It is always important to define your terms so other people can understand what you’re talking about.
I’m writing from the perspective of a veteran role-player who is quite familiar with the common lingo. Not every reader will be coming from the same head space. So, anytime I use a term that I think may be unclear, I’ll briefly define it here.
If I use a word or phrase that doesn’t make sense to you and isn’t in this list, let me know, and I may add it here.
What you won’t find here is any explanations or reviews of other people’s intellectual property. If you want to know more about those things, ask the people who made them, or see if I’ve posted a review.
Crunch: This is a sort of slang term used to express how complicated any given rules system is among role-play enthusiasts. A high Crunch system will have more detailed and particular rules, often including complicated dice mechanics and a large number of calculations to determine what a character can and cannot do. A low Crunch system will have very straight forward dice mechanics and simple values representing any given character. Ultimately how Crunchy a system is does not reflect on the quality of the game, you can enjoy any game along the entire Crunchy spectrum. It just represents a means for individual players and narrators to express their preferences. Some people prefer Crunchy games, others don’t. Some stories are best told with little Crunch to complicate things, while others are best served with lots of fine detail.
Dice Mechanics: Just about every role-play system employs a means of randomizing results. Most often this is accomplished with Dice. When a character is performing some task, or engaging in an action where there is a chance they might fail, the dice are rolled to determine if they succeed or not. This randomization of success helps lend some uncertainty to the games and creates opportunities for improvising how we react to success or failure in the story. It is never completely random though. Characters typically have traits that indicate what they’re good at doing to influence the Dice Mechanics towards success when it really matters.
Narrator: Most role-play games are built around a particular social structure. One person in the game serves to tell the story and describe the scenarios and challenges while the rest of the people in the game each create a main character for the story and determine their individual actions and decisions. The group is almost universally called Players, while each system seems to give a different title to the individual who tells the story. The titles are all descriptive but different. Dungeon Master, Game Master, Storyteller, Judge, all are fine and make sense. My preference, and the one I like to use, is Narrator.
Setting: This is a term that encompasses all the background information that surrounds the stories told during the game. Settings can include history, important locations, influential characters, and any aspect of the story that expresses the chosen genre.
System: This term represents the rules of the game. It is often synonymous with other terms like Mechanics, Core Rules, or Rule Set. The System is distinct from the Setting but I feel it works best when it is designed to support and express the Setting as well as possible.