Glossary

Action: One of three things you can do on your turn in combat.

Action Economy: The total number of actions available to each side in combat.

Advancement Points (AP): Currency spent to unlock abilities from skill trees and purchase upgrades.

Archetype: Your character's foundation class (Warrior, Gunslinger, Mystic, Medic, Technician, Operative, Diplomat, Channeler).

Augmentation: Cybernetic or biotech enhancement installed in your body. Reduces Humanity when installed.

Bounded Accuracy: Design principle limiting bonuses to keep challenges relevant across all levels.

Burnout / Burnout Points (BP): Accumulated magical fatigue from overcasting, failed rituals, or using too much magic.

Challenge Budget (CB): Total party level, used to build encounters.

Challenge Rating (CR): Numerical measure of a creature's combat power.

Defense Value (DV): Target number enemies must meet or beat to hit you. Replaces Armor Class.

Exhaustion: Six-level stacking debilitating condition from fatigue, environmental hazards, or magical burnout. The levels are:

  1. Disadvantage on ability checks
  2. Speed -10 ft
  3. Disadvantage on attacks and saves
  4. HP max halved
  5. Speed = 5 ft
  6. Death

Gear Tier: Equipment power level (1-10) that scales with character progression.

Humanity / Essence (HUM): Resource representing your biological and spiritual integrity. Starts at 10. Spent on augmentations; limits magical capacity at low values.

Overcasting: Casting spells when you have no spell slots left. Risky; can cause Burnout.

Proficiency Bonus: Level-based bonus (+2 to +10) added to trained skills and attacks.

Reaction: Special action taken outside your turn in response to a trigger.

Ritual Casting: Casting spells without expending spell slots by investing additional time and materials.

Skill Tree: Branching modular advancement path of related abilities within each archetype, purchased with AP.

Threat Level (TL): Monster's power rating; determines encounter budget cost.

Tier Token: Abstract currency for purchasing equipment within the appropriate tier. Replaces gold/credits.

Twilight Event: Catastrophic magical failure with reality-warping consequences, triggered by critical overcast failure.