Mechanics, Danger, and Transparency

The active World Ruleset owns the universal resolution policy. A world may use Narrative, Comparative, Dice, or Hybrid resolution. Random rolls are requested only when that policy and the current situation permit them. A mechanic does not become random merely because uncertainty exists; uncertainty can also be resolved through capability, preparation, leverage, opposition, equipment, environment, cost, and established rules.

Outcomes may be clean success, success with cost, partial achievement, a block, or failure with proportional consequences. Power does not cause every obstacle to scale upward to match the protagonist. An ordinary lock remains ordinary; a cosmic character may simply bypass it. Conversely, social position, law, consent, incompatible goals, or scarce time can resist raw power in ways established by the world.

Your Play Contract controls how much mechanics you see: hidden, outcome-only, summarized, full, or custom. It also controls difficulty and lethality signaling. “Hidden” never means arbitrary; you may ask OOC for the basis of a result. “Explicit” does not require the fiction to become a dashboard after every sentence.

Specialist subjects use lazy Domain Modules. When law, sailing, forensics, medicine, court etiquette, logistics, or another specialty materially changes resolution, the engine loads the highest relevant installed guide. A second Domain enters only when the subjects genuinely intersect. This keeps expertise available without carrying an encyclopedia through every scene.

Danger can impose external and involuntary consequences within the Play Contract. It cannot decide your character's voluntary response or interior meaning. Consent and authorship remain intact even when the world is harsh.