Ability Check
A d20 roll used when a character tries something uncertain, such as climbing, persuading, searching, or recalling information.
Volume One
Glossary
A searchable reference for common D&D and tabletop terms.
Adventure
A contained story or mission. It may last one session or several sessions.
Armor Class / AC
A number that shows how hard a character or creature is to hit.
Attack Roll
A roll to see whether an attack hits a target.
Battle Map
A top-down map used when position, distance, movement, or cover matters.
Campaign
A longer series of connected adventures with recurring characters, places, enemies, and consequences.
Character Class
A character's main adventuring role, such as fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard, ranger, bard, paladin, or barbarian.
Character Sheet
The record of a character's abilities, hit points, armor class, attacks, spells, equipment, and features.
d20
A twenty-sided die used for many major checks, attacks, and saving throws.
Damage
A number that reduces hit points when an attack, spell, trap, or hazard hurts a creature.
Difficulty Class / DC
The target number a roll must meet or beat to succeed at a task.
Disadvantage
Roll two d20s and use the lower result.
Dungeon Master / DM
The person who describes the world, plays non-player characters, presents challenges, and applies rules.
Encounter
A focused situation such as a fight, negotiation, trap, mystery, or obstacle.
Hit Points / HP
A measure of how much harm a character or creature can take before going down.
House Rule
A table-specific rule that changes, clarifies, or adds to the official rules.
Initiative
The order in which characters and enemies take turns during combat.
Module
A prewritten adventure with story material, locations, monsters, maps, and DM guidance.
NPC
A non-player character controlled by the DM.
Party
The group of player characters adventuring together.
Premade Character
A character already created for a player to use.
Roleplaying
Making choices and speaking from the perspective of a character.
Saving Throw
A defensive roll used to resist danger.
Session -1
A practical setup meeting for accounts, voice chat, devices, and basic tools.
Session 0
A planning session for tone, boundaries, characters, rules, and expectations.
Spell Slot
A limited resource many spellcasters spend to cast spells.
Theater of the Mind
Playing from description and imagination instead of a detailed map.
Token
A marker representing a character or creature on a map.
Virtual Tabletop / VTT
An online tool for maps, tokens, dice, sheets, or shared tabletop scenes.
World Map
A broad map showing regions, travel routes, and locations rather than exact combat positions.