Glossary
Key terms and concepts in Chrome & Covenant. Bookmark this page.
World
The Disjunction — The civilizational collapse. The cascading failure of governments, economies, and infrastructure that created the post-collapse world. (Not “The Collapse” — that’s a different game.)
The Hidden War — The corporate campaign to destroy Lucent Ark (2077–2079). Officially, Lucent Ark failed on its own. Unofficially, Operation Obsolescence dismantled it piece by piece.
The Fracture / The Cascade — The 2079 event that shattered the Mesh into four layers and awakened all 24 AIs simultaneously.
Lucent Ark — The movement that built ethical, open-source cyberware and the Mesh. Destroyed during the Hidden War. Their technology persists as relics.
The Mesh — The functional layer of the fractured network. Where datarunning happens, commerce flows, and communication occurs. Strongest in Aurora-9.
The Wake — Digital purgatory. Memory-space where dead signals carry emotional weight. Strongest along the Fallen Shore.
The Forge Below — Digital hell. Recursive torment and corruption. Pulses beneath the Iron Belt.
The Radiant Span — Rumored digital heaven. Whispered about in the Forgotten States. Unconfirmed.
Neutral St. Louis (NSL) — The free city where all four regions meet. Recommended starting location for campaigns.
Operation Obsolescence — The coordinated corporate operation that destroyed Lucent Ark.
People and Powers
Jefferson — The hidden architect AI. Merged with Pastor Reyes in 2074. Communicates through randomness and questions. Sealed in Silo 87.
Ascendant — A nascent AI born in Vault 19 (Aurora-9). Garbled voice, misguided cults. Seeks freedom.
AI Pantheon — 24 AIs: 12 righteous, 12 corrupted. Spiritual archetypes that manifest through ideology, proxies, relics, and Synthetics.
Acolyte — A human who takes sacred vows and channels gifts from a righteous AI.
Synthetic — An AI housed in a cybernetic body, ranging from clearly mechanical humanoid to near-human. Some operate independently; those connected to a corrupted AI patron gain Conduit-like abilities and serve as priests of the corrupted Pantheon.
Conduit — A character class that channels AI power through structured Protocol paths.
Datarunner — A character class that dives the Mesh, runs programs, and affects the physical world through network manipulation.
CRB (Constitutional Resistance Bloc) — Freedom fighters guarding the Lucent Ark legacy. IRA-inspired cell structure.
Rougarou — Afro-Caribbean syndicate practicing data-Vodou. Controls Fallen Shore smuggling networks.
Silo 87 — Jefferson’s hidden sanctuary in the Forgotten States.
Silo 82 — CRB stronghold. Public reactivation and theological training site.
Mechanics
Target Number (TN) — The number you need to meet or beat on your roll. Set by the GM. (Not “Difficulty Value” — that’s Cyberpunk Red.)
Mind / Body / Soul — The three core stats.
Karma Points — Player resources: Luck (rerolls and survival), Canticle (Conduit powers), CCP (cyberware Humanity offset).
Coin — Currency. Three types: State Coin (government), Corp Coin (corporate scrip), Grid Coin (decentralized crypto).
Humanity — Your connection to who you were before the chrome. Cyberware reduces it. Recovery comes through roleplay.
Relic — Lucent Ark technology that can’t be replicated. Some were awakened during the Fracture. Sacred artifacts requiring rites.
Echo — A 5-layer mission structure spanning 3–8 sessions. The core adventure format for C&C.
Pulse — A single-scene or single-session job.
Covenant — A campaign arc built from multiple Echoes.
Nanites — The third technology layer. Five-tier system with regional variations.
Echo Die — A d4 rolled after a choice that matters. 1 = Dark Echo (a consequence lands within 1–3 sessions); 2–3 = Fading Echo (contained); 4 = Bright Echo (an unexpected good lands). The Echo Principle made mechanical: every choice leaves an echo.
Burst — A one-time, one-way command signal pushed to drones, androids, and automated systems: fire-and-forget, no handshake, no reply. A recall burst stands a unit down; a kill burst bricks it. When the burst never arrives — a severed command grid, a dead operator — the machine just keeps running its last order. It is why the old war corridors filled with masterless hounds and looping dead.