NYTE City Glossary — Shadows RPG

The city

NYTE City: The megalopolis that covers the entire Eastern Seaboard in 2099, and the setting of Shadows. Corporations plot private wars from the skyscrapers, people fight to survive at street level, and something older moves underneath it all. The city is not a backdrop: it notices what you do, and it responds. The World →
The LINK: NYTE City's network. Payments, messages, records, and reputations all move through it, which makes it the first place anyone looks for you. Hackers work the LINK with terminal rigs; everyone else just leaves a trail in it.
SMARTbrace: The personal device most residents carry. It's how people call you, message you, and reach you through the LINK, and it's usually the thing buzzing right before a quiet night stops being quiet.
CRANK: The Contract Retrieval and Networking Knowledgebase: the gray market's answer to corporate employment. Anonymous job postings, reputation-based matching, and payment in Skrip. It connects people with skills to people with problems, no TAG required.

TAG: Trusted Authentication Gateway: the government-issued digital identity every resident carries. It's your ID, your wallet, your door key, and how people reach you. It's also a tracking device. A TAG means the city knows where you are, what you buy, and who you talk to. The economy →
TAGless: Living without a TAG: no government identity, no UBI, and life entirely inside the Skrip economy. It's a legitimate choice, and it comes with real limits.
Çredits (Ç): The digital currency of the legitimate economy: corporate payroll, licensed vendors, government business. Every Çredit spent leaves a record of who bought what, from whom, when, and where.
Skrip ($): Physical cash, untraceable by design and worth about the same as a Çredit. Fixers, black-market vendors, and anyone working the gray economy deal in Skrip, because a Skrip deal is a transaction that doesn't exist as far as any system is concerned.
UBI: The Universal Basic Income that comes with a TAG. It covers a coffin box, fast food, and not much else, and going TAGless means giving it up.

Grounder: Anything that moves at street level, wheeled or hover. Automated Grounder taxis are how most of NYTE City gets around, and every fare is logged.
Jumper: Aerial vehicles working the city's vertical traffic grid, above the jams at street level. Faster than a Grounder, and a lot harder to miss when one lands.

Aether: The force that infuses the universe, and what magic is made of. Arcanists don't command it from a distance; they channel it through their own bodies, and it resists being shaped. Every spell is strain, focus, and risk. Arcanist →
NCI: Neurocybernetic Interpreter: the implant that links flesh and machine, with a pseudo-AI managing the systems and the user's intent. Upgrade it far enough and you've stopped being someone with implants. You're a Cyborg. Cyborg →
Humanity: What cybernetics cost you besides Çredits. Every install shifts it a little, and none of them can be walked back.
Houses: The vampire Houses. Each has its own strengths, resources, allies, and enemies, and the tension between them is half of vampire politics. Vampire →
The Unseen Court: The secretive governing body that keeps vampires out of sight while it exerts influence over corporations, criminal syndicates, and politicians. Vampires aren't hiding. They're waiting.
Fae courts: The Fae negotiate contracts with finer print than any corporation, and they never miss a clause. They also own K-pop.

CRB: The Shadows Core Rulebook, still being written. Rules Preview is a look inside it. Rules Preview →
Synergy System: The d10 system Shadows runs on. One die resolves almost anything a scene throws at you, and it's built to keep the story moving rather than stall the table. Stats & Skills →
Archetype: Everyone in Shadows starts human. Your Archetype is the path out: Professional, Cyborg, or Arcanist if you stay mortal; Vampire or Werewolf if you don't. Archetypes →
Power Level: The scale a campaign plays at, agreed before it starts: four tiers, from Street Level up to World Coming Down. Power Levels →