Definitions and Extension Strategy

The System ships with File Types for the concepts already needed by the common engine: Character, Species, O.C.C., R.C.C., Alignment, Skill Category, Skill, Hand-to-Hand Style, Weapon Proficiency, Combat Move, Equipment, Environment, Rules Profile, Attribute Rule Set, Character Creation Profile, Psionic Power, Rule, Location, Game Start, GM Instructions, Psychic Character Class, Magic Power, Special Ability, Random Table, Conversion Profile, Augmentation, Vehicle Model, Condition, and Encounter.

These types are a foundation, not a claim that every Palladium game can be represented forever without extension.

Reuse a type when the concept behaves the same

Use an existing type when new content has the same data shape and the same retrieval/use pattern. A new O.C.C. belongs in the O.C.C. type. A new percentile skill belongs in Skill. A new Hand-to-Hand progression belongs in Hand-to-Hand Style. Keeping equivalent concepts together makes filtering, references, layouts, and GM retrieval predictable.

Add a type when the concept has its own mechanics

A World should create a new File Type when a concept needs its own fields, layout, creation behavior, or retrieval semantics. Spells, super abilities, martial-art forms, mutations, cybernetics/bionics, power armor, robots, vehicles, creatures/monsters, conditions, insanity, magic items, or specialized technologies may deserve dedicated types in the games that use them.

Do not force a spell into Equipment simply because both have a cost field. Do not turn a monster into an O.C.C. because both have combat bonuses. A good type represents one coherent kind of thing.

Definitions are reusable; state is personal

Shared rule files describe what something is. Live state files describe what has happened to one instance. Equipment defines a rifle; a Character or inventory state records that this copy has three shots left. A Skill defines its progression; a Character records learned-at-level and personal bonuses. A class defines an advancement table; a Character records current XP and applied level.

This keeps one damaged suit of armor from damaging the catalog entry for every other suit in the World.

Reference instead of copying

When a file depends on another definition, use a reference field. This gives Craft a durable relationship and lets layouts and computed fields load the source. Avoid pasting the same class bonus into every Character if it can be derived from the referenced class.

Markdown narrative such as GM instructions can mention files using Craft file mentions. JSON string fields are not a substitute for references; a name typed into prose cannot be loaded as structured data.

Preserve the System contract

World extensions should not require editing the generic System's templates unless the engine itself lacks a reusable capability. If you discover a genuinely common need across several Palladium Worlds, add the capability to the System in a new tested wave. If the need belongs to one title, keep it in that World.

This discipline is what lets improvements flow outward without turning the base System into a pile of mutually contradictory game-specific rules.

Capability file types

Use Magic Power for spells, invocations, rituals, wards, circles, enchantments, and comparable magic that needs its own cost/range/duration/effect definition. Use Psionic Power for psychic abilities. Use Special Ability for natural/racial abilities, O.C.C./R.C.C. powers, super abilities, martial-arts powers, mutations, and other exceptional capabilities that do not need the dedicated psionic or magic schema.

Use Augmentation for reusable cybernetic, bionic, biological, chemical, mystical, psychic, or other installed enhancements. Use Vehicle Model for shared vehicle, robot, power-armor, or exoskeleton specifications; keep mutable damage, payload, and ownership state on the live World entity or character that uses the model. Use Random Table whenever a title calls for a percentile or other bounded table rather than burying ranges in prose. Use Conversion Profile whenever one Palladium game/edition/environment is adapted to another; the profile must say what is preserved and what is transformed.

These types are optional capabilities, not assumptions. A medieval-fantasy World can ignore vehicle models; a supers World can lean heavily on Special Ability; a horror World can use psionics while leaving Mega-Damage disabled. The System exists so those Worlds share infrastructure without pretending their content is identical.

Psychic Character Class is a first-class class definition for Palladium games that use P.C.C. terminology. Keep its exact class roster and psychic rules in the World, while using the shared P.C.C. schema for requirements, XP, skills, powers, and resource progressions. Psychic category and classification fields are deliberately free-form because Palladium titles do not all use one vocabulary.