Role-Playing Games Glossary

Actor Stance: Mode of play in which player is primarily concerned with portraying their character to others.^[1]
Alienation: Techniques designed to remind the audience of the nature of what they are seeing/hearing/reading, drawing attention to the process rather than the content.
Audience Stance: Mode of play in which player is primarily enjoying their own or other character's stories as a spectator.^[1]
Author Stance: Mode of play in which player is primarily concerned with co-creating a story.^[1]
Avatarism: The degree to which a player prefers to project themselves into the game, rather than playing an imaginary character.
Bluebooking: Writing about events in the gameworld, eg. in the form of an in-character diary or short fiction, that are then accepted by the group as if they had occurred in-game.
Concept-Based: A module focussing on ideas, rather than the personalities of the characters; characters may represent a particular opinion or ideology, and their personalities are secondary.
Debriefing: After an intense roleplaying session, it is advisable for players and GM to discuss the in-game events out-of-character, to gain emotional distance from their characters and resolve any lingering issues. If done formally, this is often referred to as the post-game debrief.
Diceless Role-Playing: A type of game where the GM makes decisions based on narrative or aesthetic considerations, rather than using game mechanics (eg. dice). In Australia, the term is specific to those games that deliberately forego any attempt at formal mechanics. American gamers apply the term freeforming to employing the diceless style of play where the game otherwise uses game mechanics.
Dramatist: Also known as narrative or story-oriented. An approach to gaming where decisions are made on the basis of what would make a good story, in preference to either simulationist or gamist considerations. Part of the threefold model.^[1]
EI (Extended Improvisation): A form of drama with no prepared script, only a character concept. Quite possibly the missing link between roleplaying and the other arts.
Emanata: Originally coined by Mort Walker (Lexicon of Comicana) to describe the graphic devices used by cartoonists to describe "what is going on inside" their characters. In role-playing games, emanata may include: suspending play so that a player may describe what their character is thinking/feeling; having players keep journals or diaries in-character; having an NPC confidant draw the character out in private (eg. a priest/confessor); or simply good acting (for those players who have the appropriate skills).
Emergent Properties: Properties of a complex object that could not be predicted from its component parts. Classic examples given in Psychology include: systems specialised for the four "F"s (feeding, fighting, fleeing, mating) arising from neuronal on-off switches; qualities such as altruism, creativity and sadism arising from systems specialised for the four "F"s; the mob mentality or "groupthink" effect arising from any collection of otherwise rational people, from football fans to executive boards.
Firewalling: Keeping a player's knowledge, separate from their character's knowledge, so that the character's behaviour cannot be seen to be influenced by information that they should not have.
Freeform: Australian Usage: An advanced form of live-action role-playing, pioneered in Australia. It is typified by a large number of players (from 12 upwards). The game is run in real time, and the inter-character dynamics are such that it requires minimal GM intervention. Some of the ideas developed by freeformers have been adapted by White Wolf games for their proprietary game system Mind's Eye Theatre.
American Usage: See Diceless Role-Playing.
Gamist: An approach to gaming where the GM tries to create balanced challenges for the players, and the players make decisions primarily to overcome those challenges. Part of the threefold model.^[1]
Hierarchy: Device used to allow variable numbers of players to play a module (especially a freeform). Characters differ in their level of importance to the plot(s), ranging from pivotal characters (hopefully played by GMs or GM plants, more often played by the writers' friends) to utterly peripheral characters who can be omitted at no cost to anyone else (often given to known idiots or people the writer doesn't like).
Homogeneity: Giving all characters roughly equal importance to the plot, often by equating their power levels (in tactical gaming) or seeing that they have similar backgrounds and comparable knowledge.
Immersive Stance: Also called "Deep In-Character Stance", although this is controversial. Mode of play in which player closely identifies with their character, feeling what they feel, often describing the sensation as "channelling" their character.^[1]
In-Character Stance: Mode of play in which player makes all decisions from their character's point of view.^[1]
Metagame: Refers to all aspects of play that cannot be represented in terms of the game world, eg. game balance, plot, relationships between players.
Metagaming: Addressing the GM or other players, as players, to discuss aspects of the plot, character development etc. Usually done out of character.
Naturalism: School of thought in drama that holds that actors should act exactly as their characters would in real life, right down to gestures and mannerisms. Naturalistic performances might look as if someone had hidden a video camera in a real persons' house. cf. Realism
Niche Protection: Measures taken to ensure that each character has a defined role in the group, and to prevent other characters encroaching on or diminishing that role, eg. rigid character classes, mechanics that make it easier to develop existing skills than learn new ones, agreements to specialise in non-overlapping areas.
Realism: School of thought in drama that holds that performances are more powerful when only elements relevant to dramatic development are included, and all irrelevant elements are discarded. cf. Naturalism
Retcon: Retrospective continuity, or reality shift. Agreement between all players and GM to accept as in-game reality, a version of events different from that which was originally played out.
Simulationist: Also called world-oriented. Approach to gaming where the GM and players attempt to simulate a reality (not necessarily the reality, possibly a particular genre or fictional world). Considerations that cannot be expressed in terms of the game world, are disregarded. Part of the threefold model.^[1]
Stances: See Actor, Audience, Author, Immersive, In Character.^[1]
Suspension of Disbelief: The willing (and often unconscious) decision not to question too closely assumptions underlying the gameworld in which one is playing, eg. allowing the existence of magic, or the ability of a secret agent to shoot his way through a small army of enemy agents.
Threefold Model: See Dramatist, Gamist, Simulationist. ^[1]

[1] From John Kim's Frequently-Asked Questions on rec.games.frp.advocacy

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