Roleplay Dictionary
To understand Role Player, you need to learn their "language"
Post: A single instance of roleplay, written by one player. Posts can be intial posts (sometimes called openers or starters, but not usually referred to as anything special), or they can be replies to other posts.
Reply: A single instance of roleplay, written by one player, in response to another player. All replies are posts, but not all posts are replies.
Thread or Topic: Several instances of interconnected roleplay, written by two or more players. A thread consists of an initial opening posts, and subsequent replies moving through a storyline. A thread may be short (spanning only a few hours your character's time) or long (spanning months or years of your character's time), depending on the game's timing structure.
Basic
Roleplay Roleplayer, Player, insane person: The person at the keyboard playing the roleplay character.
OOC or Out of Character: Things that the roleplayer is saying. OOC often applies to entire forums — e.g., the chat and discussion forums on a given roleplay are almost always OOC forums.
PC or Player Character: The fictional character created by the roleplayer.
IC or In Character: Things that the character is saying. Roleplayers are often permitted to include an "OOC snippet" at the top of their IC posts. This OOC snippet is generally used to deliver messages to other roleplayers in the thread.
NPC or Non-Player Character: A fictional character created by the roleplayer, administrator, or other roleplayers. Non-player characters are, as their name suggests, not actively played by any one roleplayer.
Adoptable or Open Character: A fictional character created by a roleplayer, intended for another roleplayer to "adopt" and play as their own.
Types and Styles of RPGs
AU or Alternate Universe: These roleplaying games are set in a particular fandom universe, but do not adhere to the events that occurred within that universe precisely. An example of this is the Harry Potter game which has Harry, Ron, and Hermione attending Durmstrang instead of Hogwarts.
Canon: The "canon" is the original source material for a fandom game — as in the aforementioned AU Harry Potter game, the canon is still the Harry Potter book series (even though the roleplay universe severely differs).
One-Liner: Roleplay consisting of only a single line or a few short lines — often occurs within chatrooms, widely considered to be very amateur. Sometimes referred to as "action roleplay" wherein actions are interspersed with speech, like so:
*James walks into the room, glowering.* I just got caught poaching from the boss's private stash! *James kicks over a trash can.*
Para, Paragraph, Multi-Para, or Multi-Paragraph: Roleplay that consists of many lines and, often, multiple paragraphs. Generally, roleplay of this kind is over 100 words.
Non-Consent: In this type of roleplaying game, In Character consequences are favored. Your agreement to consequences doesn't matter in Non-Consent RPGs. See for more information.
Limited Consent: Limited Consent attempts to strike an even balance between consent and consequence. Certain negative consequences can be enforced without player agreement. Character death, physical damage, and other severe consequences still require roleplayer agreement, though. See for more information.
Consent: Players cannot control anyone's characters but their own, and consequences or life changes of any sort must be agreed to by the player.
Bad Roleplay
Godmoder, Godmoding: A roleplayer or roleplay character engaging in metagaming, powerplaying, or godmodding. Bascily when you make your character to powerful.
Powerplaying, Powerplay (Synonym: Bunnying): Godmoding by controlling another roleplayer's character without permission.
Metagaming, Metagame: The use of out of character knowledge in character.
Retcon, Retconning: The rescinding of a plot or In Character occurrence; roleplayers acting as if a plot never occurred.
