Glossary

Player words, as the feed and the cards use them. The concept index maps each to its engine term and design section.

Brave — a villager whose caution is low. Runs for a bucket when the cautious run away.

Campfire — the tended fire at the fire pit; warmth at night, a risk to the inn if over-fed. Page.

Cautious — a villager whose caution is high. Leaves danger rather than fighting it. Page.

Chain — the list of causes Explain this returns, newest first, ending at you, the beginning, or the limit. Page.

Chronicle — the whole story of the village as the game tells it: the feed, the cards, the timelines.

Curious — a villager whose curiosity is high; wanders when nothing presses.

Danger — what a villager feels when their place is hotter than 40 °; the pull of the safety need.

Day — 24 village hours; noon is warm, midnight is cold. Page.

Explain this — the question you can ask of anything. Page.

Faction — a people. Riverside Village is one faction, the villagers, with shared knowledge. Page.

Feed — the running prose of what just happened. Page.

Fire — anything burning: a campfire or a burning building. Spreads as heat. Page.

Fork — from Phase 3: branch the world at a moment, change one thing, compare.

Interesting moment — a moment with a deep chain of causes; the clock slows and marks it. Page.

Kindling point — how hot a thing must get to catch fire; a wooden building's is about 250 °.

Knows / remembers — what a villager has seen and not yet forgotten, or what their village knows. Page.

Meal — one eating; a quarter of the way from starving to fed. A full bush holds about 25. Page.

Mode — how close you are to the village: watching, tinkering, and later rungs. Page.

Need — a reason to act: hunger, warmth, safety, rest, curiosity. Page.

Place — one of the eight locations; villagers are always in exactly one. Page.

Seed — the number a village is rolled from. Same seed, same people, same days.

Spotlight — the card that opens when you click a person or place. Page.

Step — one move along a path, about seven village minutes.

System — one force in the world that a Tinkerer can switch off and on: hunger, heat, fire, regrowth, perception, death… Page.

Timeline — the last village day, replayable. Page.

Tinkerer — the second rung: you can change the world. Page.

Village time — the clock the village keeps; the only time the player view shows. Page.

Villager — one of the fifty people. Page.

Why — on every character card: the choice that won and the two it beat.