How to Speak D&D: A Glossary of Terms (Role Playing Games)

When I first discovered my inner D&D nerd, I learned that there was a lot I needed to learn, and it started with being able to speak the language. If you are part of the D&D online community, you will come across acronyms and terms that may be unfamiliar to those who are new to the game. We’ll start broadly here with terminology that applies to more than just Dungeons and Dragons. 

This is part 1 of a 4-part series of D&D terminology. You may also want to check out:

• Character Sheet Terms (coming soon)
• D&D Mechanics and Combat (coming soon)
• Magic and Spells (coming soon)

BBEG

Big Bad Evil Guy – or the “Boss” in video game-speak. This is the primary enemy of the player characters, sometimes unbeknownst to them.

Books –

D&D has loads of books, only three of which are truly required. These are the primary source books (listed below). D&D books are either source books or adventure books.

Source books contain new things that help players create different kinds of characters, or DMs to create better adventures, like character options, new magic items or spells, monsters, or new DM tools.

Adventure books provide all the information needed for a DM to run a campaign without having to create their own world, NPC’s, encounters, etc. They are done-for-you campaigns, designated for certain levels of players. Some adventures take up an entire book. Some books contain several shorter adventures.

• DMG (Dungeon Master’s Guide) – this book contains all the rules and mechanics that a DM will need to run the game. It gives tips for creating worlds, campaigns, and NPCs, as well as how to handle different environments, downtime, and rewards.
• MM (Monster Manual) – The Monster Manual includes descriptions and stat blocks for more than 350 beasts, monstrosities, fey, fiends, dragons, and more. This book is primarily for DMs but may occasionally be needed for players that need to know information about beasts, like Druids and Rangers.
• PHB (Player’s Handbook) – the primary book needed for all players to create their characters and know the basic mechanics of how to play the game.

Dice (D20, D12, D10, D8, D6, D4, D100)

• D20 – this is the most-use die. D20’s are used primarily for determining success of attack rolls, skill and ability checks, and death saves – basically any time you need to know if something succeeds or fails.
• D12 – The two primary uses for the D12 are roll damage for heavy weapons and powerful spells, as well as the Hit Die for Barbarians.
• D10 – May be used for spell or weapon damage or hit die for some of the hardier player classes.
• D8 – May be used for spell or weapon damage, restoring hit points (healing), or hit die for the majority of player classes.
• D6 – May be used for spell or weapon damage, restoring hit points (healing), or hit die for more fragile player classes (Sorcerers and Wizards).
• D4 – Also called a Caltrop. May be used for weak spell or small weapon damage, restoring hit points (healing), and sometimes as a random outcome decider (like a coin flip).
• D100 – A true D100 die looks like a small ball and these are uncommon to use in game-play. More commonly, two D10s are used together, one with single-digits and one with double-digits. So for example, if you roll a 60 and a 5, the result is a 65. These are also called percentile dice and may be used in conjunction with the rules of certain spells to determine the outcome, or to decide an outcome based on a roll table.

DM / GM

Dungeon Master / Game Master. DM is a term branded specifically to Dungeons and Dragons. Game Master is the term used more broadly for all similar-style role playing games.

The DM (or GM) is the person who runs the game. They tell the background story, set the scene, roll-play the enemies and non-player characters (See NPC), rule over all game mechanics, and and generally decide what happens as a result of all in-game actions.

Homebrew

D&D can be played purely by what is in the Source Books and Adventure Books, but if you wants to create new NPCs, monsters, magic items or spells, races and classes, feats, or even a whole fantasy world with gods and cities and politics of your own imagination, that is all called “Homebrew.” Most D&D campaigns, even using a pre-written Adventure Book, include some degree of Homebrew elements.

Meta Gaming

While sometimes unintentional, meta gaming is when you allow the character you are playing to act with knowledge that they wouldn’t actually have, but you the player, do. For example, only using fire spells on an enemy because you saw a YouTube video that explained how this monster is vulnerable to fire damage.
Meta gaming can be very tempting, like when you want to communicate with a fellow player, but in-game, your two characters are not in the same room.

Intentional meta gaming is also called cheating. This is obviously frowned upon.

NPC

Non-Player-Character. Any entity the DM introduces into the game that players interact with is an NPC. These can be shop keepers, town folk, and powerful people, but also enemies, monsters, beasts, and in hilarious cases when you cast Speak with Plants, a tuft of grass named Henry Crabgrass.

PC

Player Characters. These are the main characters in the story, role-played by the players at the table.

Rules and RAW

RAW stands for “Rules as Written.” Occasionally you will encounter a scenario where the rules are unclear if a player can do one thing or another. The D&D Sourcebooks provide some guidance, saying things like whenever two rules conflict, the more specific rule overrides the general rule. But if the language is just unclear, many DMs will rule using RAW and make a decision based exactly on how the words are written, even if they don’t make sense. But DMs do have leeway to interpret rules “as intended” if they feel the spirit behind the rule is different than it is actually written.

Roll Table

Roll tables are a valuable tool used by DMs and players to randomly and quickly make a decision or choose a result for something. Common uses for roll tables are loot & treasure, encounters & events, and to quickly generate NPCs. Rolls tables usually correspond to one of the polyhedral dice use in the game, so they will typically have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, or 100 options.

RPG / TTRPG

RPG stands for Role Playing Game. Any game where you play a character is basically a role playing game, including board and video games. Dungeons and Dragons is a TTRPG – a Table Top Role Playing Game. One of many. Other popular TTRPGs include Pathfinder, Warhammer, and Call of Cthulhu.

VTT

Virtual Table Top – a virtual platform designed for groups to be able to play D&D or other TTRPGs virtually. One of the more common, popular VTTs is Roll20, but there are several out there. These became very popular during the pandemic and social distancing.