Blorbs and Blorbos - An Informal Etymology

Blorb (noun) - as in "This hex crawl is a full Blorb" - Popularized by The Blorb Principles

A bespoke highly prepped world that lacks a direct, mandatory narrative players are expected to experience. When a thing is Blorbed or when your run a Blorby game you prep a living breathing reactive area (whether it be a dungeon, village, island or galaxy), rather than plot beats for players to bounce between. When running you attempt to be reactive to the players rather than guiding them through scenarios to react to. Typically Blorb is a highly sandbox style and focuses on high player interactivity and low GM / narrative interference. Heavily associated with the OSR style of design. If you'd like to see what Blorb looks like in a game or module respectively, go check out Sinjin and Hiss.

Blorbo (noun) - as in "Noooo, my Blorbo can't die!" - Similar: OC (Original Character) - See also TTRPGs as a Terrarium for my Blorbos

The term (allegedly originating from the annals of Tumblr) is meant to refer to a player's original character who they may have pre-prepared story beats and ideas about. In its primeval form it was used to refer to a person's favorite lil guy from a piece of media (ex; "Blorbo form my shows") though in the context of TTRPGs that beloved character is from the player's own mind. [[For a more detailed breakdown check out Traverse Fantasy's post on it!]] Blorbo also implies a degree of attachment to the Original Character and a disinterest in letting their fate be decided by mere chance and emergent systems. Typically playing a Blorbo game involves a heavy focus on player OCs and their story, rather than interacting with an open sandbox world.

Blorbo is when a player has a highly detailed prewritten character.

Blorb is when the GM has a highly detailed prewritten setting.

While designed for different goals, the two Blors are far from incompatible. Cyberpunk 2020 is a good example of a system designed to create a believable reactive world rife for emergent gameplay, while also featuring a character generation system that functionally steps you through making a Blorbo.