Admin. Someone on the server who can ban a player, also known as "the guy who can ban you" or "he who makes the rules" or "the guy who if he talks, you should probably listen."
Armor. Quake features 3 kinds of armor. Green Armor gives 100 armor and absorbs 40% of damage, Yellow Armor gives 150 armor and absorbs 60% of damage, and Red Armor gives 200 armor and absorbs 80% of damage.
Banned. When a player breaks the rules at a server, it often results in the administrator banning the player, usually temporarily. Typical reasons for being banned include, but are not limited to, being very discourteous to other players or dominating the server (winning numerous games in a row by a wide margin and not leaving). In the early days, another reason for being banned was "beating the admin"
Bind. A key that does something automatically, in Quake you can custom define keys in your configuration file. Typically something like a bind to have a key use the hook, select a weapon or say an expression ("Owned!"
Camper. Refers to a player who usually stays in a single well defended area and attacks off-guard players, often in an area that is likely to have poorly armed players or heavy fighting. Grapple camping involves clinging to a ceiling and attacking players as they enter the room. Spawn camping is attacking players with no armor or weapons (they have none, because they just were fragged).
Chat Spam. Talking a lot during a game, especially saying the same thing repeatedly using a bind.
Config. Your configuration file, either quake\id1\config.cfg or quake\id1\autoexec.cfg. These files can be manually edited to set keys or turn on/off Quake settings using Notepad or another text editor. These are simple text files.
Frag. When a player dies. You have been fragged.
Gib. Not a commonly used term, but if you get fragged and have less than -40 health on death, your Quake guy will explode into pieces instead of gracefully falling to the floor and leaving a body. You have been gibbed.
Grappling Hook. A hook used to navigate a map, one fires the hook at a wall or ceiling and then draws himself towards that location. Typically used by either pressing 1 twice (the default axe key) or by binding +hook to a key.
Grenade Spam. Throwing grenade after grenade non-stop, sometimes racking up a lot of effortless frags. Some servers are configured to prohibit this.
Health. A player typical starts at 100 health and is fragged if health reaches zero or below. Health can exceed 100 by getting mega-health boxes.
Lag. When a player''s Quake either is not able to communicate with the server for a few seconds or does so very poorly. Usually this is due to your internet connection quality going poor for a moment, and mostly the domain of dialup connections.
Can be caused by the quality of your ISP or internet connection, but frequent lag on a broadband connection with every Quake server is probably something on your end (usually too many background apps eating CPU cycles, stressing out your computer by doing something too fancy with video settings/fps/screen resolution, or a bad setting or an application using the internet like an instant messenger or filesharing app).
Keyboarder. A player that uses solely the keyboard to play Quake and does not use the mouse for aim. Mouse users in most circumstances have a much easier time aiming and better aim overall, although there are a few good keyboarders, with BIG emphasis on the word "few".
Ping. The speed your Quake is communicating with the server in milliseconds. Lower is better. Dialup users tend to have pings of 200 ms or higher and don''t get as much time to react to rockets and other players. Broadband users tend to have sub-100 ms pings.
Your ISP determines most of this, the rest is determined by you (what do you have running in the background using CPU cycles or communicating with the internet, IM clients, etc.)
Splash Damage. Taking radius damage by the explosion of a rocket or grenade that was not a direct hit.
Spawn. A player that has just been fragged and has respawned. Typically a respawned player has no armor or weapons and is an easy target. Often the target of campers.
Vote! Typically a player hates the map and wants other players to vote for a different map, although sometimes a vote can be for something other than the map. On most servers that allow voting, you either type "vote-exit" or "yes" to vote in the Quake console. "Warp" is used to initiate a map change vote in some mods.
Weapons. Standard Quake weapons are the axe, the shotgun, the super shotgun, the nail gun, the super nail gun, the grenade launcher, the rocket launcher and the lightning gun. Some mods have additional weapons available (flame gun, etc.)
Abbreviations.
AFK. Away from keyboard.
BFG. Big F****** Gun. A weapon available in the Rune Quake mod typically by pressing 8 twice (the default lightning gun key). Does a lot of damage, requires a lot of cells. This weapon largely only exists on Rune Quake servers.
CTF. Capture the Flag. A team play mod where the primary objective is to get the other team''s flag and return it to your base.
CA. Clan Arena. It is a hookless mod with rounds that last until only 1 player or team remains. Players start with 200 armor and 100 health and all weapons and an ample, but not unlimited, supply of ammo.
CRMOD. Clan Ring Modification. A sophisticated and versatile deathmatch mod that provides numerous features for competitive or non-competitive play.
FFA. Free for all. Means every player for himself or herself. A game where every player tries to frag every other player to win. Opposite = team play.
FVF. Future Versus Fantasy. A mod featuring several different classes of players with different modes like cooperative against the monsters.
GG. Good game.
GL. Grenade launcher.
HPB. High ping bastard. General term for anyone with 200 ping or higher, regardless of skill level. Typically a dial-up modem user (you would hope ).
IHOC. Can refer to the primary server running the mod or the mod itself, a game where players spawn with armor and all weapons, have grappling hook and a jetpack and a limited number of runes (strength, resistance, etc.). Stands for International House of Cheese.
I GOT THE FLAG!!! You got the flag.
LG. Lightning gun. A continuous instant damage weapon with a limited range.
LPB. Low ping Bastard. Term for any player typically with under 100 ping. Typically a cable or DSL player. Before broadband was common, often LPBs could dominate a game regardless of skill due to a faster, higher quality connection.
MOD. A Quake modification, can refer to single player expansion packs (such as Scourge of Armageddon) or to multiplayer mods (such as CRMOD or Future Vs. Fantasy). This term is infrequently used to describe an advanced Quake client release (JoeQuake, Tenebrae, aRQ-Lite).
OBS. Observer. A player who is on a server but not participating and is watching the game.
RA. Red armor. An example of an expression is "Camping the RA".
RA. Rocket Arena. A mod where two players have full weapons and armor and an ample supply of ammo and the survivor wins the round and plays against the next challenger.
RL. Rocket launcher. Weapon 7.
RJ. Rocket jump. Using the rocket launcher combined with jumping to get an abnormally long/high/fast jump. Important for map navigation on servers without grappling hooks.
RQ. Rune Quake. A popular mod featuring several dozen different runes (fire traps, shambler, double damage, etc.).
SNG. Super nail gun. Known as weapon 5.
SSG. Super shotgun. Known as weapon 3.