3. Resources

3.1 Currency#

The primary economic resource. Held in the player's Treasury and replenished each turn through Homeworld, Planetary Location and Surface Location income (and occasionally abilities of some cards). Used to pay the deploy cost of most cards (Locations, Spacecraft, Devices, Ground Units, Maneuvers, Storylines) and to pay other in-game costs. Treasury can never go below 0. If a player is required to pay a cost and that cost is greater than the currency in a player's Treasury, that player's Treasury goes to zero. A player cannot deploy cards or spend currency greater than what is in their Treasury.

3.2 Votes#

The political resource. Generated by Locations and certain Characters and Ground Units in amounts printed on the card. Used to push Galactic Factors, to support or oppose Political Actions, and to pay the Vote cost of Political Action Maneuvers. Activating a card to commit Votes uses that card's action for the turn — Votes cannot be banked across phases, only committed in the moment. The Vote pool empties at the end of the phase. Votes can be added as a Fast Maneuver.

3.3 Story Points (SP)#

The narrative-progression resource. Earned through major narrative events. Story Points drive Act transitions: when any player reaches 3 SP, Act I ends; story points then reset to zero and Act II begins. When any player reaches 3 SP, Act II ends, story points reset to zero and Act III begins; when any player reaches 3 SP, Act III ends. The game is based on best 2 out of 3 Acts, meaning when any player completes 2 Acts first, they win the game. This means that if one player finishes both Act I and Act II first, then they win and there is no Act III.

Story Points are public information and should be tracked by both players.

Spending SP. Some cards print SP costs. Story Points are a spendable resource for these purposes. SP cannot be reduced below 0.

Irreversibility of Act transitions. Act transitions are one-way. Once an Act has ended (the SP threshold has been reached by any player), the game advances to the next Act and remains there. SP spending or other SP reductions after a transition trigger do not return the game to the previous Act.

3.4 Character Points (CP)#

Tracked per Character (and per any other permanent with a printed starting CP value. Each Character has a starting CP value directly indicated on the card itself. CP rises when the Character performs aligned actions (printed on the card as triggered abilities) and falls when they perform misaligned actions (governed by the Penalties block printed on the card). At 0 CP a Character flips to the Reverse or Fallen face of the card. CP can also be spent on activated abilities printed on the Character card. There is no maximum CP — a Character may accumulate CP without limit. CP cannot go below 0; effects that would reduce CP further flip the Character to Fallen (and a Fallen Character at 0 CP is destroyed and sent to the Depleted pile.

Some cards may require CP costs to be paid. Those costs may be paid from any number of permanents you control, divided as you choose. When a card or effect requires payment of N CP, the total may be drawn from one or more permanents you control in any combination (e.g., 2 CP could be paid as 2 from one Character, or 1 from two Characters). Note any ability that a Character has printed on the card in the form of "-X CP: <ability text>" indicates the CP must be paid by that Character's available CP.

3.5 Activation State#

Some cards in play can be "activated" (rotated sideways) to indicate they have acted this turn. Activated cards are readied (rotated back to the normal upright position) during the Ready Phase. Activation is the principal limit on action density — a card that has activated cannot activate again until readied.

3.6 Hand Size#

Players draw one card during their Draw Phase each turn and discard down to seven cards at the End Phase if they hold more.

3.7 Exploration Vector (EV)#

EV is a non-persistent Resource generated by activating a permanent that prints an "Add N EV" ability and is added to the controller's Resource Pool, where it empties at the end of each Phase like Votes.

3.8 Resource Pool#

See §6.4. The Resource Pool is the unified, turn-bounded home of all non-persistent Resources (Votes and EV).