Talk:roleplaying game

Online glossary
Does anybody know an online glossary of role-playing gamer's slang?
 * We have Category:en:Gaming and Category:en:Role-playing games. Equinox ◑ 14:10, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * This is a good answer, but I’m not sure if there’s a point in replying to a thirteen-year-old post. Inter qwark talk  contribs 21:22, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

RFM discussion: June 2018–November 2022
The hyphenated spelling is the most common spelling and the grammatically correct one. Wikipedia uses the non-hyphenated spelling (Role-playing game, Role-playing video game). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Interqwark roleplaying game once had a hyphen but was by a non-administrator, seemingly without a discussion. Inter qwark talk  contribs 13:30, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * What is not grammatically correct about roleplaying? Equinox ◑ 14:12, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * “Role-playing” is usually spelt with a hyphen (sometimes with a space instead). “Roleplaying” is the non-standard spelling.
 * “Role-playing game” and “Role-playing video game” are the most common spellings and the ones used on Wikipedia. Inter qwark talk  contribs 14:39, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * In the 21st century, it's spelled without a hyphen. I checked various works:
 * Dungeons & Dragons PHB (1st edition) (1978) role-playing game
 * Dungeons & Dragons PHB (2nd edition) (1989) role-playing game
 * Dungeons & Dragons PHB (3rd edition) (2000) roleplaying game
 * Dungeons & Dragons PHB (4th edition) (2008) roleplaying game
 * Dungeons & Dragons PHB (5th edition) (2015) roleplaying game
 * Pathfinder Core Rulebook (2009) roleplaying game
 * Starfinder Core Rulebook (2017) roleplaying game
 * Mage: the Ascension (2nd edition) (1995) roleplaying game
 * Changeling: the Dreaming (2nd edition) (1997) roleplaying game
 * Mage: the Ascension (revised edition) (2000) uses neither roleplaying game nor role-playing game, but uses both roleplaying and role-playing
 * Mage: the Ascension (20th anniversary edition) (2015) roleplaying game
 * Changeling: the Dreaming (20th anniversary edition) (2017) roleplaying game
 * Fate Core Book (2013) roleplaying game
 * Trail of Cthulhu (2008) roleplaying game
 * Paranoia (new edition) (2016) role-playing game
 * GURPS (3rd edition) (1989) roleplaying game
 * Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (powered by GURPS) (2015) roleplaying game
 * Steve Jackson Games style guide (owner of GURPS) mandates roleplaying, not role-playing
 * Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (2013) roleplaying game
 * Star Trek Adventures Roleplaying Game (2017) roleplaying game


 * It's a somewhat arbitrary selection, but I mostly kept to major 21st century games. As you can see from http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1984-Top-5-RPGs-Compiled-Charts-2008-Present, I got all five of the best selling games for the most recent quarter, and a good sample of the best selling games going back for years. (M:tA and C:tD are samples of the World of Darkness books.) Dungeons & Dragons is dominant in the industry, so that alone would be an argument for roleplaying game. Paranoia is produced by Mongoose, a British company, which may be why they use the hyphen; Modiphius Entertainment, the British producers of the Star Trek Adventures RPG, don't use a hyphen. In any case, it is overwhelmed by the mainstream usage of "roleplaying game".--Prosfilaes (talk) 18:42, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I suppose you’re right and that it is not non-standard if the unhyphenated spelling is so common. I rarely see it myself, but it does seem more common than I thought. In that case, my apologies. However, since Wikipedia uses the hyphenated spelling, shouldn’t Wiktionary do too? Inter qwark talk  contribs 19:12, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * We're a group of individuals whose common decisions are usually not, and should not ever, be dependent on the decisions of another group of individuals. What should count here are other people's arguments, not their results. Korn &#91;kʰũːɘ̃n&#93; (talk) 19:34, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * In the titles of RP content seems common, but in edited content it seems almost non-existent with  being the overwhelming choice. Other dictionaries seem to strongly favor, as do the NY Times, Washington Post, The Times, etc. While it is hard to determine, I am curious how often  is used outside of the titles of particular products, and if it is predominantly used there how we ought to handle that. Is it akin to a word like , which is extremely common in product names but much more rare as an independent adjective? -  TheDaveRoss  21:03, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Ngrams would suggest that, as you say, role-playing game is more common. - -sche (discuss) 22:00, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Is Google making a distinction between "role playing game" and "role-playing game" in that search?--Prosfilaes (talk) 23:39, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * No, I’m fairly certain Google doesn’t care about punctuation marks. Inter qwark talk  contribs 00:59, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Actually, it does seem to distinguish them, as you can see if you compare all three spellings in the Viewer. The spaced spelling "role playing game" is the rarest of the bunch. - -sche (discuss) 05:22, 17 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Most of those selections were not from titles, but were instead from body text. I object to "edited content"; all of those books are from professional multi-person publishers with editors on staff. It is not like "lite"; it's the normal spelling of the word in the tabletop RPG industry.--Prosfilaes (talk) 23:39, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I was not contrasting "edited content" with the information you provided, but rather with things like Usenet usage etc. I don't disagree that all three variants are common within the community and associated materials (be they edited, user-created or otherwise). I think we ought to have all three variants represented and if there is a useful distinction to be made about where each of them is most commonly used or rarely used we should make note of that information. It does seem like the single-word variant is much more common within the industry than it is in other places, as is clear from the news reporting on the subject strongly preferring the hyphenated variant. - TheDaveRoss  02:35, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose the original move proposal. Sticking with what is most commonly used by the industry seems sensible. - excarnateSojourner (talk|contrib) 05:41, 29 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Excellent arguments by both sides. Not renamed GreyishWorm (talk) 23:13, 2 November 2022 (UTC)