Tabletop role-playing game

A game in which players portray characters and collaboratively shape events through conversation, rules, and often dice, usually guided by a game master.

Game master: A participant who presents situations, portrays non-player characters, and adjudicates rules in many role-playing games. The game master frames challenges and keeps the shared fiction moving.
Wargaming: A hobby and practice that uses games to simulate military operations or battles. Tabletop role-playing developed from miniature wargaming traditions.
Campaign (role-playing games): A series of linked sessions following continuing characters and events in a role-playing game. Campaigns give character choices consequences across multiple sessions.
Actual play: Recorded or live media presenting people playing a tabletop role-playing game. Actual-play shows turn private group sessions into entertainment and demonstrations.
Computer role-playing game: A video game genre in which players develop characters through role-play, exploration, and rule-based challenges. Software automates rules and world responses that tabletop groups handle together.
Player character: A fictional character controlled by a player in a role-playing game. Each player character gives one participant a continuing viewpoint and set of choices.
Chainmail: A 1971 medieval miniatures wargame by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Its fantasy rules supplied an immediate precursor to Dungeons & Dragons.
Role-playing game session: A single gathering in which a group plays a role-playing game. Sessions are the practical units from which campaigns are built.
Role-playing game convention: An organized gathering where people play, discuss, and exhibit role-playing games. Conventions bring groups together for scheduled games and community exchange.
Freeform role-playing game: A role-playing game played with few or no formal rules for resolving fictional actions. It shows how shared character portrayal can continue with minimal mechanical structure.

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