• Bid
  • The number of Chips (Attribute Tokens) an Actor commits during a Hand.
  • A Bid:
    • Is capped by the Actor’s TS for the played TA.
    • Is removed from the Actor’s stack when committed.
    • Does not refresh until the end of the Conflict.
  • A Bid represents exertion, focus, leverage, or commitment — not injury.

• Bid Tokens
  • Attribute Tokens that have been committed as a Bid.
  • Bid Tokens function like poker chips during a Conflict.

• Damage
  • The permanent removal of Attribute Tokens from an Actor’s stacks.
  • Damage represents injury, depletion, loss of capability, or structural harm.
  • Damage reduces AV and may render Attributes unusable.

• Hand
  • One complete resolution cycle inside a Conflict
    • (Engagement → Commit → Reveal → Resolve → Outcome → Update State).

• Conflict
  • An opposed situation resolved through one or more Hands.
  • A Conflict ends when the fiction says the objective is resolved, one side withdraws, or elimination occurs.

• Forced Withdrawal
  • Removal from a Conflict due to inability or unwillingness to continue (most commonly from being unable to ante).
  • Forced Withdrawal represents retreat, surrender, exhaustion, loss of leverage, panic, or disengagement.
  • Forced Withdrawal is not automatically death and is resolved according to the fiction.

Stakes (ES) is a single scaling number for an entire Conflict (not per Hand, not per Actor).
It represents the “table stakes” of the Conflict: when you sit down with dangerous opponents, everyone brings their best game.

Floor (⌊ ⌋) / “round down” definition:
When you divide and get a number with decimals, round down to the lower whole number.
Examples: ⌊1.9⌋ = 1, ⌊3.0⌋ = 3, ⌊0.2⌋ = 0.

Let R_max be the highest Rank (R) among all participants in the Conflict.

ES = min(5, 1 + ⌊(R_max − 1) / 5⌋)

The GM computes ES secretly from statblocks (Rank stays hidden) and announces only the Stakes level.

• ES1 — “Low Stakes”
• ES2 — “Hot”
• ES3 — “High Stakes”
• ES4 — “Deadly”
• ES5 — “Mythic”