If you’ve been looking into playing Dungeons & Dragons on StartPlaying, you’ve probably run into some unfamiliar terms. This is a primer on some Dungeons & Dragons terminology to help you understand some key concepts useful for preparing a character and starting a campaign.

From the Player’s Handbook:

ADVENTURER (PHB, 5)

The character a player controls in the game of Dungeons & Dragons. A special type of character in the game world, capable of greatness. They learn skills and advance their abilities quickly and their actions have great consequence. As an adventurer, it is important for you to work collaboratively with your party and with your Dungeon Master to advance the campaign’s story.

CAMPAIGN (5)

An adventure’s ongoing story, created collaboratively by the group’s players and dungeon master. Campaigns can connect multiple quests and stories and go on indefinitely, if the group decides.

DUNGEON MASTER / GAME MASTER (5)

The Dungeon Master (DM) or Game Master (GM) is responsible for running the game and arbitrating its rules throughout play. The Dungeon Master provides the adventure and setting and controls the characters not controlled by the players.

MULTIVERSE (5)

The extended universe of Dungeons & Dragons, made of multiple planes of reality. Most adventures take place on what’s known as the Material Plane, but higher-level parties may travel to other fantastical planes connected in the multiverse.

ABILITY SCORE (7)

The abilities in Dungeons & Dragons are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each action that a character attempts to make in the world corresponds to an ability and ability scores determine how well a character can perform them. Ability scores are a very important determiner in a build’s effectiveness and it is important to pay attention to which abilities your character build needs.

D20 (7)

A twenty-sided die used in Dungeons & Dragons to determine the outcome of actions the player decides to make. Although dice with other numbers of sides are used at times, the d20 is the basis for most rolls on ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, and spellcasting.

DIFFICULTY CLASS (7)

Actions attempted in Dungeons & Dragons is given a difficulty class (DC) number, which must be beaten by the total of a player’s roll and their character’s relevant modifiers.

MODIFIER (7)

Any addition to be made to the result of a dice roll. Characters gain modifiers through class features, proficiencies, attributes, equipment, items, spells, and other sources.

SAVING THROW (7)

A roll of a d20 to avoid or resist the effects of an attack, spell, trap, environmental danger, or anything else that may harm the effected character.

NON-PLAYER CHARACTER (8)

Characters not controlled by the players, usually controlled by the dungeon master. These include allies, enemies, and average people populating the world that the players can interact with.

BACKGROUND (11)

Your character’s past before the beginning of the adventure. Backgrounds provide your character with starting equipment, resources, abilities, and proficiencies.

CHARACTER SHEET (11)

A handy document containing everything about your character, including their ability scores, proficiencies, equipment, spells, biographical information, allegiances, and much more. If you’re new to the game, making sure you understand everything on the character sheet is a great place to start.

CLASS (11)

A set of features and proficiencies that determine what your character can do in combat and how they interact with the world. Leveling up in your chosen class gives you access to more powerful abilities, allowing you to take on ever greater challenges. Players can also multiclass (leveling in two or more more classes) to create their own unique character builds.

PROFICIENCIES (11)

Character traits that determine the ability to use certain armor, weapons, skills, saving throws, and tools.

RACE / SPECIES (11)

A character’s species. Older editions of Dungeons & Dragons use the term “race” but this is being changed to “species” in new materials. Many different species/races coexist in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. A certain number of these are “playable” and have rules for traits and access to certain feats. Make sure to research the different playable species when creating a character, because this has a significant effect on your character’s build for combat and roleplaying.

ALIGNMENT (122)

A rough determination of your character’s motivations, morals, and ideals.  Alignment consists of two factors: morality (good, evil, or neutral) and lawfulness (lawful, chaotic, neutral). A character’s alignment is mostly a guide of how they may behave in certain situations, but it can sometimes have gameplay consequences. Divine spellcasters can lose their powers if they take actions not in accordance with their faith’s alignment and certain NPCs or deities in the game world may take different attitudes towards characters depending on their alignment.

INSPIRATION (125)

An extra resource allowing a player to add an advantage (extra die) to a roll. Inspiration points are usually awarded to players for acting in accordance with a character’s bonds, ideals, or flaws. This is to encourage good roleplaying.

FEAT (165)

A special ability or passive trait available to characters at certain level milestones, expanding what a character can do beyond what their class provides. Feats can be very powerful and certain builds may depend on them.

ROUND / TURN / COMBAT TIME (181)

Combat and other encounters in Dungeons & Dragons is divided into rounds, which represent about six seconds. During each round, each character takes their turn, deciding what to do (using actions, bonus actions, and reactions) during each six-second interval.

SPELL SLOTS (201)

Resources used for casting spells. Spells in Dungeons & Dragons are grouped into levels. A spellcaster, such as a wizard or sorcerer, spends spell slots to cast spells of the corresponding level. As they level up, spellcasters will have higher-level spell slots to cast more powerful spells, as well as more lower-level slots to cast their bread-&-butter spells more times before resting.

Other Terms:

BUILD

A plan for a character to fulfill a certain role, consisting of their class, background, attributes, skill proficiencies, feats, spells, and equipment. No one character can do everything, so members of a party will play different builds in order to fill different needs in the course of adventuring and fighting.

CRITICAL ROLL (Not Critical Role) 

A roll of a d20 that results in either a 1 or a 20. A roll of 1 is a critical failure, which results in a failure of the task being attempted and sometimes, at the discretion of the dungeon master, also includes some kind of detrimental effect, such as an injury. A roll of 20 is a critical success, which usually results in success and/or extra damage, unless the task being attempted is impossible. For example, despite all the jokes online, a roll of 20 on a bard’s attempt to seduce a dragon will likely result in the bard being charred to a crisp, as dragons are not generally interested in an adventurer’s love.

SESSION ZERO

A session to have with your group before beginning the adventure that involves no gameplay. This is your opportunity to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding the campaign, its goals, your party’s role in the story, and rules for playing at the table to ensure everyone has a good time. Players may also take this opportunity to create their characters, get to know each others’ characters, and determine some of their history together (if any).

TABLE RULES / HOUSE RULES

Rules used by an individual gaming group that are not included in the official ruleset or are modified versions of the official rules in the D&D Player’s Handbook. Some groups like to use their own rules to adjust difficulty or improve balance on certain classes, skills, spells, or equipment.

TABLE TALK

Discussion between players that does not occur between characters in the game. This can include casual conversation or discussions on rules, strategies, or other metagaming topics.

THEATER OF THE MIND

A method of collaborative storytelling that takes place entirely in the players’ and dungeon master’s imaginations, eschewing battle maps, miniatures, and other visual aids. Playing in the theater of the mind can help simplify and speed up the game and could be a good choice for groups more focused on storytelling, rather than the “crunchy” mechanics of combat and exploration.

TTRPG

TTPRG stands for tabletop role-playing game, which is a type of game played in person, either around a table or on online platforms like StartPlaying, where players suspend their disbelief and assume the roles of characters in a fictitious world to partake in an adventure. Dungeons & Dragons is a pen-and-paper TTRPG in a fantasy setting. Players assume the roles of adventurer heroes with access to magic and superhuman abilities and contend with monsters, demons, deities, and, of course, dragons.

‍

Mike Martino is a writer, editor, & playwright in Chicago.