Help:Glossary

0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

0–9

A

Action Economy

The number of actions each PC or NPC gets during a combat or other time-sensitive event. Almost inevitably causes problems if the number of actions available to one character, or one side, is greater than the other. Typical problems include a weaker but faster character effectively being stronger than a strength-based character because they can attack twice in the same amount of time, or a boss monster which has no chance of winning against a group of PCs but is likely to utterly annihilate one of them with the one action it gets between the four/five actions from PCs.

Adventure

A brief story formed of connected plot points that can be played through within one or two sessions. You can obtain pre-written adventures for many role-playing game systems. A longer story, sometimes comprised of many adventures, is called a campaign.

B

C

Campaign

A long-term, overarching story that takes place over numerous sessions. Notoriously difficult to finish in a satisfactory manner.

CCG

Stands for Collectible Card Game. Examples include Magic: The Gathering. CCGs are played using specially designed sets of cards that allow for specific strategies.

Character sheet

One or more pieces of paper that covers the various details of a character, including their various ability scores, skills, combat statistics, backstory and so on. Digital character sheets, being paperless, are usually in plain text to make copy-pasting and updating much easier.

Class

A class-based system divides up player character choices into specific, separate archetypes. A player's choice of character class quite often determines your combat abilities, skills and may impose other restrictions.

D

Dice

Polyhedral objects used to generate random numbers, and used in most role-playing games. In most rulebooks they will be represented as d#, where # is the number of sides. Ergo twenty-sided dice are called d20s, eight-sided dice are called d8s, and so on. The one exception to this seems to be the d100, which is typically two ten-sided dice - one for the tens, one for the units.

Dungeon

A location that contains both danger and reward for player characters. Though traditionally a subterranean structure, anything can be a dungeon: a laboratory, an office block, an abandoned spaceship, the fossilised intestines of some long-dead primordial god. As long as there is something worth venturing in for, and something in there protecting it, it can be considered a dungeon.

Dungeon crawl

A type of adventure where the party has to navigate their way through a dungeon, avoiding or overcoming all obstacles in their way. Despite being fairly simplistic, they can still be enjoyable.

E

F

G

GM

Short for Game Master, the person who acts as moderator and facilitator for a role-playing game. Their job is usually to apply the rules, to make rulings and judgments when necessary, and to play the NPCs. They may also create the scenario or world that the game takes place in. Can have different names in different systems, such as Dungeon Master, Storyteller, Narrator, and Mister Cavern.

GMPC

A GM's player character. The ideal GMPC rounds out an undersized party, providing a non-crucial role that does not steal the spotlight, and will bow out if the roster becomes full. Not every GMPC is an ideal one.

Grognard

Derived from the French for "grumbler", but usually pronounced with a hard G in a tabletop context. Once used by wargamers to refer to themselves, after the informal nickname for the veteran soldiers of Napoleon's army. Now has come to mean general tabletop gamers who are often socially regressive and unpleasant to be around.

Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax, one of the creators of the original D&D, and arguably one of the initial founders of the hobby. Has become something like a saintly figure among certain gamers, who trust that they know exactly what "Gary would have wanted" which is only by pure coincidence exactly what they themselves want.

Gygaxian naturalism

The idea that you can build an ecology out of unnatural monsters inhabiting abandoned ruins. Rather than making an actual ecology with a food chain and so forth, it's mostly used as an excuse to invent new monsters to punish players for wanting to have fun.

H

I

Inn

Where most adventures begin. Staffed by a gruff innkeeper and some serving wenches, none of whom can move for the sheer number of mysterious strangers sitting in shadowy corners all over the place, waiting around for someone to approach them so they can begin handing out directions to the nearest dungeon.

J

Johnson

The Shadowrun term for the corporate contacts who hire the player characters for less-than-legal jobs, often styled as Mr. Johnson. A forgettable face in an unremarkable suit, with no ties to the corporation who would benefit the most from this job. Plausible deniability is every Johnson's byword.

K

L

M

Miniature

Often abbreviated to "mini". A small model of a character, creature or vehicle. They are typically made from plastic or pewter, and can either come painted or unpainted. Some wargames involve painting and putting together miniatures that go on to become your army, making it as much of an artistic hobby as a nerdy one.

N

NPC

A non-player character, as opposed to a PC or player character. NPCs are controlled by the GM (but are not GMPCs) and can be anything from a horrible monster to a helpful ally.

O

OSR

The Old School Rules. Or possibly Renaissance. Revival? Renewal? Despite having an acronym that nobody can quite agree on what it stands for, the OSR manages to share the belief that tabletop game design peaked around 1980 at the latest. Attracts a lot of grognards and other undesirable types, including several actual fascists.

Owlbear

Owl up front, bear in the back, all business.

P

Party

A group of player characters, usually working together toward a common goal.

PC

A player character, as opposed to an NPC or non-player character. Their actions are controlled by one of the players in the game. Usually each player gets only a single PC, but this is not true for all systems.

Q

R

RPG

Role-Playing Game.

S

Splat

A trait of a character that is chosen from a fixed list; or, more specifically, a character's membership in a group that defines their identity and capabilities. Different from a Class in that a Splat is typically also an actual social organization to which the PC belongs, for example a clan of vampires.

Splatbook

A supplementary book for a role-playing game, most often covering one particular subject. Their contents can vary in terms of quality and quantity. Too many splatbooks for one system can turn the game unstable. Came from White Wolf and their tendency to publish "kithbooks", "clanbooks", "tribebooks", etc, which were together referred to as "splatbooks".

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure; a task carried out so often and so predictably by PCs that it no longer needs to be described at the table. A typical issue with OSR games in which players are often expected to describe every step of searching a hazardous dungeon; while announcing that your PC is poking every tile ahead with a 10' wooden pole to check for pits and hammering spikes into door hinges to prevent the doors closing behind them might provide exciting immersion for the first few games, it becomes rather tedious on the twentieth dungeon.

T

TRPG or TTRPG

Tabletop, or possibly Tactical or Table Talk, Role Playing Game. Usually used to distinguish tabletop based RPGs from purely computer-based ones such as Baldur's Gate. Just to keep everyone confused, some groups prefer to use RPG to mean only TRPGs, and CRPG to mean computer-based ones.

U

V

W

X

Y

Z