How the Core Engine Works Together

The foundation records have different jobs. They work best when each one owns a clear kind of truth instead of repeating the same information everywhere.

World Ruleset: the shared rules

The World Ruleset answers questions such as:

• Which attributes exist?
• Which resources can be spent or recovered?
• Which conditions can affect a character?
• Does advancement use levels, milestones, ranks, practice, or none?
• What do power and threat bands mean?
• How quickly does time normally advance after travel, rest, or scenes?

A Character references the Ruleset and derives its usable mechanical structure from it. This keeps the shared definition in one place. When “Resolve” is a world attribute, the Ruleset defines Resolve; each Character stores only their own value and modifiers.

Mechanic Packages: reusable bundles

Mechanic Packages are modular bundles that grant or modify parts of the Ruleset. They can represent:

• Species or ancestry
• Class or profession
• Background
• Transformation
• Curse or blessing
• Faction training
• Equipment loadout
• Difficulty mode
• Campaign-specific progression path

The Adventurer Foundation @Missing file demonstrates the structure. A package can grant attributes, resources, abilities, techniques, equipment, tags, or progression rows.

Do not create a new package for every tiny detail. Use one when several Characters should inherit the same rules or when a reusable choice belongs in character creation.

Character state: the personal values

The Character stores what is unique to that person:

• Their attribute values
• Current resources
• Active conditions
• Learned Abilities and Techniques
• Inventory and vehicles
• Current Location and Pressure
• Relationships and public identity
• Advancement progress
• Speech and independent-life state

The Character should not redefine the entire world’s mechanics inside itself. Shared definitions belong to the Ruleset, Mechanic Packages, Power Systems, Abilities, Techniques, and Equipment.

Calendar and Clock: structure versus current time

The Calendar says how time is organized. The Clock says where the campaign currently is inside that structure.

Example:

• Calendar: twelve months, seven-day weeks, twenty-four-hour days.
• Clock: October 18, 9:40 PM, heavy rain, scene 27.

Deadlines and events should refer to the active Clock’s timeline. When time advances, the Clock updates first; then due Pressures, Missions, faction turns, consequences, and independent actions can be reviewed.

World State: the broad situation

World State stores durable world-scale truth:

• The current era and campaign phase
• Public mood and faction climate
• Major alliances and global tensions
• Active Pressures
• Recent Events
• Hidden global truths
• Unstable facts and open questions
• Broad offscreen movement
• Active world Lexicons

Update it after major changes, not every sentence. A tavern argument normally does not alter World State. A royal assassination, public magical disaster, national treaty, or citywide evacuation probably does.

World Pulse: what needs attention now

World Pulse narrows the entire project to the current scene and immediate future:

• Who is present?
• Where are they?
• What is the scene trying to accomplish?
• Which Mission, Pressure, or Faction is active?
• Which consequences are due?
• Which NPC actions have reached their deadline?
• Which continuity questions remain unresolved?
• What must be reviewed when the scene ends?

World Pulse is not permanent storage for every campaign fact. After a scene resolves, lasting changes route to their canonical records. World Pulse then clears or replaces the temporary scene focus.

The scene cycle

A healthy scene roughly follows this loop:

1. Read the active Clock, State, Pulse, Location, Characters, and relevant systems.
2. Establish what was already true before the player acted.
3. Resolve the player’s attempted action against capability, resistance, time, knowledge, and consequences.
4. Let relevant NPCs, Factions, Missions, and Pressures respond.
5. Advance time when the fiction requires it.
6. Route lasting changes to the correct files.
7. Review due consequences and independent actions.
8. Update World Pulse for the next meaningful choice.

Computed fields are displays, not storage

Many sheets contain values such as totals, counts, summaries, percentages, next steps, due lists, or effective abilities. These are computed from stored fields.

Do not manually write into computed fields. Change the underlying canonical data and let the expression update the display.

For example:

• Change current and maximum durability; do not write the durability percentage.
• Complete objective rows; do not write the completed-objective count.
• Change Faction agendas; do not manually write the closest agenda progress.
• Schedule an independent action; do not manually construct the due-action list.

This division keeps the engine consistent. Stored fields are the truth. Computed fields explain that truth.