| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| PBM | Play-By-Mail |
| PBEM | Play-By-EMail, Play-By-Electronic-Mail |
| RPG | Role Playing Game |
| Single Character | The player can only play a single character at any time within the game |
| Multi-player | The game supports multiple players playing the game simultaneously |
| Game Moderator | The person, process or computer that runs the game |
| Computer Moderated | The game is processed by a computer program |
| Mixed Moderated | While processed by a computer program, the game also has some elements of being hand moderated |
| Hand Moderated | The game is run and turns are processed by a human…usually called the GameMaster |
| Commercial Game | There is a charge to play these type of games |
| Non-commercial Game | These games are typically free to play and quality and turnaround can vary vastly |
| Closed-ended | Games that have an absolute end, either due to meeting victory conditions or a limited number of turns have been reached |
| Open-ended | These games have no end date. There are no victory conditions and players can play for as long or as short as they desire |
| Turnaround | Describes the time-lapse between the player submitting their turnsheet and receiving the results back from the game moderator |
| Turn | The opportunity for the player to submit orders in the form of a turnsheet to the game moderator |
| Turnsheet | This is the form the player needs to complete every turn and submit to the game moderator |
| GameMaster | In a hand moderated game the person who runs and processes the turns and turnsheets is usually called the GameMaster |
| GM | The abbreviation for GameMaster |
| Player | The real-world person who is playing a position in the game |
| Character | The in-game position that a player controls |
| PC | The abbreviation for ‘Player Character’ |
| NPC | Non-Player Character. Characters within the game that are not controlled by players |
| Class | A character’s class is the term used to describe the PC’s profession |
| Experience Points | These are awarded to the PC based on the outcome of their turn. Player characters advance through Class Levels once obtaining a certain amount of XP |
| XP | The abbreviation for Experience Points |
| Class Level | As a PC advances throughout the game they will gain more and more experience in their chosen profession (class). When this happens their class level increases by 1. Class level advancement provides improved abilities, skills and powers to the PC |
| Monster Level | Indicates how tough and ferocious a type of monster is |
| Spell Level | Indicates the difficulty of a magic spell |
| Hit Dice | The number of dice rolled to find how many hit points a monster has, the type of die rolled used is dependent upon the creature |
| Hit Points | The amount of damage a character or monster can sustain before dying |
| d4 | A 4-sided die |
| d6 | A 6-sided die |
| d8 | An 8-sided die |
| d10 | A 10-sided die |
| d12 | A 12-sided die |
| d20 | A 20-sided die |
| d% | Percentage dice (two d10’s rolled together to produce a number from 1 to 100. |
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Glossary
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