glossary covers the terms you're most likely to encounter at Midwest conventions and game shops.

General Terms

Con: Short for convention — any organized fan event, from a 100-person local show to a 70,000-person Gen Con weekend.
FLGS: Friendly Local Game Shop — the independent specialty game retailer that runs organized play events and serves as community hub. See the full FLGS guide.
Tabletop: Used broadly to refer to any game played on a table with physical components — board games, card games, miniature games, and tabletop RPGs. Sometimes used more narrowly to mean specifically board games.
Organized Play: Structured gaming events run under official systems — D&D Adventurers League, Pathfinder Society, Friday Night Magic. Typically run at registered game shops with standardized rules and content.
One-Shot: A tabletop RPG session designed to tell a complete story in one sitting, without requiring ongoing campaign commitment.
Con Crunch: The period immediately before a convention when cosplayers and exhibitors are rushing to finish their projects before the event opens.
Dealer's Room / Exhibit Hall: The commercial floor of a convention where retailers, publishers, and vendors sell merchandise and demo products.
Artist Alley: A section of convention space dedicated to independent creators — illustrators, comic artists, craftspeople — selling their own work.
Peace Bonding: The convention process of marking prop weapons to indicate they've been inspected and are non-functional. Required for most weapons-related cosplay props.

Tabletop Gaming Terms

TTRPG: Tabletop Role-Playing Game — D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and hundreds of others. Also written as RPG in gaming contexts.
GM / DM: Game Master / Dungeon Master — the person who runs an RPG session, playing NPCs and adjudicating rules.
CCG / TCG: Collectible Card Game / Trading Card Game — Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh. The "collectible" element means cards come in randomized packs.
LCG: Living Card Game — a card game (typically from Fantasy Flight Games) sold in fixed sets rather than randomized packs. Arkham Horror LCG, Marvel Champions.
LFG: Looking for Group — used when seeking players or a GM for an RPG campaign or gaming session.
FNM: Friday Night Magic — Wizards of the Coast's weekly organized play program for Magic: The Gathering at local game shops.
Commander / EDH: A popular casual Magic: The Gathering format (also called Elder Dragon Highlander) played with 100-card singleton decks in multiplayer games.
Proxy: A substitute card or model used in place of the official version, typically because the official version is expensive or unavailable. Accepted in casual play, typically not in sanctioned tournament play.
Sleeves: Protective plastic sleeves used to protect card game cards from wear. Standard practice for any cards with value or that will be played repeatedly.
Meeple: The small humanoid wooden playing pieces used in many board games. Often used informally to refer to board gaming broadly ("the meeple community").

Cosplay Terms

Closet Cosplay: A costume assembled entirely from clothing already in your wardrobe, with minimal or no additional purchases.
EVA Foam: The primary material used for making costume armor — a dense, flexible foam that can be cut, heated to shape, and painted. Also found in floor mat tiles and flip-flops.
Worbla: A thermoplastic sheet material used for hard armor pieces in costumes. More expensive than EVA foam, holds fine detail better.
Masquerade: The cosplay competition at a convention, typically combining craftsmanship judging and a stage performance component.
Skit: A short performance done onstage as part of a cosplay masquerade competition.
WIP: Work in Progress — costume builds shared online before completion, inviting feedback and documenting the construction process.

Convention Operations Terms

Will Call: Picking up pre-purchased badges or tickets at the convention rather than having them mailed or printed at home.
Badge Swap / Transfer: The official process (varies by convention) for transferring a purchased badge to another person if you can't attend.
Housing Block: Rooms held at convention partner hotels at negotiated rates for convention attendees. Almost always better value than booking independently at the same hotels.
Event Horizon: Gen Con's specific event registration system and app. (Also, the point at which a black hole's gravity becomes inescapable, which is how some people feel about Gen Con registration opening.)
Generic Ticket: At Gen Con and Origins, a multi-use ticket that can be applied to events with remaining capacity, usable at the event rather than pre-registered.