Meanings
- roleplaying gamesOutside the fictional reality of the game; in real life.
Jasmin Bhullar as Little Army Man, the powerhouse of the group, using rage on and above the table.
2025 July 17, Panda, “Dimension 20: Blithe, Baffled, And Bewildered By Brennan And A Bus”, in The Fandomentals, archived from the original on 25 Jul 20252 more examples
And our original 1991 cast, we were playing off the meta quite a bit, in that the show itself is very, it’s self-aware, but we never allow our players to be self-aware. The way that we roleplay, we’re always asking our players to be completely in character, and never meta game above the table. We try to hold the in-world as much as possible through audio, visual, and acting.
2022 February 16, Kat Bloodgood, “Hyper RPG Set To Launch New KOLLOK Series On FearHQ [Interview]”, in That Hashtag Show, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2025The McElroys make tabletop gaming a family affair in The Adventure Zone, peppering their signature brand of humor into the long-running TTRPG actual-play podcast. From theme park heists like the current Steeplechase campaign to one-shot romps like Just Us and Dadlands, The Adventure Zone has kept fans laughing with both above the table family banter and in-universe antics from the podcast's ever-growing collection of distinct universes.
2023 October 4, Tara McCauley, “Adventure Zone's Funniest Moments, Ranked”, in Comic Book Resources, archived from the original on 08 Oct 2024
Origin
When playing a tabletop role-playing game the fictional reality is represented by things on the table, whereas the real people playing the game are considered to be above the table.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
above the table. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/above%20the%20table
“above the table.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/above%20the%20table. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “above the table,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/above%20the%20table.
Source: above the table on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.