Gaming Terms

Hey all,

This week, I'll be going through some useful gaming terms and acronyms. This post will cover some very basic terms to help explain the hobby to people outside of the tabletop community. Later on, I'm considering more of a "master-class" level explanation that will cover much more obscure and specialist terms for intense hobbyists and developers.

Narrative: The story of a game. This includes the roles played by the players. For example, the narrative of Clue is that a man is dead, and the players assume the role of house guests who must discover the murderer.

Mechanics: The mathematic elements of gameplay. To return to the clue example; rolling two six sided dice to determine how many squares your game piece may move, and the system by which other players are required by the rules to respond to your accusations all contribute to the mechanics of clue.

PVP: (Player versus Player) A style of game in which one or more players will be declared the "winner", and the remaining players will be implied to be the "losers".

Co-operative Play: All or most of the players work together on a single team with the objective of defeating either the game itself, or something similar.

Board Game: A board game is what most people think of when they look at tabletop gaming. Classic examples include Monopoly, Battleship, Parcheesi, Chess, etc. The rules, ideally, are written in a way that ensures that specific rulings apply to any scenario possible within the rules. While the premise may include story elements, the narrative of the game is secondary to the mechanics of play. Typically, board games tend to reward PVP playstyles, but some recent games have adopted a co-operative playstyle in which the players work collaboratively to beat the mechanics of the game.

RPG: (Role-Playing Game) A style of game which involves players creating characters for themselves, and which tends toward co-operative play and a narrative focus. Typically, the game is directed by someone known as the Game Master.

Game Master (a.k.a. Dungeon Master, Storyteller): A person designated to manage a game world for a role-playing game. They create a series of challenges and encounters which all of the other players work together to overcome. The Game Master will usually have a rulebook for the game; however, deviation from these rules is allowed and even encouraged in service of emphasizing narrative over mechanics. 

Tabletop Gaming: A catch-all term for referring to tabletop role-playing games, board games, card games, dice games, etc.

D&D: (Dungeons and Dragons) A role-playing game developed in the early to mid 1970s. It is only one of many tabletop role-playing games, and should not be used synonymously with the hobby as a whole. Non D&D tabletop role-playing games include: World of Darkness, Shadowrun, FATE, GURPS, Pathfinder, Dungeon Squad, Mutants and Masterminds, Legend of the Five Rings, Call of Cthulhu, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Cascade Failure, Argyle and Crew; you get the idea.

Core Book: This is the book that gives the rules necessary for playing a tabletop role playing game.

Sourcebook: These are peripheral books for tabletop role playing game that contain optional rules, settings, and various other changes that may be incorporated into the game in the core book. Some groups will use or not use some or all available sourcebooks at the Game Master's discretion.

XdX: This is how a number of dice is typically written out in tabletop role-playing games. The first X is how many dice you roll, and the second X is how many sides those dice should include. For example, 2d4 indicates that two four-sided dice should be rolled. 3d6 indicates that three six-sided dice should be rolled. The dice results should be totaled together unless otherwise indicated.

Hope this helps as a quick guide to the hobby. Happy gaming, all.