Glossary

What this page will cover

Every term of art in Epochrypha, defined once, in a form short enough to quote.

This page is also the authority for capitalization: a term is capitalized in the rules text if and only if it has an entry here. Adding a capital means adding an entry, which keeps the set small and stops the usual creep.

Each entry carries its provenance, because “is this universal or does my Epoch define it?” has no other answer:

• Archetype Core — the creation axis describing your character’s outlook on the world. Grants Attribute modifiers and seeds your Focuses.
• Attribute Core — one of the ten scores you roll under. Rises from use, and never depletes.
• Aura Core — an Attribute. Presence and potency, your conduit to whatever your Epoch’s power is, and the third attack mode alongside Melee and Ranged.
• Background Core — the creation axis describing the ground your character grew up on. Grants Attribute modifiers and free entries on your Skills List. Whatever it declines to spend on Attributes reaches you as Luck instead, since Luck is derived from your Attribute total.
• Epoch Core — a world you play Epochrypha in.
• Experience Tree Epoch — a tree of nodes bought with XP. Holds all three node types — Skills, Traits, and Marks — so it is the only place XP is ever spent.
• Favor Core — a Resource. Standing rather than coin: what you can call on, what you can get hold of, and what it costs you to reach past your station.
• Focuses Core — the area of your sheet listing the Experience Trees you get XP discounts in. Seeded by your Archetype.
• Job Core — the creation axis describing the skillset your character pursued. Grants Attribute modifiers, a Favor modifier, and entries on your Purchasing Power List.
• Luck Core — a Resource, and the player’s currency. Gained whenever a roll’s difference ends in an odd digit; spent to bend results; rolled against like any other score. Spending it makes you less lucky, which is the point.
• Magnitude Core — the difference between your score and your roll, with the last digit dropped. How emphatically something worked. Runs 0–9, and 0 is a real result on both sides: you can pass by 0 and fail by 0.
• Mark Core — a negative node in an Experience Tree. Costs nothing, gates the nodes beyond it, and pays XP back when it triggers.
• Purchasing Power List Core — the area of your sheet listing the gear types you get acquisition modifiers on. Seeded by your Job.
• Resource Core — one of the two scores you can spend down rather than only roll against: Luck and Favor. Otherwise they behave exactly like Attributes.
• Skill Core — a node in an Experience Tree that modifies rolls rather than granting an ability. Its modifier is written on your Skills List.
• Skills List Core — the area of your sheet recording every modifier you hold to a skill check, whether granted at creation or bought as a Skill node.
• Toll Core — the GM’s currency. One is handed over whenever a roll’s difference ends in an even digit, whatever else happened. The GM spends it to apply pressure.
• Trait Core — a node in an Experience Tree that grants an ability rather than modifying a roll.
• Valence Core — the last digit of that same difference. Odd pays the player, even pays the GM. Independent of magnitude and of whether you succeeded.
• Will Core — an Attribute. Control and resolve, and what holds the line against whatever your Epoch’s power asks of you.

Structure

• Alphabetical, not grouped by topic — this is a lookup surface, not a reading one
• One short self-contained definition per term, quotable without the surrounding page
• A link onward to the page where the term is actually explained
• Provenance badge on every entry
• Composed terms (Opposed Aura Check) defined at their core form, with a note that the Epoch supplies the middle