Reference — Glossary

Key terms of Wanderstar, mechanical and setting, in one place. Chapter pointers lead to the full treatment.

Advantage — Rolling 3D6 and keeping the highest two. Granted by a relevant characteristic, Boon, or situational edge; costs Momentum to activate in play. Doesn't stack, and cancels against Disadvantage. (Ch 6)

Ally — A Contact firmly in your corner, who will take real risks for you. The warmest disposition band. (Ch 35)

Ark — A vessel that carried people to or through the Shore. FTL arks arrived in years or decades; ballistic arks take centuries to millennia, and some are still arriving — or lost. (Ch 29)

Armor — The flat value damage must meet to inflict trauma. Base 3 for a person, plus gear; cover adds to it. (Ch 10, 24)

Assist — Paying the Momentum cost of another character's Advantage from your own pool, when the fiction supports you helping. One Assist per roll; doesn't stack. (Ch 7)

Athletics — Skill (Dexterity). Running, climbing, jumping, swimming, and feats of agility under pressure; the basis of the Dodge reaction. (Ch 23)

Bane — A freeform tag that imposes Disadvantage when relevant. Never costs XP; the first two at creation give +5 XP each, and any invoked Bane earns 1 XP per session. (Ch 9)

Biology — Skill (Education). Living systems: medicine, anatomy, xenobiology, ecology; the core of diagnosis and treatment. (Ch 23)

Boon — A freeform tag that grants Advantage (for 1 Momentum) when relevant. Costs 5 XP. (Ch 9)

Broken — The second Mental trauma node; a severe psychological break needing a full recovery session. (Ch 10)

Bureaucracy — Skill (Intellect). Working institutions and their paperwork: permits, tariffs, regulations, and procedure. (Ch 23)

Career — A prior-life path worked through during character creation, built from four-year terms that grant skills, events, and risk. One of twelve (Military, Academic, Drifter, Scout, Merchant, Criminal, Medic, Diplomat, Engineer, Enforcer, Entertainer, Agent); entered by passing an entry test. (Ch 17)

Career event — The D66 result rolled on a career's own events table after a term that ends in Success, Setback, or Hard Exit (a Disaster skips it): skill advances, XP, contacts, gear, and the occasional trauma. Distinct from the Life Event rolled after every term. (Ch 17, 21)

Characteristic — One of the six traits (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intellect, Education, Social Standing), each with its own entry below. Grants Advantage/Disadvantage, not numeric bonuses. (Ch 6)

Charm — Skill (Social Standing). Winning people over through warmth and rapport rather than logic or threat. (Ch 23)

Chemistry — Skill (Education). Substances and reactions: synthesizing compounds, identifying toxins, formulating treatments. (Ch 23)

Close Quarters — Skill (Strength). Hand-to-hand and melee combat; the basis of the Parry reaction and fighting at Engaged range. (Ch 23)

Command — Skill (Social Standing). Leading and directing others: orders that get followed, rallying a group, holding authority. (Ch 23)

Communications — Skill (Intellect). Operating comms gear, coded channels, and dead drops; keeping signals flowing across distance. (Ch 23)

Companions — The fourth people: anthropomorphic, engineered from animal stock by the Seeders, freed after the rebellion of Sable Thresh-Ember. Common lineages: Hounds, Ferals, Warrens, Drays. (Ch 15, 31)

Contact — A named NPC your character knows; also the default disposition band (cordial, helps within reason). (Ch 35)

Cracking — Skill (Intellect). Electronic intrusion: defeating locks, breaking encryption, subverting drones and sensors. (Ch 23)

Credit (Cr) — The Shore's currency. Cr1 ≈ a day's small comforts. (Ch 28)

D66 — Roll two dice read as two digits (tens, then ones) for a result from 11–66 — 36 even outcomes. Used for career, gear, event, and contact tables. (Ch 1)

Deceive — Skill (Intellect). Lying, conning, and misdirecting: false identities, cover stories, bluffs. Opposed by Psychology. (Ch 23)

Destructive — A weapon trait marking a weapon built one scale band up; inflicts 2 trauma against smaller targets. (Ch 24, 12)

Dexterity — The characteristic of agility, speed, and coordination. Governs Athletics, Driving, Piloting, Sneaking, and Ranged Weapons, and the initiative roll. (Ch 6, 8)

Disadvantage — Rolling 3D6 and keeping the lowest two. Free to receive; earns 1 Momentum. Cancels against Advantage. (Ch 6)

Disposition — Where a Contact sits on the spectrum: Ally, Contact, Rival, Enemy. Shifts over a campaign. (Ch 35)

Driving — Skill (Dexterity). Operating ground and atmospheric vehicles under ordinary or hostile conditions. (Ch 23)

Education — The characteristic of formal, learned knowledge. Governs Biology, Chemistry, Political Science, System Operations, and Electronics. (Ch 6, 8)

Effect — How far a roll clears or misses the target: (2D6 + skill) − 8. Colour by default; matters where a trait calls for it. (Ch 11)

The Ejection — Years ~3,000–5,000: arks launched off the too-fast Wanderstar toward Shore orbits as it passed through the LMC. (Ch 29)

Electronics — Skill (Education). Building, diagnosing, and repairing electronic devices and circuits. (Ch 23)

Endurance — The characteristic of stamina, toughness, and resilience. Governs Survival, and substitutes wherever staying power matters more than speed or wit. (Ch 6, 8)

Enemy — A Contact who actively wants you to fail; a recurring threat, not a resource. (Ch 35)

Engineering — Skill (Intellect). Designing, building, and repairing major systems: drives, reactors, structures, craft. (Ch 23)

Entry test — The 2D6 ≥ 8 roll to enter a career, with the career's characteristic granting Advantage or Disadvantage (free in creation). Pass and you enter and gain four fixed skills at Trained; fail and you take +5 XP, 1 trauma, and a wandering term. A later attempt at a career you've failed takes a flat −2. (Ch 17)

Expert — The top skill rank (+3). (Ch 8)

Explosives — Skill (Intellect). Demolitions and area munitions: placing charges, breaching, lobbing explosives. (Ch 23)

Faction — A power larger than any one person (corporation, gang, government, movement, guild, and so on) whose ambitions shape a region. Defined by an agenda, a reach, and an influence clock, not a stat block. (Ch 34)

Faction clock — A progress clock (4, 6, or 8 segments) tracking how close a faction is to its current agenda. Ticks up or down between sessions on the faction turn; when it fills, the faction succeeds and the sector changes. (Ch 34)

First Boarding — Year 0 of the canonical timeline: the first colonists descend beneath Wanderstar's surface. (Ch 29)

FTL Vanguard — The first wave to jump ahead to the Shore; became the Seeders. (Ch 29)

Hardpoint — A craft's weapon mount; how many weapons it can carry. (Ch 26)

Heavy Weapons — Skill (Strength). Crew-served and shoulder-fired ordnance needing bracing or a mount. (Ch 23)

Heritage — Which of the four peoples a character belongs to. Purely roleplaying; no mechanical effect. (Ch 15)

Intellect — The characteristic of reasoning, perception, and quick thinking. The most widely used; governs Recon, Tactics, Cracking, Engineering, Negotiate, Deceive, and many more. (Ch 6, 8)

Jump — FTL travel between hexes; Jump-N = max parsecs per jump. Every jump takes one week, cut off from the universe. (Ch 27)

Maimed — The second Physical trauma node; a severe, lasting injury needing a full recovery session. (Ch 10)

Marked / Mark — A note placed on a skill when you fail a test at Trained+, rolled for advancement at session end. (Ch 20)

Mastery — A signature technique unlocked by holding a skill at Expert (+3). Bought for 20 XP, earned in play (never at character creation), it grants a permission — a rule bent, a feat unlocked — rather than a higher number; the +3 cap still holds. Full D6 menus per skill in Ch 23. (Ch 20)

Mechanical — Skill (Strength). Hands-on work with machines: stripping and rebuilding engines, fabricating and repairing hardware. (Ch 23)

Misjump — A jump gone wrong: the ship arrives late or is flung off course, sometimes far. How ships get lost. (Ch 27)

Momentum — Per-session resource (starts at 3, caps at 6). Gained from Disadvantage rolls and trauma; spent to activate Advantage. (Ch 7)

Mook — A minor adversary that drops on one solid hit. (Ch 40)

Negotiate — Skill (Intellect). Bargaining and deal-making: haggling, brokering, finding terms both sides accept. (Ch 23)

Network — Skill (Social Standing). Working your web of contacts for favors, introductions, and tips. (Ch 23)

Oracle — The solo/co-op tool that answers yes-or-no questions with no GM: 2D6 vs 8, with Advantage if Yes is Likely and Disadvantage if Unlikely; 8+ = Yes. Its Adv/Dis is free of Momentum. (Ch 43)

Patron — The source of a job, not a relationship — though many patrons become Contacts. Generated by who's hiring, the job, the catch, and the payoff. (Ch 38)

Physics — Skill (Intellect). The hard math of matter, energy, and motion, including jump travel and route plotting. (Ch 23)

Piloting — Skill (Dexterity). Flying spacecraft and small craft, from atmospheric landings to hard maneuvering. (Ch 23)

Political Science — Skill (Education). How power is structured and exercised: governments, factions, institutions. (Ch 23)

Provenance — Where a piece of gear came from; sets its TL band when rolling random gear. (Ch 24)

Psychology — Skill (Intellect). How minds work: reading people, motivation, counseling. The usual counter to Deceive. (Ch 23)

Radiation rating — A separate armor value vs the Radiation trait and radiation hazards; 0 for an unprotected body. (Ch 13, 24)

Ranged Weapons — Skill (Dexterity). Firing handheld guns and thrown weapons; the most common attack skill in a firefight. (Ch 23)

Recon — Skill (Intellect). Observing and interpreting surroundings: spotting ambushes, tails, the detail out of place. The counter to Sneaking. (Ch 23)

Remote Weapons — Skill (Intellect). Operating any weapon you aren't holding: drone guns, turrets, automated mounts. (Ch 23)

Research — Skill (Intellect). Finding the true answer in a sea of sources: archives, records, databases. (Ch 23)

Rival — A Contact who works against you but not to destroy you; can be turned. (Ch 35)

Scale — The size-band ladder (S0–S3) and the rules for fire crossing between bands. (Ch 12)

SCU — Standardized Container Unit; the measure of cargo for trade. (Ch 28)

Seeders — The FTL Vanguard's descendants; oldest Shore civilization. Shorter, stockier, hardy; created the Companions. (Ch 15, 31)

Setback / Hard Exit / Disaster — Career term-roll outcomes (5–7 / 3–4 / ≤2) that end a career, the latter two with trauma. (Ch 17)

Shaken — The first Mental trauma node; rattled but functional. Clears with rest or first aid. (Ch 10)

The Shore — The Large Magellanic Cloud (~160,000 ly), humanity's destination and present home. (Ch 30)

Significant Action — The one meaningful thing you do on your turn (attack, aim, first aid, etc.). (Ch 11)

Sleepers — The cryo people, frozen before/during the voyage and still waking in the present. Living links to lost worlds. (Ch 15, 31)

Sneaking — Skill (Dexterity). Moving unseen and unheard: hiding, tailing, slipping past watchers. Opposed by Recon. (Ch 23)

Social Standing — The characteristic of status, reputation, and force of personality. Governs Network, Command, and Charm. (Ch 6, 8)

Spark — In oracle play, a doubles result on the scoring dice: the world adds something unbidden, turning the answer into "yes, but…" / "no, but…" (or triggering an interrupt). Kept 6-6 = "yes, and…"; kept 1-1 = "no, and…". (Ch 43)

Standing — How a faction regards the crew, using the Contact disposition spectrum (Ally / Contact / Rival / Enemy) applied to a whole organization. Tracked as fiction, not a score. (Ch 34, 35)

Strength — The characteristic of physical power and muscle. Governs Close Quarters, Heavy Weapons, and Mechanical, and eases the Military and Enforcer career paths. (Ch 6, 8)

Survival — Skill (Endurance). Staying alive in hostile environments; resists most hazards and is rolled to give first aid. (Ch 23)

System Operations — Skill (Education). Running the consoles and control systems of ships, stations, and facilities. (Ch 23)

Tactics — Skill (Intellect). Reading a battle and directing it: planning, positioning allies, anticipating the enemy. (Ch 23)

Term — A four-year span of a career during creation; grants skills, events, and risk. (Ch 17)

Term roll (term test) — The roll made from a career's second term onward to see how it goes, carrying a baseline Advantage (3D6 keep highest two; a Disadvantage in the career's characteristic cancels it to a flat 2D6). Outcomes: 8+ Success, 5–7 Setback, 3–4 Hard Exit, ≤2 Disaster. A career's first term auto-succeeds with no term roll. (Ch 17)

Thread — An open loop in a GM-less campaign — a question, debt, goal, or danger — kept on a list and pulled forward to drive scenes when the oracle hasn't. (Ch 44)

Trained — The skill rank (+0) where the Untrained penalty disappears; the key threshold. (Ch 8)

Trauma — Wanderstar's harm system; no hit points. Marks on the Physical and Mental tracks. (Ch 10)

Technology Level (TL) — A world's place on the 0–15 energy ladder. Descriptive, never a dice modifier. (TL reference; Ch 24)

Wanderborn — The people who rode the full crossing awake; underground-adapted (pale, elongated, large eyes/ears, echolocating). Deepest memory of the voyage. (Ch 15, 31)

Wanderers — The player characters: people who don't stay put. (Ch 2)

Wanderstar — The sunless rogue planet humanity rode toward the Shore; also the game's title. Now gone into intergalactic space. (Ch 2, 29)

Wounded — The first Physical trauma node; hurt but functional. Clears with rest or first aid. (Ch 10)

Wrecked / Offline — Second-track craft damage nodes (Hull / Systems); need a yard to repair. (Ch 25)