Navigating the world of tabletop gaming and the overarching geek culture often feels as though we’re learnign an entirely new language—not surprising for a community that loves conlangs. There are numerous acronyms, slangs, and references that can often be indecipherable for beginners; sometimes even for veterans.
In our Studio, the worlds of audio, music, games, tabletop, and everything in betwen, collides. In this comprehensive glossary, we’ll help you understand the concepts and terms often related to this sub-culture.
Glossary: Geek Culture
Geek culture encompasses many different spheres of entertainment: from tabletop to video games, from fantasy books to epic movies. In this section, we’ll guide you through relevant terms that you’ll likely stumble upon a lot in these types of content (and beyond).
Acronyms
- 5E: 5th Edition. It refers to the fitfh installment of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) core rulebooks released in 2014.
- 5.5E: Dungeons & Dragons latest rulebook installment (2024–2025); unofficial term
- AAA: major company; often refers to the gaming industry in geek culture
- AC: Armor Class; minimum attack roll to hit a target
- AoE: area of effect; spell that hits everything in a specific radius (e.g. fireball explosion)
- BBEG: Big Bad Evil Guy/Gal; main villain of a campaign
- C&C: critiques and comments; alternatively, the video game “Command & Conquer”
- CON: Constitution; measure of health, physical resistance, etc.
- CoS: Curse of Strahd; Dungeons & Dragons official adventure module
- CHA: Charisma; measure of deception, intimidation, persuasion, performance, etc.
- CR: Challenge Rating; measure of an opponent’s difficulty in combat; not to be confused with DC
- D&D: Dungeons & Dragons
- DC: Difficulty Class; minimum roll required to succeed; not to be confused with CR
- DEX: Dexterity; measure of agility, finesse, reaction time, etc.
- DM: Dungeon Master; gamemaster on Dungeons & Dragons.
- DMG: Dungeon Master’s Guide; Dungeons & Dragons core rulebook
- DND: Dungeons & Dragons
- GM: gamemaster; game referee and storyteller
- HP: Hit Points; Health Points; amount of damage that a character can sustain
- HotDQ: Hoard of the Dragon Queen; Dungeons & Dragons official adventure module
- INT: Intelligence; measure of cognition capacity, knowledge recollection, pattern recognition, etc.
- LARP: live-action role-playing; acting and dressing as a fictional character
- LFG: looking for group; to seek a gaming group
- LMoP: Lost Mine of Phandelver; Dungeons & Dragons official adventure module
- MM: Monster Manual; Dungeons & Dragons core rulebook
- MTG: Magic: The Gathering, a popular tabletop card game
- NPC: non-player character; character controlled by the gamemaster or the computer
- NSR: New School Revolution; as opposed to OSR
- OC: original content; original character
- OP: over-powered; excessively strong
- OSR: Old School Renaissance; a tabletop role-playing movement interested in game design and playstyle principles inspired in the earliest days of TTRPG in the 1970s.
- PC: player character; as opposed to NPC
- PHB: Player’s Handbook; Dungeons & Dragons core rulebook
- PnP: pen and paper; an older term for a tabletop role-playing game
- PvP: player versus player
- QoL: quality of life; improvements in accessibility, practicality, and simplicity
- RPG: role-playing game; a game in which the player interprets a specific character
- RNG: random number generator; a tool that output sa pseudo-random number (e.g. virtual dice)
- SRD: System Reference Document; a reference for an RPG licensed under a public copyright license
- STR: Strength; measure of physical prowess
- TPK: total party kill; the death of every player character
- TTRPG: tabletop role-playing game
- VTT: virtual tabletop; an online tool with digital battle-maps, miniatures, etc
- WIS: Wisdom; measure of will power, psychological resistance, etc.
- WoTC: Wizard of the Coast; parent company of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering
Dice
- d2: “two-sided die,” often a simple coin toss; uncommon term
- d4: four-sided die (tetrahedron)
- d6: six-sided die (cube); the most common die in the world
- d8: eight-sided die (octahedron)
- d10: ten-sided die (decahedron)
- d12: twelve-sided die (dodecahedron)
- d20: twenty-sided die (icosahedron); the most popular die in tabletop role-playing games
- d100: “hundred-sided die,” almost a sphere; may refer to 2d10
Dungeons & Dragons
- cantrip: magical effect that can be repeated indefinitely
- death saving throw: attempt to resist death after reaching 0 Hit Points
- feat: special skill due to background, class, or another source
- hit die: amount of Hit Points that a character can recover per rest or gain per level up
- passive perception: ability to stay alert or notice details without attentive focus
- saving throw: sum of rolls and modifiers to determine a potentially bad outcome (i.e. dodging a trap).
- spell slot: amount of spells that a character can cast according to the spell’s level
Jargon
- ability check: sum of rolled dice and modifiers to determine the success of an intended action
- ability score: basic character capability (e.g. Intelligence, Strength)
- actual play: professional gaming group with high-quality production (e.g. voice actors)
- advantage: rolling two dice and picking the highest number; as opposed to disadvantage
- adventure module: official book that outlines a pre-made campaign with characters, quests, etc.
- attack of opportunity: an attack outside of one’s turn due to a specific trigger (e.g. running close to an enemy)
- Big Bad: main villain of a campaign
- buff: to make it stronger
- build: a specific playstyle based on class, feats, etc. (e.g. Oathbreaker Paladin, Necromancer Wizard)
- campaign: complete playthrough and storyline; a series of sessions
- character sheet: pages that detail a character’s attributes, backstory, inventory, etc.
- class: character archetype that defines in-game capabilities (e.g. Barbarian, Sorcerer)
- critical roll: rolling a 20 (critical success) or a 1 (critical fail) on a d20; not to be confused with Critical Role
- crowd control: abilities that hinder a group, such as slowing, stunning, or immobilizing
- conlang: constructed language; fictional dialect often used in media (e.g. Dothraki, Klingon).
- die: singular of dice
- disadvantage: rolling two dice and picking the lowest number; as opposed to advantage
- ebb and flow: periods of high tension and calm moments; pacing between intensity and tranquility
- face of the party: a character who handles social interactions for a group; primary spokesperson
- fireball: the only spell that a Wizard can cast
- flip mat: a battle map with two usable sides and can be “flipped”
- fudging: to lie about a dice roll
- gamemaster: referee and storyteller of a game
- glass cannon: a character with high damage but low defense
- grimoire: book that lists magical spells; spellbook
- guild: organized group with shared identity, objectives, and values
- healer: a character that restores health and removes negative status effects from allies
- healbot: a character that exclusively heals despite having other abilities; slightly negative term
- homebrew: original campaign or rule created by a particular gaming group
- hook: compelling premise or event that motivates player characters to engage with a plot or story
- house rule: rule adopted or create by a particular gaming group; as opposed to an official rule
- hybrid: campaign that is played sometimes online and other times in person
- indie: independent; game created by a relatively small company; as opposed to AAA
- initiative: value that determines turn order
- inventory: list of items owned by a character
- level up: to increase a character’s level (measure of attributes, skill, spells, etc.)
- loot: to grab items from defeated enemies or treasure chests (e.g. “He looted the goblin.”); the items themselves (e.g. “There’s loot everywhere.”)
- mana: magic reserve
- Mercer effect: unrealistic expectations based on the professional campaigns run by Matt Mercer
- metagaming: using out-of-character knowledge in-game
- mini: short for miniature; figurines that aid combat visualization; action figures
- min-maxing: minimizing weaknesses and maximizing strengths; extreme character optimization
- modifier: value added to or subtracted from a dice roll
- natural 1: rolling 1 on a d20; “natural” because modifiers are disregarded
- natural 20: rolling 20 on a d20; “natural” because modifiers are disregarded
- nerf: to make it weaker
- one-shot: a single-session adventure
- party: the player group
- percentage dice: rolling 2d10, 1st indicates tens and 2nd indicates units (e.g. 8 and 5 = 85%)
- professional DM/GM: a person paid to be a Dungeon Master or gamemaster
- quest: goal; mission; objective
- quest-giver: character that gives quests
- race: older term for species
- railroading: forcing the story through a rigid, inflexible path; disallowing player agency
- roll: the result of rolling a die
- rule of cool: changing a game rule to allow a fun moment
- solo-play: playing a tabletop role-playing game by oneself; as opposed to a gaming group
- session: a single gaming event that often lasts a few hours; part of a greater campaign
- setting: fictional world or universe where a campaign takes place (e.g. medieval fantasy, cyberpunk future)
- spell: magical effect
- spellbook: book that lists different spells; grimoire
- spellcasting: the act creating a magical effect
- spotlight: focus on one player’s character during gameplay
- table: gaming group
- tabletop: abbreviation of tabletop role-playing game
- tank: a character with high defense that can sustain damage and draw enemy attention
- theater of the mind: to imaginethe scenario instead of using visual aids (e.g. maps, minis, etc.)
- virtual tabletop: software that provides an online role-playing experience (e.g. FoundryVTT)
- worldbuilding: to create a fictional setting, may encompass biology, geography, politics, religion, etc.
- X card: a card that players can show during a session if they want to skip an uncomfortable scene
MGS Glossary
We’re often talking with our community through platforms such as Discord, Patreon, and YouTube, which means that some inside jokes or terms were created along the way. Here are some of them!
- Astarrys: name of our official mascot; a magical raven from Michaël’s worldbuilding.
- bard: endearing term for our composers
- Discord: popular instant messaging app and the most used communication tool in our team; an alternative to any questions you might send through email or social media.
- meadow: an inside-joke on the MGS community because an ambience titled “Meadow” was never chosen after appearing in multiple polls
- Opus: an online platform to manage audio, descriptions, and scenes in tabletop role-playing games
- MGS: Michael Ghelfi Studios; largest audio label for tabletop role-playing games
- The Eyrie: official name of the Discord server of Michael Ghelfi Studios
Audio Glossary
Audio is our craft, and if you wish to understand it thoroughly, consider the following terms:
- Adventure Theme: an exclusive 20-minute music track released monthly to patrons
- ambiance: a looping ambient track that depicts an environment (e.g. rainy forest)
- ambience: an alternative spelling of ambiance
- Bandcamp: an online platform to download albums
- curated playlist: carefully selected playlist; as opposed to automatic or random playlists
- Patreon: a subscription platform to get access to exclusive audio
- patron: a subscriber to a Patreon page
- SFX: sound effects; often short, immediate sounds
- Short Theme: a short song that depicts a class (e.g. Barbarian) or theme (e.g. Gothic).
- Spotify: online platform to stream music, podcasts, etc.
- VST: Virtual Instrument Libraries
Music Glossary
- minor key: tonal framework of a musical piece centered around a minor chord, primarily using notes from minor scales
- minor scale: specific sequence of intervals (whole and half steps) that creates the characteristic minor sound (e.g. examples include natural, harmonic, and melodic)
- vibrato: musical technique involving rapid, slight variations in pitch that creates a wavering effect
- vocoder: electronic device that analyzes the spectral characteristics of one audio signal (e.g. speech) and applies them to another signal (e.g. a synthesizer), creating a robotic vocal effect
Tech Glossary
- API: Application Program Interface; a way for different apps to communicate with each other
- download: acquiring audio files to play them in a device (e.g. computer, phone); requires storage space and manual organization; as opposed to streaming
- Ogg: a high-quality audio file format; files ending in the extension “.ogg”
- PDF: Portable Document File; a widely popular file format for multi-media documents, including text, formatting, images, and more; files ending in the extension “.pdf”
- streaming: playing audio files directly in an app (e.g. Spotify, YouTube) or browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox); requires an active internet connection; as opposed to download
Glossary: Other
- cannon fodder: derogatory military term for “disposable” combatants (e.g. frontline infantrymen)
- headcanon: a person’s theory about the story of a work of fiction (“canon”)
