(Not) Glossing Over the Glossary

[kylesgames]

As I work on PROJECT HAMMER, I realized that part of my agenda needs to be to make a glossary. This serves both as a place where I can quickly reference terms to make sure I'm not going mad staring at the ocean of text and an easy reference for new players.

I based my glossary off of the one in GURPS Lite, with a few changes, given the differences between the games. The idea is simple: short explanations of important game concepts.

I have noticed a few discrepancies. My glossary entries tend to be a little longer. The glossary for GURPS Lite includes stuff like "Adventure", "Encounter", or "Campaign", which are largely alien concepts in PROJECT HAMMER, which is mostly concerned with sessions and doesn't really make those things player-facing. I wind up with more entries, perhaps because I'm verbose, or perhaps because the GURPS Lite glossary is... lite.

Without further ado, here is my index:

IMPORTANT TERMS

There are a number of terms you will see frequently throughout [PROJECT HAMMER}. These are the most important ones you need to be familiar with:

Action Roll: The Action Roll is the main method of conflict resolution in Hammercalled. To perform an action roll, determine a Target Number (TN) based on a character’s relevant Attribute and add any other appropriate factors. A d100 is then rolled, and if the result is less than the TN, the action is successful.

Attribute: One of the seven universal statistics that all characters have. They provide a baseline for Action Rolls.
Character: We use the term character for any entity that has statistics and can take actions in the system; whether they are a person, robot, magical automaton, or any other sort of thing.

d100: A hundred-sided die, usually represented by combining two ten-sided dice; one with a tens place and one with a ones place. The numbers are read across, with a result of 00 and 0 being equivalent to a result of 100.

Game Master: The Game Master is the person who coordinates the story and resolves any disagreements about the rules. They also typically provide situations to get the ball rolling. Over the course of the game they may control many characters, often simultaneously. Frequently abbreviated to GM.

Gear: Gear represents specialized tools that a character has acquired; typically this represents personal gear that they have improved and used for a long time, but Gear can be acquired in other ways as well.

Margin: Margin is a measure of how well a character succeeded. A character’s Margin on a successful roll is equal to one-twentieth of the final result, rounded down (so a result of 1-19 is 0, 20-39 is 1, and so forth).

Non-Player Character: A character who is controlled by the GM. Many operate on a simplified ruleset. Frequently abbreviated to NPC.

Player Character: A character controlled by an individual player other than the GM. Typically most players will control only one character at a time. Infrequently abbreviated to PC.

Profession: A character’s Profession provides them with Specializations that give bonuses to certain actions or types of actions. Professions are rated from 10 to 30, providing an equivalent bonus toward a primary specialization and a reduced bonus to secondary specializations.

Specialization: See Profession.

Statistic: A value that a character has that measures their available resources, passive defenses or responses, and various other important details.

Target Number: All Action Rolls are rolled against a Target Number, which is determined by a mixture of the character’s Attributes, Professions, Gear, and additional circumstantial modifiers determined by the GM. Frequently abbreviated to TN.

[Rob Lang]

Good call! I've included a Glossary in my list of things to do.