I do my best to build out a foundation of jargon chronologically before referencing it in future blog posts, but not everyone reads this blog as it comes out. I want to try and establish a glossary where people can reference niche terms whether I'm talking about tabletop game design or mecha stuff.

• Adventure Site

Place where adventure happens. Some people prefer using this term over "dungeon" to describe the immediate area of interest for their ttrpg arc. Adventure site development sometimes involves creating an actual map, but often is about making tables and lists of things that can be found at the location. Check out an example by my friend Farmer Gadda here.

• Depthcrawl

Originally conceived of by Cavegirl for Gardens of Ynn, a depthcrawl is a style of dungeon exploration that gets more difficult the deeper the players explore. This is primarily accomplished by having a large table for encounters and adding a modifier to the roll based on how deep the players are. Higher results tend to be more difficult than lower results.

Given that the central mechanic is a weighted table, I have personally taken to misusing the term to call anything with a weighted table a depthcrawl. Little "featherless biped" inside joke.

• Dungeon

Place where adventure happens. Usually involves going underground and killing monsters to get treasure. Some people interpret "dungeon" as any adventure location with boundaries, such as a castle siege or a riverboat chase. I am often one of those people.

• Dungeon Master (DM) / Game Master (GM)

Many TTRPGs are a conversation between players roleplaying as individual characters and one player roleplaying as the world and "everyone else". That player is frequently referred to as the Dungeon Master (GM) or the Game Master (GM). These terms are mostly interchangeable, but DM is more common for fantasy rpgs.

• XdY Notation

XdY means roll a Y-sided dice X times. For example, 3d6 is rolling three six-sided dice.

• Faggot Game

A game with loud queer sexuality that challenges societal norms. The term was originally coined by Darling Demon Eclipse, but I also wrote about faggot games over on my blog.

• The Forge

An early 2000's internet forum centered around ttrpgs. Many important articles in ttrpg theory were published on the website, and many defining indie games developed from discussions in the forum. The Forge has been shut down since 2012 but many people still refer to "Forge theory" as a reference to the ideas developed there.

• Forged in the Dark (FITD)

Games derived from the game Blades in the Dark are licensed as "Forged in the Dark". In practice, this means that a FITD game shares mechanics and/or design philosophy with Blades in the Dark. Common themes are rolling Xd6 dice based on attributes and having play separated into "action" and "downtime" phases.

• GNS Theory

Originally a Forge theory, GNS posits that a game generally leans towards one of three "perspectives". Gamism is a style concerned with balance and competitiveness and mastery. Narrativism is a style focused purely on the storytelling of roleplaying. Simulationism is a style that attempts to emulate "what would happen in real life" according to the logic of the game world. GNS is generally regarded like the Bohr model: obsolete and inaccurate, but helpful in achieving an understanding.

• Mecha

A genre of fiction about giant piloted robots. Frequently stretched to include giant non-piloted robots.

• Mechanic

Often synonymous with "rule", "ruling", or "procedure", mechanic mostly refers to how a game responds to a player's actions.

• Mechsploitation

A sub-genre of mecha fiction about pilots who are exploited. Most, if not all, of the stories are queer and erotic. You can read many works of mechsploitation over on Ao3. Though "retroactive" works may exist, the mechsploitation community initially coalesced around a short story called Warhound by Kallie.

• Mythic Underworld

A particular style of dungeon that doesn't follow real-world logic. Often this means some sort of vast underground labyrinth which exists solely for adventurers to delve and plunder. The levels and rooms and encounters of a mythic underworld are created as the players explore rather than all in advance, and the layout of the dungeon may change over time.

• Old School Renaissance (OSR)

Originally a movement to create rpgs in the style of early editions of Dungeons & Dragons as well as the style of gameplay from that time period. OSR has since evolved and splintered into a variety of successor movements, and the canonical definition is frequently fought over in the blogging realm.

• Player Promise

The fantasy a game tells the player (explicitly or implicitly) that they will be able to live out. For example, the player promise of Lancer is that you get to be a mech pilot and you can fight other mechs with your mech.

• Powered by the Apocalypse (PBTA)

Games derived from the game Apocalypse World are licensed as "Powered by the Apocalypse". In practice, this means that a PBTA game shares mechanics and/or design philosophy with Apocalypse World. Typical PBTA games have character playbooks with discrete "moves" for doing anything and involve rolling 2d6 + modifiers for conflict resolution.

• Procedure

An agreed-upon way of handling something in a tabletop roleplaying game. Similar to the concept of a "rule" but with more generic language that also includes a series of actions.

• Ad hoc Procedure

A procedure that was created "ad-hoc" or in the moment of the game. Essentially a formal way of referring to GM decisions or house rules.

• Supplied Procedure

A procedure that was provided within the game text. Anything that is "rules as written" within the game. Supplied procedures may be agreed upon and used, or intentionally unused if the players decide to ignore them.

• Rules Elide

A shorthand way of referring to the fact that game rules abstract things into a game. For example, instead of narrating testing every pin of a lock, a player might simply roll a dice and compare a number to see if their lockpick succeeds. See my post for further thoughts.

• System Anatomy

This is the way that I think about a ttrpg game:



The game text is related to the game-at-the-table, but not necessarily the same. I go into depth about this concept in my post on the subject.

• System Matters

A shorthand way of referring to the fact that one system works better for a specific game than another might. i.e. your choice of system should matter because it can make your play experience better. Many debates within the ttrpg community can be boiled down to this one statement. "System Does Matter" was also originally a Forge theory and I go into the history on my blog.

• Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG)

You and maybe some friends play pretend together. You use rules to establish internal consistency and decide what happens when the outcome is unclear. Sometimes that rule is "make it up yourself" and that's okay.

• Thracian Ruin

Another style of dungeon named after The Caverns of Thracia, an adventure written by the legendary Jennell Jaquays, whose style of location design has inspired an entire school of thought for dungeon building. The central concept is: "make things that make sense". i.e. if you have wandering patrols in your dungeon, also give them a room where they sleep and a cafeteria where they eat and relationships with the other denizens of the dungeon. Another common theme of Thracian Ruins is lots of secret passages and hidden doors.

• Wuxia

A genre of Chinese fiction, primarily about martial artists in ancient China. I take a lot of inspiration from the way the genre handles vigilante justice and anti-authoritarianism. I'm not a history expert, but it excites my anarchist sensibilities.

• Zine

A self-published low-distribution publication. Sortof like an abbreviated magazine. Zines are an important part of ttrpg culture and a lot of people like to make their own zine games or adventures and share them with the community.