Part V · Appendices & Index

Appendix F: Glossary

Here are the rule terms in the book, one line each, and each one links to its rule.

Term	What it means
Action	What you spend to do something. One a round. Hold it and you’ve got two next round, and Resolve, a trait or a few other things can give you another.
Advantage	Several dice on one intent. Your best die counts.
Agenda	What a faction is doing right now, on a die that climbs. Past d12, it happens.
Alarm	A site’s scene clock: how much the place knows you’re there. Noise steps it down too. Past d2, the place knows.
Animal tag	A Shifter’s: something an animal does, like wings or a breath attack, caught against its die and yours until downtime. It counts as a line when it fits, and you can strip one instead of taking a Hurt.
Answer	Spending your action to stop a telegraph before it lands. Friends can put theirs in too.
Arc	Four to six sessions around one Party Goal.
Archetype	What every Title is: one of seventeen, each with permissions and a mechanic only it can do. They’re the Bard, Bloodsworn, Elementalist, Face, Guardian, Healer, Hunter, Illusionist, Leader, Maker, Oracle, Scholar, Shadow, Shifter, Summoner, Teleporter and Warrior. On most, 1 Aura puts +2 on one die of the mechanic, and +3 if you’ve taken it twice.
Area die	The Elementalist’s: one die that says how far your roll reaches instead of an intent, a burst, a cone or a line twice as long. It takes a split and costs no Aura. Threats have areas too.
Armour	Your defence against blows. Starts at d2, a size bigger for each piece of plain armour you wear.
Aspiration	What your character wants. Starts at d2 and climbs. Past d12, a new archetype, with a Title you name for it.
Attunement	Two slots to start, on top of what you carry. An attuned thing has permissions of its own, grows in three stages, and can’t be broken.
Aura	Your luck and flair, for the small stuff. Up to your maximum, full every scene. It brings things in, keeps a Catch quiet, wins a tie when you’re acting, and pays for your archetype’s +2 and a quick heal. 1 back on every top face, and every time you let a Catch bite.
Awakened	An attuned thing’s first stage: 1 permission, and 1 more with a Catch.
Bag	Holds 10 things on top of what you carry. Getting something out takes your action, and putting it away is free.
Blaze	Taking a Hurt with every box full. Something extraordinary happens, no roll. Then you can choose to die, or leave the scene and take a Scar.
Bond	A person who matters to your character, in the crew or not. Each thread you share is one truth between you, and the more threads, the deeper the bond.
Boon	A permanent upgrade, like an extra Hurt bar or +2 stride. It costs two permission slots on one of your Titles, and you can swap it back in downtime.
Boss	Challenge 6, three or more tags keeping it going, and a weak point. One that should last has Tough as well.
Break	Spending an action to beat a condition’s die and end it.
Bring something in	1 Aura: something that fits but isn’t on your set action counts on your roll. One of your own permissions, items or traits, the ground, a tag you know, a Catch, or a friend’s permission through a thread.
Burden	A permanent downside, like −2 stride. It only ever comes on an attuned thing, where it pays for two more permissions, or for a Boon for you.
Catch	Trouble that’s ready to go: on an attuned thing, or written in a Hurt bar when you fill it. Let it bite for 1 Aura, as often as you like, as long as it’s real trouble.
Challenge	The die something defends with: 2 (d4) to 6 (d12). It never steps down, unless a tag like Crumbling says so.
Climbs	How the Goal, an Aspiration, a project and an agenda move: from d2 up, a step on every win, one step a roll. Past d12, it’s done.
Clock	A die on a stake that steps down every round nobody works it.
Combo	Two or more actions into the same thing at the same time, yours or your friends’. Add the set actions together and roll once, with no Aura.
Condition	A tag carrying a die, for you or against you. One step while it lasts. Spend it for its big effect. One of each on a target, and the same one goes on once a round.
Confidence	How you’re holding up right now, and your defence against fear, lies and pressure. It starts every scene on d6, and it swings between d2 and d12 as the scene goes.
Consequence	What a landed blow or a costly miss does. The GM names it, and you can offer another that fits and costs about as much. When fear, lies or pressure get through, you choose instead.
Crew	The player characters, together. Also a faction, with Power, Wealth, tags and Reputations.
Crew tag	Like a trait for the crew: a step on crew rolls where it fits, and most do one thing as well.
Debt	A thread someone else holds and can call in. Write one of your first three as a debt and you get a fourth.
Defence	The die rolled against an intent: a threat’s Challenge die, or your Armour or Confidence. Anything attacked rolls it once a round, and that roll stands against everything that comes at it.
Defend	Your action: roll your Armour once for every die coming at you and choose which roll blocks which. You can pull one enemy’s whole attack on friends within your stride onto yourself, and a Guardian pulls every enemy’s. It uses no steps.
Downtime	Between sessions. The pressures land, everyone spends their slots, and then the factions’ moves are rolled. All your Resolve comes back.
Epilogue	At the end of a campaign, a few sentences on where each character is a year later.
Equipment	What you wear or wield: weapons, armour and shields. You carry 3.
Event	Something running on its own clock. Past d2, it happens.
Extra action	One on top of your one a round: from holding your action, 1 Resolve, coming out of hiding, fired-up Confidence, a trait that says so, or the Boon. Its own roll, or the same one as a combo.
Face	The person a faction sends to deal with the crew, written as a threat.
Faction	A power bigger than one person: Power, Wealth, an agenda, and a Standing with the crew.
Fear, lies and pressure	Telegraphs at your Confidence. Answer them, Defend or let them ride. For each one that gets through, you choose: let it shake you and drop a size, bury it and take a Hurt, or hold your ground for 1 Resolve.
Fired up	Confidence at d12. Cash it in for an extra action or to clear a Hurt box, and it drops back to d6.
Forms	A threat with two or more forms. When the last tag keeping a form going is stripped, it changes: its Tough refills and it takes new tags.
Frame	A ready-made kind of campaign: a world, a tone, a board of factions and a first job.
Gap	In a chase, the distance between you and what’s after you. Past d2, caught. Past d12, away.
GM move	Something the world does when everyone looks at the GM. Usually a telegraph outside a round.
Goal	What the whole crew is after this arc. Starts at d2 and climbs. Past d12, the crew has done it, it grows, and everyone writes a new thread.
Going beyond	Pushing a permission past what it normally does, like phasing through a wall. 1 Resolve, for a sword or a spell. If you have to make a case for why it’s normal, it’s going beyond.
Ground	Tags on the place itself. Bring one into your roll for 1 Aura. In a chase, the die for the way ahead.
Harmony	An Oracle reading: two of the three dice match.
Heal	The Healer’s roll: an action against the patient’s wound die, and each die that beats it clears a box. It reaches one person, or a second you can touch with a split.
Hold	Doing nothing this round apart from your stride, for two actions next round.
Hold your ground	1 Resolve, when fear, lies or pressure get through, so you don’t drop a size or take a Hurt.
Hook	Something at the end of a session that pulls the crew into the next one.
Hurt	Your Hurt track: three bars of three boxes, one track for body and mind. The loose boxes clear at the end of every scene.
Hurt bar	Three boxes on your Hurt track. Fill one and write a Catch in it, an injury like cracked ribs, and your Confidence drops a size. You start with three bars.
Influence	A Face’s dice, built but not rolled, sitting on a threat. Roll them before one of its telegraphs lands, and every one of its dice your best one beats does what you say.
Intent	What a die is for, and who or what it’s aimed at. Say it before you roll.
Item	A thing you carry. A plain one’s just what it is: a line on your roll when it fits, and it does what that thing does.
Keeps it going	The tags that are a threat’s health. Every win strips one. Strip the last and it falls, unless a tag like Forms says otherwise.
Keepsake	Something that matters to your character, carried on top of your equipment and utility. It has no rule of its own.
Layered	A tag for special encounters only: the first time it’s attacked in a round, it rolls one Challenge die for every tag it has left keeping it going, and its best die counts.
Lead	The Leader’s action: an order or a rallying song, built from your set action, with its steps handed out to friends who can hear or see you for this round. They don’t have to fit.
Leg	A day on a journey, or one stage of it. It runs like a round.
Let it bite	Bringing a Catch, or any real trouble, down on yourself in the story. The GM runs with it, and you take 1 Aura, or 1 Resolve when a Catch bites in a big way, changing the scene or costing you something you wanted.
Let it ride	Leaving a telegraph unanswered, without Defending, so it lands at the end of the round against your one defence roll.
Lines and veils	What the table won’t have in the story at all (a line), or won’t play out in detail (a veil).
Log	One sentence a session, kept with the party sheet.
Marked	The Hunter’s special condition on a creature, at the die they won with. It gives no step and nobody spends it: anyone who acts against it rolls the Mark die too. It fades a size a round.
Material	What an attuned thing needs before it reaches its next stage, found in the story or bought. A summoning attunement’s material is souls.
Mend	Making a strained thread right with them, by playing it out, doing them a favour or paying them, in downtime or in a scene with them. Then it’s whole again.
Mook	Challenge 2 or 3, with none or one tag keeping it going. Falls to one good win.
Move action	An action that rolls extra squares past your stride. Its dice add.
Named	Challenge 4 or 5, with two tags keeping it going.
Odds	Before an Oracle roll, say how likely it is. Likely: two Boon dice, keep the higher. Unlikely: keep the lower.
Opening	A way to end a Mook or Named threat in one win: its weak point, helplessness, or getting around everything that keeps it going. A Boss only falls to its weak point. Any other opening strips two tags.
Oracle	Three d20s that answer questions about the world.
Party slot	One of the two downtime slots the crew shares. It’s an action for the crew.
Perfected	An attuned thing’s third stage: 3 permissions, and 3 more with a Burden and a Catch. Six at most.
Permission	Something your character can do, finishing I can…: a doing word, and how, what or where, like climb sheer walls. It lives on a Title, and it’s 1 step on a roll it fits.
Power	A faction’s muscle, on a die. The crew has one too.
Pressure	One of the four things pushing on the crew each downtime: personal, party, faction, world.
Project	Something the crew sets out to build or bring about. Starts at d2 and climbs. Past d12, what you wrote happens.
Pursuer	In a chase, whatever’s after you, on a die. Past d2, it’s shaken off.
Question	In an investigation, what the crew wants to know, written as a stake. Each tag on it is something that’s hiding the answer.
Quick heal	Anyone’s: 1 Aura clears one box on one person, no roll. It still takes your action.
Reputation	What the city says about the crew, in one line. A step on any crew roll it fits. One for every Goal done.
Resolve	Your character pushing themselves, so it pays for the big stuff: an extra action, a reroll, going beyond, holding your ground, or going at a threat when you’re shaken. As much as you’ve got Titles. 1 back at the end of every scene, and all of it after downtime.
Round	The GM telegraphs, everyone takes one action, the round ends.
Round budget	What the GM telegraphs with each round: about 5 steps for each player. A Breather’s about half, and Hard’s about half again.
Scar	A Hurt box crossed out for good, after a Blaze. It’s for the story, and it doesn’t do anything else.
Scene	One place and one problem. Aura refills and Confidence starts on d6 when a new one starts, and you get 1 Resolve back when it ends.
Scene clock	A die on the whole scene. It steps down every round. Past d2, the scene turns.
Set action	A row on your sheet, like Fight or Sneak, with everything that fits it nearly every time already counted: 1 for the action, and 1 for every line.
Shadow pool	A Shadow’s: the dice you rolled to get into hiding, to add to any roll after that, as dice or as steps. Each one’s gone once you use it.
Shaken	Confidence at d2. You won’t go at a threat, in a fight or face to face, unless you spend 1 Resolve each time. The condition Shaken is one step less on your Confidence, and spending it drops your Confidence a size (Conditions).
Site	Somewhere the crew goes into and has to find its way through. One scene, with an alarm for its clock.
Size	One die size. Stepping down one size is a d8 becoming a d6.
Slot	A unit of downtime. Two each, and two for the crew.
Snap	What a thread does when you strain it again before it’s mended. You still take the Resolve, but cross the thread out. When the last one goes, so does the bond.
Soul	A fallen creature a Summoner’s caught with their Summon dice and kept in their summoning attunement. It comes out as a summon, with its own die.
Split	Turning your steps into more, smaller dice. One for every action in the roll, and one more past 6 steps.
Stake	Something the crew wants from a scene, with tags in the way.
Standing	How a faction sees the crew: Enemy, Wary, Neutral, Friendly or Ally.
Step	The unit of a roll. Each step is one size of die: 1 is a d2, 6 is a d12.
Strain	Leaning on a thread in the story, like calling in the favour or using their name. You take 1 Resolve, free, and the thread’s strained until you mend it. You can’t borrow through a strained thread.
Stride	Free movement every round. 3 squares to start. A Teleporter’s can be a teleport of up to 10 units.
Study	An intent that finds a hidden tag or a straight answer. A Scholar can introduce a truth instead.
Summon	A soul a Summoner calls out with their action. It acts in the round like anyone, rolls its own die, and one hit sends it back to its slot.
Supplies	On a journey, a clock for the crew’s food and water. It steps down every leg nobody feeds the crew.
Swap	In downtime, trading a permission for another that fits your Title, or two of them for a Boon, and back.
Tag	Something true about a threat, a stake, a place or a faction. It does what it says. A Maker can give an item tags for the scene, and they work like permissions.
Take a breath	Your action: your Confidence comes up a size, as far as d6.
Take the hit	Stepping in front of an attack aimed at someone within your stride and taking it yourself. It’s free, for anyone, with no defence roll.
Telegraph	The GM saying, face up, what’s coming, at whom, and how hard. One aimed at you lands wherever you’ve gone. Fear, lies and pressure come as telegraphs too.
Tempered	An attuned thing’s second stage: 2 permissions, and 2 more with a Burden.
Thread	One truth you share with a bond, like a debt, a rescue, a secret or a shared past. Borrow a permission through it for 1 Aura, or strain it to take 1 Resolve. You start with three.
Threat budget	10 a character with two Titles, and more with every Title after. It sizes Tough and how long a scene runs.
Tick	A clock or an event stepping down one, or a faction’s agenda climbing one.
Title	The name you give your archetype: one role or one school of magic, real and specific, with up to six permissions. It counts 1 where it fits, and each one’s 1 Resolve on your maximum.
Title idea	A place to start a Title: twenty-nine roles and schools, each with the archetypes it suits, and permissions, traits and going-beyond ideas to pick from.
Top face	A die’s highest number. 1 Aura back, unless your archetype’s +2 took it there or it’s a summon’s. A Warrior’s explodes.
Tough	Works like hit points: a number, like Tough 40. Every winning die takes off what it rolled, and at 0 it’s gone. (first) means nothing under it can be stripped till it’s gone.
Trail	A way to something hidden: a person who knows, a place that shows it, or a thing that proves it. Leave three.
Trait	Something you are, with one effect. You start with two, on their own, and you can grow more. Passive, triggered, invoked, once a scene or once a downtime.
Trouble	Something going wrong for you that the GM can run with. You bring it yourself, by letting a Catch bite or with no Catch at all, and take 1 Aura for it.
Utility	Tools and things you use up, like rope, a lantern or a smoke bomb. You carry 3, and cross off what you use.
Ward	A condition like Warded or Blessed that you put on a friend. Nothing pushes back, so the die you built is its die. One friend, or a second you can touch with a split.
Weak point	The tag that holds a threat together. Break it and it falls.
Wealth	What money can do for a faction or the crew, on a die. Spend a step for an extra move, another faction’s move, or something bought. In downtime, the crew’s can buy a tie.
Win	Beating the other die. Ties go to the defender.
Wound die	What a heal rolls against: a d6, a size bigger for each Catch on the patient’s Hurt track.
X-card	A card anyone can tap to rewind the scene, no questions asked.