What TTRPG game vocabulary is universal? (Pre-OGL and Non-OGL/TSR/WotC Games)

[Cadence]

One nice thing about the OGL 1.0a is that you didn't have to worry if your choice of anything matched things in the SRD. So, for example, would a judge find duplicating all the ability scores in that order was a copyright violation? The descriptions of them? Who knows - but we didn't have to care.

Without the OGL, my question is, "What game vocabulary is universal? What showed up before the OGL and outside OGL/TSR/WotC?"

For example, googling says Villains and Vigilantes back in 1982 had Strength, Charisma, Intelligence, Hit Points, Carrying Capacity, and Movement Rate. (And now I want to see if I still have my copy so I can go through all the things in the rules).

If you have a favorite pre-OGL or non-OGL/TSR/WotC game, what vocabulary words are in it? Which are the same or different from D&D? What did the game call the things like Str, Int, etc... what did they call the damage they took? What dice were used to generate the abilities or roll to hit something? etc...

 

[Jack Daniel]

"Saving throw" and "armor class" predate D&D and come from wargmes.

Many, many RPGs have ability scores named for Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma. Constitution and especially Wisdom are rarer, but you do see them.

The vast majority of monsters come from folklore, mythology, and literature, everybody knows that. The real trick is teasing out which spells and magic items come from folklore, mythology, and literature, and which ones were invented for D&D.

 

[Art Waring]

"Saving throw" and "armor class" predate D&D and come from wargmes.

Many, many RPGs have ability scores named for Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma. Constitution and especially Wisdom are rarer, but you do see them.

The vast majority of monsters come from folklore, mythology, and literature, everybody knows that. The real trick is teasing out which spells and magic items come from folklore, mythology, and literature, and which ones were invented for D&D.

Exactly this: dnd drew upon a wide variety of sources, from its wargaming roots, to the fiction available at the time (Vancian magic, adapted From The Dying Earth), to adaptating material from mythology/ folklore.

Some games today use the same or similar ability scores without using the OGL at all. Worlds Without Number, Into The Odd/ Electric Bastionland, & Mork Borg don't use the OGL, but keep some of the terminology like Strength and such. So it seems like there is a lot of room for interpretation.