Here’s the thing: I choose my words very, very carefully. Unlike the Caterpillar, I try and only use the word whose denotation, connotation, and etymological history fit what I’m trying to say. I try like hell to avoid metonymy and synedoche, and so generally speaking when I use a word, I only use it for one thing. This goes double for when I’m doing technical writing, as vast tracts of my blog are.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying: sometimes when I use a word, I may not be using it like you might think at first.

I’m going to compile here a listing of terms that I use regularly, and what I mean by them. Eventually I’ll alphabetize them, but for now they’re in logical, categorized order.

The First Important Distinction

Game - (a social thing) people participating in an enjoyable experience with structured (but not necessarily formal) rules of interaction. A game is a social experience. In the context of RPGs, a game is people actually playing; the Changeling: the Dreaming on my shelf is not a game.

Book - (a physical thing) a published artifact bearing information. In the context of RPGs, the book is what you hold in your hands, read, and reference. The copy of Changeling on my shelf is a book. You cannot play a book; you can only play a game.

Text - (a logical thing) a compilation of information presented in a single medium. In the context of RPGs, the text can be what is portrayed in a Book. A text is not an artifact; you cannot pick it up. It is composed of information.

Rule - (a social thing) a principle that describes acceptable behavior. In the context of RPGs, a rule can be suggested as part of a text, which can in turn be presented in a book, but the suggestion only becomes a rule when the players agree to use it. Not all Rules are presented in books — some, like “No PC death” or “Don’t split the party” come from other sources, but they still determine what is and is not acceptable behavior. A collection of rules does not make a game (player interactions make a game), but it can describe how a game might be played.

The Other Important Distinction

Player - (a physical thing) a participant in the game who performs interactions. This includes the Game Master / Dungeon Master / Hollyhock God.

GM/DM/Ref/HG/Whatever - (a physical thing) a player who is given greater authority than other participants and different access privileges to the various interactions of the game.

Aspects

Aspect - (logical thing) one of the primary parts of the roleplaying experience; there are three (maybe more), including the Goal, the Fiction, and the System.

Goal, The - (a social thing) the reason why a player engages in a roleplaying game. One of the three Aspects of roleplaying.

Fiction, The - (a fictional thing) the imaginary things and events that occur “in the game.” One of the three Aspects of roleplaying. Also: fictional content.

System, The - (a logical thing) the processes and procedures by which the players agree on the characteristics and development of fictional content. (Which is, yes, pure Lumpley Principle.) A system is always composed of rules (see above) but very rarely are all the rules of a system presented in one text — usually some rules are contributed by the social reality of the players. One of the three Aspects of roleplaying.

Related to the Goal

Player Preference - (a logical thing) something that a player wants to explore or manipulate in the course of the game. Note: preferences can also be defined negatively, such as “No romance between player characters.” Also: Expectations.

Comfort Zone - (a logical thing) the range of themes and content that a player is comfortable exploring and manipulating.

Agenda - (a logical thing) a coherent set of player preferences which reinforce each other mutually, often formalized through a process of self-exploration and hard thinking. Agendas can cover a multitude of different facets of a game, including the social, creative, and technical characteristics of the roleplaying experience.

Flags - (a logical thing) a formal tool by which players communicate their expectations (including agenda and comfort zones) of the game, usually through an entry on a character sheet or in a semiformal discussion about the game.

Related to the Fiction

Element - (a logical thing) a “piece” of the Fiction, such as Joe the Librarian, a stack of books, or the Uptown Library.

Character - (a fictional thing) a fictional entity which actively impacts other fictional elements, usually but not always a person. An element of Fiction.

Prop - (a fictional thing) a fictional object or entity with no initiative of its own, whose influence on other fictional elements is entirely passive; usually not a person but potentially so. An element of Fiction.

Set - (a fictional thing) a fictional place, usually situated in a certain time. An element of Fiction.

Setting - (a logical thing, in that it is a set of fictional things) the “set of all potential.” All of the fictional elements (characters, props, and sets) that may or may not exist in the world. Everything from gods and planets down to people and microorganisms.

Scope - (a logical thing) the set of rules that describe the boundaries of the setting, what is and is not acceptable. Important: this is different from the elements of fictional content themselves. The Scope includes rules like “Island chains on a water world”. It does not include “The island Hikawawa, where the ladies do the hula.”

Situation - (a logical thing) the “set of all significance.” Elements of the Setting which have been juxtaposed to form conflicts.

Premise - (a logical thing) the set of rules that describe the boundaries of the situation, what is and is not acceptable for consideration. “Questions about religion” is a rule; “The Faithful’s stance on polygamy and the degradation of women” could be in a Situation.

Scene - (a logical thing) a sequential set of events involving fictional content that reveals or addresses the Situation. This usually includes one or more elements of the Situation, but is almost never composed exclusively of these elements (not everything in the scene can be freighted with significance).

Frame - (a logical thing) the set of rules that describe the boundaries of the scene, what is and is not present (physically or thematically). “Things found on a normal street corner” is a rule; “A bus, a fire hydrant, and a crying baby” would be in a scene.

Color - (fictional thing) evocative details of the fictional content which do not directly interact with rules presented in an authoritative text. This is a very finely-cut definition. A character having blonde hair, for instance, does not give her a bonus in any rolls, but may have significance for extratextual rules, such as player assumptions about heroines having blonde hair and villains having black hair. Like “character”, I like this term less the more I use it.

Conflict - (logical thing) a set of relationships comprising a character, something the character desires, and an obstacle that prevents the fulfillment of that desire; conflict is an essential structural characteristic of engaging situations.

Related to System

Credibility - (a logical thing) the quality bestowed to fictional statements ratified by the system. Real things like players, Game Masters, and books cannot have credibility; only fictional statements can.

Authority - (a logical thing) a quality assigned to a source of fictional content which lends the content it produces additional rhetorical value, increasing the likelihood that such content is bestowed credibility. Real things — players, Game Masters, and books — can have authority.

Authority Tool - (a logical thing) a resource, usually represented by or representing fictional content, which allows its user to make statements which are more likely to be assigned credibility. Also: Player Resources

Player Character - (a fictional thing) a character for which a player has closely-related authority tools.

Character Sheet - (a physical thing) a listing of the authority tools related to the player character.

Reinforcement System - (a logical thing) a set of rules which affect the behavior of players in a specific direction, encouraging desired behaviors and discouraging undesired behaviors. Also: Reward System.

Currency - (a logical thing) a resource representing authority, often used to allocate or redistribute authority tools.

Interactions (General)

Interaction - (logical thing) one of the many processes by which the three Aspects of roleplaying interact; an interaction falls under one or more of the six classes of interactions: articulation, contextualization, fuel, imbuing, steering, and validation. Whenever you are roleplaying, you are performing one or more interactions.

Access - (logical thing) the ability of a player to utilize a given interaction; a GM often has more and greater access to interactions than the other players.

Articulation Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players make credible statements about fictional elements; the System affects the Fiction.

Contextualization Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players inform and develop their preferences based on fictional elements; the Fiction affects the Goal.

Fuel Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players support their credible statements with the existence, character, and juxtaposition of fictional elements; the Fiction affects the System.

Imbuing Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players prioritize some fictional elements over others; the Goal affects the Fiction.

Steering Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players propose statements about fictional content; the Goal affects the System.

Validation Interaction - (logical thing) a process by which players revise or strengthen their preferences based on which statements are given credibility; the System affects the Goal.

Specific Interactions

Addressing - (logical thing) a steering interaction in which a player proposes a reaction to the situation intended to change the situation or comment on it (a rhetorical change).

Authorization - (logical thing) a steering interaction in which a player bestows authority on a source of fictional content or a specific procedure that manipulates fictional content.

Focus - (logical thing) an articulation interaction in which a player modifies the Scope, Premise, or Frame, determining what is in or out of the Setting, Situation, and Scene, respectively.

Framing (the Scene) - (logical thing) an articulation interaction in which a player populates a scene with fictional elements and possibily some action.

Identification - (logical thing) an imbuing interaction in which a player discovers similarities and sympathies between himself and a character. This is not limited to player characters, which sometimes are never the target of identification by their players.

Judging - (logical thing) a validation interaction where a player with authority judges the validity — whether strategic, moral, or technical — of a given address to assess its immediate and lasting effects on the situation (success/failure as well as fallout). If Judging interactions are exclusively performed by one player, this can lead to sticky interpersonal politics.

Narration - (logical thing) an articulation interaction in which a player makes statements about the Fiction which are assumed to be credible — although they may be negated by later disagreements or operations of the System.

Ratification - (logical thing) an articulation interaction in which a player agrees that a proposed statement about the Fiction is true; this may be implicit and unspoken, enthusiastically loud, or grudgingly accepted.

Resolution - (logical thing) a contextualization interaction in which a player determines that a conflict has been untangled (obstacle removed, character acheiving desire, and/or character abandoning desire), usually complemented by a Fuel->Validation arc.

Revealing - (logical thing) an articulation interaction, in fact a subset of narration, in which the statement introduces new fictional elements or a new relationship between fictional elements.