Rules

Enchanted Realms Rulebook

 
 Complete Rules 
 Glossary 
 RPG Terms

RPG Terms

ACArmor Class. Used as a representation how difficult it is to hit a creature.
AdvantageGame mechanic to allow a creature to have a statistical benefit for an action.
AdventureA single challenge, often short enough to be completed in one session. It perhaps makes up one smaller piece of larger story with a beginning and an end, but may be stand alone.
Adventure Seeda short description of a setup for an adventure, intended as a jumping off point for a GM to expand into an adventure/
AoEArea of Effect. The area affected by an attack/spell/etc which affects more than one creature or object.
AttributeThe numerical value applied to elements of a game.
Battle matA piece of paper, vinyl, cardboard, lucite, or even an electronic format marked off in a grid (hexagons, squares, offset squares, triangles) for use in simulating combat. Often designed to be drawn on with an erasable marker of some kind. Usually used with miniatures to determine precise position information during play.
BBEGBig Bad Evil Guy. Most often the main antagonist boss NPC for a particular adventure or campaign.
BNGBitter Non Gamer. Person who is unable to join or arrange a gaming group and games by proxy, usually by complaining about RPGs that aren't the one he or she would prefer to play.
Breath WeaponRefers to a weapon/attack type of a creature, often an AoE.
BTBBy the Book. Often described as RAW, Rules as written. This is the literal meaning of the published rules, as opposed to interpreting the designer's intent, either assumed or explicitly stated.
Buff An ability, spell, rules change, or other game mechanic that improves a character's capabilities.
Bug HuntAdventure involving little more than killing some monster or monsters.
CaltropsOccasional slang for four-sided dice.
CampaignA longer story told by chaining or linking a number of adventures together. Sometimes, one single very long adventure can be called a “campaign”. Whereas an adventure may only encompass minor character improvement, a campaign allows PCs to achieve advancement. Also, the story and overall goals tend to be much more epic than an adventure. Campaigns almost always require more than two or three gaming sessions to complete.
Campaign SettingThe fictitious world where a specific adventure or campaign takes place.
Caster SupremacyA game or setting in which magic-using characters are outright better than those without magic.
CGenCommon abbreviation for Character Generation.
CharacterThe persona being played by a player within the context of a game.
Character SheetThe document containing a character's basic traits, skills, carried equipment, background, etc. Historically a single sheet of paper, but is more commonly becoming an electronic document or spreadsheet and/or may be made up of multiple sheets.
Class-BasedAn RPG using character classes to define player character job or role within a group, commonly limiting a player character to one or two areas of expertise.
Combat RoundUnit of time in a game which generally limits the number of actions a character can take before another creature / character can act. For Enchanted Realms, this is a span of ten seconds and one action/turn and reaction per participant.
CreatureTerm used generically to refer to anything that can take actions, interact within the game/story.
CritA "critical hit". Generally speaking, a successful attack that causes greater than normal damage to the target or possibly inflicts hindrances to the victim.
CrunchyRules-heavy. Referring to rules which detail how actions and/or action resolution is determined. Also includes rules which specify abilities, statistics, monsters, equipment, etc. Often includes little or no story information.
d[X]Dice roll notation in which the number in place of X represents the number of sides on the die to roll. Example; d6 refers to the roll of a six-sided die, d8 refers to the roll of an eight-sided die, and so on.
d100 or d%Notation for a percentile die roll, made with a 100-sided die or with two ten-sided dice numbered 0–9, one representing the tens column and the other the single-digit value, except where 0/0 is most commonly read as 100, not zero.
DamageHarm that comes to characters is usually expressed as damage against either the Body, Mind or Spirit attributes.
DCDifficulty Class. The player must meet or exceed this, by die roll and adjustments, to succeed in a resolution.
Decker ProblemWhen a game results in one player becoming the only one at the table able to participate for a long period of time, leaving the other players bored.
Deus Ex MachinaAn unexpected NPC or plot-device, often only appearing for a single scene, that saves a seemingly hopeless situation. This is often seen as bad design or desperate choices of game play.
Dice TrainingSuperstition that rolling dice repeatedly outside the game will change its statistical behavior.
DisadvantageGame mechanic placing a creature with a statistical hindrance for an action.
Drama A method of action resolution where the GM chooses the result based on what would be most interesting for the story rather than allowing the dice and players influence the outcome.
Dump StatA character attribute or stat with little or no perceived value, thus one that is often sacrificed or shorted in favor of another one if there is an opportunity to distribute points. Hopefully, the design of Enchanted Realms does not have this design flaw.
Dungeon CrawlSimilar to a Bug Hunt, this is a game scenario or adventure in which the main focus is exploration of the environment, engaging and fighting any monsters, and collecting treasure. Commonly set in a dungeon made up of hallway and rooms with little to no story line.
EffectPositive or negative element which affects a character, almost always causing modifiers to abilities or allowable actions.
Exploding DiceWhen a certain number is rolled and you get to roll again, adding the second result to the first. Often this may be repeated as long as you continue to roll the trigger number.
Flee AttackSpecial attack that a character can make as a reaction to a melee opponent running away.
FluffOpposite of Crunchy. Most often story based material designed to enhance role-playing. This material includes background information for NPC’s, scenarios, settings and/or even scenes. Material used to ‘flesh-out’ elements of a role-playing game so they appear in the mind’s eye as more than just a list of statistics. Non-mechanic based material.
FodderOther characters, NPCs, hirelings or henchmen used to absorb the initial attacks to force the enemy to expend more energy, magic, effort to get to the objection.
FragOften referring to killing another player character, but it might merely mean to kill anything.
FudgeSecret modification of a roll or other action resolution by the GM to achieve desired results.
FumbleA "critical failure", generally speaking a particularly bad result. Enchanted Realms does not have fumbles in the design, as the idea of this game is more about strategy over bad luck.
GMGame Master. Term referring to the person runs the adventure, tells the story, determines what action resolutions means.
Glass CannonA character capable of doing a great deal of damage, but is easily defeated.
GM’s BuddyThe player who always gets preferential treatment from a GM.
Hit PointsA number which is used to track how much punishment a character can take in combat before collapsing. In Enchanted Realms, the Body score is used for this mechanism.
Hex Grid or Hex MapA map or mapping system using hexagonal (six-sided) divisions to represent character position and movement.
KarmaA pool of points used to advance a character's abilities and skills. Players earn more as they adventure with the character. These points are also gained by role-playing of a character as appropriate to organizations, associations, guilds, ethics and personality.
LBEGLittle Bad Evil Guy. Refers to an antagonist NPC meant to challenge the PCs but is not the BBEG. (Often a lieutenant of the BBEG in a campaign).
Level-BasedHaving character proficiency defined by a discrete number; all else being equal, a character of greater level will generally be more capable than a character of lesser level. Enchanted Realms is not a level-based system.
Life PointsAnother term for Hit Points, or Body score in this game.
Line of SightTerm used to describe the ability of one creature to perceive something, (another creature, object, location, etc.), at any distance. Most often used to determine if something may be targeted.
LumpingA reference to a system where skills could be broad, such as melee fighting where all weapons that are found with in close proximity are grouped.
Magic or Mana PointsA designation of the amount of magic power a given character has to perform magic. In Enchanted Realms, this is either the Mind or Spirit attribute, depending on the type of magic used.
Mary SueA character who is over-the-top perfect and exists to fulfill the fanciful thinking of the player. The original Mary Sue was a fictional character in a set of fan written Star Trek stories where this nothing cadet out smarted Spock, slept with Kirk, saved the Universe, etc.
Meat ShieldA term used to describe a tough character able to withstand powerful attacks. The entity would place itself between the enemy and the party to shield them from attack.
MeleeHand-to-hand, hand held weapon combat or to fight in close proximity.
MetagameThings discussed about the rules by the GM and players as opposed to things happening in-game, sometimes used to calculate the success/failure of an action by reviewing character stats and game mechanics, as opposed to acting based on character personality and what the he or she knows.
Min-maxA technique of using the rules to try and squeeze every last advantage out of a character rather than design a character that is more reflective of the warts, quirks and disadvantages we all possess. Often this is the result of a player trying to build a character which will achieve unbalanced success in a game.
MiniatureA small model representing a person, persons, a vehicle, or other pawn or actor to be manipulated during the combat simulation portion of the game. In a VTT, this will often be called a token.
Monty HallA type of adventure centered around accumulating as much wealth as possible, as fast as possible, where story takes a back seat to killing the next monster and taking its stuff.
MunchkinA player who uses the rules to try and gain power that is unbalancing to the game including possibly resorting to cheating.
MurderhoboSlang term for a player character who wanders the gameworld, unattached to any community, indiscriminately killing and looting. In this style of play, the PCs are not connected to the world and casually kill those who oppose them.
NarrativistA player who plays primarily in order to explore story or narrative properties generated by the game, rather than to prioritize winning or optimization.
Natural 1The result of the actual dice roll, before any modifications are made. In this case, it indicates an automatic failure.
Natural 20The raw score of a d20 roll, indicating an automatic hit or success.
NPCNon-Player Character. Any creature in a game that is not controlled exclusively by a player. Most often run by the GM, in certain cases a player may determine actions of an NPC.
OSROld School Renaissance. The “R” of the abbreviation has different word choices, depending on the source; regardless, this is a style of game that hearkens back to the early days of role-playing and seeks to capture what was best about those games.
OOCOut of Character. Often declared to make a comment the player wants to say which the character most definitely would not say or do.
Optional RulesRules but used at the discretion of the GM. These are not part of the base rules, but can be used, (often by experienced players), to alter game play.
PCThe Player Character in the game. See Character.
Party CharterIn-character document establishing the adventuring company, its shares, inheritance and dissolution procedures.
PBFPlay-by-Forum. Actions and role-playing that occurs on a forum.
PlayerThe physical person playing the game, not the character(s) he or she play.
PnPPen and Paper.
Point-BasedHaving characters that are 'constructed' with a budget of points for attributes, skills, abilities, etc; generally as opposed to being determined randomly at character creation.
Progression TreeA list of skills, powers, or anything else designed in a linear advancement tree. Advanced abilities are unlocked by earning/buying prerequisites lower on the tree.
PsionicsPowerful abilities of the mind.
PvPPlayer vs Player. The ability or allowance for players to attack each other directly.
RaceA legacy term for what Enchanted Realms calls Species, the biological being the player chooses to play. In typical fantasy role playing games, this can be human, elf, dwarf, gnome etc. The choice of race typically affects the basic traits of the character.
RailroadingReferring to a game's story being forced in a particular direction most often by the GM, usually by the environment being constructed or manipulated to make only one action viable. Commonly perceived as bad form.
RAIRules as Intended. This is the interpretation of a rule or rules as the GM and/or players believe it was intended to despite who the literal reading indicates.
RAWThe literal meaning of the published rules. See BTB.
RangedRanged combat or an attack/effect that takes place over a distance.
RedshirtAn NPC that has little purpose other than to die. Derives from the classic Star Trek television show in which a security detail wearing red uniform shirts accompanied the bridge crew on adventures, almost always to their regret.
Roll-PlayInstead of role-play. Often derogatory, used to imply that manipulation of the game system has replaced imagination or a desire to roll dice instead of acting out character interactions.
Role-playThe act of taking on the role of a character. May be done in any of several modes, including 1st-person dialog, 3rd person narration of action, or even 1st person improvisational acting.
RoundSee Combat Round.
RPGRole-Playing Game, which is a game defined set of rules that allows the player to take on the role of a character and offers a strong measure of free will to choose what the character does.
Rules LawyerA person known for arguing GM rules calls by recourse to quoting the rules from the rulebooks, often disrupting the game with excessive references to rules
SandboxA style of gaming where the GM purposely avoids providing much or any overt plot or guidance to the players as to what they should be doing. The GM provides a situation, and the players interact with that location as they see fit.
SaveAn attempt to avoid a detrimental effect, or success at such an attempt. Often phrased as “making a save” (though this can still refer either to the attempt or to success).
SkillsArea of proficiency. In a typical role playing game, a character will have a number of ‘skills’, namely things they are especially good (or especially not good) at. For example “hide”, “discover hidden things”, “hit with a sword”, etc. Skills are often trainable so they may improve during the course of the game.
Skill-BasedHaving characters that are defined by narrowly-defined skills.
StatsA bit broader that attribute, as the numerical value could refer to character abilities, attack or weapon damage, or details of an object, like the movement rate of a steed.
Target NumberThe number a player is required to roll on a dice for an action to be successful.
To-HitPortion of die rolls to see if the PC successfully hit their enemy, or vice versa.
TPKTotal Party Kill. The event of an entire group of player characters in a game being wiped out by a threat or challenge.
TraitA distinguishing characteristic of a character, usually tied to one’s species.
Verisimilitude"Realism, if this world was real". What's usually actually meant by someone who complains that a minor rule is "unrealistic" in a game with wizards throwing explosive rainbows.
VTT computer program or website/web application that enables live play online. Usually involves a randomizer for live die rolls and may also include maps, counters, character sheets and even rules references. VTs enable play through Voice over Internet, often on a global scale.