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Role playing

A simpler, less rules-heavy version of Dungeons & Dragons , Basic D&D was the first version of the game, and was used for a long time as the introductory level.  All present versions of D&D have been merged into Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition , or D&D 3E).

Abbreviation for Collectible Card Game, a type of game in which participants play with a deck of cards that they have customized with any of a larger selection of cards. The recent CCG craze was begun by Magic: The Gathering .

Call of Cthulhu, Chaosium's horror RPG based on the works of pulp author H.P. Lovecraft.

d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100, d%: a form of shorthand created to let players of an RPG know the amount of dice that should be rolled to achieve a result. The number after the "d" indicates the type of die to be rolled; i.e., a d6 is a common, garden-variety 6-sided die. The d100 (also called the d%) is usually rolled on two 10-sided dice, and is often used to determine a percentage. This shorthand is often preceded by another number, which indicates how many of the indicated dice should be rolled; i.e. 2d8 means that two 8-sided dice should be rolled, and the results added together to achieve a random number between 2 and 16. Modifiers are often added to the shorthand to add or subtract from the total: 4d6+5, for example, means to roll four six-sided dice, add the rolls together, and then add 5 to that total.

Dungeons & Dragons , the premiere RPG orignally produced by TSR, and now owned by Wizards of the Coast, the same company that brought us Magic: The Gathering.  The third edition of D&D, also known as D&D 3E, was released in August of 2000, and has merged AD&D and basic D&D under the same name.

diceless: a game system that uses no dice. Some systems replace the dice with cards, while others do not use a method of random generation at all.

(from Dungeons & Dragons ) abbreviation for Dungeon Master , the player in a game of D&D who acts as a referee, telling the other players what they see, hear, etc., the results of their actions, and the actions of the other characters in the story. Other RPGs use a different term for this role.

Abbreviation for fantasy role-playing , a term that is synonymous with RPG.

Abbreviation for Game Master . See DM , above.

Level: This term can have several meanings, especially in D&D.  In most of the games on the market, a skill level is a number or other designation that establishes how skilled a character is in something.   The higher or better the skill level, the better the character is at the chosen skill.  In D&D and AD&D, a character is described as having a level (i.e. 5th level fighter, 9th level wizard); this is used to describe the general experience and might of the character; higher, as expected, is better.  D&D also has dungeon levels (not commonly used anymore, but it describes the difficulty of the monsters, traps and et cetera in a dungeon), spell levels (denoting the difficulty and power of the spell in question) and monster levels (which indicate the difficulty of defeating a particular monster).

Magic: The Gathering: Collectible card game by Wizards of the Coast that began the CCG craze.  Magic was released in 1993.

RPG: abbreviation for role-playing game document.

Storyteller: (from the White Wolf RPGs, but also found in common usage) the referee of an RPG. See DM , above.

THACO (or, more accurately, THAC0): Acronym for To Hit Armor Class Zero , a term used in AD&D.  Basically, it is a number in the 1-20 range that allows a player or DM to quickly determine what number he will need to roll to hit an opponent.  The latest edition of D&D does not use this term or the mechanic attached to it, but older versions of the game (and the gamers who play those older versions) will mention it.

World of Darkness: a series of settings by White Wolf Game Studio that includes six seperate games that can be played individually, or in any combination: Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, Changeling: The Dreaming , and Hunter: The Reckoning (listed in order of publication). There are also four historical World of Darkness rulebooks available: Vampire: The Dark Ages, Werewolf: The Wild West, Mage: The Sorceror's Crusade, and Wraith: The Great War , as well as sideline supplements entitled Mummy and Gypsy.

This document is a work in progress, and is in no way complete as you see it here.  If I have left something out, or missed an important point, it is imperative that you, the reader, bring it to my attention.  All contributors will receive credit for their contributions at the end of the