This is a list of concepts that casual TTRPG gamers don't seem to be familiar with or even aware of. I have written them down and provided brief explanations because this is the TTRPG language. I find that having an understanding of more concepts is beneficial for everyone. These are in no particular order.
Genre vs Theme: Genre describes the style or aesthetic of story. Genres include action, tragedy, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, horror, etc. Themes are the ideas or substance. Theme is the moral of the day or the deeper, complex, substantive point for telling the story. Themes are things like love conquers all, violence begets violence, never give up hope, etc. Themes are recurring ideas found among characters and setting. I add this because a big-ish YT channel got this wrong recently!
Fantasy (genre): Means fiction with magic or supernatural stuff. Does not specify what kind or how much! Note that fantasy does not mean anything goes!
High Fantasy vs Low Fantasy: Unintuitively, these terms describe the type of setting, not necessarily the quality or quantity of the fantastic elements in and of themselves. High fantasy describes a completely fantastic world with its own fantastic history, culture, myths, etc. Low fantasy describes earth or an earth-like setting with some fantastic elements added to it.
Sci-Fi vs Space Opera: Science Fiction is speculative fiction meaning it is fiction that speculates about hypothetical technology and how it might affect people or society. In other words, you ask "what would happen if we had X technology?" and you speculate about it in the form of a story. Sci-fi may also try to make a commentary on how modern technology affects people or society by showing the long-term consequences. Conflicts with technology or because of technology are the substance of sci-fi. It usually tries to be scientific although there may be some not-so-scientific tropes or story-telling conventions. A space opera on the other hand is fiction that is set in a futuristic setting with futuristic tech, but the substance of the genre is not the tech. Instead, a space opera tries to be a about mythology or drama with a futuristic setting as a backdrop. It's also called fantasy in space.
Stakes: The stakes are what you stand to lose if you fail to achieve your goal. If you fail and the only thing that happens is you die, then the stakes are your life. If failure also means the death of your people, then the fate of your people are also what's at state. High fantasy tends to have epic states like the fate of the world. Low fantasy tends to be about personal or local stakes. Either way, there should always be personal stakes because that's where the drama really comes from. You can't have tension unless something you care about is at stake.
Conflict: I want something. You want something. When we both can't have what we what, then we're in conflict. Conflict is present because someone must lose.
Tone: The mood or atmosphere. If you're in a scary scene, the mood should be scary. Participant buy-in is needed. You would be a spoil sport if you made a joke about farts or palindromes.
Player Skill vs Character Skill: The distinction between the players using their own cleverness to solve problems in the game, and the players using their character's statistics and powers to do that instead.
Gritty Survival or Cinematic Action: On the one hand, you have a game with the intent to be somewhat realistic. If you get stabbed, you're stabbed, and you treat it like that. Cinematic on the other hand, you might just imagine you're a movie action hero who can shrug off any sort of stab wound as long as he has HP to spare.
Player vs Player: Are players and their characters allowed to be adversarial towards each other?
Dark Themes and Subject Matter (Grimdark, Nobledark, Grimbright): Some people act like necromancers are just wizards who are slightly creepy. Some people treat necromancers like villains who violate taboos of life and death.
Simulationist or Abstractionist: Simulationists like to simulate things. I use my 5 foot step and I swing my sword for the monster's head. That's a negative whatever penalty because it's a called shot and because the monsters' in a higher weigh class, yada yada yada. Abstractionists like to simplify things. I run into melee range and I swing sword for the monster's head. Roll dice.
Game Balance or Nah: Balancing the game so that the obstacles always suit the character's skill; or, assign a difficulty based on what seems reasonable were the obstacle to be present in real life.
Martial Realism: Considerations for how weapons and wrestling would really work in real life and trying to model that with rules.
Reputation: Fame and Infamy: Your character earns a reputation for their accomplishments and their behavior. This reputation can precede them and be either detrimental or beneficial.
Moral Objectivity (Black and White) vs Moral Subjectivity (Grey): Some people believe there is an objective good and bad, right and wrong. Others disagree, and they want to represent moral ambiguity and complexity.
Heroic Player Characters, Villainous Player Characters, or both?: Some players want to be the heroes, some want to be the villains.
Zero to Hero: You begin with nothing! You're not special! But you can earn greatness!
Combat as Sport vs Combat as War: Combat is either treated like a game or a sport; it's fair and balanced. Or, combat is treated like a life and death, deadly activity and you fight to survive rather than win! There's no guarantee of balance. You make sure you never have a fair fight because that's a good way to die!
Narrative Driven vs Mechanics Driven: Is the logic of the narrative the criteria that decides what can and cannot happen in a scene or situation, or do you prefer to defer to game mechanics and rules?
Grounded Fiction: The fiction of the game is grounded meaning relatable characters, plausible scenarios, and realistic environments are emphasized. If the rules of the game conflict with the fiction, the fiction beats the rules. The difficulty of the game should suit a grounded fiction rather than a game balanced for the sake of a fair experience.
Rulings vs Rules: Rules are not perfect, and so in the absence of clear or complete rules, the game master makes a ruling. That's normal. However, there are some rules-lite games with looser rules intended to allow for more rulings, and there are games that try to make the rules as complete and clear as possible to eliminate or reduce the need for rulings. Then, there's also people who prefer the rules as they are written, and there are people who are not satisfied with the rules-as-written, for instance if the rule conflicts with the logic of a scene or situation, and they like to take liberties.
Metagaming: This word may be understood differently by different people. It could be understood as using knowledge that you the player possess but which your character does not possess. It could also be understood as thinking about the game as a game rather than a narrative exercise. Both understandings are similar if you think about them.
Metacurrency: Meta currency is a resource that the player has for the game, but the character is not aware of the resource. Examples are luck dice or inspiration. Using metacurrency necessarily means metagaming when the player makes a decision based on the availability of the metacurrency.
Ludo Narrative and Ludo Narrative Dissonance: Ludo is Latin for I play (that's the best I can do). Therefore, Ludo Narrative means I play the narrative or I am not just playing a game, I'm playing a narrative. We are engaging with the story as much as we are engaging with the game. Ludo Narrative Dissonance is a sensation of mental discomfort or disappointment, like a breaking of the suspension of disbelief, that comes from the game mechanics conflicting with the narrative. For example, if I'm playing a game with HP and I get stabbed, the game rules model the injury abstractly as HP loss, not a stab wound. If I can rest and immediately recover the lost HP, then does that not mean I can nap off a stab wound? That's unsatisfyingly immersion breaking to some, but not others.
Factions: A group of people with a shared set of values or goals. Factions have their own identity, history, structure, etc. Factions usually compete with other, opposing factions. Some people might suggest that factions should have an ally faction, a rival faction, and an adversarial faction.
In-Character vs Out-of-Character: When in character, you are pretending, you are roleplaying; You are portraying the character in the scene. When out-of character, you are the gamer at the table asking about rules and rolling dice.
Pacing: The rate that the story moves. A slow paved story has a lot of those little moments or minutiae like walking to a wagon, taking your gear off slowly, sitting down at the campfire, organizing your thoughts and taking a breather. Fast pacing is returning to camp, turning in, and waking up the next day.
Immersion: immersion is the sensation of feeling like you are in the moment, and your awareness of everything else fades. You lose track of time. Some players play for this sensation and spoiling it ruins the fun for them.
Horror (genre): Horror is intended to evoke a sensation of fear or disgust in the audience. Anything that causes feelings of helplessness and uncertainty are beneficial. The characters tend to be victims or survivors rather than heroes. For these reasons, horror is incompatibile with modern D&D if the game is balanced.
Exploration (game play): The act of searching for things that are hidden. It is satisfying to discover valuable or interesting things based on choices you made when there was a possibility of missing them.
Socialization (game play): Also known as social interaction, is a type of game play that involves speaking to GM controlled characters. Challenge can be found in using different methods of speech and social engineering to establish and re-establish power dynamics to earn resources. Rewards can be information, relationships, opportunities, and material support (money or items).
Narration: Using narrative language rather than game terminology to describe actions, features of an object, sensations, etc., often associated with the role of the GM. Since the medium of the game is conversation, the players should use narration to describe their own actions to establish the placement of their character in each scene and communicate intent of actions.
Inciting Incident: When an event occurs that causes a character to deviate from pursuing their general goal in their ordinary life, this is the inciting incident. This event leads to the call to adventure.
Call to Adventure: When an event occurs that demands that the character act that will involve struggle, this is the call to action. Answering the call leads the hero down the heroes journey.
Twist (Reversal): An event that is logical yet unexpected and that changes the anticipated course or direction of the story, usually to the detriment of the main character(s). In three-act structure, this usually occurs at the end of Act I (set up) and the end of Act II (execution).
