Word.ws English Dictionary

roll-playing

roll-playing noun: an approach to roleplaying games that focuses excessively on numerical scores (such as those obtained by rolling dice) at the expense of character and realism.

Noun

roll-playing (uncountable)

  1. An approach to roleplaying games that focuses excessively on numerical scores (such as those obtained by rolling dice) at the expense of character and realism.
    • This method is the easiest but it lends itself to "roll-playing" instead of roleplaying since it focuses much of the players attention on dice and bookkeeping tasks.1996, Jean Carrières, Dream Pod 9 Inc, Heavy Gear Rulebook
    • After all, this is role-playing, not roll-playing—a distinction commonly made when this question comes up. It's kind of painful when the actual dialogue and behavior is wildly inadequate, but the dice say that no, that was the most persuasive argument you ever heard.2017, Marie Brennan, Dice Tales: Essays on Roleplaying Games and Storytelling

Origin of roll-playing

Blend of roll + role-playing.

Questions about roll-playing

What does roll-playing mean?
Roll-playing means an approach to roleplaying games that focuses excessively on numerical scores (such as those obtained by rolling dice) at the expense of character and realism.
What part of speech is roll-playing?
Roll-playing is a noun.

Words near roll-playing in the dictionary

  1. roll-ons
  2. roll-out
  3. roll-outs
  4. roll-over
  5. roll-overs
  6. roll-playing
  7. roll-to-roll
  8. roll-top
  9. roll-top desk
  10. roll-top desks
  11. roll-tops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: roll-playing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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