Suldokar's Wake's Glossary

A #

Action roll

The most common roll. The action roll is an inverted roll associated with a stack.

Æonic

The term usually refers to the first inhabitants of Zira-Ka but can also mean an item of that epoch or the language they spoke.

AI

Arbiter Imperfect (or Infallible if that’s your thing!). The referee, the Game Master.

Alien

A blood living in symbiosis with XLA. Playable aliens are amphibious aliens and palp aliens.

Amphibious Alien

One of the two playable symbiosis between an XLA and a blood. The Amphibious Alien has gills on the sides of the neck, webbing and scaled skin. She can breath underwater and needs to do that at least one hour per day.

Apt

One of the three types (class) of characters oriented towards expertise and equipment. See Types for more information.

Archetype

A premade, complete character ready for use. They are an alternative to creating a character from scratch.

Archive (A)

One of the core stacks. Roughly what other systems call intelligence. The ability to use lore, whether traditional, mystical or scientific. It is used to deal with languages, science, Zyu scrolls, rituals and archives, whether digital, artifactual or biologic.

Argont

Immense forest south of the Hynian Mountains and east of the CAF Umberzone

Arkaven

A city built into a crashed Ptilian space ark on a mountain plateau overlooking the Gaussian Sea. Part of the Cradle-Arkaven Federation.

Asbat

Acid resistant, plastic fabric.

Automatic Surgery Clinic (ASC)

An installation that can be used to install implants, cure illnesses, mend injuries and remedy many kinds of ailments. Some clinics have an insurance scanner.

B #

B & E

Breaking and entering. Forcing or otherwise gaining unlawful passage into and entering a building.

Background

Background defines a character’s vocation and the knowledge and skills she has in the form of keywords. There are seven backgrounds to choose from. See backgrounds for more information.

Barred

An action may be barred by a relevant, or even a specific, keyword. This means that a character must have the keyword written anywhere on her character sheet or she cannot roll at all.

Blood

The term used to refer to a (far) descendant of Homo sapiens (i.e., a human) on Zira-Ka.

Blueprint

Schematics to build a complicated item. Items requiring a blueprint also require a workshop to make them. Simpler items can be build with a construction kit.

Boosted

An action may be boosted by a relevant keyword. If you have a relevant keyword written under the most appropriate stack for the task at hand, you make a double roll, otherwise you roll as normal.

Bot-Charmer

Term sometimes used to refer to someone who uses nanites, like an Orug shaman or a Core character.

Building

In Suldokar’s Wake, building refers generally to making items with a construction kit, a blueprint or a maker.

Bulk (B)

One of the core stacks. Bulk represents how well the character takes advantage of her body mass—volume, height, weight and muscle.

C #

CAF

Cradle-Arkaven Federation (see below).

Can

A canister of trapped nanites. A one-use formula in a bottle.

Castal

A trading village on the Ololo River.

Cikadian Supervoid

See Darkspace.

Clean roll

A roll of a d20 against a Difficulty Number but without a stack involved as in an action roll. By definition it is harder to succeed at a clean roll than at an action roll.

Close (C)

Complementary stack used to determine the character’s chances of hitting an enemy in melee. See Ranged for attacks at a distance.

Cloud

A sentient cluster of nanites. Core characters may bond with a cloud.

Colossus

Collective name for huge æonic guardians. Some walk Zira-Ka, some are petrified or lie hidden in caves and undergrowth. Plural is colossi.

Coltech

Colonial, often refurbished, technology.

Construct

An artificial life-form, either a droid or a holid.

Construction Kit

Mundane items can be build with a construction kit, enough parts and a roll for Tech. Each item requires a specific construction kit: Armor (A), Chemical (C), Explosives (E), General (G), Tools (T), or Weapons (W). Some items instead require a blueprint while others, more complex, require a Maker.

Core

One of the three types (class) of characters oriented towards nanites and other mysteries of Zira-Ka. See Types for more information.

Cradle

A city south of the Hynian Mountains and north of the Argont Forest. Part of the Cradle-Arkaven Federation.

Cradle-Arkaven Federation

A two-state federation south of the Hynian Mountains. Cradle and Arkaven are separated by an umberzone but a maglev connects them. They share police force, military, bank system and transportation.

Critical Success

If you roll a natural 20 against a Difficulty Number of 19 or less, you get a critical success. It might take you less time, you might get a better result, make less noise, use less resources, etc. Apt types get a crit on 19 or 20. If the DN is 20 or more, only Apt types can get a crit.

Cryo Tank

Sleep tank made for space travel.

Cyber System

Virtual Reality computer system.

D #

Darkspace

The term used to refer to a the Cikadian Supervoid, a vast region of space devoid of any light. Zira-Ka is the last planet before this void.

Dice Ladder

The dice ladder is: d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4, d3, d2. See also stepping.

Difficulty Number (DN)

It’s what other systems call difficulty class. It sets the difficulty of an action roll. You must roll above the DN to get a special success. The default DN is 15. See also shifting.

Double roll

In a double roll you roll two dice and pick the best result. It’s what other systems call advantage. See also half roll.

Droid

A construct life-form. A sentient machine.

E #

End roll

A clean roll with the accumulated harm as a DN that a character makes to see if she is ended.

Ended

The state of someone who failed an End Roll. The character is injured and knocked out, and is also dying if harm is equal to 20.

E-pack (E)

Energy pack. Also used as currency. An energy-pack (E) is composed of 10 energy-cells (e).

F #

Failure

If you roll above your stack and below or equal to the Difficulty Number in an action roll, you failed at the task.

Formula

A series of instructions to manipulate nanites in doing something which might look supernatural. The plural is formulæ.

Frontanium

A valuable metal alloy. Resistant to the Gale.

Fumble

If you roll 13 for an action roll with a Difficulty Number of 13 or more, you fumbled! You get a failure that is particularly detrimental (the opposite of a crit). If the DN is 12 or less you can’t fumble.

G #

Gale

A dreadful nanites storm that kills or drives insane all those in its way that don’t use gale armor.

Gale Armor

Very heavy protective gear used against the Gale.

Galeside

Outside the frontanium city shield.

Gargaunt

A giant creature living in underground seas. They are hunted for their fat which can store energy in enough concentration to be used as energy source in lots of applications.

Gate

Artificial space wormhole used for interstellar travel.

Ghost (G)

One of the core stacks. Ghost represents will, soul, intuition, mental resistance, æsthetic sense and grit.

Ghosting

Holographic life insurance.

Graph

A compact representation of how a character can progress during the game. Each type has a different development graph. See graph for more information. Sometimes referred to as grid.

Gunta

A game-currency used to bend the rules. See Gunta.

H #

Halara

A person who deal in stolen goods, i.e., a fence.

Half roll

In a half roll you roll two dice and pick the worst result. It’s what other systems call disadvantage. See also double roll.

Harm (H)

A measure of pain, exhaustion, distress and physical hurt that a character is enduring. There are two types of Harm, physical and nanite Harm.

H-Cost

Dealing with nanites clouds to use formulæ is taxing and causes nanite harm. The H-cost represents how much nanite harm the character accrues when using a formula.

Hikbar

A unit of temperature exclusively for cold temperatures. 0 Hikbar is freezing water and 1000 Hikbar is absolute freezing point. Its opposite is Pukbar.

Holid

A solid hologram. A type of construct life-form.

HoloH

A ancient sentient holofield encompassing all habitable parts of Zira-Ka.

Horrom

An indigenous species. Like Orug they are bat-like but lack wings and have different features. They are enemies of the Orug. Deep cave horroms sometimes live enslaved by TGM.

Hynian Mountains

A chain of mountains that separate the Vatori Empire from the Cradle-Arkaven Federation. The current southern border of the Empire.

I #

Impball

A violent ball sport.

Implant

Internal body part replacement used to augment or replace missing parts.

Infoburst

Powerful information burst used to communicate over long distance as a mean to overcome the atmospheric disturbances that normally prohibit long-distance communications. Usually only sent once or twice a day because of the energy costs.

Infogram

A message sent through infoburst.

Insurance

A body pattern scan that can be used to recreate (clone) someone in a maker.

Inverted roll

A roll associated with a stack in which you try to roll either equal to or under your stack, or above the Difficulty Number (DN) for the task. See this for more information.

Itori

An old space empire that used Zira-Ka as a prison colony 1,300 years ago.

J #

Justice

A heavy pistol brand of kin-gun for law enforcers.

K #

Keywords

Keywords are like skills and represent abilities, knowledge, contacts, etc. They’re associated with a stack. They allow for a roll when an action is barred by a relevant keyword, they avoid half rolls when an action is tied to a relevant keyword, and gives double rolls when the action is boosted by a relevant keyword. See keywords for more information.

Kin-Gun

A kind of kinetic gun (firing bullets).

K’lsixla

A blood-XLA symbiosis, also called an alien. Playable characters are either amphibious alien or palp alien.

L #

Life-Form

The “race” of a character in Suldokar’s Wake. See this post for more information.

Long Turn

A period of six hours. See also turn and round.

M #

Magistrate

City based law enforcement individual operating as detective, judge and sometimes jury all in one. They might have deputies called regulators.

Maglev

A train elevated by magnetic repulsion. The propulsion is usually by an engine running on gargaunt oil. Generally called magtrain.

Maker

A fixed installation machine that can create complex patterns and even reproduce a body from an insurance.

Morph (M)

One of the core stacks. Morph is the ability to notice and adapt to changing circumstances. It is used in transformations, digitizations and some detection rolls, but it is also used socially to have or hide charisma and to sense and influence the attitudes of others.

N #

Nanites

Æon-old semi-sentient and often dysfunctional nano-machines (infinitesimally small robots) permeating the atmosphere and all of Zira-Ka. They can be controlled with formulæ.

Node

Coordinates on a graph that give characters an increase in one or more of their abilities. Nodes can give characters increased number of spaces (inside number), increase in ranged (Rª) and close (Cª) stack scores, increase in the number of implants (Iª), or a new keyword (inner circle). Some nodes (filled) also let players rearrange some of their keywords (moving them to different stacks).

Noise

Various atmospheric disturbances.

O #

Ololo River

An important river crossing the Argont Forest.

Oma

An upcoming city state south of the Argont forest, with a focus on river trade.

Origo

The origin on a graph, at coordinates (0, 0).

Orug

One of the indigenous species of Zira-Ka. A bat-like creature about half the height of a blood.

P #

Palp Alien

One of the two playable symbiosis between an XLA and a blood. The Palp Alien has thin palps in place of hair, which you can see clearly if you’re close enough. Palp is also a language.

Part

Item component and currency.

Pattern

Instructions for a Maker. Instruction for Zyu Makers are called strands.

Prime

One of the three types (class) of characters oriented towards combat and physique. See Types for more information.

Ptilian

A saurian species mostly living in the Ptilian Wastes with a complicated math-based language.

Pukbar

A unit of temperature for heat, specifically above that of freezing water. It goes from 1 to infinity (in theory). A comfortable temperature is about 60 Pukbar. For temperatures from freezing water and below see Hikbar.

R #

Ranged (R)

Complementary stack used to determine the character’s chances of hitting an enemy at a distance. See Close for melee attacks.

Ratxla

A rat-XLA symbiosis. Also a pet.

Regular Success

If you roll equal to or lower than your stack in an action roll you get a regular success. Plain and square!

Regulator

A deputy to a magistrate if in a city state or an agent of VAPOR. A law enforcer.

Rejuvenation Tank

Used by the Thaldean for bio-engineering. This is where tank born were made, and where they can rejuvenate.

Reputation

A measure of how known a character is.

Round

A period of 6 seconds used in combat or similar situations. See also turn and long turn.

S #

SAI

Superior Artificial Intelligence. They have scaled Archive.

Scale

Quality of a character, monster, machine, etc., being on a different (greater or smaller) scale than those of a blood. For example a vehicule (scale I) is of a greater scale than a blood (scale Z) while a drone (scale -I) is of a smaller scale.

Salvadic

From an period of trade and peace (650-1,130) during the post-imperial era.

Scroll

Nanites trapped in Zyu (flexible) glass paper. Essentially a one-shot formula except that Core and Apt can space them.

Shadow

A primordial Darkspace entity. Also a measure of a character’s tolerance for and susceptibility to the powers of those entities.

Shadow Cult

Cult worshipping shadows.

Shieldside

Behind (protected by) a cities’ frontanium shield.

Shifting

Moving up or down in difficulty. Each shift is a jump of 5 of the difficulty number.

Shollock

A kind of bakelite (amber-like plastic compound) made from sea shells.

Slot

A unit of space for equipment. Each character has 10 slots and can use one slot for a container with a capacity of 5 slots, making a total of 14 slots available. Some items occupy more than one slot (some armor, heavy weapons, etc.), and some a half-slot or less.

Soft spot

A place in an adventure where an opportunity is offered to develop character backgrounds.

Soundcube

Cubes used to store just about any kind of information, from music to computer programs. They’re made of frozen liquids, usually a liquid named N-cast, and come in various sizes.

Space

Spaces are containers for a character’s special abilities. What can be put in a space, or spaced, depends on the type.

Special Success

If you roll above the Difficulty Number for an action roll you get a special success: the action is performed with special flow and ease.

Speed (S)

One of the core stacks. Speed represents things like fitness, agility, balance and speed. It is used for action tasks, such as running, jumping, climbing or balancing, and to determine who goes first in combat.

Stack

Stacks are attributes in Suldokar’s Wake. The are: Archive, Bulk, Ghost, Morph, Speed and Tech. The two complementary stacks are Close and Ranged.

Stepping

Going up or down the dice ladder. The ladder is: d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4, d3, d2. So stepping up from a d10 is a d12 for example. Some actions, like burst fire, step damage up or down.

Strand

Instructions (see pattern) for a Zyu Maker.

Subspace nanites

The rarest form of nanites, which exist in subspace. They require subspace formulæ to control.

Suldokar

An ancient droid, a story-teller and a poet that has roamed the surface of Zira-Ka apparently forever.

Supervoid

See Darkspace.

Supradrive

Eternium orbs made into very rare sources of power. These can power large structures for decades and were not made on Zira-Ka. Those on Zira-Ka are often waning.

T #

Tangential Roll

When gunta is spent, a tangential roll must be made to see if something connected to the character, but unrelated to the current action, occurred.

Tank Born

A bio-engineered blood, one of the life-form available to players. All tank born were created about 700 years ago by the Thaldeans.

Tech (T)

One of the core stacks. Tech is the ability to deal hands on with technology that is unusual in some manner—ancient, alien, rare, complicated, dangerous or simply broken. It is also used to build things from parts, which is a very important aspect of life on Zira-Ka.

TGA

TransGalactic Arms, a space company that colonized Zira-Ka and extracted most of its resources and then left. See the setting introduction.

TGM

The Great Mycelium, an immortal and hive minded fungoid entity living deep underground.

Thaldean

From the Thaldo period, a high-tech period during the post-imperial era (350-623) where tyranny reigned. Thaldeans made tank born to use as servants.

Tied

An action may be tied by a relevant keyword. This means that a character must make half rolls unless she has the keyword written anywhere on her character sheet.

Turn

A period of 10 minutes. See also long turn and round.

Type

Your character class (but see also background). The types are Apt, Core and Prime. They define how your character progresses, its mechanical approach to what happens in the game. For more information see Types.

U #

Umberzone

Areas on Zira-Ka that are laid in deep shadow for long period of time as a result of the strange rotation of the planet.

V #

VAPOR

VAtori POlice Regulators. A very organized and well equipped law enforcing organization from the Vatori Empire. Agents (called regulators) operate within, and even without, the Empire. See also Zeal.

Vatori

The Vatori Empire is the largest state on Zira-Ka. The term also refers to their language. Self-proclaimed heirs to the Itori.

X #

XLA

A parasitic/symbiotic alien life-form. When joined with a blood, the result is an alien.

Z #

Zeal

A rumored secret VAPOR division. Also a type of gun carried by VAPOR officers.

Zejj

A multi-player strategy board game.

Zira-Ka

The planet on which the adventures take place. The last planet before Darkspace.

Zotusk

A furred riding lizard with tusks.

Zyu

Extinct Zira-Kaan colonizers that took refuge on the planet 5,000 years ago and left structures and artifacts, like scrolls.

Zyu Path

Planetary dimensional fold.