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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Frag, Drek, Slot etc. (Are they cityspeak?)
Posted by: MJBurrage Oct 8 2009, 08:43 PM
First let me say that I understand that the SR 1-3 curse word substitutes were removed in favour of the common English curse words for SR4 as an editorial decision, and that it not my intent for this thread to devolve into another debate on the merits of that decision.
Rather in a case of retconning said change, it occurred to me that other game elements such as Cityspeak have also become downplayed in the games fiction, and that possibly a connection would explain both from an in universe perspective.
I.E. is it possible that Frag is the Cityspeak word for Fuck, Drek for Shit, etc.? So the switch back to common English swears, fits with the move away from the pink-mohawk punk of the 2050s.
P.S. what exactly did slot mean again as a SR curse word. (This old mans memory does not recall, and my books are not handy)
Posted by: fistandantilus4.0 Oct 8 2009, 09:36 PM
Frag and the like aren't exactly City Speak. Rather, they were the curse words of the time. There's an lder SR novel where a character says "fuck" and is mocked for it, sort of like if you were to say "groovy". It's out dated words. And now Frag has become outdated. Go fig.
City Speak is more of an amalgamation of diferent languages. NeilGaiman's Neverwhere has a good example of City Speak. It's like pidgin, or even ebonics. Someone hearing it that isn't at least a little versed wouldn't understand what the speaker is talking about, except maybe a word or two if they understand the languages being used.
In a city like Seattle, you could expect languages like or'zet or sperethiel tossed in with english, japanese, maybe even a little german or chinese, all tossed in.
Slot -> stuff it , shove it, or cut (slot and run/ cut and run)
Posted by: AK404 Oct 8 2009, 09:38 PM
"Screw," perhaps in the way that "slot" is another word for "fuck," but in a different context.
A bit off-topic, but Cityspeak needs more focus, though the big problem is updating it every five years...or less. The idea of cityspeak would be to separate the native speakers (Barrens folk) from everyone else (corps); some words might extend to the corporate lexicon, but cityspeak will probably evolve faster than non-speakers can keep up.
As an example, I've got a list of cityspeak from Victorian times, and while some of the words I recognize, others are totally unexplainable.
Posted by: Ravor Oct 8 2009, 09:39 PM
If I remember correctly, Blade Runner had an example of what "City Speak" would be considered as well as a banned monolog.
Personally it's always bothered me that City Speak wasn't considered it's own language under the rules as opposed to a mere spec.
Posted by: BookWyrm Oct 9 2009, 03:09 AM
I don't know if Frag, Drek, Slot, ect. would be considered "CitySpeak" but they would have been considered Slang at the time before SR4's removal of them.
CitySpeak isn't defined as a skill, as far as I can see, in the main SR$a rules, but some of the templayes have "English (CitySpeak+2)" in their skillsets.
Yes, Blade Runner had a very good definition of City-Speak in Decker's monolog, not to long into the begining.
Posted by: Degausser Oct 9 2009, 03:26 AM
After reading a lot of fluff text and a few SR novels, this is what I think of when I see those words.
Frag, while it is KINDA a replacement for the F word in English (in that, you can use in similar situations), I took it to mean 'to kill' in a none-too-friendly way. Of course, hyperbole galore, it can be used in other situations. For example, "Did you hear? Frank's fragged once his dad sees his midterm grades." Of course Frank's dad isn't going to kill him over his grades, but he'll be in trouble.
Drek, like Frag, this is KINDA a replacement for the S word, but only in that they can go in the same sentance. I think it technically means trouble.
Slot, Like the man above said. Slot it means shove it, stow it, zip it, whatever. I'd like to think it comes from BTLs. as in "You slot a BTL and shut up, sit down, and be quiet." I have no proof, that just makes sense to me.
Posted by: Dikotana Oct 9 2009, 03:46 AM
SR didn't pull slang out of nowhere. In the real world, particularly in military slang, frag does mean kill, particularly an unpopular officer, and originally with a fragmentation grenade. In SR it's become a complete replacement for profanity.
Drek is pretty much a straight adoption of Yiddish "dreck," which is exactly the same thing. It means both literal shit and crap like garbage. It isn't used as an exclamation in Yiddish, but the etymology is clear.
Slitch is, well, exactly what it sounds like. I imagine it came from combining words.
Slot, at least, is newish. It seems to mean an idiot as a noun, to run any kind of chip as a verb, or, when used as "slot this," more like "get this!"
Posted by: Ravor Oct 9 2009, 03:59 AM
Believe it or not, I've started introducing the word slitch into local usage and have had some small sucess.. 
Posted by: The Stray7 Oct 9 2009, 06:39 AM
Social engineering at work. Horizon may have a job for you...
Posted by: Joe Chummer Oct 9 2009, 10:57 AM
City Speak is more of an amalgamation of diferent languages. NeilGaiman's Neverwhere has a good example of City Speak. It's like pidgin, or even ebonics. Someone hearing it that isn't at least a little versed wouldn't understand what the speaker is talking about, except maybe a word or two if they understand the languages being used.
In a city like Seattle, you could expect languages like or'zet or sperethiel tossed in with english, japanese, maybe even a little german or chinese, all tossed in.
Slot -> stuff it , shove it, or cut (slot and run/ cut and run)
Slot can also refer to a person. "The sammie taped an armed grenade in the poor slot's mouth and then shoved him back into the corp-sec guards, pissing himself with horror."
Slot can also be synonymous with "hosed" or "fragged." "Man, you really slotted that up, didn't you?"
IMO, "slot" is probably the one SR slang word with the most uses and connotations.
Posted by: Joe Chummer Oct 9 2009, 11:05 AM
I could've sworn I saw the word "drek" either in the SR4 Anniversary Edition or in one of the other core splatbooks, which I took as a sign that these words still live (albeit on life support).
But on the other hand, seeing actual swear words in the SR4 fiction and the splatbook shadowspeak just throws me for a loop. It's not that swear words offend me; they're just surreal.
On the third hand, I vividly recall in the first SR novel I ever read, Lone Wolf, that one of the characters (Paco, I think his name was?) says the phrase "Whafuck?" a lot, and that confused the hell out of me.
Posted by: BookWyrm Oct 9 2009, 02:18 PM
I don't recall where the word "drek" was used in SR4a. I'm still going through most of it.
But, like any fad, the words 'drek', 'frag', ect. may have just fallen into relative disuse in the SR-world by the 2070's.
Posted by: Joe Chummer Oct 9 2009, 08:52 PM
But, like any fad, the words 'drek', 'frag', ect. may have just fallen into relative disuse in the SR-world by the 2070's.
I feel like it was in one of the fiction pieces. Other than the how-it-came-to-pass section, not much else in the rules text is written from the perspective of a character.
Posted by: flowswithdrek Oct 9 2009, 11:16 PM
Strangely I often think of that line but cant for the life of me remember the novel. I think the character says something like "How quaint, he actually said fuck"
And they can’t get rid of drek! What am I going to call myself now? flowswith
Posted by: Joe Chummer Oct 10 2009, 02:46 AM
I know how you feel.
I first read the phrase "any Joe Chummer on the street" in one of the old sourcebooks (I vaguely remember it being Corporate Shadowfiles, but I could be wrong), and I've adopted that ever since.
But for some reason, all throughout the SR4 core books, this phrase "Average Joe" keeps cropping up instead.
Posted by: Trench Oct 29 2009, 08:39 AM
If profanity was illegal in a wireless world, all the euphemisms would make perfect sense.
Posted by: Ayeohx Oct 29 2009, 11:03 PM
Use it all! Older folk are still going to use 2050 slang as well as 2072 while the young punks will be using mostly 2072 slang unless the media tells them that 2050 slang is hip again. Hell, use slang from other languages! Mix it up suckas!
Posted by: Link Oct 30 2009, 06:05 AM
Cityspeak was it's own language in 1st and 2nd editions within a special language group, alongside Esperanto and Interlingua. 3rd ed. changed it's status to a Lingo (along with the dubious Legalese).
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