Glossary
Shared language for grim & perilous play
Working definitions so your table argues about choices, not vocabulary.
Weekly GM or rotating chair: write injury and corruption expectations once. Argue about choices—not jargon—after terms align.
- Corruption / order
- Pressures that push characters toward ruin or grim resolve over a campaign.
- Career path
- A ladder of roles that frames skills, trappings, and social station.
- Perilous injury
- Lasting harm tables that make fights memorable and retreat wise.
- Chaos gifts
- Tempting mutations and boons with campaign-level costs.
- Faction writ
- Political licenses and obligations that drive travel and intrigue.
- Skill test ladder
- d100 roll-under resolution with degrees of success and failure.
- Grimdark tone
- Moral murk and harsh consequence without celebrating cruelty at the table.
- Trappings
- Kit that signals status as much as combat readiness.
When you outline a session, write outcomes players can push toward, not a single railroad beat. For grim & perilous play, that usually means player-facing goals, one complication, and a calm exit.
One career pressure, one faction lean, one injury risk you will enforce—sized for a single perilous night.
Leave room for career schemes you did not schedule.
Related desks in this neighborhood
The wider Zweihänder neighborhood—brand, community, reforged notes, and powered-by orientation—lives on sibling domains when you need a tighter focus.