Role-playing game

A game in which participants portray characters and shape events through rules and collaborative decision-making. It can be played around a table, live, or through digital software.

Player character: A fictional character controlled by a player in a game. The player character is the main vehicle for a participant’s choices and portrayal.
Dice notation: A compact notation describing dice rolls, such as 3d6 for rolling three six-sided dice. Dice notation specifies common random procedures used to resolve character actions.
Dungeons & Dragons: A fantasy tabletop role-playing game first published in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Its publication helped establish the modern tabletop role-playing game form.
Tabletop role-playing game: A role-playing game played through conversation, often using printed rules, character sheets, and dice. This format makes face-to-face discussion the primary means of play.
Wargame: A game that models military operations or battles, often using units, terrain, and rules for combat. Role-playing games grew partly from wargaming but center individual characters and ongoing portrayal.
Game master: A participant who presents situations, interprets rules, and portrays the world beyond player characters. The game master often coordinates the shared fiction and adjudicates uncertain outcomes.
Task resolution: A game procedure for deciding whether an attempted action succeeds and what it accomplishes. It converts a player’s declared action into a result within the shared fiction.
Chainmail: A medieval miniature-wargaming ruleset published in 1971 by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Its fantasy combat rules contributed directly to the origins of Dungeons & Dragons.
Live-action role-playing game: A role-playing game in which participants physically portray characters through speech and action. It brings character portrayal into shared physical spaces rather than keeping it purely conversational.
Interactive fiction: A digital narrative in which a participant’s choices or commands affect how the story unfolds. It offers branching narrative choices without necessarily using role-playing rules or character development.

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