====== Glossary ======

This page is a quick “secret decoder ring” for terms, acronyms, and shorthand.  Throughout the rules, words that begin with a capital letter signify important terms that are defined here. 
===== Top Terms You Actually Need to Play =====

  - **Actor** — Anything that can take actions (PCs, NPCs, monsters, robots, cities, mountains, environments, etc.).
  - **Trine Aspect (TA)** — Mind / Body / Spirit. You play one each Hand.
  - **Trine Dominance (TD)** — The TA counter loop (Mind ▶ Body ▶ Spirit ▶ Mind).
  - **Action Card** — In Core Rules, one of 9 Attribute cards with broad tags; it sets what Attribute you must bid.
  -  **Attribute (AT)** — Refers to one of the 9 Attribute names itself.
  - **Attribute Value (AV)** — Your current “stat” for an Attribute; it caps what you can bid with that Attribute and gets reduced by damage.
  - **Chips** — Physical tokens that are used to represent current AVs when playing around the table. 
  - **Attribute Dominance (AD)** — The Attribute counter system (within and across Aspects) that determines win/tie/loss.
  - **Trine Score (TS)** — The “beer-proof average” of the 3 AV slots in a TA (missing “—” counts as 0).
  - **Hand** — Playing one round of cards representing the Actions of Actors in Conflict.
  - **Conflict** — A series of Hands played until someone wins, is eliminated, retreats, or the scene resolves.
  - **Wildcards (WR)** — A heroic resource token that can become any Attribute token when played.

===== People / Roles =====
  * **GM** — Game Master.
  *  **PC / NPC **— Player / Non-player Actor.
  * **Actor** — Anything that can take actions in the game (PCs, NPCs, monsters, robots, cities, mountains, environments, etc.).
  * **Actor Sheet** — just like a Character Sheet from other games.
  * **Concept**— a generalized term for what kind of thing is the Actor? It could be a sentient race, like a Dwarf, but could also be something more abstract, like a Spaceship.
  * **Type**— a specialized category of the Actor Concept.  For example, if the Actor Concept is Human, their Type may be Male or Female. 

===== Trine Aspects (TA) =====
All Actors at a most basic level are described by 3 Aspects.
  * **The Trine** — The three Aspects that make up an Actor: **Mind / Body / Spirit**.
  * **TA : Trine Aspect** — one of Mind / Body / Spirit.

===== Attributes (Grouped by Aspect) =====
Each Trine Aspect (TA) is further broken down into 3 Attributes that together from the nine core traits that quantify an Actor.

==== Mind ====
  * **Reason** / **REA** / **R**
  * **Knowledge** / **KNO** / **K**
  * **Quickness** / **QUI** / **Q**

==== Body ====
  * **Strength** / **STR** / **S**
  * **Fitness** / **FIT** / **F**
  * **Agility** / **AGI** / **A**

==== Spirit ====
  * **Willpower** / **WIL** / **W**
  * **Presence** / **PRE** / **P**
  * **Intuition** / **INT** / **I**

===== Core Concepts =====
  * **TD : Trine Dominance** — the Mind/Body/Spirit dominance loop.
  * **AD : Attribute Dominance** — dominance between Attributes (intra-Aspect loops + cross-Aspect matchups).

===== Stats =====
    * **Attribute Value (AV)** — current strength/capacity of an Attribute; also caps how much can be bid with that Attribute.
    * **Trine Score (TS)** — derived rating of a TA, calculated from its three AV slots (missing “—” counts as 0).
    * **Total Trine Score (TTS)** — TS(Mind) + TS(Body) + TS(Spirit). Useful encounter-power shorthand.
    * **Build Budget (BB)** — sum of all 9 AVs + Build Points spent on Abilities/Extensions.
    * **Build Points (BP)** — currency for buying Abilities/Extensions instead of (or in addition to) raising AVs.
    * **Rank (R)** — a derived “power tier” from BB.
    * **Wildcard Rank (WR)** — number of Wildcards (heroic resource) an Actor has (PCs by default; NPCs only if granted by Extension).
    * **Stakes** — Scale Ante and Bids in Conflicts based on the Build Budgets of involved Actors.
    * **[[core:actors:start#record_keeping|Stat Block]]** — a condensed way of writing any Actor's Stats.

===== Game Play (Conflicts)  =====
Because the game design draws heavily from Poker, those terms are often used.
  * **Bid** — the number of Chips (Attribute Tokens) an Actor commits during a Hand.
  * **Edge** — an Actor's advantage over another Actor
  * **Showdown** — when cards and chips are flipped face up during a Hand.
  * **Stakes** — how risky a Conflict is. Sets ante amount, and dominance bonus.
  * **Sweep**— like a Critical in other game systems, when a player wins both TD and AD. 
  * **Degree of Success (DoS)** — numeric success quality for non-damage outcomes (model still in progress).
  * **Pot Bonus** — Tokens awarded from the ante pot after TD resolution (may be added to bids and don’t count against AV cap).
  * **Jackpot** — Pot tokens that carry over to the next Hand if not fully paid out.

===== Time Units =====
  * **Scene** — GM-defined narrative time unit (may represent seconds, minutes, days, etc.).
  * **Conflict** — An opposed sequence made of one or more Hands (ends by victory, elimination, retreat, or narrative resolution).
  * **Hand** — One full cycle: ante → TD/pot → bidding → AD → outcome.

===== Table Position =====
  * **UTG : “Under the Gun”** — the Lead/initiator who must commit first in the Hand. This is always the Player or GM who's Actor took the action that led to the Hand (e.g. "I attack!")

===== Shorthand Conventions =====
  * **'@'**  —  AV = 100 in Actor serials (rare, extremely powerful Actors)
  * **'- '**  —  Absent Attribute slot in Actor serials (not applicable).