Generic Role Playing Game Ontology
en The RPG ontology contains abstract descriptions of common RPG concepts, such as Characters, Skills, NPCs etc. A specigic RPG will specialise these concepts to fit the RPG.
Imports http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
Classes
Actor
en Something that can be interacted with within the game.
Actors can be modelled within the game to various degrees of fidelity. For example, a player character may be more detailed than an animal that the character encounters.
Adventure
en A story-level setting for a game, usually with a clear beginning, middle and end.
Amount
en A quantity of something
Asset
en An object within the game that can be used or owned by an actor.
Campaign
en A series of events and adventures featuring a continuing set of chracters and settings.
DateSystem
en A real or fantasy date system.
DiceConventions
en Conventions for describing how die rolls are represented.
Document
en An in-game document
EntityState
en A state associated with a game entity.
Event
en An in-game event
Extra
en A game actor modelled to a low level of detail.
Feature
en Something that describes a character or an item: a characteristic, a skill, an ability, etc.
Attribute
en A descriptive attribute of a character or item.
Faculty
en The level of power for an inherent ability or power.
GameEntity
en Something that exists with the role playing game.
Character
en An RPG representation of a person or similar within-game creature capable of making its own decsions.
Item
en A semi-portable object that is typically carried and used by one person.
Length
Mass
en The basic mass of an item or character.
Generally, this means the most convienient defintiion for role-playing purposes. A character's mass is their mass in ordingary clothing, without additional items such as armour. A weapon's mass is generally its mass with a full load of ammunition.
Depending on setting, mass and weight may be two different things. eg. in Zero-G an item has no weight but still has mass. For purely single-world games, the terms are interchanable.
Milieau
en The large-scale setting of a campaign or an adventure. An outline of the world or universe that the game takes place in.
Participant
en A participant in a role playing game.
Participants are usually a singular Person. However, groups are also possible.
GameMaster
en The participant responsible for creating and managing the situation that forms the role playing game.
The game master has, in theory if not in practice, complete knowledge of the game world. The game master is also generally responsible for refereeing decsicions within the game.
NonPlayerCharacter
en A character controlled by a game master or some other agent, such as a software program.
Place
en A location within the game
PlayerCharacter
en A character directly controlled by a player.
Rules
en A specific set of RPG rules.
Rules can be used to define which sets of rules are compatible with characters, settings, etc.
Sense
en The ability to sense something at a particular level.
The mehanics of how sense work form part of a specific RPGs mechanics.
Skill
en A level of ability in a specific skill.
The way that skill levels are represented are specific to a game system.
SourceBook
en Additional information about a setting.
Conceptually, rules define the mechanics of a game and a source book defines the environment to which the rules apply. In practice, an RPG usually consists of a combined set of rules and setting.
Unit
en A unit of measure
Currency
en A medium of exchange
Date
en A date according to some calendar
ExchangeRate
en An exchange rate between two currencies.
FacultyType
en A type of inherent ability or power.
Language
en Language used within a game
Organisation
en An organisation that exists within the game
Price
en The price of a game object, in game currency.
SenseType
en The ability to sense a specific form of phenomenon.
SettingState
en A piece of state that applies to a game setting.
Conversion
en A conversion between two units.
en A date according to a system of dates.
Duration
en A period of time.
LengthUnit
en A unit of length or distance
MassUnit
en A unit of mass.
Player
en A player in a role playing game "plays" a one or more characters within the game.
The player has partial knowledge of the game situation.
Setting
en A setting is the stage that an RPG is played on. Settings range in scale from entire universes to the bar in which an adventure takes place. A setting may refer to a location, a time period, a social mileau or any combination.
SkillType
en A type of skill. Skills are learned abilities that can be improved by a character exercising the skill or undergoing training.
State
en A changable status for something in a game.
Template
en Something that is a template represents an abstract class-like description of a game item. A template can be used to describe a generic instance of an item. Individual items can inherit from the template and override speicifc elements.
TimeUnit
en A unit of time (duration)
Vehicle
en A means of transporting one or more actors.
Volume
en A volume of 3-dimensional space
VolumeUnit
Weapon
en A single-person weapon.
Properties
amount
en An amount of some value
attribute
en An attribute of some state of affairs
conversionDifference
en The amount to add (or subtract for negative values) from an amount of the from unit to conver to the to unit.
conversionRatio
en The number to to units produced by one from unit.
dateSystem
en The dating system used to record a date
dayOfMonth
en The day of an event within a month
dayOfYear
en The day within a year of a date
discriminator
en What sub-property to use when determining template inhertiance. Template inheritance is, by default, decided on simple property identity. If there are properties that refer to a number of different sorts of things, then this property can be used to further discriminate based on the value of the property.
duration
The duration of an event or process
fixedConversion
en This is a fixed conversion, defined by the nature of the units and, therefore, will not vary from setting to setting.
fromUnit
hasFeature
en Indicates that a character possesses a certain feature.
hasAttribute
en Gives the attributes that describe an actor
hasFaculty
en Indicates that an actor has a specific faculty available
hasMass
en Gives the basic mass of a game item.
hasPrice
en Gives the price of an item.
If left further unspecified, this generallty means the common, in-game price.
hasSense
en Indicates that an actor has a specific sense available
hasSetting
en Indiicates that a gane entity, state or template applies to or comes from a particular setting.
hasSkill
en Indicates that an actor has a level of a specific skill
hasState
en Indicates that a game item is currently in a particular state
inFeatureType
en Indicates that a feature is associated with a particular type of feature concept.
inFacultyType
en Gives the type of faculty that a faculty level refers to.
inSenseType
en Gives the speciifc sense that a sense level gives the capability level of.
inSkillType
en Indicates that a skill level is in a specific skill.
inherit
en This property is inherited by an object using a template. Inherit is normally assumed to be true for template statements. If a property is marked as inherit:false then resources using the template do not use these values. This can be useful for properties that more appropriately describe the class of things expressed by the template.
isPortrayedBy
en Indicates that a character is portrayed by a specific participant.
level
en Gives the level of a feature or temporary state.
The concept of a 'level' is specific to a specific set of RPG rules and is specified further by sub-ontologies. Some features do not have a level associated with them.
month
en The month of a date
occurrenceAt
en When something has happened
date
en The date of an event or other occurance
organisation
en Associated with a game organisation
parent
en Indicates a parent relationship between two game entities
portrays
en A participant portrays a character, speaking for the characters actions and controling the character's decsiions.
quantity
en The value of a feature or state.
Some features or states do not have a value associated with them, in which case the value is not needed.
referenceMaterial
en A reference to a document or concept that contains additional information.
settingConcept
en A concept that helps define the nature of a setting.
template
en Indicates that the subject uses the object as a template.
toUnit
unit
en The unit a quanity is expressed in.
usesFeature
en Indicates that a game activity uses a specific feature type.
en Sub-properties describe what sort of feature is used by the activity. These may be a class or a reference to an instance, depdending on how the feature structure is organised.
year
en The year of a date