RPG terms used on Dungeons and Dave, a 5E Glossary
| # | 0e | Original Dungeons & Dragons |
| 1e or AD&D | Advanced Dungeons & Dragons | |
| 2e | 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons | |
| 3.5e | 3.5 Edition Dungeons & Dragons | |
| 3e | 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons | |
| 4e | 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons | |
| 5e | 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons | |
| A | AC | Armor Class |
| AC | Armor Class. | |
| Aggro | The predilection toward violence, most often used to describe NPCs and monsters, but is also used to describe players. | |
| AL | Adventurer’s League (organized play) | |
| AoE | Area of Effect | |
| ASI | Ability Score Improvement | |
| AT | Arcane Trickster (Rogue) | |
| AtG | Against the Giants | |
| Atk | Attack | |
| B | BBEG | Big Bad Evil Guy (or Gal). The central villain in a plotline. Also sometimes call MainEvilBadGuy, or just the Big Bad. |
| BM | Beast Master (Ranger) or Battle Master (Fighter) | |
| Buff | A temporary boost, usually from a spell or depletable resource, like a potion. | |
| C | CBE or XBE | Crossbow Expert |
| CHA | Charisma | |
| Challenge Rating (CR) | A measure of how much of a challenge a creature should represent to a party of characters. CR 1 should be roughly equivalent to a party of 4 1st level characters. A lot of variables go into this calculation and it might be a science but art and opinion are the secret sauce that make it work. | |
| CON | Constitution | |
| CoS | Curse of Strahd | |
| CP | Copper Pieces (currency) | |
| CR | Challenge Rating (monster difficulty) | |
| Crawl | Short for dungeon crawl. | |
| Crit | Either the best thing in the world, or the worst. In D&D you can have critical successes and critical failures, the meaning of which can depend on house rules as much as core rules. | |
| D | DC | Difficulty Class |
| DDB | D&D Beyond (digital toolset) | |
| DEX | Dexterity | |
| DH | Death House | |
| Disbelieve | An attempt to see past an illusory effect, often also called out to no avail when the players are faced with terrible peril. | |
| DiT | Dead in Thay | |
| DM | Dungeon Master, also known as GM (Game Master), referee or storyteller. This is the person that hosts and facilitates the world the players play in. | |
| DMG | Dungeon Master’s Guide, the primary resource for DMs. | |
| DMPC | Dungeon Master’s Player Character | |
| DotMM | Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage | |
| DPR | Damage/Round | |
| Dump Stat | The stat (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) where you choose to put your lowest roll when making a character. | |
| DW | Dual Wielder | |
| E | EA | Elven Accuracy |
| EE | Elemental Evil, a Forgotten Realms storyline built around apocalyptic cults. | |
| EEPC | Elemental Evil Players Companion, a supplement to the Elemental Evil storyline. This supplement is available for free from Wizards of the Coast. | |
| EK | Eldritch Knight (Fighter) | |
| F | FG | Fantasy Grounds (online digital tabletop) |
| FLGS | Friendly Local Gaming Store | |
| FoF | Forge of Fury | |
| FR | Forgotten Realms (main D&D setting) | |
| G | Gish | A fighter (usually melee fighter) with access to magic. The name comes from the name of a Githyanki soldier that does just that |
| GM | Game Master | |
| GMG or GGtR | Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica | |
| GP | Gold Pieces (currency) | |
| GWM | Great Weapon Master | |
| H | HODQ | Hoard of the Dragon Queen |
| Homebrew | Rules, settings or accessories created by DMs rather than official Dungeons & Dragons products. | |
| HotDQ | Hoard of the Dragon Queen | |
| House Rules | Alterations to the core rules in the books to be used in games with a particular DM. | |
| HP | Hit Points | |
| HSoT | Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan | |
| I | IC | In-Character |
| INT | Intelligence | |
| L | Level | This can refer to a few different things in D&D.Character Level – The levels attained by your character gaining experience and used as milestone markers that determine when your character has learned new skills and abilities. Dungeon Level – Often “dungeons” are set up in “levels” with the first level being easiest and the last level having the BBEG. Spell Level – Spells are categorized into levels that have very little to do with character levels. Oh sure, your character has to be a certain level to be able to access higher spell levels but it’s seemingly arbitrary. You would think a 5th-level spellcaster would be able to use 5th level spells, but no, that is really never the case. Effective Character Level (ECL) – This is used to describe Monsters and NPCs. The calculation was “Racial hit dice + character level + Level adjustment” with the idea being that a creature with an ECL of 10 would be roughly equivalent to a 10th level character. ECL has been dropped in 5th Edition. |
| LFG | Looking for Group (for players trying to find a game) | |
| LMoP | Lost Mines of Phandelver (Starter Set) | |
| M | MAD | Multiple Ability Score Dependent (character builds whose features rely on multiple ability scores) |
| MM | Monster Manual | |
| MTF or MToF or Mordy’s | Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes | |
| Murder Hobos | A pretty good description of most parties in D&D and other RPGs who tend to be essentially homeless people running around murdering other people and races and looting their corpses. | |
| N | NPC | Non-Player Character |
| O | OA or AoO | Opportunity Attack or Attack of Opportunity |
| OGL | Open Game License (publication guidelines) | |
| OOC | Out-of-Character | |
| OotA | Out of the Abyss | |
| OP | Overpowered, or Original Poster in threaded online discussions. | |
| OSR | Old School Revival | |
| P | PAM | Polearm Master |
| Passive Perception | Things you notice without trying. This is mostly used in checking a skill versus an unaware target. For example, as a rogue, you might be trying to sneak up to a bored guard. The guard isn’t actively looking for you but has a chance of notice you anyway. Some creatures have a much higher passive perception due to natural or keen senses. For example, a dragon might have a chance to smell or hear you even if it isn’t actively looking for you. | |
| PbP | Play by Post | |
| PC | Player Character | |
| Perception | A skill modified by wisdom score that represents how aware a character is of the surrounding. Often, the DM will have players roll a perception check to see if they notice something, like a rogue hiding in the shadows, a slip of paper on the ground or a wyvern circling above. | |
| PF | Pathfinder | |
| PH or PHB | Player’s Handbook | |
| PotA | Princes of the Apocalypse | |
| PP | Passive Perception | |
| PvE | Player vs. Environment | |
| PvM | Player vs. Monster | |
| PvP | Player vs. Player | |
| R | RAI/ROI | Rules As Intended, as in the intent of the rule, even though the literal written rule may not convey it. |
| RAW | Rules As Written, as in the specific way the rules were written, as opposed to RAI. | |
| Roll20 | Roll 20 (online digital tabletop) | |
| RoT | Rise of Tiamat | |
| RP | Role Play | |
| Rule of Cool | Originally a TV Trope, this was stated as “The limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to its awesomeness.” In game terms, it is usually applied to a DM allowing a player to bend the rules or use them creatively in a way that isn’t RAI to have something cool happen. Often, it’s just for adding cinematic effect to a scene, sometimes it has to do with rewarding creativity, other times it’s just because something is hilarious. | |
| S | SAD | Single Ability Score Dependent (character builds whose features rely on one ability score) |
| SC | Sunless Citadel | |
| SCAG | Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide | |
| SCAG | Sword Coast Adventures Guide | |
| SKT | Storm King’s Thunder | |
| SM | Shield Master | |
| SP | Silver Pieces (currency) | |
| Squishy | A description of players who are fragile in some way, usually lacking armor and having low Hitpoints. | |
| SRD | Systems Reference Document (includes the Basic Rules) | |
| SS | Sharpshooter | |
| STR | Strength | |
| T | ToA | Tomb of Annihilation |
| ToH | Tomb of Horrors | |
| Toon | A term from some MMORPGs, referring to their character/avatar/whatever. Often discouraged at many tables. | |
| TPK | Total Party Kill | |
| TPK | Total Party Kill | |
| TWF | Two-Weapon Fighting (fighting style for Fighters and Rangers) | |
| TYP | Tales from the Yawning Portal | |
| U | UA | Unearthed Arcana (playtest material) |
| UA | Unearthed Arcana | |
| V | VGM or VGtM or Volo’s | Volo’s Guide to Monsters |
| W | WC | War Caster |
| WDH | Waterdeep: Dragon Heist | |
| WGE or WGtE | Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron | |
| WIS | Wisdom | |
| WoTC | Wizards of the Coast, the game company that owns and releases Dungeon & Dragons materials. | |
| WPM | White Plume Mountain | |
| XGE or XGtE or Xan’s | Xanathar’s Guide to Everything | |
| X | XP | Short for experience |
| Y | ||
| Z |
You could add the 4? different meanings of “level”!
Let’s see… are you talking about Character level vs Spell level vs Effective Character level vs Dungeon level… or something else? 🙂
That’s what I was talking about 🙂