User Tools

Site Tools


factionpbta:play:jargon

Common Game Terms

  • +n Forward - Add n to your next roll of the dice.
  • +n Ongoing - Add n to your next dice rolls until told otherwise. Usually this is for specific kinds of dice roll.
  • Advancement - When you earn enough XP, it is turned in for an advancement to your character and your XP track is reset. See Advancement
  • Advantage, Rolling with - Rolling 3d6 and taking the best two dice results.
  • Archetypes - Archetypes are packages of semi-built characters based on common characters and tropes seen in the source materials. They are both a touchstone to inspire you on what is expected for this game and a shortcut to create character more easily. Each character playbook is based on an archetype appearing in the source material.
  • Approaches - Approaches differentiate how your character differs from others and how they prefer to solve problems. Things they are better at and things they are worse at. See approaches
  • Alter - an Approach (see above) and also a catch-all word to cover non-conventional things and concepts such as non-linear time, alternate timelines and alternative technologies (ie magic). Alter is easily sensed (and often disturbing to) any time sensitive/witchblook and breaks several heavily enforced laws of great
  • Clock, Progress - Progress clocks are a way to abstractly link an outcome that has many working parts, with the results of several actions and moves. See Clocks
  • Completion - Completion is the measure of a character's fate. It is always increasing, never decreasing. The final checkbox of those you must fill in will alway retire your character and you must create a new one as a replacement. See completion
  • Disadvantage, Rolling with - Rolling 3d6 and taking the worst two dice results.
  • Discharge - Some Moves and Gear may have a discharge state. You declare you are discharging it to use that state and may not use that move or gear again until you use the recover move.
  • Downtime - A book keeping time when the protagonists aren't out adventuring. See downtime
  • Exhaustion - Accumulated from using too much Stress. May only be relieved with rest or certain Moves. While exhausted all rolls are at Disadvantage.
  • Flags - An aspect of your character you would like other players to acknowledge.
  • Flashbacks, Untethered - A form of flashback that is justified in a time other than the past. They cost a Temporary Completion and if not fulfilled, actual Completion points. See Flashbacks
  • Flux - The currency of changes in time. Not a physical object. This is earned through completing scenarios and spent to improve your coterie playbook
  • Harm - Damage that occurs to your character. It can be physical, mental, emotional or even to your timeline. Too much Harm and your character is retired. You may convert Harm to Stress
  • Hold, n - Some Moves give a resource called Hold of n amount. You may spend points of n to do things with that Move until you run out or it is no longer relevant.
  • Hooks - Social and plot based connections between your character, other player characters and the universe.
  • Invoking the Spirits - Also called a Devil's Bargain. You decide with the Grandfather what price is to be paid for increasing the results of a dice roll to the next higher category. The price is always paid and must not lessen the effects of the outcome achieved.
  • Malevolance - This is the a combination of entropy and being noticed by the major powers in the universe. It is a track affected by your character's actions and may increase or decrease. All members of Faction Paradox have at least 1 Malevolence. See malevolence
  • Move - Moves are specific rules on how something the character does should affect the fiction. They help the Grandfather determine outcomes and often involve dice rolls with modifiers based on context. See Moves
  • Move, Advanced - A move that can only be obtained after at least five advancements have been made. See Advancement
  • Move, Basic - Any move that can be obtained within your first five advancements. See Advancement
  • Paradox - a flag on your coterie playbook to remind everyone in the coterie that they have an unfinished paradox usually created with an untethered flashback. Two Paradox and everyone marks a completion
  • Position - How you are approaching a move.
    • Controlled - You are rolling with Advantage
    • Risky - You are rolling normally
    • Desparate - You are rolling with Disadvantage
  • Pushing - Paying Stress to improve your dice roll. This must be done before rolling any dice.
  • Resistance Attributes - These three attributes are the sum of any +1 or -1 you have in its subgroup of Approaches. They are exclusively used for the resist Move.
  • Story Points - A resource accumulated from having characters retired (death or becoming an NPC) that may be spent for automatic successes when narratively important
  • Stress - This is a combination of fortitude and luck. The track is usually increased as payment for Moves or as the result of Harm. It usually is reduced in Downtime. See Stress
  • Tier - The tier of a participant has a die roll effect on Moves. Tiers represent significant differences in technology level, resources and the quality of an average member of that group. Individuals may vary in Tier. Here's a general summary of the tier levels:
    1. Industrial Age
    2. Information Age
    3. Interstellar/Post Scarcity/Transhuman Age
    4. Temporal Age
    5. Dimensional Age
    6. Conceptual Age
    7. The Enemy
  • Trauma - The result of maxing out Stress without relief. You may have 4 traumas at most, after your fourth Trauma, your character is retired. See Trauma
factionpbta/play/jargon.txt · Last modified: 2020/06/06 21:28 by 127.0.0.1